The Highlander ECDIS is the quintessential instrument of ship navigation by which each and every ship voyage is planned and fulfilled. It is also the vehicle of automatic track-keeping.
Every element of Highlander’s ECDIS is the product of post-2010 engineering, bereft of legacy software coding and of outdated hardware concepts. Ultra-fast, lag-free chart redraw is one of the most apparent benefits of the Highlander architectural newness.
To avert grounding, today’s ship’s officer depends wholly on his ECDIS.
Own-ship’s position, heading, speed and depth under-keel are the standard datums taken in, processed and displayed. Connected with ship’s radar, the ECDIS displays radar video as an overlay, such that the officer is able to firmly substantiate the position of own-ship, buoys, lights, markers and coastal features on the electronic chart imagery and at the same time observe the radar echoes of surrounding vessels and other waterborne objects. The ECDIS displays all tracked targets from radar and AIS as well.
With its network connectivity, the Highlander ECDIS is conceived as a multi-function display (MFD) within an integrated navigation system featuring automatic track control. Yet, it is perfectly suited in a conventional setup as a two-station dual ECDIS or stand-alone single ECDIS.
Display monitor and computer are best-in-class COTS, whereas the keyboard/trackball unit is a rugged, ergonomic Highlander design, built to IEC 60945 standards.
Highlander provides type-specific ECDIS training both in classroom courses and in online computer based training (CBT). Training is furnished both for ECDIS users and for persons appointed as ECDIS fleet instructors. Personalized ECDIS training courses are arranged either on board or ashore.
The owner of Highlander ECDIS is free to use chart data from his provider of choice with updates from CD or from online download along with “pay-as-you-sail” arrangements (charges applied for just the charts actually used):
Official ENCs produced by national hydrographic offices
Admiralty Raster Chart Service (ARCS)
C-Map Professional+
Servicing is made fast and effective through Highlander’s unique “Hi-Cloud” remote servicing system. “Hi-Cloud” benefits both occasional servicing as well as the ECDIS annual performance and compliance test, both of which become less economically onerous.
New rules for ECDIS were decreed in 2015 by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), with 31 August 2017 set as the compliance deadline. Essentially, today’s ECDIS needs to abide by IEC 61174 Edition 4.0 and its software must follow IHO Presentation Library Annex A Edition 4.0 and IHO Publication S-52 Edition 6.1.
Moreover, ECDIS has to be tested in accordance with IHO Publication S-64 Edition 3.0.1.
Highlander ECDIS meets each one of these requirements.
