iPads at METS: Navionics, Maretron, & more
Wasn’t it telling that three DAME awards went to iPad apps yesterday (even though only two were entered)? I can’t find the full award text online yet, but the judges explained their Marine Related Software choice of Navionics Marine: Mediterranean HD thusly: “This system’s ease of use was better than any the Jury had seen to date. With fingertip control provided by the iPad it was extremely easy and intuitive to manipulate the charts and establish routes and waypoints. Moving from screen to screen, updating charts, and zooming in on a landmark was expected to be very simple even on a moving boat.” It’s a bummer that all regions of Mobile 5.0 aren’t out yet, but testing Beta versions for Canada, the Caribbean, and U.S. East leads me to concur with the judges, particularly in regard to the updating charts. Creating user generated data — the major feature of 5.0, as emphasized in the Navionics graphic inset above — is so much easier on a big screen with a big keyboard…
And while the DAME judges weren’t obliged to award any Special Certificates, “The Innovation certificate of excellence was given to two products that both use the iPad: the Palladium Technologies SiMON2 yacht control software and the Navionics Marine: Mediterranean HD chart system. Both of these products utilized the
iPad in ways never before seen.” Plus I’ll bet there are iPads in lots of METS
booths, as there were at the Fort Lauderdale show. They’re perfect for demonstrating new Web services like SPOT HUG, or just showing off install photos like the guys at Electronics Unlimited were doing (they’re also using FileApp Pro to load their iPads with product brochures and manuals). And below is a screen that’s no doubt wowing folks at the Maretron/Moritz booth, like it wows me.
That’s not just the demo version of N2KView mobile monitoring and control software that anyone can download from iTunes (or the Android Market), which is pretty neat in itself. Instead, it’s a live demo installation on the big yacht Sandrine, and thus, thanks to the loan of a user name and password, my iPad in Maine is online with Sandrine in Florida. One feature of N2KView for app phones and pads is that you build the desired setup on the PC version, so all I had to do was hit the “Download Config File” button to get this and many other screens. It’s pretty amazing how quickly those lights in Sandrine’s engine room respond to my iPad taps, and at one point this morning I was taking turns on them with the booth guys in Amsterdam. The live demo says a lot about how NMEA 2000, wireless connectivity, and mobile apps things are all coming together, and I’m pleased to add that Maretron has slew of about-to-be-announced products that will broaden N2KView’s monitoring abilities and its appeal to vessels smaller than Sandrine.
Kind of on the same interesting theme:
“Digital Yacht has signed an agreement to use Navionics’ cartography as the charting data for its new navigation system, BOATraNET. The deal was announced at this week’s Marine Equipment Trade Show (METS) in the Netherlands.
BOATraNET is an onboard wireless web server that takes data from existing navigation systems via NMEA and makes it available to any device that incorporates a web server {I think they mean browser, ED} – for instance, iPad, PC, Mac, Android or Smart Phone. The product is to make its official launch at next year’s London International Boat Show in January.”
Related personal gratification department: I got called by a business reporter from the “High Desert” of Oregon, where Maretron does some of its manufacturing, and though he missed some of my nuance, it was fun that a distant cousin who lives thereabouts found me quoted in such an unlikely place:
http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101115/NEWS0107/11150306
Ben, so it was you turning back ON the things we were trying to turn OFF while demoing at METS!!!
Have to say, it has been ‘a gas’ showing this remote monitoring and control, along with quite a few laughs when others have been on the system at the same time performing opposite functions (sometimes from around the corner and on purpose!) Those stopping by the booth have also enjoyed seeing real time air and water temps at Sandrine in Fort Lauderdale in light of the current temps here in Amsterdam!
The first two days of the show have been really great – attendance and activity appears to be excellent – now looking forward to tomorrow’s last day.
Best,
Rick Sorenson
Carling Technologies / Moritz Aerospace / Maretron
Indeed, at about 8:30 EST that was me playing battling switches right up to tripping the breaker, which you apparently reset remotely. Hope I didn’t confuse an actual customer! And I won’t mention where I was sitting, because that would be crude. But portability is what iPads are so good at 😉
Perhaps even more off topic: How about a little sports plane which uses an iPad as the main avionics, and is called the…iCub:
http://icub.aero/