iXBlue of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Framce, which earlier this year recorded over 250 worldwide sales of its USBL acoustic positioning systems, has been awarded a four-year contract by the French Hydrographic Office (SHOM) in Brest for supply and installation of sub-bottom profilers and associated software aboard its fleet of hydrographic coastal vessels and smaller craft used for shallow water and continental shelf operations.

Following extensive trials using a SHOM 7-metre survey launch, specified systems to be provided by iXSea comprise its compact high-resolution low frequency Echoes 3500T3 and 10000 profiler models developed for both pole and hull-mounted installation. Both rack-mounted assemblies are also able to operate with multibeam echosounders without interference or need for synchronisation and are complemented by Delph software for acquisition, processing and interpretation of data. Their versatility for determining differing types of sediment and compatibility with other survey sensors made them an ideal solution, says iXBlue sedimentologist Yann Le Faou.

By David Goodfellow