Belgium Maritime Information Centre monitors coasts with Boat

From the control room, MIK ensures the safety of territorial waters. To do this, a videowall configured with OverView displays and OpSpace software has been installed.

Belgium has a relatively short coastline (65 Kilometers) and yet it is primarily a maritime nation, with a lot of traffic passing through its territorial waters. The Maritime Information Centre (Maritiem Informatie Kruispunt – MIK) in Zeebrugge it is responsible for the security of its territorial waters. A task that requires state-of-the-art and extremely reliable monitoring solutions.

MIK has relied on ship OpSpace to monitor and operate from the crisis coordination room.
The North Sea is one of Belgium's main forms of economic commercial transport with two main ports: Antwerp (which is the second largest in Europe) and Zeebrugge (the most important for car driving).

MIK monitors and controls the Belgian exclusive economic zone (Belgian Exclusive Economic Zone – Zee) complete, which not only involves maritime traffic passing through the waters, but also national economic interests (including a large wind farm) and nature reserves. In addition, watches over ships sailing under the Belgian flag, which is the 16 world's largest fleet.

“The operational branch of the Belgian coast guard is divided between MIK and the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Ostend. From the MIK, we support the MSA so much (Knowledge of the maritime situation) as to the MSO (Maritime safety operations). Our mission is to collect, process and distribute information to coast guard partners, and support its functions with a focus on safety at sea”, explains Thierry Timmerman of the MIK.

Critical infrastructure control room in MIK is operational 24/7. When an abnormal situation occurs, the crisis room is activated.

To visualize the crisis, the MIK has a large videowall configured with Boat OverView and to control its operating systems uses OpSpace, the digital workspace software solution for control room operators.

OpSpace also allows MIK staff to select the correct common operational image to send to the OverView videowall. In addition, with a single keyboard and mouse, you can select and work with content from different operational sources. The information needed to resolve the crisis can be available in the crisis room without wasting time.

“The number of active sources is managed efficiently to include only the relevant information needed to resolve the crisis. As there are several computers available (both military and civilian), access to information is strictly controlled by linking it to company credentials. Based on your login credentials and access levels, OpSpace knows which operational sources should be available to a specific user. In the past, we needed to work with multiple computers, each with its own keyboard and mouse. Now, we control all applications with a keyboard and mouse, which is much more efficient", continues Thierry.

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