Luxury line Silversea is continuing to ride the growing digital wave by building on the success of the streaming service it launched on its Silver Cloud vessel earlier this year, by introducing it on four more of its ships before the end of 2013.
The line hopes that, just like Silver Cloud’s passengers, guests on Silver Shadow, Whisper, Wind and Galapagos will be able to watch TV programmes, select on-demand movies and read newspapers on their laptops and mobile devices, providing they are wi-fi-enabled.
Jason Cohn, Silversea’s director of IT infrastructure, explained the importance of the service, saying: “We have made a considerable investment of time and money over the past two years to put an infrastructure in place that would support rich guest services and media distribution throughout our vessels. We’ve replaced full networks and re-deployed our wireless infrastructure. By utilizing Aruba Wireless Systems and HP Networks as well as reliable HP Server Infrastructure, we’ve been able to create an environment that is robust and stable.”
All passengers will have to do to access the streaming options is to connect to the ship’s wi-fi network and open their web browser, where they will be directed to the ship’s web landing page automatically. TV and movie options are available from there, as are various internet packages. Cohn is planning to expand the service so it offers even more choice and is confident that the line could lead the way in the field of web on the wave, saying: “While most of our competitors are still struggling with the infrastructure, we’ve overcome that hurdle and are now into the fun stuff.”
Setting up an effective wireless signal through a ship full of steel was no easy task for the line, though through much research and the effective use of 55 different wireless access points, Silversea has set up a successful service on-board the Silver Cloud, which it plans to replicate on-board the other vessels.
By Simon Brotherton
Google