There were 15 entries in the “Aftermarket Electronics, Electrical Equipment, Instrumentation, Navigation Equipment including Software” category of this year’s MAATS Innovation Awards, and not a dud in the bunch! Which is why it’s particularly noteworthy that we seven judges gave the award to Lowrance’s Broadband Sounder and an Honorable Mention to Lowrance’s LVR-880 VHF/FM radio. I’ll be writing more about both these products as I should have samples installed on Gizmo in a week or so. The photo above is from a pre-production 880 that I tried in the lab for a month or so; the NMEA 2000 DSC features weren’t yet ready for prime time, but I was quite impressed with how well it could bring in FM radio while also scanning one, two, or all VHF frequencies, muting the FM whenever squelch was broken. Congratulations, Lowrance!
PS: If you have a weakness for gadgets, for goodness sakes never visit Woot.com, especially on Woot Off! days like today. And don’t even consider downloading the Wootalyzer.
Geez, I was just getting used to the idea that Garmin really would buy Raymarine—lots of industry people seemed to think it would happen—but apparently now it’s off. Or maybe this is one of those Yahoo/Microsoft dances? I have absolutely no idea. But I am going to Portsmouth, England, in two weeks to join a British Marine Federation press tour (with quite the international cast of scribes, I just noticed), and I’m hoping that I can visit Raymarine’s R&D center before the tour. I’d be content just to see the operation, but who knows what I might find out?
This morning the Sunday Telegraph is reporting (link dicey, here’s alternate) that Garmin is the mystery bidder known to have approached Raymarine in late February. I’m fairly surprised, but what do I know! It seems to me that Garmin is competing well against Raymarine, at least on the lower side of the market (while Furuno comes on strong, particularly on the high side and if it can get product out the door). But it’s also obvious that Garmin is making a big play for the dealer/installer and boat builder business that it’s never done well with, but where Raymarine excels. On the other hand, don’t the Garmin and Raymarine product lines overlap a great deal? Or am I seeing the trees, not the forest? And what would this buyout mean for us consumers; might Garmin eventually dominate marine electronics to a detrimental degree? But note that even if this report—based on “sources close to the deal”—is true, it is not a done deal, and the Telegraph adds that “A number of private equity companies are also thought to be eyeing Raymarine.” Ray has its annual meeting this coming Friday, and maybe we’ll all know more after that. Your thoughts?
Well, I’ll be darned. Raymarine’s stock jumped today, the company stated that “it has received a preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company,’ and analysts can’t seem to figure out who the bidder might be. IBI suggests that Simrad, Garmin, and Furuno are all possibilities, but I’m hard put to see how any of those combinations makes much sense. The gossip line is open!
Whereas I got the week started on what’s largely a trade subject, let me add an unsolicited suggestion to everyone who makes plotters, multifunction displays, or any other marine electronics with a dedicated screen and some sort of accessible memory. If possible, please add a screenshot feature! My intent is obviously selfish; dumping .jpg or .bmp files to a CF or SD card is so much easier than photographing displays, and the results so much better for web and magazine readers.
It’s ironic that I wrote about a neat Maptech price/packaging move Friday afternoon, as I now know that simultaneously the employees were learning that the company would be sold, either whole or in parts, and that it would immediately go into a sort of maintenance mode, which included a few layoffs. Naturally the relatively tiny marine electronics industry has been a-buzz about this ever since, and naturally a lot of conjecture, if not pure BS, has already accrued. Here’s what I know:
Man, the AIS traffic was heavy out there in the Gulf of Maine! Actually I was using the very neat AIS Simulation software created by Mats Kågstrøm of Firma Mats Kagstrom. Specifically I was testing how many AIS targets a Raymarine E-Series can handle simultaneously, as I got a report from a user who says his resets randomly when more than 100 ships are within range. Well, I did see the test E slow down, even stutter a bit, but I was able to feed it the maximum number of targets the simulator can produce without causing a reset. That’s some 510 Class A targets (!), plus a Class B (which the E “saw”), and even SAR aircraft and ATON AIS target messages (which the E doesn’t seem to understand). You can see Kagstrom’s software in action below, and bigger here.
AIS Simulator is very thorough and is going to be terriffic for testing navigation hardware and software. But I’ll write more about later, because I don’t want to head back to my judging duties until I pass on the good news about Class B AIS. To quote one of the many cautiously optimistic emails I got on this subject yesterday (thanks, all!): “We heard from the FCC that it looks like the AIS Second Report and Order will be on the Commission's Agenda for the Feb. 26 meeting. There is a *chance* that the item will be voted on before that time.” Maybe our letters and emails helped, but I also know that the GMDSS Task Force, the USCG, and the RTCM have all been making their feelings known to the FCC. The latter even spoke with an FCC legal aid, very effectively too, as judged from this PDF documenting the meeting (also a good summary of the situation). Cross your fingers!
When I wrote about last year’s most innovative marine electronics a while back, I said I’d deal with the NMEA Awards separately. Well, here goes. But do understand that these awards are determined by mail-in votes from NMEA dealer and trade members and, while I don’t know for sure what the criteria are, I’d say that they’re more about performance and reliability than innovation. I’d guess there’s also a natural bias toward the sort of bigger gear that dealer/installers tend to work with, and probably also toward the brands that have particularly well developed dealer networks. “Best of Show” is a little different, however, as it’s voted on by everyone who attends the NMEA conference (mutts like me excepted).
Those of you not in the marine electronics trade—or the motley press corp that covers it—please avert your eyes. Seeing as the idea worked out pretty well for the Fort Lauderdale Show, I’ve put together a tentative schedule of Miami Boat Show press events. As before, I’m willing to add appropriate events—or modify existing ones—right up until the big show begins. And, whoa, it’s going to be a busy week for me. Besides the normal electronics mania, this year I’ll be one of the judges for NMMA’s Innovation Awards, and am also going to join a panel on new media at the Boating Writers International breakfast. See you there?
