It’s not every day that the New York Times puts a tech merger on the top of the front page, but amazingly the XM/Sirius merger, rumored for ages, never came up (around me) in Miami…despite lots of news about their competing marine weather services. Northstar, for instance, previewed its 6100i Sirius Weather product, which makes terrific use of softkeys to mix and view all those data elements (a real challenge). For instance, that “Overlay” key above (bigger here) let’s you page through six different customizable data mix presets, each represented in the little window with icons, and you can further tweak the data presentation by setting ranges if you want. Furuno was also previewing a Sirius weather product (PDF brochure); the interface seemed much more rudimentary, but since Furuno is using a new generic Sirius receiver (Northstar’s is their own) and there’s also new Sirius weather PC software in the works, a boat might be able to use both on the same subscription. Sirius Weather was also showing on a Maptech i3, which already runs XM, and as part of a ambitious new SkyMate product that includes GPRS and Orbcomm communications. And Raymarine introduced Sirius Weather for the C-Series, which incorporates a cool implimentation of Sirius audio, including volumn control, easy presets, notification of favorite artist and some other subtleties. Audio is already built into the E-Series Sirius receiver—all these receivers, in fact—but the audio interface won’t come for a while.
Meanwhile, XM’s big news is species-specific fish finding data (sorry for poor pic below), as well as extended wave, wind, and surface pressure forecasts and more Canadian data, including radar (Puerto Rico too)—all included in the same $50/month Master Mariner subscription—plus there’s some exciting new hardware and relationships in the works. In short, there’s a hell of a Sirius/XM competition going on just in this little marine weather segment. What does it mean if and when the two become one? Your thoughts please!
Syrens Onboard is the relatively new brand name for the high end marine WiFi systems developed by GeoSat Solutions (now also marketed by Syrens At Sea). I’ve heard mostly good things about this gear’s performance, even one report of getting usable WiFi 12 miles offshore! I may have misunderstood that range, and it’s certainly not common; WiFi may get you true broadband in some marinas and anchorages, but it’s cellular always-on data plans that keep your e-mail, weather reports, etc. flowing as you move along the coast. Which is why I saw a number of cellular data products in Miami, including the Syrens Onboard EC-Hybrid model above, which includes high power WiFi radio, amplified Cingular radio, local WiFi access point, and Ethernet router. It will supposedly even be able to use both forms of Internet access together.
In the meantime I just discovered that my hotel's Wayport WiFi service (I’m in Miami until Wed.) is also part of the Boingo WiFi service, the main difference being price. Like instead of paying $50 for five days Boingo is $22 for a month and includes coverage in the airports I’ll be passing through, and lots of other places! The problem is that your computer will not see the Boingo service in many places, like this hotel, unless you use Boingo software as your WiFi "sniffer". It's free, there is a Mac version, and actually it's quite good for seeing and connecting to any WiFi access point. If you use WiFi on the road, or water, you might want to download Boingo software today.
PS 2/20: Here’s a screen shot illustrating Boingo’s software, and the unfortunate attitude of more and more WiFi users I’m afraid…i.e. a secured AP named “NoFreeWiFiMoFo”.
Let’s see, a few highlights from two days of Miami Boat Show: a tour of the Garmin 5000 series from the company’s head marine software engineer; collecting more details on new AIS receivers from Raymarine and Furuno, not to mention three big brand Class B transponders awaiting approvals; hearing how the new Jeppesen Nobeltec C-Map team envision the future of marine charting; and watching the founder of Navionics sing and dance Volare at NavAid2. But my very favorite moment was at Power & Motoryacht’s gala pirate-themed advertiser appreciation party high up in the “starlight room” of our hotel. There I was, trying to get a few photographs of the high-spirited craziness seen above (yes that’s a pirate band playing on an elaborate pirate ship stage), when some glinty-eyed, snaggle-toothed buccaneer/stranger looks up at me from the mosh pit, raises his fist in the air, and shouts out, “Panbo rules!” It’s just mind blowing how many people in the marine electronics industry are reading this blog (and your comments); Panbo’s future is bright. Once I get through the rest of the show, I’ll report on the above and many more interesting developments, but right now I’m feeling quite a bit of appreciation for the two magazines who support me so fabulously in this endeaver. PMY and Sail rule!
I was out on a FLIR demo cruise this evening, well worth reporting on, but at one point a lot of cell phones got busy, belonging mostly to people who had once worked for Northstar, Navman, or the “Brunswick New Technologies Marine Electronics” mouthful they became. Brunswick has been trying to sell this unit for at least a year, and tonight a buyer was announced: Navico, the conglomerate that already owns Simrad, B&G, and Lowrance. I’m pretty sure that makes Navico the biggest swinging you-know-what in marine electronics, but, my, that’s a lot of brands, a lot of development platforms, to make sense of.
Now it’s real—or at least officially announced and supposedly shipping in June. Garmin went “no comment” when hints surfaced of the 5000 touch screen series six weeks ago, but here’s a picture (bigger here). The specs on the four 5000 models are very similar to the already much anticipated new 4000 series, except for the touch screen interface. (Which Garmin seems fully committed to; I only see a single power button that casing.) This developement would make my PMY prediction—that Garmin’s Miami booth will be very busy—even truer…if it weren’t for a monster storm messing up many travel plans.
Also here in Miami, Faria will introduce the “Maestro Touch Screen Navigation and Command Center” (at Booth G65). I got a preview of these 8 and 12 inch units last month, and think Maestro is big news. The key is a Maptech’s really refined touch screen nav software combined with Faria’s skills at manufacturing and at interfacing with all sorts of engines and other gear. If you make it to Miami, check out Maestro (and, heck, the touch screen Northstar 8000i too, which I’m told is finally shipping in quantity). The year of touch screen?
