Open Blog on Digital-Seas

we have done a bit of sorting in our new AIS sources from Africa, Asia and Europe and created new pages for the real time view with Fleetmon:
new regions are now online:

Atlantic.PT.ES.FR:  http://www.digital-seas.com/fleet_tracking/regions/atlanticptesfr.html

Africa: http://www.digital-seas.com/fleet_tracking/regions/africa.html

Southamerica: http://www.digital-seas.com/fleet_tracking/regions/south_america.html

Asia: http://www.digital-seas.com/fleet_tracking/regions/asia.html

Australia + New Zealand: http://www.digital-seas.com/fleet_tracking/regions/australia_nz.html

Users frequently ask about a way to transfer XML files of their ShipPlotter installation back and forth with us. We created a quick way to visualize these files and after using it for a while we will share it with you. Go and grab the widget for use in your site.
This is also a nice test for the rendering engine of the upcoming Fleetmon Version 2.0. So check out the performance and discover another great feature already built into this interface:
recall of the vessels 3 month history track in blasting speed !

Please test here the SP XML visualizer

Late last week we put the finishing touches to a very special project we’ve been wanting to share with you for a while now. After many weeks of burning the midnight oil at JAKOTAs ofice in an effort to squeeze into it every drop of spotting goodness, we’ve finally completed work on the Fleetmon mobile app for the iPhone and sent it over to the nice people at Apple.
And now guess what, we are talking about this not as a rumour, but an approved application in the Apple Store. So get your iPhone connected, or fire up iTunes and take a look yourself…

We thought it might be nice to show you a video of what we’ve built so far or you (still in the works, as of my writing…).

There is a dedicated new area here at Digital-Seas website: www.digital-seas.com/iphone
and of course a support space in our Forum section: forum.digital-seas.com

We would love to hear your comments, if this is of any use for your daily work or spotting experience.

Today we crossed the amount of over 8400 ships in permanent AIS coverage (real time streams), which is also produced by new antennas established over the last week.
The busy port of Kiel right at the end of the Kiel-Kanal, which is connecting North and Baltic Sea, is covered now by Digital-Seas. With the help of Bernward at www.kielmonitor.de we now have a wide view from the tower of a high church, spanning almost 40sm radius.
A bit farer located  in the East of Germany is the city of Wolgast. The small town has a larger yard, where cruiseships and military vessels are produced. The Antenna there is catching traffic up to the border to Poland.

Today was a perfect suny day, with a calm Baltic Sea in the morning, but quiet a strong wind in the afternoon. Good conditions to leave the yard and go for a cruise on the open Sea. And what a challenge for a new build ship, which is supposed to cruise inland waterways like the Rhine and Danube.
It was nice to monitor all the manouvers of the crew with the help of Fleetmon and the playback of the day track. There will be more tests over the next days until the ship gets delivered in the end of June. What a pitty, I could not go out and shoot some images of the ship, but I will over the next days….

Detail-page of the vessel A-ROSA aqua:
http://www.digital-seas.com/vessel_search/vessel_details/on/a%20rosa%20aqua_q60300.html

(more…)

our brave two years old server is going out of business on friday, which makes it necessary for sharers still using this server to change the IP to:
193.189.247.193 Port 33000

we have a video on this page, showing how to setup ShipPlotter with the correct sharing option, to send to the new Digital-Seas Sharing Server.
http://www.digital-seas.com/open_space/sharing_ais/sharing_howto_contributors.html

There are three sources still using the old IP, so if anybody is missing a signal from friday on, please let us know and check the settings in your SP program.

Over the last two weeks we opened new AIS stations on Digital-Seas to extend the coverage.
There are now Antennas in Harlingen-NL, Samothraki-GR, Wismar,DE and another part of the river Elbe right above Hamburg,DE connected.
Thanks to Sebastiaan, Ralf, Dennis and the port of Wismar.
We are now working on AIS tracking in Portugal and Spain and yes, a little bit more of the States :-)

We’ve created a solution to show live traffic in the Baltic (on several big screens) for a newly opened place here in Rostock called “Pier7″. It is located right at the Port entrance of Rostock and it’s a crowded place with a shop and a restaurant and lot’s of space to hang out and have a drink during spotting. They were asking us to develop something like a “Schiffsbegrüssungsanlage” (ship welcome point) and we made some suggestions for having a live view on maritime traffic. On the big screens inside and outside the area, it is now possible to follow the action, watch AIS traffic, get to know the next days arrivals, look at live webcams and nice for us: know when to take the next shot (with a coffee on the table if you like to…)

So everybody who wants to come to Rostock-Warnemünde and spot some ships, do not miss the Pier7 spot and relax at this nice located place.