Quick Dips

Virtual Vigil On Lonely Lighthouses

Lonely lighthouses around the world may soon benefit from improved contact with civilisation thanks to a computerised monitoring system developed by Porirua's Vega Industries which enables unmanned lighthouses to "call home" for help.

The unique system, known as VegaMac, (after its developer Vega Industries Ltd and the AppleMac computer on which it runs) introduces "remote" management of unmanned lighthouses around the coastline, linked to a central control point.

The VegaMac allows a central engineer to accurately identify faults in the light or any of the systems at the lighthouse when the failure occurs. The engineer can then identify the specific fault, run a diagnosis of the past 32 hours of operation, go to a back-up system or call in repairs -- all without moving from his or her desk. Benefits from VegaMac come not only from improved surveillance of unmanned lighthouses, but also from reduced maintenance and inspection costs.

VegaMac differs from other monitoring systems in that it works out what is wrong at the lighthouse and calls the base station to alert engineers either by cellphone, telephone landline or radio. Other systems rely on hourly polling, which is more costly.

The New Zealand Maritime Safety Authority (NZMSA) is using the system to monitor 15 lighthouses, with a further four going on the network soon. Ken Belt, Lighthouse Engineer for the authority describes it as a significant advance.

"In the past we could only tell if a light was on or not -- and sometimes we weren't even sure if that information was correct," says Belt. "But with VegaMac we can see on the computer screens what is happening at each lighthouse. We can turn things on or off and check to see the status of batteries or the level of fuel left in diesel generators. We can even run daytime tests on the lights. Being able to go back 32 hours to look over a graph and check what has been going on is extremely useful."

Belt says VegaMac could save the cost of sending a helicopter and engineer on an unnecessary and expensive flight to make a physical inspection, which has traditionally been the only way of being sure the lighthouse was working properly.