New Videoworks division brings ‘5G streaming’ to the high seas

Videoworks has created a new business unit for ‘connectivity and communication solutions’, focused on providing high-speed internet to yachting clients during their time at sea.

The firm, which specialises in IT system integration for yachts, says its new unit was created specifically to satisfy growing demand for an internet connection similar to the one users receive in their home and office on land.

Paolo Tagliapietra, who is heading up the new business unit, says the industry is seeing a “revolution in the world of connectivity”, with systems evolving very rapidly. “[There are] new technologies, new players with LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite systems, such as Starlink and One Web, with which we are cooperating closely,” he says.

“The stated goal is to have a bandwidth capacity similar to the one we are used to on the mainland. Today’s boat owners want to be able to access platforms such as Netflix with the same speed and image quality they are used to having in their living room at home. Videoworks guarantees the technology to do so.”

Videoworks says the creation of the connectivity and communication solutions business unit is its latest step towards creating “streaming and IP TV services with a connection very similar to 5G, but in the high seas” — a goal the firm laid out during a presentation at Monaco Yacht Show in 2022.

“The goal is, as always, to serve customers (the shipowners in this case) in the best possible way and with a complete service,” adds Tagliapietra.

“It is not just the sale of on-board infrastructure, but also its implementation with all the other yacht services and, above all, continuous monitoring of its efficiency when the yacht is launched and is sailing anywhere in the world. This particular aspect is especially important because often a very trivial breakdown that is easily solved remotely can, at sea and without assistance, become a major problem.”

A fundamental aspect of the plan is to offer an upgrade service to existing yachts. The company says it is dealing with a large sailing fleet, mostly made up of yachts equipped with technologies that are now obsolete, even if they were launched a few years ago.

At the same time, charters in particular are increasingly international and must ensure that their customers can follow their favourite television programmes on whatever sea they are sailing on. Regarding this type of demand, the so-called “refitting of on-board connectivity” is another need that will be increasingly seen in the future.

Videoworks has its operational offices in Ancona; Cagnes-sur-Mer and Viareggio in the Mediterranean Sea; Schiphol-Rijk in the Netherlands and Fort Lauderdale in Florida. The firm has recently opened a new Turkish office in Istanbul.