The KVH Story
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If you’re like most cruisers, you’d like to be able
to watch television while under way or at
anchor using one of the major satellite
networks—DirecTV or Dish, for instance. Many
folks fall into a familiar routine of watching the
news over a cup of coffee in the morning or a
current-events program on Sunday evenings.
Taking this capability to sea with you only
enhances these experiences. Additionally, in our
communication- and information-intensive society,
you’d also like to stay in touch with family or
business associates via voice, email, and maybe
even fax, while you are cruising. Finally, you think,
it sure would be nice to have a high-speed Internet
connection while you are away from home, for
everything from the latest weather forecasts and
repair facility details to technical information on
equipment and stock market reports and, of course, just plain Web surfing. All this capability will, you’d
assume, require a host of different products from
myriad manufacturers and service providers using a
sea of antennas, if it’s even possible at all, right? If
you made this assumption, you’d be dead wrong. A
company called KVH provides all of these
capabilities—and one-stop shopping for the various
service providers—using just two antennas.
IT ALL STA RTED ON A
SUMMER DAY IN 1978
Arent Kits van Heyningen (his initials became the
genesis for the company name, KVH) was born in
Holland in 1916. He served briefly in the Dutch
army at the start of WWII, until it was disbanded
after the Germans overran Holland. At that point he
became a member of the famed underground; his
specialty was blowing up bridges. Kits van Heyningen was once stopped by a German army
officer on a train and eyed suspiciously. After
checking his identity papers, the officer told him to
get off at the next stop because the Gestapo would
be boarding the train at the following city—the
officer must have known they were looking for Kits
van Heyningen. Kits van Heyningen chalked up this
life-saving stroke of good luck to the fact that many
old-school German army officers disliked the
Gestapo and its methods. It’s interesting to think
how different the recreational marine electronics
world might have been had that officer not checked
Kits van Heyningen’s papers, a clear example of the
Butterfly Effect for us cruisers. After the war, Kits
van Heyningen immigrated to the U.K., then to
Canada, and finally to the United States.
Kits van Heyningen, an avid sailor/racer, scientist,
and inventor, is also a classically trained problem
solver: He sees a problem or need for a product
and then sets out to solve or fulfill it, using his
engineering background and ingenuity. His technical
philosophy is, “First, set down what you need;
requirements are the father of invention.”
In 1978, during the heyday of the America’s Cup
Race, when the Americans were still the undisputed
masters of this event, the skipper of the French entry
ran into Kits van Heyningen’s son Martin, who was
working in a Newport, Rhode Island, boatyard
between semesters at Yale. The skipper, Johann
Valentine, a fellow Dutchman, asked Martin what his
father did for a living. When Martin responded, “he builds computers,” Johann immediately asked if the
elder Kits van Heyningen could build a performance
computer for his boat, France 3. Without checking
with his father, Martin responded in the affirmative,
saying, “My father can make anything.” Although
there may have been some component of youthful
exuberance and paternal admiration on Martin’s
part, in this case, he was right. Using his talents as
an engineer and inventor, Kits van Heyningen did
indeed build the first tactical sailing performance
computer, which crunched numbers based on wind
speed, wind direction, and boat speed. Although the
computer worked perfectly, it wasn’t used in the
race. Once Dennis Conner and the American team
heard about the computer and how well it worked,
they protested, citing a rule that stated that the
competing vessel and all of its systems had to be
built in the vessel’s country of origin. (France 3 was
eliminated during the trials, and Conner did
eventually use a KVH sailing computer in a
subsequent America’s Cup Race. He won.)
From the sailing computer was spawned the
idea for additional product development in the
form of a digital compass. Although the sailing
computer worked well, it could not recognize or
use the true direction of the wind or the vessel.
Electronic compasses at that time were analog,
while computers were and still are digital; thus,
the two were incompatible. Kits van Heyningen
returned to his basement laboratory and, after
nearly two years of work, produced the world’s first highly accurate, self-calibrating digital compass.
