Category: Updates

Expansion plans have necessitated the employment of new technical staff at the company.  Recent BSc Electronic Engineering graduate Will Oakey has joined the production area; Will Shave, another BSc qualified engineer, is working on new developments in the company’s seismic profiling systems and HND qualified Sean Evans is using his thirty years of technical expertise to improve the quality and build of the latest sparker systems.

“These colleagues will play a pivotal role in helping us to grow the business both in terms of developing new technologies and moving into different markets and geographical areas,” said Technical Manager Neil MacDonald, “We’ve got great talent in the form of our new graduate alongside two experienced engineers who will bring invaluable knowledge, so we look forward to working with all of them, while we advertise for even more engineers to join the company.”

Applied Acoustic Engineering is seeking to employ further technical staff particularly with electronic design and software skills to join them on some ambitious projects.

Applied Acoustics launched new products at Oceanology International in London from both its acoustic positioning and its geophysical product lines.

The flagship USBL system, the Easytrak Nexus 2, is now available with a choice of transceiver; the directional 2780 version that can achieve very long ranges (up to 3km) with a high degree of accuracy (0.1% slant range), and the omni-directional 2686 version ideal for  use in extremely shallow water (<2 metres).  The operating console is the same in either case enabling the transceivers to be inter-changeable. In addition, the 1100 series of transponders now all feature data telemetry functions which can be utilised when used with the Nexus 2 USBL.  The transponders themselves can be used without telemetry with all Applied Acoustic USBL systems, as well as those from other manufacturers, thereby maintaining their overall flexibility.

To meet the challenges faced by surveyors involved in shallow water, ultra-high definition geophysical surveys Applied Acoustics has re-designed to reliable Dura-Spark range. The sparker sound sources now feature faster rep rates, tuneable electrode banks and adjustable source heights, all resulting in clearer high resolution data, ideal for use in offshore wind farm surveys.

A significant milestone has been reached at Applied Acoustics with the announcement of the company’s latest contract to supply subsea positioning equipment to a major European subsea pipeline contract.

Contractors working in the Gulf of Finland in the eastern Baltic Sea have selected Applied Acoustics’ Nexus 2 USBL system to carry out sidescan sonar surveys in advance of engineering works as well as for use in marine archaeological operations. The award of this contract is notable as it marks the 500th USBL system that the Great Yarmouth, UK, based manufacturer has supplied to the marine industry, enhancing the company’s reputation as a leading provider of specialist subsea acoustic systems.

Key to the success of the system, and fundamental to its selection as part of this project, is its extremely reliable, stable and repeatable positioning performance that is delivered by the advanced Sigma 2 bi-directional acoustic protocols. Additional attributes that make the Nexus 2 the preferred choice include its intuitive user interface, its simplicity of deployment and overall versatility.

Commenting on this latest development, Gavin Willoughby, Applied Acoustics’ Sales Manager stated, “We’re absolutely thrilled that our products have been chosen for use on this contract, and it further endorses the fact that the quality of our systems, service and support have become the first choice for many marine surveyors throughout the world.  We very much look forward to working with and supporting our client in this and future operations, as we look forward to reporting further successes in the years to come.”

During September 2017, Applied Acoustics will be recruiting for a number of positions in its Geophysical and Acoustic R & D, Technical Support Services and QHSE departments; please check back for further updates.

Applied Acoustics’ sister company is recruiting now for sales and office administration positions, for further details please visit www.modulustechnology.com/careers

Having chosen this year’s Ocean Business conference to place an order for its first Nexus 2 USBL system, Subsea Technology and Rentals Ltd (STR) has subsequently presented Applied Acoustics with a second order, doubling its requirement for these high end tracking systems.

Nexus 2 is the second generation 2- way digital system designed and produced by the award winning UK headquartered company, which takes the performance and features of the industry approved Nexus USBL system to a new level, and opens the door to additional markets and new applications.  Developed with an emphasis on providing optimum performance over an extended operational range, the Nexus 2 creates a reliable and secure acoustic link with an extremely low susceptibility to interference.

“We’re thrilled that STR has opted to add two of our new Nexus 2 systems to its equipment pool,” said AAE’s Sales Manager, Gavin Willoughby, “so having these available to the worldwide rental market through STR is a great endorsement of the product and an important facet of our company strategy.”

STR was similarly pleased to offer its clients access to the Nexus 2 system that provides 16 target tracking as well as a new comprehensive range of software features and survey tools such as the common interrogate frequency (CIF), greatly enhanced accuracy and geo-referenced graphical overlay.

