NautiCast Offers AIS Solution

Vienna, Austria-based NautiCast Schiffsnavigationssysteme specializes in the development and distribution of refined AIS navigation aids, catering for both the commercial and leisure shipping industries as well as ports and VTS centers. The core product of the X-Pack range is the X-Pack DS AIS-Transponder, a product literally designed to anticipate not only today's, but also tomorrow's requirements of an AIS in the maritime industry. The X-Pack DS was developed with NautiCast and is assembled to ISO 9001 Standard by Siemens AG Austria. The X- Pack DS AIS-Transponder automatically and continuously broadcasts and receives static, dynamic and voyage related ship data and exchanges it with other AIS equipped vessels and shore stations within VHF range. Not only the technical functionality, but also the straightforward operation and compact design — measuring just 280 x 200 x 60 mm and weighing only 2,500 grams — the NautiCast Transponder was designed with the maritime industry in mind. NautiCast have tailored the trim, all in one unit with integrated alphanumeric keyboard to the limited space available in ships bridges today. The X- Pack DS not only promises to spare precious space once installed, its plug and play design ensures that installation times are kept down to a minimum. The X- Pack DS interfaces with existing NMEA compatible equipment and sensors thereby ensuring problem free retrofitting and also allows connection to PCs, notebooks, radar systems, ECDIS and Voyage Data Recorders. NautiCast has already gained field experience on Austria's inland waterways. Its portable and riverside AIS-Transponders were chosen to supply the official European Community AIS testing area for River Information Services on the Danube. In the course of this project, Nauticast was called upon to develop a portable AIS-Transponder unit, which is currently given to ships free of charge on loan by the Austrian Supreme Shipping Authority, and remains on board during the ship's journey through the Austrian stretch of the Danube testing area.