By Ronald Koomans, contributing editor, Hydro International 

For shallow water operations, multi-beam echo sounders (MBES) have gradually taken over a fair slice of the bathymetric survey cake. MBES is nowadays a common survey tool for offshore surveyors, civil authorities, dredgers and military users. It has proved an efficient alternative to single-beam systems, even in combination with side-scan sonar.

In this product survey, we asked the manufacturers of systems that can be used at an operating range <500m for information. We have explicitly made a distinction between operating depth and operating range. In our opinion, the systems with an operating range <500m are the MBES systems for shallow water operation, and small MBES systems that can be used on underwater platforms (and thereby giving information of waterdepths >500m). MBES systems that can be used at an operating range >500m have been published in previous March/April issue, this product survey can be found on our website.
The manufacturers have given us descriptions of a large number of MBES systems, providing a range of systems from each manufacturer. The complete overview of these systems can be found on our website under the tab ‘Product Survey'. For publication in Hydro international, we have selected the systems that have been developed most recently.

With the large range of characteristics of MBES systems, we do not expect this product survey to be complete. We appreciate the input of all who contributed to this product survey, and we encourage readers to send us any comments or suggestions they may have to help us improve this product survey.