Naturally the opneing ceremony was simulated: on each of the screens of the 59 simulators, four vessels sailed at the same time through an opening ribbon in an imaginary port with the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza and the Burj Khalifa on the berths.
It was clear to see how hundreds of guests, including the mayor of Berendrecht Jan van Belzen, enjoyed the simulated opening spectacle and the subsequent look behind the scenes at the simulators.
To celebrate the opening, Marcel Kind, managing director and co-founder of Simwave announced, 'clients who book an Open Course before May 16 will receive a 15% discount on the registration fee.'
The centre has been in use for some time as the 'site acceptance test' was successfully completed on January 29, in collaboration with the supplier of the simulators, Norwegian company Kongsberg Digital.
Since then, the 'Maritime Centre of Excellence' has been operational with several training courses being organised for and with customers such as Genting Hong Kong, Crystal River Cruises and Viking Cruises.
Simwave operates globally and independently, and provides a one-stop shop for certified maritime training, pilot training, assessment and applied research.
Simwave works on the concept of providing the 'simulator as a service', says Joost van Ree, commercial director and co-founder.
'Everyone can turn to us', says van Ree. 'From the largest shipping company in the world to the family-run business and inland ship operators to,' he added.
'So you don't have to invest in a simulator yourself: you work with state-of-the-art technology and get solutions tailored to your specific requirements.'
The courses are run on one of the centre's 59 simulators but a special feature is that they can also be linked to provide multi-vessel simulations.
Simwave's showpieces are the 'full mission' simulators on which the entire bridge of a ship has been replicated almost at full scale, with 360-degree projection as support.
The machine room with seven simulators, which occupies two floors of the building, is also impressive, says van Ree, which guests attending the official opening will see live.
Custom-labelled simulator training
As part of the service offered, 'it is possible to book a simulator or several different interfaced simulators to train or assess your crew under your own private label,' says van Ree.
By teaming with Simwave's ship modelling team and visual database developers, it offers ship operators facilities where they can use their own ships in their specific port environment.
'Bring your own instructors, and we will take provide comprehensive technical, operational, training and hospitality support,' he added.
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