5 Questions with Jamie Airs, Global Content Manager
We sat down with Jamie Airs, KVH’s Global Content Sales Manager, to speak with him about the importance of crew welfare, the nuances of streaming content at sea, and what the future of connectivity and crew welfare looks like.
1. Why is content so important to crew welfare?
I think the answer to that is twofold. Firstly, and most importantly, seafarers do an incredible job that deserves to be recognized and well rewarded. Crews are often away from their families for months on end, working in what can be a stressful environment with colleagues of diverse backgrounds and demographics. We know from our own experiences on land that coming together to watch a movie or enjoy a karaoke session with family and friends can be a fantastic bonding experience that helps bring people together. It’s also just a great way to fully relax and unwind at the end of a long shift.
Secondly, for ship managers it’s a brilliant and cost-effective way to keep your crew happy and well-motivated. It’s one piece of a bigger jigsaw that can help to attract and retain the best and most skilled seafarers in what has become an increasingly competitive field.
2. How is KVH Link different from other maritime-based streaming platforms?
Two words probably best sum up what sets Link apart from other solutions: “experience” and “flexibility”. Believe it or not, we started providing entertainment content to seafarers in 1954! During that time, delivery methods have evolved, but we have remained committed to providing best in class, licensed movies, TV shows, music, news, sports and more. Our content caters specifically to the major seafaring demographics. We’ve built up an unrivalled roster of studios and distributors, which allows us to offer something for everyone onboard.
By “flexibility” I mean that we use this huge array of content to put together a bespoke package specifically for your crew. We know that shipmanagers have different nationalities, budgets, and requirements so we will sit, listen, and work with you to come up with a tailored solution that ticks every box for the crew and head office alike.
3. Why can’t the crew just use domestic streaming accounts?
It may sound a little dry but from a studio perspective, the key word there is “domestic”. KVH offers complete peace of mind that the content enjoyed by commercial crews is covered by the requisite, non-theatrical performance licenses required to view this content at sea legally. Violating those licenses can result in legal issues and fines for fleet operators.
There are several other reasons why allowing the crew to use their favorite domestic streaming platform sounds great but just doesn’t work in reality. We all know that when you sign into a streaming platform while travelling, the content you have access to changes depending on the country you are in. This is determined by where your IP address is located. If your IP address changes from one ship to another then whoever’s platform is being used to stream content, will likely get blocked.
I think there was perhaps an idea that faster satcoms would allow seafarers to watch whatever they wanted, but the reality of streaming as opposed to store and forward, which is how Link works, is that we’re some way off that for now.
4. Are Low Earth Oribit (LEO) satcom solutions a silver bullet for Crew Welfare on their own?
I think LEO services are a really important factor in improving the wellbeing of seafarers. Suddenly, they can video call with their family, do online banking, and enjoy other activities that were largely unthinkable, impractical, and unaffordable just a few years ago. However, without careful controls, that silver bullet will miss its data usage target.
Various studies have shown that a typical family of four uses around 600GB of data per month. Extrapolate that into a shipboard environment and you can see how easy it is to sail into data overage, even on the larger data plans currently available in commercial maritime.
Using a data management platform like CommBox Edge is vital to manage bandwidth use and costs. In addition, providing entertainment content via KVH’s efficient over-the-air delivery mechanism (or via secure flash drive, if preferred) massively reduces the requirement for seafarers to go online looking for similar content in less efficient ways. Instead, the news and entertainment crew members want is already onboard, store on the linkHUB media server. From there, it’s available on TVs in common spaces and on personal devices like laptops, tablets, and phones connected to vessel Wi-Fi to enjoy when crew members are off watch. I often describe KVH Link as a vital bandwidth optimization tool. Plus, it’s a great additions to a vessel’s cybersecurity strategy. By offering the content crew members want, it reduces the risk of crew visiting malware-infested content download sites or bringing infected content onboard.
5. Where can you see Crew Welfare solutions heading in the future?
That’s a great question. Generally speaking, I believe we’re seeing a movement on land towards short-form content like podcasts, viral clips, and meditation (all of which Link offers by the way!) but there will always be a place for a good movie or TV show to give you that fully immersive buzz (especially when you are at sea and you can’t do things we take for granted at home like taking the dog for a walk!). As technology improves, I can see demand for linear TV channels increasing, which is something we will look to be at the forefront of as you would expect.
My feeling is that it’s vital to listen to feedback from seafarers on what they would love to see included in an onboard entertainment hub and start from there. If a seafarer requests a specific genre or kind of content, you can be sure that our amazing content acquisition team will make every effort to track it down and license it for use on Link.
Interested in bringing the best-in-class content, including the latest movies, television, news, music radio, podcasts, karaoke, and more onboard for your crew?
