Echopilot’s forward looking innovation wins Seawork award
Echopilot Marine Electronics has won the prestigious Seawork Spirit of Innovation Award 2010 for its 3D Forward Looking Sonar.
British sonar specialist Echopilot Marine Electronics Ltd won the overall Spirit of Innovation Award at Seawork 2010.
The innovative 3D Forward Looking Sonar also won the Diving and Underwater Technology category award.
Other category winners included Scot Seats KPM Marine in the Vessel Design & Construction sector for its TSM triple stage shock mitigation seating system. JW Automarine took Marine Civil Engineering & Construction honours with its Seebag lifting bag. The Marine equipment, Electronics & Materials award went to H4 Marine for its Maritex 1-50 marine shaft bearing Aquamarine Power scooped the hotly contested Renewable Energy category with its Oyster hydro-electric wave energy converter.
Echopilot’s award winning instrument targets the workboat, small commercial and superyacht sectors. It has been proven at sea for almost 12 months and will be available from September.
Maritime Journal caught up with Echopilot on its stand at Seawork to discuss the win and get the lowdown on the product. Company director Christopher Phillips said, ‘We are thrilled to win this prestigious award, which is a handsome reward for our research and development programme. We’ve been run off our feet with enquiries from the show which we hope will translate to new orders. One of the things that really makes the 3D Forward Looking Sonar innovative is that it has small compact transducers which ensure complete forward coverage whatever the hull form, which makes it appealing to every vessel from a 14 foot RIB up to large tankers’.
The EchoPilot 3 Dimensional Forward Looking Sonar provides a 3D representation of the underwater scene ahead of the boat. The seabed terrain and potential hazards are shown, for the first time, with unparalleled realism. This is a real time sonar image of what is actually ahead of the boat, not a chart rendered into 3D.
The view ahead is 60 degrees in the horizontal plane, over 90 degrees in the vertical plane, the forward range is up to 200m, and depth is to 100m. The screen updates every one to two seconds depending on the range setting. Available as a Black Box, the 3D FLS outputs include S and Composite Video, VGA and HDMI for a full colour picture on a wide range of compatible displays.
A highlight of the Spirit of Innovation Award ceremony, held during the Gala Dinner following the first day of Seawork, came in a brief acceptance speech by KPM Marine technical director and design guru Julian Morgan. He called upon all present to listen to their customers and give them what they want before summing up the feelings of many at Seawork 2010 when he said, ‘We love Seawork. It is our Christmas.’
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