It’s amazing how many marine electronics sales and product people can really make music. I learned that during last year’s Miami Show when Navionics hosted a benefit to aid victims of Hurricane Wilma (the one which did so much damage to South Florida just before the 2005 Ft. Lauderdale show). The Navionics “house band” played with many guests “artists” (that’s a Raymarine Product Manager wailing in the photo), and the event raised $7,000. Navaid2 will take place this Thursday evening, starting at 5pm in Room B118 of the Miami Beach Convention Center, and will benefit American Cancer Society and to the Ian McWilliam Saints Fund (McWilliam was “a friend and well-known marine industry colleague, who passed away this past fall after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer”). More info here. Be there, or be square.
I’m off to Miami, and posting may be sporadic this week, but one of many sights I’m hoping to take in is this raw carbon Navman/Northstar equipped helm (bigger here ) on the wild wave piercing trimaran Earthrace. While tieing this thing up to a dock must be a challenge, the boat has already proven itself over many ocean miles, and will soon try to set an around-the-world record, burning biodiesel yet. The whole story is here. I’m getting a thing about power multihulls.
It can be hard enough to work on, say, a megayacht satellite antenna, imagine trying to deal with “rapidly degrading amplifiers” that are inside the satellites! That’s exactly the problem poor Globalstar faces, a situation that is badly overshadowing the nifty new handset I wrote about last week. The issue was revealed in an SEC filing, and the next day the market took it seriously enough to reduce GSAT’s value by 25%. Ow! Business Week lays out the story nicely here, but no one is predicting what I imagine some cruisers want to know…will their sat phone service crap out before Globalstar can fix the amplifiers and/or launch new birds? It seems to be the general consensus that Iridium is a better system in terms of reliability and global coverage, but I know that many boaters, particularly in the Caribbean, are content with Globalstar’s lower hardware and service costs, and faster data rate. As always your comments will be appreciated, but I must warn that all commenting may get temporarily shut down as—sigh—my server issues are not totally resolved.
PS I notice that Iridium has just announced 8 new partners who will “add value” to its data services. They are all in addition to ones I hinted at in a comment the other day, and include BriarTek, makers of the ORCA MOB system. Interesting, what?
PS 2/26: Evidence mounts that Globalstar’s performance problems are real. Money quote: “In initial testing, analysts found that more than 99 percent of calls placed through the Iridium handset were successfully connected, compared to 51.3 percent of calls from the Globalstar handset. Tests also indicate that 98.1 percent of calls on the Iridium handset and 36.2 percent of calls on the Globalstar handset were successfully connected and completed without being dropped during a three-minute period.”
Well, now, couldn’t we have some fun on this handsome beast! Bon Pigall is a new 24 meter water jet powered aluminum research vessel that’s pretty fast and pretty nicely appointed (other photos show teak decks, for instance). She was built in Spain and much of the PR material sent to me is in that language—which I lack—but I do know that she has a dynamic positioning system and carries a serious looking “robot submarino”. Speaking of serious, how about that Simrad crammed helm above (bigger here ), which includes Olex 3D bathymetry? Then there’s the monitor crammed cabin beneath the bridge, which is the control center for the submarino. The electronics are the work of a Barcelona company called Medenisa, whose site doesn’t have Bon Pigall info yet, but does list some serious megayacht setups the firm has installed. Medenisa developed the DP system with WCM Controls, and says it a first for this size vessel.
So while I’m wondering if anything is happening Class B AIS wise, the U.S.C.G. was type-approving its first Class B device! Not surprisingly it is SRT’s OEM transponder, also first in Europe, which means finished units branded by the likes of Comar, SevenStar, and Trueheading. But first they need FCC approval. A representative told me last October that they would grant at least provisional approvals quickly, but now I’m not so sure. (Confirmed later in the day; the FCC is concerned about “the control and allocation of MMSI numbers.”) Meanwhile, at least two major brand AIS receivers will be introduced at the Miami Boat Show, and while both apparently have some unique features, just the names on the boxes are going to be significant in terms of AIS awareness amongst recreational boaters. And there will be at least one other major brand electronics company showing a demo model of a Class B transponder that it designed itself. I also noticed that Shine Micro recently put up specs on its interesting, but not yet approved, hybrid AIS receiver MURS transceiver, which may be useful for tender tracking or I’m-not-sure-what. And, finally, Fred Pot reports that the novel “Safe Pass” method of displaying AIS targets will soon be incorporated into Y-Tronic’s plotting software. It’s all good.
By the way, I was glad to see “transponder” used in the USCG approval, as nomenclature is an AIS issue (for instance, I was wrong to use “duplex”). I understand that transpond is not precisely what these things do, but I think it works.
PS. And here’s an interesting tidbit gleaned from SRT’s news page: “New Brunswick Technologies in the USA” became a licensee in December. I’m 99% sure they mean Brunswick New Technologies. Hello Northstar Class B AIS?
ntion three big brand Class B transponders awaiting approvals; hearing how the new Jeppesen Nobeltec C-Map team envision the future of marine charting; and watching the founder of Navionics sing and dance Volare at NavAid2. But my very favorite moment was at Power & Motoryacht’s gala pirate-themed advertiser appreciation party high up in the “starlight room” of our hotel. There I was, trying to get a few photographs of the high-spirited craziness seen above (yes that’s a pirate band playing on an elaborate pirate ship stage), when some glinty-eyed, snaggle-toothed buccaneer/stranger looks up at me from the mosh pit, raises his fist in the air, and shouts out, “Panbo rules!” 
(other photos show teak decks, for instance). She was built in Spain and much of the PR material sent to me is in that language—which I lack—but I do know that she has a dynamic positioning system and carries a serious looking “
