Oceanlab’s record breaking video footage of fish at a depth of 8145m in the Marianas Trench was recorded using a NETmc Marine 73fifty DVR. The 73fifty DVR http://netmcmarine.co.uk/site/dvrs/73fifty is widely used in the offshore ROV and diving industry on a range of projects from drill support to pipeline inspections, it is also used by energy companies as part of their plant inspection programs. The technology in the 73fifty was chosen for the Hadal Lander due to it’s low power consumption, quality of recording, compact size and reliability. NETmc Marine also wrote the mission control software for the Hadal lander, programming sleep and on/off periods for filming thus preserving the precious battery life and extending the dive time of the Lander.
A spokesman for NETmc Marine stated “This is the second video system we have developed for Oceanlab, the first, in 2008, was based on our DVR Inspector; that mission discovered new species of fish between 6000 and 8000m, a depth record at that time.” He added, “For the latest mission we used the 73fifty DVR, this allowed us to make a smaller DVR and thus save space in the Lander’s pressure pod. We look forward to our continued cooperation with Oceanlab in taking DVRs to where no DVR has ever been before”.