“This demonstration provided essential information to show operators how Sonardyne acoustic positioning and communications can provide a truthing of cable behaviour by determining absolute measurements from both cable and environment. At the same time, learnings from the demonstration will assist with the development of long-life monitoring solutions for this exciting new sector. A big thank […]

In our first two blogs, we explored the importance of subsea monitoring for offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and the key parameters that need to be measured. In this, our final blog, we’ll delve into how our innovative technology is transforming the landscape of CCS monitoring, making it more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally […]

As we discussed in our first blog, offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) has emerged as a promising technology to help reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in an effort to combat climate change. Offshore CCS offers great potential for storing large quantities of CO2 in redundant oil and gas wells or saline aquifers deep beneath […]

Climate change, driven primarily by the excessive emission of greenhouse gases, poses a significant threat to our planet’s ecosystems and human well-being. To mitigate this crisis, it is imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and explore innovative solutions. One such solution gaining prominence is carbon capture and storage (CCS). In this first of three blogs, […]

We are proud to announce the next phase of the pioneering On Demand Ocean Bottom Node (OD OBN) development project in Brazil. The project, which began in 2018, involves a collaboration between industry partners including Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda, Petrobras and SENAI CIMATEC and is supported under the Research Development and Infrastructure funding clause of […]

Back in 2021, we set ourselves the target of making Sonardyne carbon neutral by the end of 2025, covering all direct and indirect emissions including those associated with manufacturing as well as supply chain activities from all our UK sites and operations. There is no better time than now to update you on some of […]

Leading Taiwanese offshore geophysical and geotechnical investigation company PDE Offshore Corporation have upgraded their underwater acoustic positioning system onboard MV Geo Energy to Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 USBL system. This will further enhance their capability in the exploration of offshore renewable energy (ORE) in Taiwan. Their new geotechnical vessel Geo Power, also equipped with Ranger 2 […]

Over the coming weeks, our Marine Robotics and Offshore Renewable Energy Business Development Managers Aidan Thorn and Mike Ellis will be delivering a series of blogs and a white paper on the use of marine robotics for planning, monitoring, communications and positioning in offshore wind farms. To begin the series, we look at how robotics […]

Monitoring and inspection are now a growing part of the offshore wind farm life cycle. Can we do it more efficiently, using CTV down-time to deploy robotics? Mike Ellis and Aidan Thorn take a look. A lot of the focus on offshore wind has been about building the next, bigger, deeper wind farms. Rightly so. […]

Brazil’s offshore is riding on a high that looks set to continue for some years to come. It can be a demanding place to work, but rewarding if you can meet those demands. Andre Moura, Sonardyne’s Head of Sales – South America, looks at how C-Innovation are doing just that and the role our USBL […]

Submarine cable installation and repair specialist Asso Group has chosen underwater vehicle guidance technology from Sonardyne for its expanding trenching fleet. The company, based in Greece and with operations globally, will install Sonardyne’s subsea Lodestar attitude and heading reference sensors (AHRS) on its trenching machines working across interconnector and offshore wind cable installation, protection and […]

Moving offshore wind turbines into deeper waters will tap vast new areas of potential wind energy. But moving dynamic systems into an even more dynamic environment comes with its challenges, not least when it comes to dynamic cable monitoring, protection and management. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the past three decades of building […]

Acoustic and inertial position reference systems from marine technology company Sonardyne have been chosen to underpin the critical station keeping activities of multiple deepwater vessels operating in the energy and ocean research sectors. Through a combination of upgrades to existing installations and the purchase of new systems, four deepwater drillships, a marine construction vessel and […]

Combined long baseline (LBL) acoustic positioning and inertial navigation system (INS) software from energy technology company Sonardyne has helped to support the latest phase of an offshore project northwest Australia. The project is the first full use of Sonardyne’s Fusion 2 software and associated 6 ‘plus’ (6+) hardware in Australia, cementing the global adoption of […]

We’ve had some new starters in our business development team here at Sonardyne over the past couple of months. They’ve joined to help us further support the global energy transition, to further ocean science and support advanced underwater robotics. We thought it was time we introduce them. First up is Mike Ellis, our new Business […]

Underwater obstacle avoidance technology from maritime defence technology companies Sonardyne and Wavefront Systems has been successfully demonstrated on board an extra-large, uncrewed, underwater vehicle (XLUUV) built and operated by Plymouth-based MSubs. The demonstration of the Vigilant forward looking sonar was part of the first phase of the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator’s (DASA) ‘Uncrewed Underwater […]

