WASSP Research & Development

UNCOVER THE WASSP R&D STORY

For many, it had long been believed that wide-angle multibeam sounders would remain too expensive for commercial fishing applications. Eventually, the WASSP R&D Department at ENL would change this. So where did this journey start?

1990: ESTABLISHING THE R&D DIVISION

In 1990, ENL (WASSP’s parent company) established their R&D division. ENL quickly became the market leader in the Orange Roughy Fishery after developing Netlink™, net-monitoring system software and sensor solution providing fishers with the net velocity and accurate distance behind the vessel down to 2000 metres. ENL’s current Managing Director was product-owner responsible for production, in-field testing and validation, establishing markets in NZ, Australia and Canada. 

 

WINNING MARITIME AND NAVY CONTRACTS

In the late 1990s, when GMDSS became mandatory, ENL moved its R&D to Datamaster™, a software and hardware solution for DSC (Digital Select Calling) monitoring. ENL won contracts with the New Zealand Maritime Authorisation and the Australian Maritime Authorisation, enabling land-based monitoring of DSC across Australasia and the South Pacific. Highlighting ENL's R&D capability, ENL developed the Datamaster™ Tactical Communications to successfully win the contract to supply the Royal New Zealand Navy with 150 touch screens for secure and non-secure fibre optic communications. This product is still operation on seven RNZN vessels today.

2000: WASSP R&D TEAM ESTABLISHED

In 2000, ENL felt the New Zealand commercial fishing industry lacked cost-effective 3D technology to efficiently map the ocean in order to manage their increasing fuel cost and to better understand their fishing environment, so ENL established the WASSP R&D Team.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL ORDERS

In 2004, following successful sales of WASSP Gen 1 to the New Zealand and Australian Crayfish Sector, WASSP received its first offshore orders from Saudi Arabia for mapping pipelines in the Survey and Mapping Sector.

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION

In 2006, ENL and WASSP showcased WASSP Multibeam technology at its first international exhibition at SMM in Hamburg, German. This led to the appointment of WASSP distributors in Europe and North America.

GENERATION 3

Today, ENL’s senior R&D engineers and ENL management have a combined 100 years of Multibeam Sounder technology experience. These team members have been involved since our very first ‘ping’. WASSP Gen1 and Gen2 have used WASSP’s world-class experience to introduce the revolutionary Generation 3, which is now sold and supported in more than 30 countries. 

The WASSP R&D facilities in Auckland, New Zealand are state-of-the-art, and the team remains dedicated to the innovation and improvement of WASSP products to ensure we always stay at the leading edge of our industry.

 

WASSP TRANSDUCER

The WASSP Multibeam Transducer was developed by WASSP’s in-house R&D team in 80kHz, covering from 60 to 80kHz for deeper water, and 160kHz, covering from 120kHz to 160kHz for shallower water. With the highly-sensitive WASSP transducer, you get much more depth than a similar-powered traditional sounder.

WASSP Multibeam Transducers manufactured in our New Zealand factory from scratch, including cutting the ceramics.

DIGITAL DRX TRANSCEIVER

This innovative, low power, all-in-one “black box” is a robust a robust hardware platform. It also introduces world-leading technical innovations and incredible versatility for a variety of applications, from finding your catch and exploring new areas, to surveying and mapping. This opens up countless new opportunities for your operations.

• The DRX Transceiver is the heart of the WASSP system that provides live processing of your data to provide realistic sounder and mapping graphics

• It has the processing power of a supercomputer.

• This is the core of all further developments.

 

To find out more about WASSP Multibeam Sounder technology and how WASSP can help you, contact us today.