Scott Johnstone, Managing Director at STR commented, “As providers of specialist marine equipment and supporters of Applied Acoustics’ products we had no hesitation in purchasing two Nexus 2 systems to support our customers’ operations worldwide. STR are keen to develop alliances with well-established manufacturers and these latest acquisitions will be a welcome addition to our growing inventory of high quality subsea equipment.”

Applied Acoustics introduced its latest USBL positioning system, the NEXUS LITE,  in Southampton’s Ocean Business exhibition today.

As with all systems designed by Applied Acoustics, the highly advanced Nexus Lite positioning and tracking system is quick to deploy with easy set up procedures and can be used with a variety of Applied Acoustics’ positioning beacons, legacy products and transponders from third party manufacturers. It has bi-directional Sigma Spread Spectrum acoustics and full hemispherical tracking with software options for calibration and geo-referenced graphical overlays.

Designed for ease of use in a vessel’s operations room, the surface console has been mounted within a rugged 1U enclosure for USB connection to a laptop or tablet PC – reducing overall system cost and adding to its ease of portability.

Applied Acoustics’ USA agents, Subsea Technologies Inc (STI), in Houston have recently acquired a DTS-500 deep tow sparker that’s available to rent from its lease equipment pool. Designed for high and ultra-high geophysical surveys, the DTS-500 operates from a single industry-standard coaxial cable, has long life durable electrodes and an integral hydrophone receiver.

Operating between 10 and 20m from the seafloor and penetrating the seabed up to 200m, the deep tow sparker acquires sharp,  high definition data – around 15cms resolution.

Since 1993 Florida based Bert Instruments’ team of highly qualified consultants has been providing marine geophysical and environmental studies in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America for prestigious major petroleum companies, the US Department of Defense, major Universities and private companies. The company’s expertise covers both hydrographic and oceanographic surveys and is headed up by electronic engineer Humberto Guarin PhD, skilled in digital image processing and underwater acoustics, and with some 30 years’ experience the field.

For each project specialist engineers and equipment, from its own extensive stock, is assembled for the operation and to address any specific challenges to be encountered. One such project recently undertaken by the company and its sister company Bert Instruments Colombia S.A.S was a pre and post drilling, environmental and geophysical study in the deep waters (up to 700m) off Colombia at the Orca-1 exploratory well, 40kms north of the coast of La Guajira. Surveys, geophysical and environmental studies were commissioned here to comply with government regulations prior to any production phase.

For the operation Bert Instruments first selected its side scan sonar deployed at high resolution linked to a marine magnetometer with positioning of the field and its anomalies provided by its Nexus USBL. In the next phase the newly acquired Nexus USBL was used to track the Bert Instruments’ inspection class ROV that was investigating the anomalies found in the initial magneto-acoustic survey and to do some transect lines crisscrossing the well position.

Humberto found the use of this particular selection of advanced equipment for the ORCA 1 survey proved to be highly satisfactory;   “Our Nexus USBL was integrated with a GNSS aided inertial navigation system POS-MV WaveMaster, to provide accurate geo-referenced positioning of the seabed anomalies and proved to be a great addition to our system arrangement. We found the Nexus system very easy to use and it greatly increased our efficiency and overall operational effectiveness.

At the end of November 2016 we followed up our original work and  surveyed the planned well ORCA 2, close to ORCA 1 using our side scan sonar, magnetometer and our Nexus USBL for accurate, reliable positioning once again.“

The side scan sonar selected by Bert Instruments is the Edgetech 4200 with its Multi-Pulse technology for crisp, high resolution imagery and the magnetromer is the Geomatrics 882 with its easy portability and high sensitivity features.  The Nexus USBL is manufactured by UK based Applied Acoustics and is the most advanced of the range available with bi-directional spread spectrum technology for increased accuracy.

In order to obtain real time video images of the seabed Bert Instruments has configured an entirely new deep water sensor platform, the BerTow, for use on its projects in 2017.  This includes a high definition video and still camera, measuring lasers and depth sensors along with accurate positioning from the Nexus USBL. This newly developed sophisticated system will be used once the trade winds in the ORCA location subside over the winter months.

Launched at Oceanology in London earlier this year the Applied Acoustics’ new NEXUS 2 USBL positioning system is now available for rent in USA, via the company’s American representatives Subsea Technologies Inc based in Katy, Texas.

Nexus 2 is the latest and most sophisticated system in the range of subsea USBL systems that are designed and manufactured by the Great Yarmouth, UK, based company.  Incorporating advanced bi-directional spread spectrum acoustic protocols NEXUS 2 achieves greater, reliable accuracy over an extended operational range. Embedded as standard within each Nexus 2 system are a comprehensive range of additional software features and survey tools such as geo-referenced graphical overlay function and EasyCal 2 calibration tool.