The world’s population continues to grow. We’re consuming more, using more energy, depleting more of the planet’s resources. Balancing these needs is a massive challenge. It means changing how we live and work. At Sonardyne, we’re dedicated to supporting you, our customers, across the energy spectrum in addressing this challenge; from how we operate as […]

Stephen Auld – Global Business Manager – Subsea Asset Monitoring As I discussed in my previous blog, while operators do take care to prevent leaks from occurring, they can and do happen. When they do, they reach the public domain with the understandable and expected negative response and the resulting financial consequences on the companies […]

Our SPRINT-Nav hybrid navigation instrument is helping to drive a growing move towards the use of resident ROV systems. We visited Norway-based IKM Subsea to find out more. IKM Subsea has been taking a step-wise approach to resident subsea systems. After building its first all-electric remote operated vehicles (ROVs) in 2015, the company has gone […]

Author: Duncan Rigg, Vessel Systems – Technical Lead Have you ever considered how the quality of the equipment you attach your transceiver to affects your transceiver’s performance? We have, which is why over the last 25 years we have been developing and perfecting our own deployment machines to suit most vessel types. These have been designed […]

A/S Norske Shell is launching a 10-year seabed subsidence monitoring campaign at its Ormen Lange field in the Norwegian Sea, using long-endurance sensors from subsea monitoring specialist Sonardyne International Ltd. Norske Shell’s goal is to continuously monitor any movement of the seafloor at Ormen Lange, Norway’s second largest gas field. The data will help the […]

BP’s first foray into unmanned over-the-horizon operations, using Sonardyne technology and an unmanned surface vessel (USV), is helping it gather strategic data. It’s also a key step towards a more marine autonomous systems led future. Craig Allinson, Survey and Positioning Lead at BP North Sea, explains. Throughout the life of a field, reservoir management strategies […]

Underwater navigation technology from Sonardyne International Ltd. has been chosen by subsea equipment specialist Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd. (SMD) for its new electric work class remotely operated vehicle (ROV) range, launched today at Offshore Europe in Aberdeen. The Quantum EV will be factory-fitted with Sonardyne’s hybrid navigation solution, Lodestar-Nav 200, as standard, enabling new owners […]

Underwater intruder detection technology from maritime security specialist Sonardyne International Ltd. has been chosen to secure the coastal perimeter of a critical national energy infrastructure (CNI) facility in Eastern Europe. The Sentinel Intruder Detection Sonar (IDS) will be deployed to detect unauthorised divers and subsurface vehicles approaching the facility from the water. The installation, at […]

Integrated navigation, positioning and communications technology from Sonardyne Inc. will support a new, fuel cell-powered long-range unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) being designed by subsea specialist Cellula Robotics Ltd. for the Canadian defence department. The UUV, called Solus-LR, is being designed to be able to travel up to 2,000 kilometres and stay submerged on multi-month missions, […]

Oceaneering International Inc. has ordered hybrid navigation systems from underwater technology specialist Sonardyne Inc. for its subsea resident vehicles Freedom and E-ROV. The two resident vehicle systems are to be fitted with SPRINT-Nav our all-in-one navigational instrument. SPRINT-Nav combines a SPRINT INS sensor, Syrinx 600 kHz DVL (Doppler velocity log) and a high accuracy intelligent […]

A major US oil company is set to reinforce its deepwater offshore asset integrity assurance in the US Gulf of Mexico with the aid of a sonar-based subsea leak detection system developed and delivered by underwater engineering specialist Sonardyne. The system, Sonardyne’s wide-area Sentry Integrity Monitoring Sonar (IMS), has been deployed on the seafloor at […]

Norwegian energy firm Equinor is to deploy cabled subsea instrumentation from Sonardyne International Ltd. to help increase the accuracy of time-lapse seismic data at the giant Johan Sverdrup oil field. From first production at the development, Equinor plans to use seafloor based seismic cable permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM) technology to observe what is happening in […]

Shell Brasil has agreed a partnership with underwater sensor technology company Sonardyne International Ltd. and Brazilian research institute Senai-Cimatec to develop innovative autonomous technology to make the monitoring of Brazil’s challenging deepwater pre-salt oil fields more efficient. The new 4D seismic monitoring system, based on so-called On Demand Ocean Bottom Nodes, is being developed under […]

Subsea Technology and Rentals (STR), a multi-disciplinary technology expert specialising in the design, production, rental and sale of innovative marine survey equipment, has become the first company to invest in Sonardyne International Ltd.’s new Long BaseLine (LBL) and Inertial Navigation System (INS) software, Fusion 2. The announcement was made following Sonardyne’s launch event at OSEA […]

