Sonar pics of Scapa

[big_si]

A few months ago I contacted Adus who some of you have heard of for producing ultra high quality multibeam sonar images of sites.

I first saw their work in one of the diving magazines last year where they showed some images of the 'big 7' in Scapa. I then got to see it and have a play with a non-commercial version on the Valkyrie last August.

Is amazing what detail you can see! Fantastic stuff.


The reason I contacted them was to see if there was going to be a commercial version released and whether it's going to be expanded to cover other wrecks around the UK too.

They replied and said that they were planning to release it commercially ,including the Scapa data sets, around April this year (which doesn't seem to have happened yet so I've asked for an update)

They also plan to do other wrecks around the UK but need to do more commerical work beforehand to fund this.

I've just searched for their WreckSight software and have found that there's a demo version available for free download which has a sonar image of the Brummer.

Thought I'd share it for any who haven't already seen it. Hopefully there will be news on the commercial version soon too!

Enjoy!

[Allan Carr]

Fascinating and interesting to compare with the plans I have in the two books on Scapa that I own. I've dived Scapa 5 times although the last time was 1991 and the Brummer seems to have degraded a fair bit since then which is onlt to be expected.

[big_si]

I'm hoping that the commercial version's out soon and isn't tooooooo expensive.

Excellent to be able to plan the dive / review the dive afterwards and relate it to the actual wreck layout!

I'm interested to see / hear which other UK wrecks they will roll it out to over the years!

Clever Stuff!

[Dundee]

Seeing as you are asking.....

We hoped to have WreckSight Scapa Flow v1 ready for April but other work has shunted the date back. We still plan to release the software mid Summer 2008.

It will give you the opportunity to explore data from the main eight German wrecks (including the Bayern turrets).
Plus allow you to measure between features on a wreck to help with dive planning. There will also be a "shotline" feature with which you can mark where the shot is attached to each wreck.

We also plan to release a series of high quality prints for framing, similar to those of the Royal Oak on view in the Lyness museum shop.

I will check with the Jay before we do a proper product launch, see if we can get a good deal on a banner ad????

regards

Chris

ps. In the future we are planning to do the Sound of Mull wrecks followed by a couple of editions containing the most popular South Coast UK wrecks.

[triplefin]

any idea on price chris?..........roughly

[Dundee]

Originally Posted by triplefin

any idea on price chris?..........roughly

er..... between a little and a lot!

We are still working on that one. The cost of carrying out the surveys is high but gets cheaper per wreck if we do a few in the same area. Processing the data and developing the software to view the 3D images is time consuming and therefore costly.

So we need to find a balance between recouping costs, making a working profit to pay for more wreck surveys and also not making it too expensive for the average diver.

I would be interested in what you think would be a fair price?

C

[Helen F H]

Will the boats up here get a copy to use with our divers? I need to get myself a cable so i can link the laptop to the widescreen tv to get the full advantage of the software i think. Also will the images be made more solid?

[triplefin]

Originally Posted by Dundee

I would be interested in what you think would be a fair price?

C

i really havnt a clue

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by Dundee

I would be interested in what you think would be a fair price?

C

Well some people here pay quite a lot for console/pc games and they have a huge market...

Protecting your software is probably an important issue too. If it is not protected (dongle?) in some way, and the price is high, it will get copied. So will the images, whatever format they are. It might be that you charge for the viewer and protect it, but give the files away. Or the other way around like the Admiralty do with their raster charts.

Do you separate the viewer from the files to be viewed? While Scapa may be interesting (not half) I am more likely to want to look at local wrecks. Which probably don't exist, but that is another problem.

Or in the end, do you wrap it all up in a single product making it the digital equivalent of a coffee table book?

Adrian

[Dundee]

We are most likely to go with dongle protection to start. The software runs very well directly of the dongle too.

In the future I would like to work on a web based distribution model that allows you to download wreck data of your own choosing, maybe through a subscription or via Amazon type retailers. In the short term we will sell "volumes" of wrecks based on geographical locations eg Scapa.

So we will definately be asking divers for their top ten list of wrecks in various locations, especially in busy areas such as the Channel. I wouldn't mind a session in the Red Sea too!

The Scapa version will come self contained with the viewer and wreck data combined but this is likely to evolve if the idea is successful.

cheers

Chris