An Interview with Oskar Axelsson
Marport’s Executive VP and General Manager, Commercial Fisheries
During a recent visit to Seattle, we had the opportunity to catch up with Oskar and ask him a few questions concerning Marport’s acquisition of C-Tech and how he thinks it will impact the company’s activities in the Commercial Fisheries sector.
Webmaster: Good morning, and thanks for taking the time to chat with us today.
Oskar: Good morning to you. It’s my pleasure.
Webmaster: Perhaps we can start by asking what you think about Marport’s recent acquisition of C-Tech Ltd.?
Oskar: I think this is an excellent acquisition for Marport. While Commercial Fisheries is and will remain very important to us, we plan to continue with the diversification of our Software Defined Sonar® technology into new domains – including Underwater Defence, Offshore Energy and Ocean Science. Over the past 12 years, Marport has grown from a one person, one product company, to a global company with over 110 employees and nearly 100 different products. By my estimation, we now rank in the Top 5 multi-domain sonar companies in the world.
Webmaster: Have you had any involvement with C-Tech prior to the acquisition?
Oskar: Yes, as a matter of fact I’ve known C-Tech from the time that they made sonars for the commercial fishing market – this would be around the late 1970’s. During this period, I was working as a marine electronics service technician on the east coast of Iceland. I recall being very impressed with C-Tech’s sonar technology. They were the first in the world to build omni sonars that integrated micro-processors and an electronic display – while their competitors of that time were only searchlight sonars that used paper recorders. There’s no doubt that C-Tech led the commercial fisheries omni sonar market in innovation and product excellence. I think it was a very unfortunate setback for commercial fisheries when C-Tech decided to exit the industry because of the unethical copying of its products. Of course, C-Tech went on to create and build a very successful business in the military sonar market.
Webmaster: Do you see any role for C-Tech in future products for commercial fisheries?
Oskar: Definitely. We acquired C-Tech for several important reasons – the ability to quickly enter the underwater defence industry, as well as to leverage the synergies in our technology and product platforms. As many of your readers know, Marport has been making significant R&D investments in developing our Software Defined Sonar® technology. We have already successfully launched the industry’s first software defined sensors and will be releasing the 2nd generation of this technology – codenamed DataSquid® – later this year.
During the upcoming World Fishing Exhibition in Vigo, we also plan to release CARUSO, our new multi-beam sounder/profiler. CARUSO is another excellent example of broadband, software-defined technology and we expect it to be very successful. We already have orders for over 25 units – and while the hardware is ready we have decided to take some more time to finalize the software.
CARUSO will operate on what we call CommandView 4 – a 4D software application. We’ve been doing a lot of research into medical imaging techniques and believe that CARUSO will be the first of a new series of marine products that embody our trademark – Seeing with Sound®.
This means that sounder and sonar visualization techniques will migrate from the “look and feel” of standard echograms – that the fishing industry has seen for decades – to a graphically rich, real-world environment that uses acoustic imaging for picture-centric situational awareness. We’re really breaking new ground with this type of software – and we expect that the CV4 software architecture will enable us to rapidly deploy new solutions in all our market domains.
Regarding C-Tech, we are also very seriously considering re-packaging C-Tech’s existing Omni Sonar® products for re-entry into commercial fisheries market. When married with our Software Defined Sonar® electronics we could deliver a very innovative Integrated Sonar System.
Webmaster: What exactly is an Integrated Sonar System?
Oskar: Our thinking on this is quite clear. We know that we now have the technology, production capability, build quality and service/support infrastructure to immediately enter and compete with the existing omni sonars from Norway and Japan. However, competing on the same old playing field is not very compelling or interesting – we believe we need to incorporate break-through innovation that enables our customers to significantly enhance their performance and increase their operational effectiveness. To that point, in this month’s edition of Fishing News International there was a news story on the new F/V Nordborg – perhaps the world’s most advanced fishing vessel. In that article, Captain Jon Rasmussen discussed testing new gear and sharing innovative ideas with us. Innovation is a Marport hallmark and we want to continue this tradition.
As such, the Integrated Sonar Suite incorporates every acoustic element needed for Commercial Fishing – wireless net sensors and sounders, trawl mounted sonars, single and split beam hull mounted sounders, doppler current profilers and omni sonars – and all elements are seamlessly linked via an open architecture network. Marport would be the first in the industry to eliminate single function “stovepipe” marine electronics design and deliver a truly integrated system for deep sea and coastal fishing.
Webmaster: So what’s missing from your product line-up to deliver the Integrated Sonar System?
Oskar: We expect to have every component in place within the next 6 – 8 months. As I mentioned earlier, we have significant expertise in reconfigurable embedded systems – such as our broadband, software defined net sensors. We already have a series of wireless net sounders. With the C-Tech acquisition we now have significant expertise and capabilities in omni sonar. Later this year we will start shipping CARUSO our multibeam sounder/profiler.
Products currently under development include two new trawl sonars – one is a high frequency omni, while the other is a high resolution side scan imaging sonar based upon our AquaPix® technology. Both of these products are compact, phased array sonars and do not have any moving parts. We expect them to be very well received in the market.
Webmaster: Do you have any other new Commercial Fishing products under development?
Oskar: We always have new products under development (laughs). Seriously though, in addition to the two new trawl sonars, our engineers are working hard on a new speed sensor that uses doppler velocity profiling to replace electro-magnetic techniques. We also have ongoing R&D in high speed underwater wireless acoustic communications and trawl positioning technologies. I’d also like to say that we always encourage customer feedback to our existing product designs and try to incorporate that feedback whenever possible. Essentially, we build industrial tools for professional industrial customers. While some others in the commercial fishing industry want to continue to build single function devices – and then lecture customers on how to use them – we have taken a more open business approach to let our customers know the various ways that a product can be used. For example, if you make and sell hammers, you don’t need to tell a professional carpenter how to use it (smile).
Webmaster: That all sounds like very interesting business approach and technology. What are your plans regarding production for Commercial Fisheries products?
Oskar: Good question. Today, we have assembly operations in France and Seattle. And that has worked very well for us over the past few years. However, our sales in Commercial Fisheries are significantly increasing and with this sales growth we face production challenges. So our plan is to transfer final assembly of most of our Commercial Fisheries products to C-Tech’s facility in Canada. That 40,000 square foot facility is ISO 9001:2000 certified and can easily scale production to meet our needs. The plant has very impressive onsite testing capabilities as well as an offsite Underwater Acoustic Test Range with quiet water for testing acoustic sensors, sounders and sonars.
Webmaster: We have many more questions for you – but also realize that you are a busy man. So, we’ll conclude our interview and say thanks so much for spending some time with us today.
Oskar: No problem, it was my pleasure. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their continued encouragement and support – particularly the deep sea captains, fleet managers and owners who contribute their valuable time to test and provide important feedback on the development of our new products. We consider them as part of the Marport team and it with their input we will continue to innovate.
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