Kramer has partnered with Furuno to release the Smart Bridge AVoIP streaming and control solution that has been used to deliver real-time data and 4K video navigation systems for a 50m Carmona fishing vessel, ensuring safe and smooth fishing and communications through some of the world’s busiest waterways.

Designed for fishing vessels, the Smart Bridge provides the captain and crew members aboard the Carmona and other vessels with the ability to access and view pertinent data and video from a variety of sources such as radars, ECDIS, chart plotters, echo sounders, sonars, CCTV camera systems and alarm and control systems.

“In the beginning, me and my crew were a bit afraid that it would take a long time to learn, but it’s a good and easy system,” Carmona captain Fredrik Gustafsson says.

“After just one fishing trip, everyone could handle it and we felt safe handling it. The Smart Bridge system makes it very fast and easy to change the ship’s screens from fishing to navigation, which makes a world of difference for operations and is a big benefit.”

Harboured in Sweden, and with trips sometimes lasting days sailing across the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, Baltic Sea, Kattegatt and Skagerra, safety and visibility, both above and below sea levels, including in identifying suitable fishing areas, were essential to the project.

To achieve its ambitions, the Carmona required a cutting-edge, reliable, navigation system viewable in high quality from multiple locations on-ship and remotely, with no latency. In addition, it was essential that there are flexible viewing options and control, together with ease of use to ensure smooth operations.

With the customisation required to meet the system and ship’s exact needs, the Kramer Nordic team, worked together with Furuno across the entire development and installation process of the Carmona, identifying the right solutions and overcoming a series of challenges.

“Our Smart Bridge system is based on Kramer KDS encoders and decoders. We tried different systems before we went to the Kramer solution, and we also had worked with Kramer matrixes before, but we found that the new KDS system was a more modern and more flexible system. So, we chose that,” Furuno Sweden manager Steen Bødker says.

Though the cloud-based, enterprise-class AV control platform Kramer Control is typically more associated with conference room use, with the dedication of the Kramer Development and Tech teams, adjustments were made to meet the exacting demands of the Smart Bridge concept.

Using Kramer KDS AVoIP encoders and decoders, the crew can follow pertinent data from monitors throughout the ship with flexible pre-defined layouts on the video wall notifying the crew of specific activities such as fishing, navigation or docking. The Furuno Smart Bridge is now used every day with the response from the crew being universally positive.

“We had a very good experience working with Kramer, both on the sales side and on the technical side,” Steen says.

“It’s important of course to get support from the sales side when configuring the system, but it’s equally important that our technician was able to get in touch with the Kramer technician to develop the system together.

He added: “The Smart Bridge system with Kramer is smarter than other systems, which is actually why we call it Smart Bridge.”

The Smart Bridge allows multiple users to work on the same system from different screens with everyone on board having clear visibility needed for their jobs, with as many as five users able to work separately from different stations, using the same system. It also allows for viewing and control via touchscreen panels, one or more monitors on the videowall or remotely via a tablet or smartphone.​

Additionally, it can be used for the service technician to analyse possible problems onboard.