Data Storage, Record Keeping, and the Safer Seas Act

Much attention has been given to the video and audio requirements of the Safer Seas Act. Installing gear that meets all the protocols outlined in the new law — along with the Coast Guard’s specific guidance — will be a major undertaking for the maritime industry this year. 

• Read about video requirements in the Safer Seas Act.
• Audio solutions and the Safer Seas Act. 

However, storing and accessing these files might be one of the bigger challenges with this new law. Vessels are required to keep no less than a year’s worth of both audio and video, and up to five years if the recordings are associated with an alleged incident. 

It’s estimated that one vessel will require around 72TB of storage space for

a year’s worth of compressed data from a 15-camera system.

The law stipulates that storage can be a physical system on a vessel or through a cloud-based service. But even the most robust platforms out there can’t download that much data in real-time. This means companies need to establish protocols for tamper-proof onboard storage systems and then offboarding those files at intervals for archiving. 

Additionally, vessel management companies may need to retrieve specific recordings while following the proper chain of custody, particularly if an incident is reported to the Coast Guard. 

DigiGone has a portfolio of solutions to satisfy all of the surveillance requirements within the Safer Seas Act. For decades we’ve worked with vessel companies to install and provide full turnkey services for archiving and retrieving video to review incidents for claims — at times resulting in dismissal of incident liability. 

Our digiView product is designed to support: 

Turnkey Installation and Operation 

DigiView’s systems are NDAA compliant, specifically designed for maritime environments with easy plug-and-play installation that use existing cable runs. This reduces cost and minimizes impact on crew and ship operations. Once installed, systems run autonomously. 

Secure Onboard Storage

Transferring recorded data from a standard SASH system with 15 cameras to shore storage via LTE, satellite, or Starlink is expensive. Exporting 30 days of data to an external drive for transfer ashore would require about 30 hours. DigiView securely stores one year, or more, of data onboard vessels, with date and time stamps to ensure recording integrity. We also employ redundancy and robust security measures to safeguard the integrity and physical security of the data. 

24/7 Remote Access and Secure Data Export

Authorized personnel can remotely access and export recordings of specific camera views with date/time ranges to support incident investigations. All data retrieval and transmissions use end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption to ensure integrity and privacy. 

System Health and Tamper Monitoring

To ensure optimal system performance, digiView can constantly monitor internal system performance and immediately send an alert when an anomaly is detected such as CPU overheat, potential hard drive failure, camera obstructions, unauthorized physical access to the server, or loss of continuity of a device. 

Private and Direct Incident Reporting

Our digiView solutions also allow crew or captains to contact authorities directly through a secure video call from the privacy of staterooms. 

DigiGone’s experience in managed bandwidth communication tools in the maritime industry is an asset for companies as they work through this year. We can provide a detailed cost-effective solutions package that covers every surveillance aspect of the Safer Seas Act. 

DigiGone is a veteran-owned, service-disabled business based in Largo, Florida, providing custom, managed bandwidth solutions such as digiMed, CrewChat, digiView, and digiChat in the maritime, oil and gas and mining industries. For more information visit digigone.com to request a demonstration. Or email us at info@digigone.com, or call at 1-727-544-2327.