Marport President to be Guest Speaker at Nordic Innovations Conference
Karl Kenny, Marport’s President & CEO, has been invited to be a guest speaker at the “Innovation in the Nordic Marine Sector” conference that will be held 12 May 2009 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The aim of the conference is to explore methods that can enhance innovation and competitiveness of the Nordic marine industry. The seminar will both address the sea as a huge resource and how to support innovation in order to exploit its potential. Several Nordic and international speakers will share their views on how to enhance innovation capability and competitiveness of the Nordic marine sector in global markets. Mr. Kenny’s speech will address requirements for innovation in commercial fishing gear technology.
The Nordic countries have much know-how and competence in different disciplines and sectors. Combined cooperation can create new solutions on how to utilize the sea in a sustainable manner. This requires a common platform as point of departure for the Nordic research and innovation agencies. The importance of the marine sector differs between the Nordic countries, but all countries have a coast line and fresh waters. Therefore, interests on how to utilize sea and fresh waters in a sustainable way are common.
The focus will be on sustainable use of the sea as a resource. The themes that will be discussed are:
- Innovation systems and Nordic synergies
- Fishing gear
- Marine bio-chemicals and algae
- Technical innovations
- Aquaculture
The sessions should provide an informative and educational conference for policy makers, innovation agencies, researchers and the marine industries about innovation and the potential of the marine sector. This should be especially interesting for enterprises in fisheries, fish processing, aquaculture, marine bio-prospecting and suppliers of goods and services.
The conference is an initiative of Nordic Innovation Centre, Nordic Atlantic Cooperation, Nordic Fisheries Cooperation, Icelandic Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers and Matis.
Marport Maritime Mania
Marport’s 2009 Dealer Conference 2009 was held at the beautiful Hyatt Grand Cypress Hotel & Resort in Orlando, Florida from April 2 – 5, 2009. During the 3 day event, the conference brought together over 70 delegates from around the world to learn about Marport’s Software Defined Sonar technology.
On Friday evening, Marport hosted an Appreciation Dinner for delegates (covered in yesterday’s blog).
Saturday’s workshops commenced at 1000 and during lunch, Elias Olafsson from DanTrawl gave an interesting presentation regarding developments of pelagic and bottom trawl technology. A special thanks to Elias for his presentation.
Saturday workshops ended at 1530 – giving the delegates time to prepare for the team-building event known as Marport Maritime Mania.
The challenge was to design and build a 2-person powered cardboard boat capable of racing a designated swimming pool course in the best time. Each team was given corrugated cardboard sheets, duct tape and a plastic sheet to create a boat that holds 2 people! No other items were permitted to be used for building the boat.
Each team named and decorated their boat, designated a Captain and First Mate, introduced their creation, and then participated in the “boat parade”. Teams had one hour to design and build their boat.
Motivational music and lots of free-flowing beer helped the event along – as you can see in the pictures below. It was a hilarious event, and all participants really enjoyed behaving like little kids for a couple of hours!!
Team Blue listens intently to the rules and regulations. Petter and Tor are quite keen on winning this the race!
Team Orange at their “shipyard” with their “boat-building” materials
Team Yellow in their “shipyard” – looking quite colourful!
Team Black start building their boat.
Team Green use all available hands on deck for boat construction. Perhaps the other team members were using their hands to hold a cold beer 
Team Black proudly display their creation – Black Mamba
Team Orange’s creation – Yellow Duck – complete with cardboard “paddles”
Team Green’s catamaran design – Mondai-Nai (translates to “No Problem” in English)
Team Blue’s masterpiece – Tru Krawl (notice the beer holders located near the bow)
Team Yellow launches their vessel – Naughty Children – with Erin as First Mate and Robert as Captain
The Admiral of the Fleet – Birgir Sverrrisson – prepares to inspect his cardboard flotilla prior to the start of the race!
1st Heat – Complications arise in the race between Yellow Duck and Naughty Children. It seems that the Yellow Duck doesn’t like getting wet and Naughty Children had a little “stability” problem
Frank and Peter power the Mondai-Nai around the course
Loic and Juan provide propulsion for the Black Mamba
2nd Heat – Black Mamba wins as it seems that one of the watertight bulkheads in Mondai-Nai was not so watertight
Final Race – the Grand Winner was Tru Krawl – with Darren as First Mate and Petter as Captain.
Tru Krawl continued to stay afloat for 15 more minutes after the race – much to the delight of the children who paddled it around the pool for several Winning Laps!
The Winning Team with Marport laptop bags and assorted trinkets from Disneyland.
Thomas, Tor and Darren share a laugh after their team’s award-winning exploits.
Loic and Gilles from Marport France show off some of the catwalk skills that made Paris famous!
Anthony and Robert (software engineers from Marport Canada) are trying to figure out what went wrong – “it worked on my computer”…
Pat does his impression of “Popeye the Sailor Man”….in a strange way he kinda does look like Popeye
After the Marport Maritime Mania event, all delegates were served a delicious BBQ of steak, chicken and ribs on the poolside decks.
