In June of this year, Digital Edge Subsea attended Offshore Wind USA in Boston, presenting to industry leaders and US government representatives on the topic of the future of subsea inspection within the context of offshore wind.
Given our proven fifteen-year track record in the oil and gas subsea inspection market, attendees were keen to tap into our knowledge and experience. This included how we are seeing a phased transition from remote situational awareness to full remote operations and our ability to support this through our innovative partnership with Harvest Technology. This partnership allows customers to stream high-quality video directly from their DVR to the cloud, even over low bandwidth.
REAL-TIME VIDEO
The ability to provide on-demand, real-time access to high-quality video over low bandwidth from offshore to any location in the world allows Digital Edge Subsea’s customers to react to the demands of the offshore renewables industry. With this new development, video can be provided to technical authorities, inspection engineers, and clients remotely, using their existing Digital Edge video recording hardware.
In October, Digital Edge Subsea exhibited at Floating Offshore Wind in Aberdeen. This was a great opportunity to showcase our range of products to an energy sector which is still in its very early stages.
Our products and solutions are increasingly being used within the renewables sector by customers who have traditionally been oil and gas-focused. With our extensive experience and global reach, Digital Edge Subsea is ideally placed to support the growing renewables market with expertise in subsea video recording and inspection systems.
CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS
Digital Edge Subsea’s program of events for 2024 concluded with two of our biggest events: ADIPEC (Abu Dhabi) from November 4–7 and OSEA (Singapore) from November 19–21.
This was our first time at ADIPEC, exhibiting as part of the EIC (Energy Industries Council) pavilion. As the biggest industry show in the world, this proved to be a great opportunity for Digital Edge Subsea to showcase our latest range of products.
From Abu Dhabi, we moved on to OSEA in Singapore, where we enjoyed meeting with our customers from the Asia-Pacific region. Operations Manager for Asia Pacific, Adam Malkin, commented, “Digital Edge Subsea has experienced a busy year in the APAC region, and exhibiting at OSEA was one of the highlights of our exhibition calendar. We took full advantage of the opportunity to connect with customers old and new and showcase some of our new products and solutions.”
NEW HARDWARE
This year, our range of products was expanded to include smaller 2u and 3u rack-mountable systems to complement the proven 4u, laptop, and workstation solutions. The new hardware includes all of the same Edge software features our customers are familiar with, including workpacks, overlays, log files, and reporting tools, and is already proving to be a popular option for both new and existing customers.
NEW ROV TOOLING
Also new for 2024 is the ROVTools product range, including the RTK-01 ROV toolkit, a flexible and highly versatile kit providing ROV operators with a modular set of tools, allowing users to perform common tasks with greater ease and efficiency whilst reducing operational time.
Compact in size but big on performance, the RTK-01 has the tools to take on a wide range of jobs, including cutting ropes up to 25 mm in diameter, taking cathodic protection readings, measuring marine growth, and cleaning subsea structures.
Combining 316 stainless steel and tough corrosion-resistant materials with sound engineering principles, the RTK-01 tools are prepared for tasks in the harshest conditions while ensuring a solid performance.
With the included ROV-mounted clamp and tool post system, the modular tool heads can be changed and re-positioned within a matter of minutes, requiring less downtime between different tasks.
Housed in a custom Pelicase that contains a mounting clamp, adjustable tool pole, adapter brackets, and seven modular tool heads and can be easily transported by hand. The tools can also be supplied individually and without the Pelicase.
RTK-01 ROV TOOLKIT
Cutter: Efficiently and safely cuts through rope up to 25 mm thick.
CP Probe Mount: Designed for the ‘Buckley’ industry standard cathode protection probe, CP readings can be taken quickly and efficiently.
Marine Growth Gauge: Providing high contrast and large numerals to allow easy measurement of marine growth up to 300 mm deep, in all 3 axis.
Brush: Assembled with six industry-standard replaceable wire brushes on a bracket that can be adapted to clean in any direction.
Crook: The crook’s simple design and 75 mm opening rugged construction give the ROV operator a very versatile lifting and positioning tool, while the ramped barb ensures that ropes and cables are captured easily and retained.
Hook: The forward-facing barbed Hook design is ideal for collecting, pushing, pulling, or working with finely detailed objects such as netting or ropes.
Marine Growth Remover: Using an innovative locking design for quick assembly, the Marine Growth Remover holds an 880 mm braided stainless steel or nylon cable between two rods and has been designed to clean up to 26-inch diameter pipe work.
Brackets: The 90° and 45° brackets can be used in combination with any of the other kit tools to increase the mounting orientation options.
Electromagnets (24VDC): Designed to fit the Multi-Tool Adaptor of the RTK-01 Toolkit, they can also be used independently. With a 50 kg pull, these electromagnets will allow the user to hold a position when doing stationary work such as hull surveys.
This feature appeared in ON&T Magazine’s 2025 Special Edition, The Future of Ocean Technology, Vol. 5, to read more access the magazine here.
