South Tyneside College (STC) is among the world’s premier institutions for the provision of marine and offshore training. The College, based at South Shields in the UK, offers tailored courses for deck, engineering and electrical personnel, including full safety training facilities. Around 5,000 students each year attend the School of Maritime Studies and Engineering for full-time courses, with around 50% coming from overseas, representing 74 countries. Staff are recruited from specialist sectors within the marine industry, bringing with them the knowledge and experience needed to ensure the highest standards of teaching. Companies using the College for training include BP, Shell, P&O/Princess Cruises, P&O Nedlloyd, Maersk, Clyde Marine and a large number of companies from the Arabian Gulf and the Far East.
With 9 single-chip SIM4 DLP projectors each projecting 30 degrees the full-mission bridge provides a full 270 degrees of simulated scenery. The emphasis is on reality all the way, the controls are real as are the radio communications with the instructor. Paul Hodgson said “Reality is everything to us, the graphics have to be as real as possible and shown as sharp as possible”. He continued, “a lot of effort is put into the accuracy of the images and we wanted projectors that would do that effort justice”.
The simulated full-mission engine room below can be linked to the full-mission bridge and the instructor can fail instruments or engine parts to give the students a new challenge or scenario every time.
