RoIP recording solution for Maritime Safety Qld

Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) has approached Electrodata to develop a solution for replacing its analog recorders with ones capable of recording directly from the multichannel RoIP streams.

MSQ is charged with ensuring the safe transit of shipping through Queensland’s waterways and to protect both lives and the state’s pristine coral reef environment and coastline. Its operators use a network of VHF radios covering the state’s coastline and waters to communicate with ships and provide a safety service.

The radios at many remote sites are connected to Omnitronics IPR units which convert the analog radio input and output, to digital data which are forwarded through the company’s IP network and can be accessed by operators at any of the five vessel traffic service centres throughout the state. The use of RoIP allows operators to communicate with ships that are thousands of kilometres away.

There is a requirement to record all its communications with ships to provide an evidentiary aid in case of maritime incidents. Analog recorders were used, but they required a complicated system for converting the RoIP stream into separate analog channels. With the expanding use of RoIP, there was a need to simplify connections to the recording system by recording the RoIP data packets directly.

The R&D team at Electrodata came up with a solution that could be added to the department’s existing recorders, allowing them to record all RoIP traffic directly.

Both the transmitted and received data for each radio conversation is recorded as a single channel and is stored and replayed in the same way as the analog recordings which make it simple for the operators to access and replay any conversation.