Kits van Heyningen took the idea to his employer
at the time, a large government defense contractor,
to see if the company was interested. It wasn’t, so
he and his two sons, Martin (Martin wrote the
business plan for KVH while an undergraduate at
Yale) and Robert, started KVH
and began manufacturing
and marketing the
product from the
basement
of the family
home. They
shipped their
first commercial
product in 1982.
The current version of that product—the Azimuth
1000 digital compass—remains to this day one of
KVH’s premier products.
Kits van Heyningen and his sons believed that, in
addition to the recreational and commercial marine
community, the United States military would also
make an excellent customer for the digital compass.
(History has proved them right.) They were able to
obtain enough research money from Uncle Sam to
create an unusually large engineering department,
which worked under Kits van Heyningen’s direct
supervision. The results were, predictably, an
innovative line of products that sold well to maritime
and eventually other communities, both civilian and
military. Kits van Heyningen’s business philosophy is
as practical as his technical philosophy: “Once people
start buying your product, if you treat your customers well, if you admit when you screw up, and if you
correct your mistakes, you will live forever.”
Although it may be apocryphal, the story behind
KVH’s first serious military sales contract goes
something like this. During a joint U.S./NATO
amphibious exercise in Norway, a U.S. Marine took a
KVH fluxgate compass from his own private boat and
installed it on the landing craft from which his unit
was operating. When the exercise was over, the
Marine was singled out for his unit’s exemplary
performance. When he was asked to explain the
prowess of his amphibious unit, he showed the brass
the KVH compass. Suitably impressed, they eventually
ordered a considerable number of the compasses from
the small Rhode Island company that began in the
Kits van Heyningens’ basement. The first Gulf War in 1991 helped to put KVH more squarely on the
military’s map; its products were rugged and
performed well in the harsh desert environment.
KVH also prospered in the recreational marine
market. The fluxgate compass became the standard
for virtually any other manufacturer’s product that
required heading information, particularly autopilots.
For a time, KVH made fluxgate compasses for all of
the major autopilot and sailing instrument
manufacturers. Early units, some of which I still
come across in the boatyard (all are operational,
even if the equipment to which they are attached is
not), were manufactured in the Kits van Heyningens’
basement and were housed in sections of ordinary
PVC pipe obtained from the local Middletown,
Rhode Island, plumber’s-supply house.
In 1996, KVH went public (traded on the
NASDAQ under the symbol “KVHI”). The business
has grown steadily, with the elder Kits van
Heyningen at the helm as chairman of the board
and chief scientist, and sons Martin and Robert
overseeing the business and engineering sides of
the company, respectively. In 1988, the company
had 24 employees; it now employs approximately
270 people in three locations, with 2004 revenues of
approximately $62 million. The Kits van Heyningen
family has hardly looked back since that summer
day in 1978 when Martin proclaimed, “My father
can build anything.”
VISITING KVH HEADQUARTERS IN
MIDDLETOWN, RHODE ISLAND
I landed at Rhode Island’s T.F. Green (PVD)
Airport on a day that—even by Virginia standards—
was brutally hot. My assignment, a choice one for a
gearhead like me, was to visit and learn all I could
about KVH, the premier manufacturer of satellite
television and communication equipment as well as a host of other civilian and military navigation and
stabilization products. Ian Palmer, KVH’s executive
vice president for satellite sales, summed it up when
he answered my question, what does KVH do? “We
point things, very accurately.” In touring the research,
engineering, and administrative offices as well as the
satellite television receiver assembly line housed in
KVH’s attractive, modern, 80,000–sq. ft. facility (they
own this building along with two other facilities), I
would find just how true this statement was.
The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable; the
uniform of the day appeared to be khakis and polo
shirts. But there was a sense of urgency and
enthusiasm about the work being done. It reminded
me of the feeling one gets in the presence of a
successful athletic team. These folks are good at
what they do—they’re at the top of their game, and
they know it, yet they are professionally humble
about this success.
