NavNet 3D, the buzz continues

Eric_K_n_Ikar_P2_cPanbo

Above are Furuno Product Manager Eric Kunz and MaxSea developer Iker Pryszo at METS, where they had good reason to grin; Furuno’s booth was as jumping in Holland as it was in Florida. I can’t recall a marine electronics product that’s ever generated such a buzz. This comment from Milt Baker—“I thought NavNet 3D was the big hit of the Lauderdale show and I believe it will have a huge influence on the course taken by the marine electronics industry in the years ahead.”—is representative of many I’ve heard. And NN3D admirers include the best informed and most critical group I know…the product managers at Furuno’s competitors.


But the latter do rightfully point out that 3D isn’t shipping yet, and once installed with lots of network sensors may not be as blindingly fast as it seems now. We shall see. In the meantime, I came across a video that does a good job of showing what NN3D “Time Zero” means, available below thanks to Power Cruising magazine. There’s also some good test footage on Furuno’s new radar, and that SC30 Sat Compass over Kunz’s head, filed under “FurunoLab” at YouTube, plus the tutorials at NavNet.com and of course Panbo’s non video coverage. There’s a lot to learn about NN3D, and tomorrow there’ll be even more, in a sense, as MaxSea introduces its own PC version of this technology at the Paris Boat Show. I’m not in France, but I’ll be here with some details.



Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

4 Responses

  1. Russ says:

    The SC30 sounds spiffy, but what are the real benefits? Will my autopilot steer a better course? Will my radar be more accurate?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Yes basically a sat compass isnt affected by a ships magnetic effect (cables, steel hull etc)
    Thus its like having an extreamly expensive Gyro Compass onboard for accuracy.

  3. Laffite says:

    “And NN3D admirers include the best informed and most critical group I know…the product managers at Furuno’s competitors. But the latter do rightfully point out that 3D isn’t shipping yet, and once installed with lots of network sensors may not be as blindingly fast as it seems now.”
    Ben, NavNet3D sure looks as blindingly fast as I saw at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in the videos of the system installed on the boat. It seems the comments of the competitors’ product managers are wishful thinking.
    If the new MaxSea is as stunning as the NavNet3D, Furuno’s going to have a world beating combination.
    Jean

  4. Michael Bucove says:

    Hello,
    I started out tearing out the pages I wanted to save from this June PMY electronics issue and now I have nearly the whole magazine stapled back together.
    By the time I got through it though the issue I began to wonder why all the manufacturers haven’t used standard MIDI cabling and made that waterproof, not to mention using standard MIDI (Music Industry Digital Interface) protocol? We’ve been using the second generation of this protocol for years. The second generation tightened things up between manufactures much better that the first try did. It nearly seems as the this industry is reinventing a wheel. We need to do this in aviation too. How about we do away with cabling all together and use bluetooth?

Join the conversation

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *