Additional features such as touch screen operation and rugged environmental housing make the system ideal for stand-alone operations, says Valeport, who add that it can just as easily become an integrated part of a user LAN with ethernet, Wifi, radio and dial-up communications options.

Midas TMS is being marketed by Sadaret Ltd whose Andrew Smith reported recent sale of a system to a leading UK port authority. At Seawork, Smith also reported encouraging sales of Valeport's Midas Surveyor GPS echosounder with customers including British Waterways along with others in Nigeria and Russia. Retailing at around £6,000, the portable single or dual frequency sounder and GPS logger has been specifically designed for small-scale hydrographic operations over depths down to 100m.