The Middletown facility—KVH’s corporate
headquarters—houses a series of research
laboratories, where the latest satellite television and
communication gear is developed and tested.
However, unlike many other high-tech electronics
operations, most of the products are not
manufactured overseas once the design is perfected.
They’re built right here under the same roof by
Rhode Islanders. I inquired about this—wouldn’t it be
cheaper to do the design work here but build the
product in the Far East, like so many other
manufacturers are now doing? To paraphrase the reply: cheaper, perhaps, but not necessarily better,
and KVH has no plans at this time to move the
manufacture of its satellite television system out of
this building.
The advantage of this manufacturing technique is
that it offers unprecedented access to, and
communication between, the engineers and the folks
assembling the product. The engineer who designed
the product can walk out to the
assembly line and watch as it is
manufactured, and is readily
available to be consulted if a
problem with an assembly
technique arises. The high quality
of the finished product, along with
an exceptionally low warranty and
return rate, would seem to indicate
that this is a formula not to be
trifled with. Some of the same
folks, many of them women, have
worked on this assembly line for 15
years. They know what they are doing, and they are
clearly proud of what they do.
The Middletown facility is one of three operated
by KVH. (They also have a 30,000–sq. ft. distribution
center located near the main complex in
Middletown.) The other two facilities are in Tinley
Park, Illinois, and Kokkedal, Denmark, and are
25,000 and 30,000 sq. ft., respectively. The Illinois
facility specializes in KVH’s fiber optics work, a field
KVH entered in 1996, developing and building
FOGs (fiber optic gyros) as well as KVH’s line of
military navigation gear, known as TACNAV. The
Danish facility is KVH’s European sales, marketing,
and technical support hub.
The Rhode Island facility clearly revolves around
KVH’s core business—stabilized satellite television
reception for marine and automotive applications—a
field it entered in 1994. Since that time, KVH has
continuously led the way, developing and improving
the system that is now so familiar not only to
boaters, but also to owners of RVs and now SUVs
and minivans. KVH’s newest mobile satellite
receiver, the TracVision A5 (the antenna is low
profile, not much bigger than a plastic trash can lid),
designed for SUVs and minivans, will interface with
existing video systems in these vehicles, offering live
satellite television content while on the road. Since it
entered this business just over a decade ago, KVH
has manufactured over 75,000 mobile (marine and
automotive) satellite television receiving systems, all
of which have been built at the Rhode Island facility.
KVH currently employs approximately 270
people, roughly 200 of whom work at the Rhode
Island facility. It was refreshing to discover that 75
percent of KVH’s business is civilian sales, mainly of
satellite and digital compass systems, with the
remaining 25 percent going to government and
military products. I’m as patriotic as any American,
but when I’ve had to deal with manufacturers in the
marine industry whose core
business is government and military
sales—with civilian products being
treated as an aside—I have often
found the quality of customer
service lacking. Not so with the
folks at KVH. They know who
butters their bread: the recreational
and commercial mariner, and now
the workaday motorist, as well. The
KVH staff are justifiably proud of
the work they do for the military.
The products are of the
highest quality and have,
no doubt, saved the lives
of countless American and
allied soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and marines. But
defense work doesn’t
constitute the majority of
what they do, and they
aren’t ashamed of that.
KVH practices, as many efficient companies now
do, a system know as lean manufacturing: it doesn’t
keep a lot of stock stacked up in a warehouse. That’s
inefficient and old school. Instead, it aims to fulfill
orders within 24–48 hours, and it succeeds, meeting
this goal 97 percent of the time. As I was escorted
by Ian Palmer and Chris Watson, KVH’s corporate
communications manager, through the satellite
television antenna assembly line, there appeared
to be an easy working relationship between the
executives and the assemblers of these precision
products. Many of KVH’s employees, in all departments—not just the assembly line—have been
with the company for well over a decade.