Underwater navigation and positioning company Sonardyne has reported new Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) equipment sales across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Organisations operating out of the UK, Brazil, Thailand and Vietnam have acquired Sonardyne’s vessel-based Ranger 2 and Mini-Ranger 2 USBL underwater positioning technology for tracking a range of subsea assets, from small drones due to […]

Leading engineering consultancy BMT and subsea technology company Sonardyne International Ltd. have signed an agreement to provide advanced integrated marine integrity monitoring solutions to the oil and gas industry. The official Teaming Agreement between BMT and Sonardyne, announced today [Thursday, 27 September] at the Rio Oil & Gas exhibition and conference in Brazil, will allow […]

Sixth generation (6G) underwater positioning technology from Sonardyne Brasil Ltda. has been chosen by vessel owner and operator Companhia Brasileira de Offshore (CBO) to meet Brazil’s stringent new contracting specifications for subsea positioning. The multi-functional Compatt 6 transponders and Ranger 2 USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine) HPT transceivers that make up the order will be utilised alongside existing Sonardyne […]

The ability for multiple unmanned subsea-surface systems to work together on joint survey missions, controlled from shore, has taken a step closer to operational reality following a two-week trial in Scotland’s Loch Ness. During trials in and on the loch, Sonardyne International Ltd.’s USBL acoustic positioning and AvTrak telemetry systems enabled an unmanned surface vessel […]

Author: Edmund Ceurstemont, USBL technical authority   In July last year I reported on the trials we performed off California (Part 1) to demonstrate the impressive tracking performance of our Lower Medium Frequency (LMF) Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system. In November we journeyed to the Spanish island of Tenerife – this time to characterise […]

Allseas, a global leader in offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction, is to take advantage of the performance and operational benefits available from Sonardyne International’s GyroUSBL acoustic positioning technology, following an order for two systems for its 236 metre long lay vessel, Lorelay. Used in conjunction with a Ranger 2 USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine) topside which […]

Global subsea equipment specialist, Ashtead Technology has selected acoustic and inertial navigation technology from Sonardyne International Ltd. to add to its rental fleet. The multiple SPRINT-Nav systems will be made available to support survey and construction projects using ROVs and AUVs in water depths down to 4,000 metres. SPRINT-Nav makes optimal use of acoustic aiding […]

Why is Solstice different from other side scan sonars? Solstice is a Multi Aperture Sonar (MAS) which functions like a top performing traditional side-scan sonar but it is processed very differently. In this approach, the multi-beam input from 32 elements is dynamically focused to extend the focus along the whole length of the swath. By […]

HYPACK, a Xylem brand, has announced that its market-leading HYPACK® MAX and HYSWEEP® hydrographic surveying packages can now be used to process and display data from Sonardyne’s Solstice side-scan sonar. With over 10,000 users around the world, HYPACK is the most widely used hydrographic software package in the world. The addition of the Sonardyne proprietary […]

Terrestrial mapping was revolutionised by aerial LiDAR. Using high-accuracy, post-processed GNSS-aided inertial navigation for geo-referencing sensor frame point measurements into ‘real world’ coordinates has enabled reliable mapping of large areas to high accuracy extremely quickly and cost effectively. Our SPRINT-Mapper technology now provides users with a similar subsea capability and set of advantages. Simon Waterfield, […]

Author: Malik Chibah – Engineering Manager We hosted a live, in-water demonstration of our new SPRINT-Nav, acoustically aided inertial navigation system (AAINS), at our Plymouth trials facility, UK. We wanted to put our new technology through its paces, to really demonstrate why SPRINT-Nav will be the new industry leader in subsea vehicle hybrid navigation. Our SPRINT-Nav combines […]

Ocean science technology company, Sonardyne International Ltd, UK., announced today it has been awarded the contract to supply Britain’s new polar research vessel, RRS Sir David Attenborough, with subsea acoustic tracking and position reference equipment. The Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system will be used by scientists to precisely track the position of, and communicate […]

Maritime security company, Sonardyne International Ltd, UK, has announced that its underwater intruder detection sonar technology, Sentinel, has been installed on the site of a new Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) facility in the Middle East to monitor unauthorised access from the sea. The programme of work included the supply of multiple in-water sonars and redundant […]

Since 1993, we’ve worked with seabed-to-surface engineering, construction and services contractor, Subsea 7, supplying them with acoustic monitoring and positioning technology to support the tow-out and installation of prefabricated pipelines for the North Sea. The start of this year was no different and in the last few weeks, one 3.8 kilometre bundle for a field […]

