Royal Caribbean and the IBM Net Vista Appliance - Connecting Crew to the Internet

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) prides itself on launching industry firsts. In 1999, together with Brady Communications and IBM, RCCL became the first cruise line to offer their passengers onboard Internet access through rc online™. This system of Web stations, which allows passengers to surf the Web, send digital and video postcards, and send and receive e-mail, has become a popular passenger resource.

When Royal Caribbean discovered that their crew members also enjoyed using rc online, they decided to take the idea a step further and Crewnection was conceived.

RCCL crew members are typically at sea for 4-8 months at a time. With origins in over 50 countries around the world, the crew appreciated the ease of e-mail to communicate with friends and family, and the ability to access the Internet for news from home. Beyond personal communications, the cruise line recognized that the Web could provide a valuable resource for training and other work-related information.

CrewNection - An Industry First

With that in mind, Royal Caribbean again turned to Brady Communications and IBM to assist with development of CrewNection, the first-ever initiative to provide Internet access for crew members from their cabins. The first CrewNection system was installed on Radiance of the Seas, a state-of-the-art ship that was inaugurated March 2001. Radiance included over 500 IBM Net Vista appliances in the crew cabins, making it the first ship to provide Internet connectivity for all of its crew.

Beyond providing Internet access and e-mail capabilities, CrewNection allows crew members to access audio messages, work schedules, online training tools, surveys and more. Additionally, crew members with network access can access a virtual office, and remotely use Lotus Notes, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and the corporate Intranet.

Brady Communications served a dual role for the project, working closely with Royal Caribbean, in developing the Graphic User Interface (GUI) as well as the programming for CrewNection. By performing the development and programming side-by-side, the process was streamlined, allowing RCCL to deploy the system in record time.

After the success of the Radiance deployment, the CrewNection system has now been installed on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas and Celebrity's new ship, The Summit.

Interface Branding and Development

Since the CrewNection interface needed to serve an international audience, it was designed to be icon-driven to be user-friendly. It was also developed to be flexible enough to be customizable. Customized branding for CrewNection has been created for both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises.

Our firm also developed a brand identity and logo for CrewNection itself, which is designed to feature elements representing ocean waves and the satellite connection that enables Internet access to the ship.

IBM's Net Vista Appliance

CrewNection resides on the IBM Net Vista Appliance, which is a compact device designed to provide Web-based computing in customized solutions for specific businesses and industries.

Royal Caribbean selected the Net Vista Appliance because of their strong relationship with IBM, the appliance's new technology, and its small size. Because space is at a premium in crew quarters, the Net Vista Appliances, known as "Thin Clients", were ideal. Also because the thin clients have no hard-drive, they require less maintenance than PCs.

Proactive Programming

Because the IBM Net Vista Internet Appliance represents a new and growing technology, our programmers and developers took IBM training on the device. While our firm had the advantage of a great deal of experience in the cruise industry, a strong understanding of Royal Caribbean's brand, and our background with our work on rc online, there was still a challenge in developing design and programming code for a device in one of its first real world applications.

Additionally, Brady Communications took onboard training to learn about the ship's servers, and RCCL's proprietary billing system using Cisco's iPort technology.

The Net Vista Appliance uses a QNX operating system using a Neutrino shell. Our programmers, working in accord with Royal Caribbean, modified the theme files on the system, as well as coordinating the program with the backend computing run by the onboard IBM Tivoli server, used to push out updates to the system.

Additionally, our programmers utilized the built-in Opera Web browser component to interface with the Web server to display the main navigation. Programming focused on being dynamic, scalable and flexible so content changes could be accomplished with administrative ease.

Future Developments: The High Seas and Beyond

Beyond immediate plans for the CrewNection deployment in two additional ships, Royal Caribbean intends to install similar information systems in eight other new ships by 2005.

With the initial deployment complete, CrewNection can now be expanded to create an onboard community that facilitates communications between management and crew as well as providing an ideal onboard training environment.

As Internet Appliances become more common, this technology can be put to work in a number of industries. If you're interested in how this technology can benefit your company, contact us.