SAND Geophysics Limited provides global marine geophysical consultancy and survey support to teams working in the offshore infrastructure space. Working within a difficult splash zone means that SAND Geophysics needs to have the technology in place to provide high-resolution seismic, side scan, and magnetometer surveys.
Having worked with older USBL systems, it was noted that the systems were posing an increased cost inefficiency and risk to their clients’ projects. To SAND Geophysics, their focus remained on finding more efficient ways to deploy beacons to the seabed and navigate the complexities of the splash zone.
The challenge to applied acoustics was to find a USBL system that enabled SAND Geophysics to increase their accuracy and data collection for UXO surveys and diver positioning.
James Matthews, SAND Geophysics Director, commented, “Seeing the upgraded Pyxis system and its rapid mobilization and calibration was a key driver in our buying decision.”
applied acoustics’ Pyxis INS + USBL system has been built to increase the offering of highly accurate subsea tracking that applied acoustics can offer. The upgraded performance within the Pyxis system was presented to SAND Geophysics as a solution to the challenges they faced. The team needed not only the rapid mobilization and calibration but also the accuracy and reliability of the Sigma 2 spread spectrum technology.
“As a new system on the market, we wanted to test it out before committing and were grateful to applied acoustics for assisting with a rental system for setup on our first project,” states James Matthews.
The Pyxis system doesn’t require the deployment of a beacon to the seabed; instead, it only requires the vessel to perform a series of maneuvers to allow for the calibration of the offsets between the antennas and the IMU. This upgrade reduces the need for unnecessary manual handling, which in turn increases the safety of the team and impacts the business.
James Matthew continues, “The decrease in calibration time for the Pyxis vs other USBL systems has increased our team’s performance and presented significant cost savings to our clients.”
Because of the implementation of the Pyxis INS + USBL system, calibration times decrease by a factor of 2–3, depending on the project and environment, producing significant cost savings for their clients and knowing that they are using a state-of-the-art system, SAND Geophysics can take pride in the results of their work, delivering the highest quality results.
“The Pyxis system has been designed to increase the accuracy and efficiency of our clients’ projects, offering gains in performance and significant time and cost savings. We’re delighted that SAND Geophysics and their clients are already benefiting from the system’s capability,” says Hollie Moran, Sales & Marketing Manager at Applied Acoustics.