Norwegian survey company, Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS) has increased its investment in technology developed by Sonardyne International Ltd, UK, which allows hydrocarbon sensing equipment to be positioned in deep water with extremely high accuracy. The Ranger 2 Gyro-iUSBL system combines acoustic positioning and inertial navigation technologies and is the second system now owned by EMGS. […]

In 2007, a unique chapter in Sonardyne’s history began to be written – a chapter that would span the next 10 years and lead to the development of a completely autonomous and long endurance seafloor monitoring capability. Shaun Dunn, Global Business Manager, and Tom Bennetts, Project Manager at Sonardyne look back at a unique subsea […]

Leading offshore drilling contractor, Noble Corporation plc, has selected acoustically-aided inertial navigation technology from Sonardyne Inc., Houston, for its ultra-deep water drillship Noble Globetrotter I. The Marksman DP-INS system is being used to provide a high integrity, independent subsea position reference for the vessel’s GE DP3 dynamic positioning (DP) system as it drills exploration wells […]

Marine robotics technology supplied by Sonardyne Asia Pte. Ltd, of Singapore has been selected to help navigate a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) being developed by a joint-research program between PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) and Kasetsart University (KU), Bangkok, Thailand. The order for a SPRINT inertial navigation system (INS) and Syrinx […]

Blog written by: Ioseba Tena, Global Business Manager – Marine Robotic Systems, Sonardyne International Ltd. Walking around Ocean Business 2017 in Southampton a couple of weeks ago was fun. All the usual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUVs) providers were in attendance boasting, rightfully, about the growth in the sector. I was also glad to see, alongside the established […]

Subsea technology company, Sonardyne International Ltd, has delivered its latest consignment of AvTrak 6 acoustic communications and navigation hardware to defence and security company Saab’s subsidiary Saab Seaeye. Offered as an optional-fit sensor on the Sabertooth hybrid AUV/ROV, AvTrak 6 forms part of the vehicle’s integrated navigation and communications system. It allows mission updates, status […]

Sonardyne Inc., Houston, today announced it has supplied acoustically-aided inertial navigation technology to offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation company, McDermott International, Inc., for its Lay Vessel 108 (LV 108). The Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS system, the highest specification available from Sonardyne, is being used to support touchdown monitoring surveys of submarine cables, umbilicals and […]

Brazil’s most advanced ROV support vessel (RSV), the Fugro Aquarius, has specified acoustic positioning technology supplied by Sonardyne Brasil Ltda., to support its subsea inspection, repair and maintenance activities in the region. Already delivered and fully commissioned, the Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system is being used to track the precise position of the vessel’s […]

CCC (Underwater Engineering) S.A.L, leading providers of offshore construction and subsea services in the Middle East and India, has selected Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 acoustic positioning technology for its entire fleet of dynamically positioned (DP) diving and support vessels. Supplied by Sonardyne Asia Pte. in Singapore, the Ranger 2 systems will be used as independent position […]

The Swiss-based Allseas Group, a global leader in offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction, has selected Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system for the world’s largest pipelay and platform installation/decommissioning vessel, Pioneering Spirit. Built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in South Korea, at 382 metres long and 124 metres wide, Pioneering Spirit is […]

A new acoustic positioning technique to improve the quality and accuracy of pipeline touchdown monitoring has been successfully utilised by leading project management, engineering and construction company Technip. The company has installed a Sonardyne GyroUSBL transceiver on the stinger of its rigid pipe S-lay and heavy lift construction vessel, G1200. Used in conjunction with Sonardyne’s […]

Survey Equipment Services (SES) Inc., Katy TX. has further strengthened its lease pool in the Gulf of Mexico by continuing its investment in Sonardyne 6G subsea positioning technology. This latest acquisition is for a Ranger 2 subsea tracking system, the fifth delivered to SES since the beginning of 2013, and made available for use with […]

Sonardyne International Ltd. has been awarded a contract by Noble Corporation to supply a Wireless Acoustic Emergency BOP Control System for its new deepwater drillship. The Noble Globetrotter II is the fifth Noble new-build vessel, along with other existing rigs, to be equipped with Sonardyne’s safety critical acoustic technology, providing reliable through-water wireless communications, positioning […]

Sonardyne International Ltd has received an order valued at over £2.1 million from international oil and gas turnkey contractor, Saipem. The order includes six SPRINT systems and associated acoustic positioning equipment making it Sonardyne’s largest sale of acoustically aided inertial navigation technology to date. SPRINT (Subsea Precision Reference Inertial Navigation Technology) will be deployed in […]