August 2011
AquaNor
The aquaculture exhibition, AquaNor 2011 were held in Trondheim in August. According to tradition, Olex AS used the opportunity to meet our customers and associates, from our own exhibition stand, with information and news about our products. In addition to our own Olex mapping system we had for display a Wassp multibeam sonar, Valeport sound speed probe and our new GP9200, 3D GPS for exact positioning and absolute height.
Aqua Nor, had a record number of visitors this year. According to the organizers more than 17,500 visitors from 61 nations participated. This equals a 25% increase compared to the last exhibition two years ago. During four hectic, but enjoyable and interesting, days the Olex stand were visited by a large number of, old and new, customers and friends from all over the world.
Mooring mapped with Olex and Wassp
Wassp screenshot
May 2009
New Olex technology now allows WASSP and Olex to map the water column as well as the seafloor.
November 2007
Olex AS is pleased to announce the expansion of its product portfolio to include WASSP, a multi-beam echosounder from the New Zealand based manufacturer ENL. Olex AS has enhanced the interoperability of its existing multi-beam software to interface with WASSP, and is now offering a complete multi-beam survey package for its customers in Norway. Customers outside Norway can purchase the Olex multi-beam system only, and can be interfaced with your locally acquired Wassp.
The WASSP system is a multi-beam fishing system that uses a wide-angle sonar to profile the water column and seafloor at a very high resolution. It provides a wide 120° port-to-starboard swath of the water column and seafloor, allowing users to find and map the seafloor, reefs and wrecks, seafloor hardness, and foreign objects in the water column. From the 120° swath, the system receives 112 dynamic beams, with each beam containing data from the water column and seafloor.
This high-tech multi-beam echosounder is now commercially available for fishing vessels, survey companies, fish farmers, diving companies and others who are interested in fishing and seafloor mapping.
Click here to open the Wassp homepage.
01/08/2007
Olex AS proudly announces the appointment of two new distributors to its world wide Olex distribution network; Selmar Ltda of Chile and Norwegian Partners Marine (NPM) of Russia.
The Selmar main office is based in Talcahuano, but has sales and service offices in several of the most important Chilean fishing ports. Selmar Ltda is one of the most significant distributors of marine electronics in the country, and is the second distributor of Olex established in South America.
Norwegian Partners Marine (NPM) has a total of 8 branches in different locations throughout Russia, employing engineers and other professionals in the fields of sales, engineering, installation and service. NPM has already proven to be an efficient and skilled distributor of Olex products.
11/10/2007
We have now introduced a new Olex software module called SB. This module lets the Olex detect and map water currents. By analyzing five NMEA data types - position, speed over ground, course over ground, true heading, and speed through water - the vessel drift related to ground is calculated and shown as a variable-size arrow pointing away from the ship. This drift is assumed to be representative of the water current. Accuracy is very good and only limited by instrument resolution.
In addition to the realtime water current, the values are also mapped in a cell-like structure much like the seabed depth, albeit at a somewhat coarser resolution. The mapping takes the main tidal phase into account; that is, for a given position, currents are mapped in several time slices synced to the moon's angle from the earth, the so-called M2 tidal constituent.
The effect of this is that as the vessel sails around and collects current readings, a detailed map of water flow is built up; at any time, the assumed currents are shown as small arrows, related to the actual point of the tidal phase. There is a slider available to test how the flow will be like at a certain time into the future.
The latest Olex version, 6.4, contains a demo and sample data collected by our own vessel a few months ago. The attached screenshots are from the demo. Future versions will allow sharing of currents data.
Mapped water current
Calibration screen
INSTRUMENTS
One can use surprisingly simple instruments for this current mapping. This is possible because Olex does a good job in calibrating the sensors, recognizing various short-term errors, and using GPS positions for prediction validation.
In our own boat, we use a Furuno SC-60 for position, heading, course and speed over ground, and a simple paddlewheel water speed sensor from Airmar for speed through water. These two instruments are sufficient. Of course, a higher grade water speed sensor can also be used, but careful sensor placement and high grade true heading may be more important. Maybe a mid price electromagnetic solid state sensor will be a good option.
At the Nor-Fishing expo, we were approached by skippers having costly doppler sonars capable of giving water currents at various depths. A natural development will be to interface to such instruments, to map currents close to the sea bottom.
CALIBRATION
Regardless of what water speed sensor is used, it has to be calibrated for nonlinear speed response due to water flow patterns. The Olex has a special mode where it asks the skipper to steer opposing straight lines at various speeds, automatically working out a graph of apparent water speed and correction factors. Same for the heading sensor. This procedure will likely only be done during initial water trials, but can be repeated by the skipper if deemed necessary.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
This new SB module has a list price of one-third the normal Olex price - 10.000 NOK, EUR1300, USD1660, GPB840, CAN1960 - the same as the ITI software module. The software is part of Olex 6.4, available for download now from our web site.
Press release 04/18/2006
Norwegian based Olex AS, the manufacturer of complete systems for navigation, plotting and 3D seafloor mapping, is pleased to announce the expansion of its UK and Ireland distribution network with the appointment of a new distributor, SELEX Communications.
With more than 2,000 installations worldwide, including more than 350 in the UK and Ireland, the Olex systems are proving extremely popular onboard all types and sizes of fishing vessels. SELEX Communications will distribute the Olex systems through its 18 Regional Offices and through more than 30 independent dealers in the UK and Ireland.
After years of research, development and testing, Olex AS has developed the most comprehensive seafloor topography mapping system available on the market, with sales of Olex Systems for navigation and seafloor mapping worldwide increasing rapidly.