Marport’s 2009 Dealer Conference was a rousing success. We extend our sincere appreciation to all delegates for attending. We also thank the Marport team members that organized the event (with special mention to Glenda, Joy and Patrick).
And finally, we thank the management and staff at the Hyatt Grand Regency for their exceptional service and support.
Thanks again, we look forward to seeing you all soon. And in the meantime, remember the following:
Marport Dealer Conference – 2009
Marport’s 2009 Dealer Conference 2009 was held at the beautiful Hyatt Grand Cypress Hotel & Resort in Orlando, Florida from April 2 – 5, 2009.
The conference brought together over 70 delegates from around the world to learn about Marport’s Software Defined Sonar technology platform for commercial fishing applications. The delegates received sales, marketing and technical training, shared their experiences and made feature recommendations for new products currently under development. The conference also offered delegates the opportunity to interact with Marport’s sales and product engineering team. The group discovered Marport’s vision for future products and discussed ideas for specific market enhancements for those products.
Karl Kenny, Marport’s President and CEO said, “This event was a significant marketing opportunity for our company. It also provided a hand-on forum for our customers to have an in-depth review of our technology innovations and to provide direction on how we can meet their future market requirements. The 2009 conference was a unique opportunity for delegates to work and socialize in a superb environment. The delegates generously shared their experiences and provided guidance for our future product development. We really appreciate the excellent turnout and are very grateful for their advice and continued support.”
Delegates attended from around the world including Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain and the United States.
On Friday evening, Marport hosted an Appreciation Dinner and awarded delegates in several categories:
Partner of the Year – Koden Electronics Co. Ltd.
Peter Ito from Koden accepts the award from Oskar Axelsson, Marport’s Executive Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Fisheries.
Supplier of the Year – Airmar Technology Corporation
Steve Boucher, President of Airmar, accepts the award from Oskar Axelsson.
Customer of the Year – Katla Seafoods, Iceland
Due to a schedule conflict, representatives from Katla Seafoods were unfortunately unable to attend the event. The award was accepted on their behalf by Oskar Axelsson.
Captain of the Year – Captain Birgir Thor Sverrrisson, F/V Vestmannaey VE 444
Captain Sverrrisson accepts the award from Oskar Axelsson.
Dealer of the Year: Service – Lunde Marine Electronics / TNT, Seattle, Washington
Tor Tollessen, President of Lunde Marine enthusiastically accepts the award on behalf of Lunde and TNT from Oskar Axelsson.
Dealer of the Year: Revenue – Inter-Trade Electronics, St. Petersburg, Russia
Alexander Olkhovitch, accepts the award and a $5000 prize as Dealer of the Year with Top Revenue from Oskar Axelsson. Congratulations, Alexander!!
We will have additional news about the hilarious Marport Maritime Mania event on tomorrow’s blog.
Marport Enters Product Design Competition
Marport recently entered its upcoming SeaFire® – Underwater Acoustic Telemetry System in the red dot award: product design – the world’s largest product design competition.
Here’s the official entry (which had to be limited to 800 characters):
SeaFire is a compact, robust instrument designed for wireless acoustic communications in harsh underwater environments. The electronics are “software defined” – a novel technique that enables the instrument to be dynamically re-configured for different functions. Each instrument can be re-programmed for various operating parameters such as frequencies, modulation schemes and waveforms. Its internal enclosure protects the electronic circuitry and is pressure rated to 5,000 metres depth. The high visibility external housing is streamlined for underwater hydrodynamic performance and enhanced user functionality. All other technical and ergonomic qualities, innovative features, value and performance advantages are expressed by the look and feel of the product.
The sought after trophy is an internationally established seal of design quality and is awarded to products with excellent design quality. With thousands of entries from around the world, and issued annually since 1988, the award honours design innovation. Among former recipients are Apple, BMW, Pininfarina, Nokia, Siemens and other leading companies.
The official award ceremony for all winners of the “red dot award: product design 2009” will take place on June 29, 2009 in Germany.
Marport and Koden Conduct Joint Product Planning Session
This past week, senior technical and commercial personnel from Marport and Koden attended a product planning session in Orlando, Florida. The session was related to the Strategic Alliance Agreement that Marport and Koden signed in May, 2008. Under the terms of that agreement, both companies are collaborating on the development of new sonar products based on Marport’s Software Defined Sonar technology and Koden’s significant experience in marine electronics. Koden also distributes Marport’s commercial fishing products in Japan and has already realized commercial success, particularly within the Hokkaido fishing fleet.
Today, companies are trying to balance customer demand for increased innovation and shorter time-to-market. As a result, many leading technology companies are changing the way they develop new products. The existing synergies between Marport and Koden are obvious, and the decision to co-develop new products is demonstrating the value of Software Defined Sonar technology across a broader market segment.
