When I first met Don Hyde, founder of Vessel Vanguard, and his business development guy Gordon Ramseier at IBEX, I may have been a little hard on them. That's because a similar plan to put all of a boat's system information into the cloud had gotten me excited last summer, but then seemed to stall. I'd realized that doing this right meant arduously creating a huge yet flexible database of specs, manuals, parts lists, bulletins, maintenance recommendations etc. for thousands of different bilge pumps, AC units, marine toilets, etc. etc. So I came at Don and Gordon with something like "Show me your database!" and, by golly, they did...
I do enjoy the odd array of holiday cards, digital and otherwise, that I receive from the marine electronics industry each year. An image of animated snow (you may have to click on thumbnail above) seen on a beautiful KEP Marine monitor is joyful...
Today I {Kees Verruijt} did a one day tour of the 2011 Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam. I knew before I started that it would be a hopeless task to cover everything so this is just my own take on things... This year is the first year that Ben had introduced me as the official Panbo representative and I was surprised at how much 'clout' I was carrying. This turned out to be both positive (people take you seriously) and a negative -- some manufacturers clearly stated that some things were under embargo and they did not care for publication just yet...
Today I {Kees Verrujit} did a one day tour of the 2011 Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam. I knew before I started that it would be a hopeless task to cover everything so this is just my own take on things... This year is the first year that Ben had introduced me as the official Panbo representative and I was surprised at how much 'clout' I was carrying. This turned out to be both positive (people take you seriously) and a negative -- some manufacturers clearly stated that some things were under embargo and they did not care for publication just yet...
The Florida trip was a hell of lot more fun than the virus problems I came home to. For instance, just like last year's NMEA Technology Award, I got to accessorize my noggin with an interesting gadget (though I've worn weirder). In this case it's a David Clark Co. marine intercom system, which now has a wireless gateway that the company had nominated for the award. To test its claimed 300 foot range, my fellow judge Bill Bishop hiked down to the end of the Expo hall and eventually outside the huge building, all the while chatting with myself and third judge Tim Queeney, all of us in a beautifully noise-cancelled full duplex sonic cocoon. Though it's quite expensive, Clark really has this technology down. There's even a virtual lady in there somewhere who tells you when you've lost or regained contact with the base station...
A few weeks ago I tweeted about how I'd had a nice dinner meeting with Raymarine and that they had all sorts of interesting product news that I couldn't write about yet. But, dang, they didn't even mention that they were in acquisition mode, let alone that they were quite close to sealing the deal to buy Tacktick announced earlier today. This move has to feel good for the Ray folks who were around during the hard times before FLIR bought the company, and also for the innovators who created Tacktick's neat wireless instrument systems and struggled against much larger marine electronics manufacturers -- like Raymarine -- before joining Suunto, which didn't appear to make much sense in terms of product integration...
It's great that the NMEA's magazine Marine Electronics Journal is available online these days, but I screen captured that two page spread above for reasons that may not please the organization. The "NMEA 2000, Doing it right" cover story of that May/June issue is a series of interviews with several dealer/installers, and while it's pleasing to hear that the Standard is really happening -- it's part of most new installs, and seen as a good thing for all parties -- I found the interviewer's emphasis on avoiding non-certified N2K products a bit odd. And in the "Tech Update" seen above, my friend and NMEA Technical Director Steve Spitzer doubles down on this theme, which -- sorry, Steve -- deserves some debate, I think...
Last week in San Francisco, Russell Coutts probably did the America's Cup racing program a great service when he not only capsized an AC 45, but personally took a dramatic header right through its wing sail, all before a fleet of press boats! You want to see the video. Heck, Charlie Doane admits to watching the crash "about fifty times" and looking forward to more. I like a shot of NASCAR in my sailboat racing, too, but I'll bet that an equally important element in making this sport more popular will be the broadcast TV wizardry being spearheaded by the remarkable Stan Honey...
The MTA 2011 Survey is still underway. In fact, we could really use more responses. Yes, we're running it a bit later this year, and boating season has begun for many, but remember the goal of helping marine electronics manufacturers and distributors to better understand what we want and how we buy stuff. Your response, for instance, might help to confirm or modify the following MTA analysis of which sources are on the rise, and which aren't...
As I hope you know, the 2011 MTA marine electronics survey is underway right now, but what follows is another in a series of entries derived from the original 2010 data. As usual, I'm a bit amazed at what the MTA guys can slice and dice out of our opinions. Frankly, market intelligence is more mysterious to me than all the wires on Gizmo, but I do understand how this could help the industry serve us better. So please take the 2011 survey, and here's MTA....
The MTA Spring 2011 Survey is ready for your input. One of several sections I'll be quite interested in is the one where respondents write in the marine electronics brands that have exceeded or fallen below their expectations. As discussed last April, the results indicate both brand recognition and perception, and I wonder if we'll see any significant changes. The poll is very similar to last year's, taking about twenty minutes and earning either Doctors Without Borders or Internews (your choice) one dollar. The major reward, though, is the chance to let the industry know what you want. The MTA 2011 Survey awaits.
