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tzChromar®

Keeping devices on a ship to the relevant ship time / time zone has long been an issue for cruise ships. The team at theICEway has developed a solution to solve this key problem: tzChromar®.

When sailing, cruise ships have issues with showing the correct time zone on their on-board devices. Traditionally, on-board IT management have adjusted device time manually to allow crew members and guests to have an accurate ship time.

tzChromar® plots the ship’s current position and allows for time zone changes to be scheduled in advance or applied instantly. The crew member with time zone admin privileges will set the required time zone with a couple of clicks and all devices will update automatically. Crucially, tzChromar® enables cruise lines to have a fleet-wide overview of all ships. Speak with theICEway's experts to find out more.

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Saving IT crew hours in 2022

Our tzChromar® solution was deployed on vessels from a major cruise line throughout 2022. These cruise ships experienced daily time zone changes, which affected thousands of onboard devices. The device types were a mixture of Android, Windows and Linux. With tzChromar®, all device time changes were made with the greatest of ease.

In total, around 500 hundred thousand changes were executed in seamless fashion. Historically, these changes would have entailed our partners' onboard IT crews spending thousands of hours making them. Not so with tzChromar®. Instead, the process is entirely streamlined, leaving the crew free to focus upon other important tasks.

In 2023, there are further installations planned and the forecast is for this solution to help more cruise lines save time and money. As this amazing industry continues to recover and rebuild in the wake of the pandemic, theICEway is happy to be able to help. Making the most of your internal resources is vitally important. Ironically, that is something we have learnt over nearly two decades of providing outsourced IT services and solutions.

tzChromar Wave award winner badge

Winning awards in 2023

The Wave Awards are renowned for rewarding excellence in cruise and recognised by many as the industry’s premier event. Indeed, the Waves are often referred to as ‘the Oscars of the cruise industry’.

In November 2023, the 9th ceremony for these prestigious awards took place at The Dorchester hotel in London. A team from theICEway was in attendance as nominees, ultimately leaving the show as winners. We were both honoured and deeply humbled to accept the award for Best Technology Innovation. This was in recognition of tzChromar®, which we're delighted to say is gaining ever more traction in the cruise industry.

David Tibbles, Business Development and Product Manager, and Co-Founder Conor Byrne, are key to the success of tzChromar®. The latter was the initial driving force behind the solution and was proud of this latest achievement. "tzChromar® was designed for cruise and so to win a Wave award for it is just fantastic. The fact it is saving cruise lines time and money was good enough for us, but this is quite the cherry on top!"

38 Million time related problems at sea

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38,000,000

Time zone device changes

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77,760

Time zone changes

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216

Cruise ships experience this

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2,000

Devices per cruise ship

wave

0.8

Time zone changes occur every 0.8 days at sea

tzChromar® explained

Whilst the problem itself has long been a complex one, our innovative solution is anything but. Indeed, this explainer video provides the perfect illustration of just how simple the tzChromar® solution for cruise actually is.

tzChromar® - Frequently Asked Questions

 

What operating systems does tzChromar® support?

The operating systems we support are Windows, Linux and Android. However, we are not limited to these and can develop to other operating systems if required.

Has tzChromar® been tested on any on-board system?

It has been tested on many systems including Oracle Fidelio, Otalio and Getslash.

What web framework is tzChromar® developed in?

Django on a Python framework.

I run several different mobile and POS devices - is that a problem?

Not at all, we would ask you to complete a discovery document from which we can then tailor the installations.

Can I manage ship time remotely (from a landside operations hub)?

Yes, this is possible. The landside portal will need to replicate to the ship's portal.

Is the server cloud-based?

The service can be cloud-based or installed landside or ideally, on the ship.

Can I manage my entire fleet from one location?

Yes, you can manage your whole fleet from one operation centre.

I only want to manage this on the ship, can this be done?

Yes, the portal can be fully administered on-board allowing the ships' IT staff or captain to commit time zone changes or schedule changes at a specific time.

How is daylight saving managed?

tzChromar® works with the operating system on the device to automatically allow for DST changes.

Do I need to install the software on all devices?

Yes, there is a small client that runs in the background on all registered devices, the installation can be managed directly on the device or managed centrally via Mobile Device Management software (e.g. Samsung SDS or Knox EMM).

Can tzChromar® link to other devices such as door management / wearables?

Yes, we can quickly develop to most devices / processes.

Does the ship need to run on the time zone chosen?

The ship will always run on UTC, usually via an NTP server. We allow reporting in both UTC and the local ships time zone to make transactional reporting easier. We control the time zone, not the time.

Can you work with our existing guest Apps?

Yes, we can integrate the time change via your existing App. 

 

 

David Tibbles (tzChromar Product Manager)

"This solution is revolutionising the control of onboard time zone changes."

 

Speak to David Tibbles to hear more about this solution, which is currently helping 4 major cruise lines save time and money. You can also request a 2-minute demonstration...