New Walport Crew Training Film Launches

2009-08-12T16:14:24

‘Lifeboat Drills – Preparing for Safety’ is the new crew training film from Walport Maritime Training Films. The film highlights the high number of incidents in which crew members have been injured, sometimes fatally, while participating in lifeboat drills or carrying out maintenance or inspections, and suggests preventative measures and best practice.

Walport’s Jeff McMullen says: “The film is beneficial to all crew and it encourages the development of an on-board safety culture. It emphasises the importance of communication and familiarity with lifesaving equipment, helping crew build confidence and treating each drill as a ‘learning experience’, as recommended by the IMO.” Lifeboat management is currently a contentious issue and the film is especially topical for those shipping companies that will be affected by the Paris and Tokyo MOUs joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign on lifeboat launching arrangements, which will target around 10,000 vessels over a 3-month period, starting on 1st September 2009. This key safety initiative is a very important issue for ship managers, where lifeboat launching arrangements, maintenance records and other applicable documentation will be verified for compliance with SOLAS Chapter III.

The film is 20 minutes long and available in English-language audio with subtitles in nine major crew languages.

‘Lifeboat Drills – Preparing for Safety’ is the latest title in a long line of popular Walport crew training film productions from the company now owned by Headland Media. Walport has been supplying films to ships for over fifty years and prides itself on producing effective and entertaining training for crew.

Since the acquisition by Headland Media in July 2008, Walport has strengthened its position as an industry leader in providing high quality cost-effective maritime training films. Managing Director, Mark Woodhead describes Headland Media as a “specialist business-to-business media content provider”. The company specialises in supplying a wide range of media, information and training services to industry sectors which have infrastructures that make the supply of content difficult or expensive by traditional methods.

Offering multi-purpose crew welfare, communication and training solutions remains very much at the forefront of Headland Media’s maritime development schedule. The phenomenal success of the SatNews crew newspaper service, available since the 1980s, has led to the development of a wider-ranging flexible crew entertainment service, Walport Entertainment On-Board.

Walport Entertainment On-Board is a fully-licensed entertainment service for crew comprising: the latest international film releases and classics, hit TV shows, multi-language newspapers, coverage of major sporting events, CDs and pop videos, an unrivalled selection of books and magazines, and popular video games, including PS2, PS3, Xbox and Wii.

Mark Woodhead says: “Working at sea can be a great career but can also feel quite isolated. Hard work should be balanced with meaningful leisure time and Walport Entertainment On-Board is a unique tailored service that helps ship managers achieve this legally and cost-effectively.

“Many ship owners may not be aware that the screening of films in communal areas onboard marine vessels requires a licence in order to remain within the law. Just as a vessel wouldn’t use Microsoft software without the correct user licence, it is vital that reputable shipping companies also adhere to viewing and copyright laws. Walport Entertainment On-Board comes with the necessary approved user licenses to remove the risk of a legal breach.

Headland Media is constantly looking to provide innovative, effective and budget-conscious crew-orientated products, and the company is buoyed by the exciting projects it is currently developing that could provide new standards in the areas of crew communication, training and welfare in the not-to-distant future. ‘Lifeboat Drills – Preparing for Safety’ is out now.

See a preview at www.walport.com or go to www.headlandmedia.com for more information about all of Headland Media’s maritime services.

New lifeboat training film from Walport set for launch

2009-07-22T00:00:00

Walport has completed filming of its new crew training DVD ‘Lifeboat Drills – Preparing for Safety’ and is preparing to launch this latest addition to its maritime training film library at the beginning of August.

The film addresses the high number of incidents in which crew members have been injured, sometimes fatally, while participating in lifeboat drills or carrying out maintenance or inspections, and suggests preventative measures and best practice.

Walport’s Jeff McMullen says: “The film is beneficial to all crew and it encourages seafarers to take responsibility for their own safety through the development of an on-board safety culture. It emphasises the importance of communication and familiarity with lifesaving equipment, helping crew build confidence and treat each drill as a ‘learning experience’, as recommended by the IMO.

“Lifeboats are currently a very contentious issue and this new film is especially topical for those shipping companies that will be affected by the Paris and Tokyo MOU’s joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign on lifeboat launching arrangements which will target around 10,000 vessels over a 3 month period starting on 1st September 2009. This key safety initiative is a very important issue for ship managers where lifeboat launching arrangements, maintenance records and other applicable documentation will be verified for compliance with SOLAS Chapter III.”

Walport, part of Headland Media since September 2008, has been delivering essential, effective and entertaining training films to ships for over 50 years.

‘Lifeboat Drills – Preparing for Safety’ is 20 minutes long and available in English-language audio with subtitles in Chinese, English, French, Greek, Hindi, (Brazilian) Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog. It is available to pre-order from www.walport.com at a discounted rate until the end of July.