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French demonstrate sidescan in Plymouth
The French company IXSEA, which designs and manufactures navigation and positioning systems based on its fibre optic gyroscope technology, chose the historic naval port of Plymouth UK to demonstrate their fourth generation Shadows sidescan seabed mapping sonar with Plymouth based GEOSA, an oceanographic and marine innovation support company.
The two week mobilisation, which included IXSEA GAPS pre-calibrated USBL, saw more than fifteen companies from European based offshore and hydrographic survey industries witness the real time data acquisition and processing capabilities across its full 600m swath coverage. IXSEA demonstrated route survey, environmental and archaeological recognisance and detailed wreck surveys which were well received by industry representatives. Richard Parkinson, director of IXSEA Offshore said, ‘Like many marine equipment manufacturers before us, IXSEA has utilised the diverse geological, bathymetric and anthropogenic artefacts available in Plymouth to demonstrated the step change in seabed mapping that SHADOWS delivers.
‘Working with GEOSA’s highly professional and experienced team onboard the ‘RV Terschelling’ was a real pleasure. The plans for GEOSA’s Marine Innovation Park are exciting and underline their commitment to innovation in our business sector. We look forward to making use of the facilities again in the future.’
Based in Oreston at the mouth of the Plym, GEOSA currently provides permanent employment for six people and accumulated over 1,000 man days of employment through its project based activity in 2008. GEOSA is in the final stages of the redevelopment of its site, which will see a new 2.7 acre quayside facility with dedicated marine assets.
Nigel Boston chairman of GEOSA said, ‘We hope to continue delivering a space to incubate, encourage and stimulate the growth of marine technology through modular based business units available for a few days or on a permanent basis.’