As with all systems designed by Applied Acoustics, the highly advanced positioning and tracking system is quick to deploy with easy set up procedures and can be used with a variety of Applied Acoustics’ positioning beacons,  legacy products and transponders from third party manufacturers.

Geodetic Offshore Services Ltd (GOSL), a major operator in the Nigerian energy industry, has purchased two Applied Acoustics’ Nexus USBL positioning systems to deploy on its various offshore projects including underwater installation, diver monitoring, seabed surveys and ROV operations.

Emanuel Ekpeyong, Managing Director at GOSL, is more than satisfied with both the versatility and flexibility of the rack-mount USBL system; “The Nexus system has been mobilised as a stand-alone underwater positioning reference, back-up reference to vessel DP system and, in a complex setup, utilised with other equipment. Its compatibility with the additional systems we own is a real plus.” he stated.

The company deploys its Nexus USBL systems with 1000 Series Mini positioning beacons and the smaller 200 Series Micro beacons from Applied Acoustics. The larger beacons are most often mounted on the GOSL work class ROVs, such as its Argus Mariner or its Super Mohawk , but are also used to track divers during inspection work, for example during a subsea Hose Change Out Project that took place in waters offshore Equatorial Guinea.

One of the most recent projects using one of GOSL’s Nexus systems was a Mattress & Spool Piece Installation in Escravos, offshore Nigeria. Here the Nexus system was deployed for both underwater accurate positioning of the mattresses within tight tolerances and diver monitoring (air and sat dives at various depths).

“Our positioning services are constantly in demand in shallow and deep water for a variety of customers such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell that require underwater intervention, inspection and installation services, so GOSL have undertaken numerous projects utilising Applied Acoustics’ equipment that has always proved easy to use and reliable,’ stated Emanuel, ‘so we are convinced our overall operational efficiency has improved with these purchases.’

The Nexus system is just one of the USBL systems manufactured by the Great Yarmouth, UK, based Applied Acoustics. Others in the range include smaller ‘entry level’ units, portable units for on-deck deployment and militarised systems for use by defence forces worldwide.

The Applied Acoustics deep-tow sparker, the DTS-500, has recently been deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, off the continental slope of Majorca, working on a project with SOCIB, the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting body. Assisted by SOCIB’s Oceanographic Instrumentation Technician, Carlos Castilla Álvarez, the DTS-500 was deployed in deep water, up to 500m, at a distance up to 1km from the SOCIB research vessel.

“We achieved greater than 60m penetration and with increased data resolution, up to 15cms, the sub-bottom profiling results were excellent across the full-working depth range of the DTS-500, “stated Project Leader, Neil MacDonald.

“We also deployed multiple positioning beacons, the new Applied Acoustics’ new 1100 Series, on both the tow-cable and towfish and used the recently launched Nexus 2 USBL positioning system with similar excellent results ” he added.

Designed for high and ultra-high resolution geophysical surveys the DTS-500 operates from a single industry standard coaxial tow cable up to 2000m in length, has long-life durable electrodes and integral hydrophone receiver.

The complete system consists of a rack mount surface console, cable and robust towfish. It easily interfaces with standard data-loggers and benefits from all the full safety interlocks expected from the company that has been at the forefront of this technology for more than 20 years.

Southampton researchers are playing a key role investigating the risks of leaks from carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage reservoirs situated under the seabed.

Academics from the University of Southampton will work with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) on a NERC-funded project to understand the risks involved in the storage of CO₂ in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and saline aquifers in the North Sea.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is recognised as an important way of reducing the amount of CO₂ added to the atmosphere, and oil and gas reservoirs and saline aquifers are the preferred storage location of most European nations. However, a key element in the safety of such storage is to fully understand the risks of any leakage.

University of Southampton lead scientist Professor Jonathan Bull, a professor in Geology and Geophysics, said: “The location and potential size of any possible CO₂ leakage at the sea floor is critically dependent on the distribution and permeability of fluid pathways in the marine sediments overlying any proposed storage reservoir.”

The four-year project aims to develop better techniques to locate these sub-seafloor structures and determine the permeability of the pathways so that they can be better constrained and quantified. Amongst other equipment specified for the project, the Applied Acoustics’ DTS-500 deep-tow sparker will be used to survey the geology beneath the seabed to determine, in high resolution, the geophysical stratigraphy of the sedimentary basins.