In keeping with its “all under one roof ” philosophy,
KVH operates its own in-house graphic design team,
which is made up of a group of six women.
Everything KVH produces in the way of literature,
from major advertising campaigns (including the ads
in PMM) to technical manuals, videos, labels, and
website content, passes through this office. As
someone who has installed and serviced KVH
products, I can attest to the high quality and
readability of the company’s technical literature, and
I’m not alone in this opinion. The Society of
Technical Communication agrees; it recently
bestowed upon KVH a “Best of Show” award
for one of its satellite television literature products.
In my capacity as a boatyard manager and
technical editor, I am frequently called on to assist
customers and readers (often over the telephone)
with technical problems they are facing. As a result
of this experience, I have a special appreciation for
folks who also do this on a full-time basis. KVH’s
technical support room buzzed with the
conversations of half a dozen operator/technicians
who were providing technical assistance to users—
consumers and professionals alike—of all types of
KVH products around the world. KVH offers
telephone support six days a week for North and
South America, Australasia, Europe, the Middle
East, and Africa via United States and European
phone numbers and time zones. Email support is
available through an FAQ section 24/7 and via
technicians during normal working hours. This is a
unique (and no doubt costly) service that KVH
offers, but one that elicits my respect and
admiration. I’ve often said that regardless of how
well a product is engineered and built, I’m not
interested in it if it’s not well supported. Based on
my experience and on what I observed in the
technical support center, KVH products are well
supported, indeed.
Along those same lines, KVH recognizes that the
major satellite television providers may not be aware
of the peculiar requirements of maritime users.
(KVH is one of DirecTV’s top 150 accounts, but
maritime users make up an infinitesimally small
fraction of satellite television accounts—30,000 maritime users versus 14 million home subscribers.)
So KVH created its own activation department and
liaison center to allow users of KVH satellite
television reception equipment to call on KVH to
activate their service. KVH’s activation office will
even arrange three-way conference calls among the
customer, the satellite provider, and a KVH
employee. Details such as mirror service (certain
satellite providers will allow you to mirror the
service you have at home on your boat for an
additional $5 per month), local versus distant
network reception, and New York and Los Angeles
network reception can be ironed out with the help
of the KVH activation office. If you have an
activation or service availability question, call or
email KVH’s activation department.
PRODUCTS
KVH is diverse indeed, offering a dizzying array of
hardware, software, accessories, technical knowhow,
and other products. In fact, there’s too much in
the way of gear and capabilities to list in the space
available. But I’ll touch on a few of the highlights.
TracVision, of course, is one of KVH’s flagship
products. Offered in a range of antenna sizes, from
the diminutive C3, which measures just 14.5 inches
tall, to the substantial G8, nearly 40 inches tall—all of
these antennas take the form of the now-familiar
white dome with gray base—TracVision enables you
to watch CSI Files or an HBO movie while
anchored in a secluded cove in Nova Scotia, the
Bahamas, or the San Juan Islands. Folks considering
this system often ask me why they would need
anything other than the smallest antenna. In simple terms, the larger the antenna, the farther afield you
can travel while still receiving a usable signal. Think
of the antenna as a net that’s catching, collecting,
and concentrating the comparatively weak satellite
signal—the larger the net, the more of the signal
that can be accumulated and used. If you are staying
close to shore and not venturing to the fringes of
your satellite provider’s coverage area, then the
smaller antenna usually works just fine. If you are
headed well offshore or to fringe areas, plan on a
larger antenna package. As a rule of thumb, the
antenna you choose should not be any smaller than
the smallest land-based antennas used in the area
you are cruising for the same satellite provider.
