Over 3,000 ships upgrade to SPOS8 for optimum weather routing

MeteoGroup, the global private weather company, has launched its latest onboard weather forecasting and ship performance optimisation system: SPOS8.  The new release of SPOS, the world’s leading onboard weather routing system, introduces an extensive inventory of new features and enhancements, providing captain and crew with the information they need to calculate the optimum route, including, for the first time in onboard software, a fuel consumption-speed reduction curve. SPOS8 can be integrated into MeteoGroup’s other fleet management tools and routing services to offer a complete fleet management solution.
With its first onboard use in 1995, SPOS has set the standard for weather routing and is now installed on over 3,000 ships. MeteoGroup has an ongoing development programme for SPOS and the software is always evolving and improving, ensuring existing and new clients benefit from the latest innovations.  In SPOS8, the enhancements are immediately visible with a greatly improved interface and a more intuitive workflow. The route editor has been completely rebuilt, transforming complex data into clear and accessible output which is now even easier to interpret.  In the new release, existing features have been enhanced and a huge number of new functions have been added.
One of the most highly anticipated features of SPOS8 is a fuel consumption-speed curve which integrates the ship’s specific characteristics enabling the Master to conduct scenario calculations and route optimisation calculations. With SPOS8, the Master also has the tools to carry out improved calculations for fixed ETAs, recalculate archived routes with analysed weather data and customise the voyage with improved weather limit warnings, easy GIS layer functionality and integration with MeteoGroup’s shore-based routing service RouteGuard.
Interfacing with ECDIS navigational software systems, motion sensor software and MeteoGroup’s routing and fleet management software, SPOS is also an integral part of MeteoGroup’s fleet management solution.  Future plans for SPOS include new partnership opportunities with ECDIS providers and further improvements for fleet management requirements through the development of office and web-based applications.  Martin de Jonge, Product Manager Shipping at MeteoGroup commented: “Our partnerships have been a crucial component in the success of SPOS to date and, we see huge potential for expanding our co-operations in the future, adding further value to our weather services for the shipping market.”
De Jonge added: “SPOS8 has been developed in close co-operation with customers to ensure the improvements deliver real value to them.  We are always exploring new innovations and trialling new software iterations to ensure SPOS maintains its market-leading position, but at the end of the day, the system still does what it does best: calculates an optimum route, for any given ship specification, weather scenario and route parameters.”