In this interview, Nick Pinkney, VP of Shipping at Neuron, discusses his journey in maritime, the evolution of satcoms in commercial shipping, and how the industry can leverage AI-driven network orchestration to enhance crew welfare, safety, operational excellence, and cost efficiency.
From sailboats to yachts to ships, you’ve got a breadth of experience in maritime. Could you share more about your background and how you started working with the shipping industry?
Nick Pinkney: I was lucky to grow up on the South Coast of the UK and caught the maritime bug early. I started sailing, windsurfing, surfing, and wakeboarding. Then I taught sailing in the UK and Menorca. From there, I went on to study Maritime Business & Maritime Law at Plymouth (UK) University. This gave me good insight into the commercial and operational realities of the maritime space, and many of the elements owners and operators need to consider for success.
After a year working on a super yacht in the U.S. and Mediterranean, I spent a number of years commercially in business software (ERP). Following this, I had the opportunity to join a maritime software startup focused on voyage and cargo optimisation. We built up the business and then sold it to Wärtsilä. Since then, I have been fortunate to continue working in the maritime field, covering areas including demurrage (claims), disbursement accounts, KYC, and port optimisation.
The transition to maritime satellite communications, whilst a steep learning curve with its myriad of abbreviations, has been both logical and fascinating. The satcoms industry is changing at such a rapid pace with new services, pricing models and contract terms changing the way many owners, operators and integrators are supporting their crew and vessel needs.
What’s your view on the current state of connectivity in shipping?
NP: The fundamentals of corporate traffic needs and onboard equipment traffic (now morphed under the banner of IoT traffic) have remained similar. What has shifted is the scale and hunger for data, the bandwidth demands of new applications, and increased crew demand. It is not uncommon for vessels to have circa 50 onboard applications to satisfy the various operational, efficiency and regulatory compliance needs onboard. These same systems need to access and transmit data to the cloud, placing more demand on satcom networks and associated costs.
For vessels lucky enough to have Starlink, it is not uncommon for 70% of the bandwidth to be consumed by crew. Added to this are dramatic advances in network performance that have benefited our seafarers in many areas, with LEO constellations making it financially viable for crew to hold video calls with loved ones during voyages and virtually join their children's birthdays and family occasions. Staying connected is paramount for seafarers, given the mental health benefits and impact on crew happiness. The value to crewing departments in terms of retention and enabling telemedicine video calls is also apparent to all.
The experience for many shipping companies trying to manage these elements is one of almost overwhelming choice, or in some cases, overload. LEO, MEO, GEO, LTE and different providers offer a myriad of pricing and data allowances with different terms that are difficult to manage.
Juggling these multi-orbit, multi-provider options can be a challenge in the context of variable demand from crew, IoT and corporate traffic. In particular, ensuring the vessel operating costs do not escalate. This is where we are seeing a great deal of adoption in the Neuron platform.
What would you say are the biggest barriers to connectivity that the industry faces?
NP: The biggest barrier is the realities of shipping. Weather, location, time and system/crew demands all play their part in the connectivity experience for those seafarers and systems onboard. Shipping is by nature dynamic, and thus coverage and theoretical service level agreements including CIR, MIR, and latency all vary in reality depending on a combination of factors.
This complexity is the reason Neuron have taken a fresh approach on supporting onboard connectivity. Historically, traffic policies determined the onboard traffic group and default routing of such traffic, be it GEO, MEO or LEO. Neuron provides a vendor- and orbit-neutral approach, and uses AI and machine learning to automatically orchestrate the network based upon both the supply side, i.e., how the various networks and orbits are performing; and equally the demand side i.e., dynamic demands of the traffic and connectivity needs onboard the vessels even enabling application triggered demand.
Within this AI model are factored in the allowances and costs, which integrators and owners can also benefit from as the AI routes the traffic based upon the most cost-effective option that ensures the performance or quality of experience (QoE) meets the needs and demands of different traffic groups or applications.
As the industry overcomes these hurdles, what would you say are the biggest opportunities?
NP: Taking advantage of AI-driven network orchestration enhances crew welfare, safety, operational excellence, and cost efficiency by improving overall QoE and enabling smarter data routing and pooling. The single biggest gain for commercial shipping lies in supporting our seafarers well-being, even as IoT and corporate traffic demands grow. The benefits of staying connected to friends and family back home are tremendous and highly valued, and must be maintained.
Neuron recently announced a partnership with Tototheo Maritime. Can you share more about how Neuron works with partners for the shipping industry?
NP: As a vendor-neutral orchestrator of network traffic, all powered by AI, Neuron is a natural fit for integrators looking to provide greater reliability and higher performing solutions, including optimising costs. The enhanced visibility into network performance has also been found to increase the speed of network diagnosis and resolution, ultimately enabling integrators to deliver better performing communications for their clients.
We are delighted to work with Tototheo. They have been an industry pioneer in tapping into the unique benefits that Neuron’s AI-driven network orchestration brings to the table, the sole purpose being to increase the capability and performance of their customer’s network communications.
To learn more about how Neuron helps maximize shipping communications and digital transformation, check out this post and send us a note here to schedule a demo.
