TERMA and 25 years on the VTS Committee
A reflection by Jens Christian Pedersen
It has been an exciting, fruitful and inspiring journey with IALA and the VTS committee for 25 years. The IALA concept of bringing together the broad worldwide community is outstanding and cooperation with all parties, authorities, industry and associates is always very good.
The best of all has been supporting IALA goals by working with good and enthusiastic people from well-nigh all cultures of the world.
Terma entered IALA in 1999
- At the time there was an increasing demand for Terma Radars for VTS, which started with orders from the Port of London Authority, various other British ports and VTS Storebælt, US and the Netherlands in the mid-1990s. However, it was a confusing business due to large variations in technical requirements for what were identical operations.
- We enrolled in the VTS Committee in the fall session of 1999 at the old IALA HQ in rue Schnapper. Terma was represented by Ole Heigaard Sørensen and myself. The VTS Committee was then headed by Mike Sollosi from USCG. Ed LaRue, also USCG, heading the technical WG.
- I clearly remember Secretary General, Torsten Kruse’s warm welcome to us fellow Danes, but also his strong emphasis on a code of conduct, saying that we should behave professionally offering our expertise to the IALA community, and not being at IALA committees as salesmen from our company. The benefit for the industry being at IALA was to provide an insight into VTS business and demands.
The VTS 2000 symposium in Singapore was the first stepping stone leading to a long and fruitful journey.
- Terma had a foothold there leading to very good contact with the authorities and expanding relations to the VTS industry, in particular system integrators.
- I made a presentation titled Selling radars for VTS is like selling elastic bands by the metre talking about the lack of common standards and the varying quality of tenders. Some authorities had a strong and very capable technical organization specifying requirements in detail. Others basically picked technical data from ships’ radar brochures. In most cases technical details, rather than the focus on operational requirements, were considered. There was a difference realised from being onboard a ship and continuously adjusting to the environment, and the need for a VTS radar to provide good coverage from short to long range, preferably with a minimum of operator adjustment.
- With that as the background, the symposium recommended the establishment of Illustrative performance standards for VTS equipment and that was added to the work programme for the IALA VTS Committee.
Standards and recommendations
- Establishment of performance recommendations (V128) started with radar where members of the VTS Committee collected and analysed many tenders calling for radars to be used for VTS. The result was consolidated into three groups forming what were defined as Basic, Standard and Advanced recommendations. Collection and analysis of data was a huge task. Jillian Carson-Jackson, who at that time was employed by IALA, supported us and did a great job with the establishment of V-128 and the first edition was approved by Council in June 2024.
- Sections for equipment other than radar were added in 2005.
- In 2015 guidance on solid state radar was added and the document structure divided into the V128 recommendation and the G1111 guideline.
- In the preparation for IALA to become an IGO, the S1040 Standard for Vessel Traffic Services was added as framework calling on recommendations and guidelines.
- Another major update to the documents was approved by the Council in December 2022. Guideline G1111 was subdivided into thirteen sub-guidelines on individual elements of VTS. Basic, Standard and Advanced guidance was substituted with guidance on specific areas including Inland VTS, Ports, Port Approaches and Coastal VTS. Guidance on offshore- related VTS and Acceptance of VTS Radar Systems were added.
Committee meetings, conferences, symposiums and workshops have always been well organized thanks to the professional staff at the headquarters and thanks to much dedication from IALA members. Intersessional workshops focused the effort. Symposiums and conferences gave a wide business insight and associated exhibitions gave us a marketing window in exchange for all the efforts put in to support IALA. We learned much which could be brought back to Terma and provide inspiration in the development of products and solutions
The combination of authorities, industry and associated members gives IALA an extremely strong foundation and enables a holistic view looking at the many facets of VTS.
And last, but not least, it is always a great pleasure to work with the friendly and highly competent IALA staff.
