Seaforth Geosurveys Adds iXblue USBL System to Survey Equipment
Seaforth Geosurveys, a leading Canadian marine survey company, recently acquired iXblue’s new Gaps M5 USBL system to support data acquisition for marine geophysical survey projects. These include one in the Canadian Arctic and multiple other projects, such as support of sidescan sonar operations during lost and abandoned fishing gear (Ghost Gear) identification and retrieval efforts.
“Having rented the iXblue Gaps USBL systems for many years to conduct our subsea positioning operations, we were always pleased with the highly accurate results provided by the system for the tracking of subsea vehicles and towfish,” said Jonathon Randall, technical manager at Seaforth Geosurveys. “The system’s performance, as well as its ease of use thanks to its calibration-free feature, played a big role in our decision to purchase the iXblue Gaps USBL, as this can save an appreciable amount of time in the field. The Gaps M5’s simultaneous tracking capability further makes it the perfect fit for all applications requiring highly accurate and reliable tracking and positioning of multiple assets, such as the marine geomatics operations we run.”
High-precision Positioning in Shallow Waters
The latest addition to iXblue’s USBL product range, Gaps M5, has already been adopted by many companies worldwide. It offers accurate positioning and tracking of subsea assets and provides advanced horizontal tracking capabilities and high-precision geo-referenced positioning, especially in shallow waters where it has shown accuracy better than 0.5% up to 995m water depths. It is a medium-frequency ultra-short baseline (USBL) system combined with an Attitude & Heading Reference System (AHRS) based on fibre-optic gyrocompass (FOG) technology. With no calibration required, it can be easily deployed and operated from any vessel of opportunity. Free of export, the new Gaps M5 is quick and easy to ship anywhere in the world, saving even more operational time and offering efficiency in the field.
“We would like to thank Seaforth Geosurveys for being a long-time, valued customer and adopter of iXblue solutions and for trusting our Gaps M5 system to add to their arsenal. It is highly gratifying to hear from our customers about the Gaps M5’s accuracy, reliability and ease of use and that it is providing them with value and operational cost savings in challenging conditions. Last, but definitely not the least, we appreciate tremendously the relationship we have fostered along the way,” said Shayan Haque, business development manager for iXblue.