Koden has a long and distinguished history in marine electronics. The company was founded in 1947 – two years after World War II – by Dr. Y. Ito, whose position was pivotal at the Naval Technical Research Department as a Captain in the former Japanese Imperial Navy. His hope was to make a peaceful contribution to the world by leveraging the advanced technologies that were developed in his naval days. For Japan and its people, this new era was a restart from “nothing”. The whole country was suffering from shortages in practically everything, and the most crucial of all, obviously, was the shortage of food. Koden’s marine electronics were welcomed into the Japanese fishing fleet and made significant contributions to increase catch efficiency. Over the years, Koden continued to introduce major technical innovations, such as transistors, integrated circuits, computers, and color visualization into its products ahead of competitors. The company has released a large number of ground-breaking marine electronics – including automatic radio direction finder, synchronized sonar, the world’s first color echo sounder and marine color radar.
Marport’s TrueTrawl® System Named Best of Gear
The January 2009 edition of National Fisherman magazine named Marport’s TrueTrawl® net geometry system as Best of Gear.
Marport’s TrueTrawl Net Geometry System is designed to check the geometry of the net so operators can react quickly changes in net dynamics. Such corrective actions can improve catch quality and reduce risk of expensive net damage.
The system consists a Master Geometry sensor and up to four Slave Responders. The Master Geometry sensor is typically positioned on the headrope. The responders are placed on each door and can be used in single rig, 2 warp twin rigs and 3 warp twin rigs (as shown below). The results from the measurements made by the system are transmitted by wireless acoustic signal to the vessel’s bridge display. The data is presented in an easy to read and understand 3D graphical format.
We appreciate the recognition and thank the good folks at National Fisherman magazine!
The Future Lies Beneath the Surface
Marport unveiled the first advertisement of its new marketing campaign today. The advertisement below, will be the first in a series that will be introduced to the marketplace throughout the year.
The advertisement will appear in the upcoming issues of Marine Technology Reporter and Ocean News & Technology.
The Power of Software Defined Sonar Technology
A few days ago, the fishing vessel Sigurbjörg experienced a broken Distance Sensor while fishing in the Barents Sea. The vessel wasn‘t carrying an extra spare, so the Captain called Marport technical suppport for assistance. With traditional based sensor designs, the vessel would have to return the sensor to shore for repairs. However, the vessel was also carrying a number of Marport‘s software defined Catch Sensors.
Helgi Ingason, one of Marport‘s senior field technicians spoke to the Captain and Chief Engineer via Inmarsat telephone and explained how to remove the sensor processing module board from the Catch Sensor and install it in the Distance Sensor. Once that was accomplished, Helgi emailed a Distance Sensor software application from his office in Reyjavik to the Captain‘s laptop computer aboard the vessel. The Captain then placed the sensor next to his laptop, and using a Bluetooth wireless link, he successfully reprogrammed the processing module to become a Distance Sensor.
This is another great example of the many benefits of Marport‘s Software Defined Sonar technology. By being able to dynamically reconfigure a critcial sensor, the Sigurbjörg was able to stay on the fishing grounds and maintain harvesting efficiency.
Great job, Helgi!
Marport Presenting at Underwater Battlespace Conference
From January 19 – 21, Marport personnel will be attending the 7th Annual Underwater Battlespace conference in London, England. The conference brings together senior military personnel responsible for underwater requirements with leading figures from industry. Presentations will address the key challenges for underwater platforms to ensure naval forces have the critical capabilities for Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW), Mine Counter Measures (MCM) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.
Marport will be showcasing its Software Defined Sonar platform as a key enabling technology that can increase connectivity and interoperability between underwater assets in order to move towards a network-centric operating environment. Network-centric warfare (NCW), or net-enabled capability (NEC) as it’s known in Europe, is a central theme to the current naval defence development of western nations. The concept is shaping a new approach to warfare, which emphasises a different way of using tactical information. It is therefore playing an increasingly vital role in underwater operations. The concept is that attack assets can be dispersed, relying on information provided by remote sensors over information nets using advanced subsea sensing and acoustic communication technologies, such as those designed and manufactured by Marport.
Marport Delivers Canadian Navy Contract – Ahead of Schedule and On Budget!
HMCS Toronto is one of 12 Canadian Patrol Frigates that will be equipped with Marport’s Software Defined Sounder
In May, 2008 the Government of Canada awarded Marport a $1.4 million contract to upgrade the depth sounders on the Halifax class frigates. Marport’s sounder will replace the existing AN/SQN 501 equipment with an open architecture, software defined solution designed for submarines and surface ships. A software defined sounder incorporates agility, configuration flexibility and future-proofing. This will ensure that Marport’s depth sounder remains the most comprehensive and highly capable in-service sounder in the world, thus sustaining a key advantage for the Canadian Navy.
It was a busy holiday season around Marport’s offices as we prepared to deliver. Marport personnel worked harder than Santa’s elves to ensure that the systems were shipped to the Navy depot by December 31st.
Bravo Zulu to all staff who pitched in – with special thanks to Gilles, Neil, Brian K. and the teams at ELEKTO and PF Collins.
