A WA company has claimed a world first in underwater video surveillance technology with a device that has its roots in the oil and gas industries.
A WA company has claimed a world first in underwater video surveillance technology with a device that has its roots in the oil and gas industries.
Deep Scenes has spent more than a decade developing the Titan Commodore, a Remotely Operated Underwater Video System (ROV) with exciting market potential, according to chief executive officer Ted Kneebone.
“It’s a bit like TV cameras. They were in television studios until someone came up with the idea to build a small one that people could take anywhere,” Mr Kneebone said.
“In 1987 a guy called Frank Busby published a few articles in marine journals that said there was a large untapped market for small ROVs.”
The articles suggested ROVs would have to be priced at $US5,000 or less to enjoy a strong uptake of recreational users.
This is where the world first nature of the Deep Scenes unit comes in, as Mr Kneebone says the company is the first to have hit the retail price target.
Traditional ROVs are large machines that cost upwards of $US20,000, so producing a small machine for a retail price of $US5,000 was no easy task, Mr Kneebone said.
“It’s packing a whole lot of things into a small confined space. The principal problem is interference,” he said.
“What was beating us before was getting it down to $US5,000. We had it between $US8,000 and $US20,000.”
Mr Kneebone said there had been several companies competing to create a small, inexpensive ROVs, but many had failed and none had been able to design and manufacture a ROV under the $US5,000 barrier.
“One company ran out of money and a couple of others have tried to do it,” Mr Kneebone said.
“A new group in the US has made one but it starts at $US7,500 and that is just the basic model.”
Mr Kneebone said the strongest market for Deep Scene’s Titan Commodore was the American recreational marine market.
Deep Scenes is aiming to raise $1.2 million as working capital to produce and market the Titan Commodore, as well as to open an office in the United States.
“The size of the recreational boating market in the US is big. There are nearly 70 million people participating in recreational boating using almost 17 million boats, according to the American National Marine Manufacturers Association statistics for 2001,” Mr Kneebone said.
The company is aiming to sell 15,500 Titan Commodores in the next four years, which Mr Kneebone said represented only a small percentage of the US recreational boating market.
“The entry price is $US5,000 and already we are doing work with plastics. The next model we hope to produce will cost about $US3,000.”
Deep Scenes has spent more than a decade developing the Titan Commodore, a Remotely Operated Underwater Video System (ROV) with exciting market potential, according to chief executive officer Ted Kneebone.
“It’s a bit like TV cameras. They were in television studios until someone came up with the idea to build a small one that people could take anywhere,” Mr Kneebone said.
“In 1987 a guy called Frank Busby published a few articles in marine journals that said there was a large untapped market for small ROVs.”
The articles suggested ROVs would have to be priced at $US5,000 or less to enjoy a strong uptake of recreational users.
This is where the world first nature of the Deep Scenes unit comes in, as Mr Kneebone says the company is the first to have hit the retail price target.
Traditional ROVs are large machines that cost upwards of $US20,000, so producing a small machine for a retail price of $US5,000 was no easy task, Mr Kneebone said.
“It’s packing a whole lot of things into a small confined space. The principal problem is interference,” he said.
“What was beating us before was getting it down to $US5,000. We had it between $US8,000 and $US20,000.”
Mr Kneebone said there had been several companies competing to create a small, inexpensive ROVs, but many had failed and none had been able to design and manufacture a ROV under the $US5,000 barrier.
“One company ran out of money and a couple of others have tried to do it,” Mr Kneebone said.
“A new group in the US has made one but it starts at $US7,500 and that is just the basic model.”
Mr Kneebone said the strongest market for Deep Scene’s Titan Commodore was the American recreational marine market.
Deep Scenes is aiming to raise $1.2 million as working capital to produce and market the Titan Commodore, as well as to open an office in the United States.
“The size of the recreational boating market in the US is big. There are nearly 70 million people participating in recreational boating using almost 17 million boats, according to the American National Marine Manufacturers Association statistics for 2001,” Mr Kneebone said.
The company is aiming to sell 15,500 Titan Commodores in the next four years, which Mr Kneebone said represented only a small percentage of the US recreational boating market.
“The entry price is $US5,000 and already we are doing work with plastics. The next model we hope to produce will cost about $US3,000.”