Highlights:
- Neuron, the first AI-powered QoE management platform for cruise ships, has deployed on more than 100 cruise ships around the world, helping elevate onboard digital experiences for more than 15 of the most innovative brands in cruise.
- Neuron can seamlessly blend any combination of connectivity a cruise line chooses in one, vendor-neutral environment. It then correlates all corresponding performance data with passenger usage metrics to generate a truly holistic, real-time view of internet performance and QoE – and all of the factors that impact it. It then feeds this data into an intelligent decision engine that orchestrates traffic over the right service at the right time to make the best use of all bandwidth available and deliver the best QoE.
- Neuron helps bridge the gap between cruise line’s business and technical teams to drive operational efficiency and ROI, with opportunities for increased revenue and reduced costs, as well as enhanced performance, availability and agility.
Today, we’re excited to share that Neuron is now live on more than 100 cruise ships around the world. The Neuron platform is helping elevate onboard digital experiences for more than 15 of the most innovative brands in cruise, including Carnival, Seabourn and Cunard, in addition to several other American and European brands. As we celebrate this milestone and kick off Seatrade Cruise Global 2024, we want to share more about what makes the Neuron platform unique in the cruise industry.
While at sea, guests and crew want to use their own apps on their own devices anywhere on the ship, on the itinerary, in any weather condition – with performance that’s as good as it is at home. At the same time, cruise operations are becoming more digitalized to differentiate, streamline processes, improve safety and more. To manage traffic priorities, rising data volumes and costs, many cruise lines are turning to a mix of connectivity solutions, but managing it all together to ensure a reliable, secure, and fast connection – that meets people’s expectations – is complex, particularly on ships traveling at 20-30 knots, several miles offshore.
The First AI-Powered QoE Management Platform for Cruise Ships
Neuron is the first AI-powered QoE management platform for cruise ships. Unlike legacy solutions, Neuron can seamlessly blend any combination of connectivity a cruise line chooses – single- or multi-provider, -orbit or -network – in one, vendor-neutral environment. It then correlates all corresponding performance data with passenger usage metrics to generate a truly holistic, real-time view of internet performance and QoE – and all of the factors that impact it, including location, time and context, for example, whether the ship is at port or at sea, weather events, application requirements, cost constraints, RF details, iCafe context and more.
In addition to measuring and monitoring QoE, Neuron dynamically manages the onboard network to optimize it. Neuron feeds all of these data streams into an intelligent decision engine that orchestrates traffic over the right service – LEO, MEO, GEO, 5G, LTE, fiber, Wi-Fi, etc. – at the right time to make the best use of all bandwidth available and deliver the best QoE.
And it does all of this without the need for manual traffic policies and interventions.
Breaking Down Neuron’s Solutions for QoE Visibility and Control
At Neuron, we’re all about choice. We offer a mix of analytics and network management solutions that cruise lines can choose depending on their needs. Below is a high-level overview of our products and the value each of them provide to our cruise customers.
- Neuron Pulse: Our ultra low-bandwidth QoE measuring and monitoring solution, Neuron Pulse, provides real-time QoE scores for different applications, such as browsing, collaboration, video streaming and more, as well as insight on all of the factors impacting QoE to help cruise lines make better decisions. Pulse can be easily deployed on hundreds of vessels overnight via an onboard server or an iOS app.
- Neuron 360: Our end-to-end connectivity analytics solution, Neuron 360, takes Pulse to the next level by integrating data from antennas, routers and third-party systems. It provides cruise teams with deeper insights that they can use to quickly troubleshoot issues impacting performance and QoE. 360 also provides visibility into network usage and consumption patterns to help cruise teams improve processes, such as bandwidth procurement and QoS traffic policies, and make sure priority applications are getting the bandwidth they need, while non-priority applications aren’t abusing the network.
- Neuron Grid: Our dynamic, AI-powered network management solution, Neuron Grid, optimizes end-user QoE by dynamically orchestrating traffic over the right service at the right time for the best QoE, while also managing bandwidth and cost constraints. Grid works across various structures such as CIR, consumption pools or best-effort, giving customers redundancy in their networks at a lower cost and ensuring the bandwidth cruise lines pay for never sits idle. Grid is able to make decisions at a pace that would be impossible for a human, and opens up a ton of possibilities for network configurations, with the ability to route traffic over any network type and 25+ antennas.
How Neuron Drives Operational Efficiency & ROI
The Neuron platform helps bridge the gap between cruise line’s business and technical teams to drive operational efficiency and ROI. For example, with Neuron, cruise teams can:
- Boost Revenue: Improved QoE with Neuron helps improve Net Promoter Scores to increase re-bookings, avoid internet leakage, and understand guest behavior to create tailored internet packages and new digital experiences.
- Reduce Costs: Neuron helps reduce network abuse, streamline operations and automate network optimization to make the most of bandwidth resources.
- Enhance Performance: Using Neuron, cruise teams can deliver the best application QoE with a network that predicts future traffic demands, intelligently routes traffic and optimizes bandwidth.
- Increase Availability: Neuron automates traffic routing across one or more providers for reliable coverage, and reduces downtime with a self-healing network that predicts and prevents common outages.
- Improve Agility: With Neuron’s automated, vendor-neutral network orchestration, teams can quickly roll out new digital experiences, and avoid vendor lock-in.
Accelerate the Future of Connected Cruising
Kidsan Barnes, SVP of Cruise & Ferry at Neuron, said it best, “Once cruise lines are confident in the stability of their networks, the possibilities are endless with regards to how they digitize and creatively use the bandwidth available to them.”
With Neuron, cruise lines can unlock a host of new, innovative use cases to accelerate the future of connected cruising. This includes reimagining onboard telemedicine and emergency services to ensure healthcare apps always perform effectively; customizing Wi-Fi packages for guests working from sea, VIP guests and more; throwing live events, conferences and festivals, even miles away from land; using emerging technologies like AR and VR to create onboard immersive gaming and entertainment experiences; and so much more.
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Interested in learning more?
- In this recent Q&A, Kidan Barnes, Neuron’s SVP of Cruise & Ferry, discusses the challenges and opportunities for the cruise industry in embracing new connectivity services and technologies (and how Neuron can help!).
- Be sure to also check out how Neuron is helping the world’s largest cruise company, Carnival Corporation, drive a significant increase in guest satisfaction scores.
- And drop us a line if you’d be interested in setting up a demo!
