Finland has the world’s second-largest fleet of icebreakers. One of the latest ships, called Polaris, has Bosch video cameras and a Bosch Video Management System (BVMS) for safe operations.
Polaris departs for the Bay of Bothnia – between Finland and Sweden – around the end of each year and stays there until May. Officers and crew under Captain Pasi Järvelin work 12 hours a day, 20 days at a time. The long shifts and challenging working conditions impose tough requirements on occupational safety.
For safe work at sea, the Polaris uses high-definition cameras from Bosch. Cameras from the MIC series are used on deck, cameras from the FLEXIDOME and DINION series are used inside, for example in the engine room and engineering space. Captain Järvelin says: “We can investigate incidents by checking the recordings. This reduces the need for routine tours, in person, of various parts of the vessel. The exterior MIC cameras monitor the ice and the vessels for which we are breaking ice; the ones on the stern monitor distances to other vessels. Even under the arctic conditions of the Baltic Sea, the Bosch cameras work perfectly.”
All the cameras and recording equipment are controlled and operated via the Bosch Video Management System (BVMS), rarely seen in marine applications the product developers say. The VMS features focus, zoom, horizontal- and vertical-pitch, and the MIC cameras have wipers for adverse weather that can be activated from the bridge. At the top of the mast, a 360-degree MIC IP camera operates even in darkness.