Once you have one of these systems and it’s
delivering crystal-clear television signals (it handles
HDTV too), it’s easy to take for granted how
difficult it is to design and build a product such as
this—and have it work reliably and successfully in a
harsh marine environment. The antenna must
remain pointed at the satellite, within 1–2 degrees of
its position in the sky. (The satellite is orbiting
roughly 22,000 miles above the earth in what’s
called a geosynchronous orbit, which means it
doesn’t move in relation to the ground beneath it.) If
you’ve ever had to adjust your own home-based
satellite antenna, then you have an appreciation of
just how fine the increments of adjustment are.
While that sounds like a tall order in and of itself,
consider this: The satellite is no bigger than an SUV,
presenting a small target, indeed. KVH guarantees
that the onboard antenna will maintain its lock on
the satellite in virtually any sea state. (You probably
will want to stop watching television long before the antenna can no longer track the satellite.) The
software and hardware required to keep a satellite
receiving dish pointed at the satellite under these
conditions are formidable: multi-axis, lightning fast,
high-torque motors, and the brains to tell them what
to do and when to do it.
KVH’s companion communication product, called
TracPhone, provides the user with several options,
from simple voice communication to fax, email, and
high-speed Internet access. Again, the size of the
antenna plays a part in its performance. While
TracPhone has near-worldwide capability (the
satellite system it is able to use, Inmarsat, isn’t
limited to continental target areas like those of
satellite television services), the larger the antenna,
the greater the data transfer rate. Although all the
intricacies of TracPhone can’t be discussed here, in
brief, its antennas are available in a series of sizes
that match those of TracVision antennas, in the
matching white dome with gray base. The Internet
download speeds available with KVH’s premier
TracPhone system are impressive in their own right
(256–320 Kbps using KVH’s proprietary Velocity
Acceleration software), considering access is available nearly anywhere in the world, no matter
the time of day or night.
As mentioned earlier, KVH continues to offer a
digital compass, the Azimuth 1000 in both en-bloc
and remote-sensor designs. The latter can be
particularly useful in smaller vessels where the
compass display is too close to accuracy-degrading
ferrous masses or magnets. (Audio speakers are
notorious for playing havoc with magnetic
compasses, a problem I’ve solved on more than one
occasion using the remote-sensor digital compass.)
Additionally, KVH offers an economical digital
GyroTrac compass for recreational and commercial
vessels, which uses a digital magnetic compass
combined with a stabilizing three-axis gyro sensor.
The result is a digital compass with gyro-like
performance, at a fraction of a conventional
gyroscope’s cost.
KVH’s military products are a glimpse into the
future of navigation. The TACNAV system offers
highly accurate, integrated GPS navigation to
HMMWVs and armored vehicles. Its most
interesting feature is its ability to switch to a “dead
reckoning” mode in the event the GPS signal is lost
or jammed. Following Operation Iraqi Freedom, one
commander of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle
proclaimed of KVH’s TACNAV, “From the berm to
Baghdad, it was the best piece of equipment on the
Bradley.” KVH also manufactures other navigation
systems that make use of its fiber optic gyro, for
everything from torpedoes to remotely operated
autonomous vehicles.
KVH combines the service and work ethic of a
family-run business (Arent Kits van Heyningen still
goes to work every day) with the resources of a
formidable cutting-edge technology company. I met
with the elder Kits van Heyningen briefly during my
visit—his office had that “inventor’s” look about it,
the desk strewn with papers and charts, along with a
slide rule and a steaming cup of coffee. Much like
the innovative products they build, KVH as a
company may be small, but it is accurate and quick
to react to the needs of the recreational and
commercial marine marketplace.
Visit the company’s website at kvh.com, send
them an email message at satelliteservices@kvh.com,
or call 401.847.3327.
Steve D’Antonio is PMM’s Technical Editor and the
VP of operations for Zimmerman Marine, a custom
boatbuilder and full-service repair yard in Mathews,
Virginia.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2006 © Dominion Enterprises (888.487.2953) www.passagemaker.com
You are reading the text-only copy of this article. To access the article as it appeared in PassageMaker Magazine, please log in to purchase and download the PDF version of this article.