New contract boosts VDR market share in China

Continuing our success in the Chinese marine electronics market, we have sold 18 Maritime Black Box® VDRs to China Shipping (VDR=Voyage Data Recorder), one of the largest shipping companies in China. This, in addition to solid sales since the launch of our Maritime Black Box®, has positioned us as the major VDR supplier in the Chinese newbuilding market.

Local approach "The combination of offering the MBB as an extension to the DataChief C20 alarm, monitoring and control system and KONGSBERG's local approach to the market has been the key to our success," says John Petter Sando, Sales Manager, Kongsberg Maritime China Shanghai. "With local engineering and commissioning we can to be more competitive in the market."

Designed to endure severe incidents Our VDR consists of three main units; Data Collection Unit; Protected Storage Unit and Replay and Evaluation Unit. The Data Collection Unit is the central hub of the system where all signals are interfaced and continuously recorded. This data is stored in the Protected Storage Unit, which is designed to endure severe incidents, which enables recorded data to be retrieved later for reconstruction of the course of events.

Tool for evaluation The Replay and Evaluation Unit is used to replay the stored information after an event but also serves as an efficient tool for evaluation of ship operations. It has many other beneficial functions, including distribution of online radar and ECDIS images on the ship's administrative network, backup data to CD-ROM and interfacing of the Emergency Decision Support Systems.