Helping to prioritize data transfers from ship to shore, Thru’s OptiBAND solution for cruise ships is helping one major cruise line save bandwidth and improve guest connectivity.

“One line came to us with a problem. When their crew sent logistical, medical or other information back to shore, it started squashing the bandwidth they were selling their customers,” explained Lee Harrison, Thru Inc. CEO.

Not wanting the crew and passengers to compete over the pipeline, Dallas-based Thru came up with its own solution. First, caching things locally and then prioritizing data transfers from ship to shore. Certain items or activities can be automatically prioritized – with settings available to the IT staff on the ship or remotely, shoreside.

“It understands bandwidth allocations,” said Harrison. “It doesn’t step on the passengers; it compresses everything into one channel.”

Thru, an enterprise file share and sync business, is talking to a number of other cruise operators about deploying their solution, which Harrison said can be set up in as little as two-and-a-half hours.

The program also understands the level of connectivity, such as when the ship is utilizing a shoreside connection.