As Olex AS continues to grow, it is aware of the importance of choosing distributors that can provide the best possible support to its dealers and customers. With the largest staff of Marine Electronics Engineers in the UK and with more than 100 years of marine electronics experience SELEX Communications has the capacity to handle the growing demand for Olex technology.
"SELEX Communications, will help us to secure an excellent nationwide sales and support network, in conjunction with Aberdeen based distributor Woodsons of Aberdeen," says Ole Jorgen Orsnes, Export Manager for Olex AS. "SELEX Communications will distribute Olex systems across the UK and Ireland, with Woodsons of Aberdeen continuing to concentrate on distributing the Olex Systems in Scotland and Ireland."
Earlier this month Olex technical staff conducted a training workshop with engineers from SELEX Communications at the company's Head Office in Chelmsford. This training covered all aspects of the Olex Systems and SELEX Communications are in the process of introducing themselves as Olex distributors to dealers and customers across the UK and Ireland.
"In order to make the Olex Systems even more accessible, SELEX Communications will make just the chart software available, rather than packaging it as a complete system including hardware. This more flexible approach will allow our dealers and customers to easily order new hardware and charts without any delay," says David Evans, Vice President - Marine for SELEX Communications.
The Olex Systems are based on Linux, and are considered to be the most stable systems of their kind available on the commercial market. Speed, flexibility and user-friendly are important keywords to explain the success of the Olex Systems.
Press release 09/30/2005
Olex AS has collected sea floor data from Olex users all over the world since 1998. The Olex sea floor database consists of soundings from the simplest single beam echosounder to the more technically advanced and very precise multibeam echosounders. The Olex users willing to share their data now have access to over 70 billion ocean depths compressed into 20 CDs for easy loading to the Olex system. This is the most comprehensive sea floor database of its kind, and is available to all Olex users, free of charge.
The Olex Sea Floor Map
Compared to anything else available in the commercial market, the Olex sea floor map offers an amazingly detailed view of the ocean topography. This is made possible by using the most technically advanced software available, in combination with data from echosounders and GPS: You connect both a GPS and an echosounder to your PC or laptop with the Olex preinstalled software. Olex records the different pings from the echosounder in combination with the GPS data given for that specific position. The Olex system calculates the sea floor topography in between the recorded depths, so that you do not have to measure each and every square meter of the sea floor. This calculation takes into account the tide level and various instrument offsets.
All of this is done fully automatically, and you can follow the sea floor mapping in real-time on the screen in both 2D and 3D.
The Olex users have seen the benefit of sharing their sea floor data with each other and/or with Olex AS. Submitting their data to Olex AS gives the users access to both their own quality-checked sea floor data, and all available data in the shared Olex database. Both the quality-check of the sea floor data and the data sharing is free of charge. The Olex sea floor database is rapidly growing and holds over 70 billion measured and calculated sea floor depths. This data is compressed into 20 CDs that can easily be used with any Olex system. By providing access to incredibly accurate sea floor details in a realistic 3D view, the Olex sea floor information will not only help increase fishing yields, but also make navigation safer.
“One of the many challenges handling this vast amount of data using real-time, is speed”, says Olex’s Export Manager Ole Jørgen Ørsnes. “There is no advantage in having seabed mapping in 3D if you have to wait up to 30 seconds for the picture to draw, and then another 30 seconds if you want a new picture. The biggest advantages of the Olex 3D system are high speed, simplicity of use, and the detailed and very realistic sea floor view”, he says.
When you are at sea, the Olex system is able to automatically recall all stored data. Most Olex clients perceive Olex as a marine instrument rather than a computer based software, since everything is operated by the PC’s mouse. In other words; no computer skills are required to run this 3D software.
Join the Movement!
As an Olex user, you simply send a backup of your Olex sea floor data on floppy, ZIP or USB Memory Stick to Olex AS (the local distributor or dealer often does this for their customers). Olex AS will do a careful quality check of your data and send it back to you together with all data available in the shared Olex database. Physical variables, such as water sound speed and weather effects, which normally would reduce the quality of such a low cost survey, are offset by the repeated collection of data, employing statistics in order to accurately map the sea floor. “This is a unique no-cost service offered by the manufacturer, and a huge amount of the Olex users choose to share sea floor data for mutual benefit”, says Ørsnes.
Multibeam Data Available in Olex
Many research and survey vessels have high-tech equipment like multibeam echosounders. These echosounders collect several hundred soundings simultaneously, and can map huge areas in a short time. The multibeam sea floor information is more precise than that of a regular single beam echosounder, and offers a more detailed and accurate picture of the sea floor. This high-quality sea floor data has until recently only been accessible using very expensive equipment.
Olex AS now has access to multibeam data, and has already included parts of the Icelandic coast in their shared database for all Olex customers to use. This will be a very important resource for fishermen and navigators all over the world. According to Ørsnes, increasing the multibeam sea floor data is the main focus of Olex AS right now. “We are getting access to more of this valuable data as we speak, and during the course of this year we expect to include multibeam sea floor data from additional ocean areas.Our database is growing rapidly due to our customers sharing their data and to other sources giving us access to already available multibeam data”.
Established in 1997, Olex AS has had a constant growth in revenue. For several years they have been ranked amongst the fifty fastest growing technology companies in Norway, and are listed in both the “Deloitte Technology Fast 50” for Norway and the “European Technology Fast 500”.
For further information, please contact:
Ole Jørgen Ørsnes
Export Manager
Telephone +47 73 54 61 99, Mobile +47 97 71 27 27,
email olex@olex.no
February 12, 2004:
Olex AS is now speeding up the process with establishing new distributors world wide, and have during the last two months established in total 3 new distributors in; Portugal, Italy and Greece:
Portugal
Nautel Electronica Maritima Lda. have a very strong and high standing in the Portuguese market, and will be an important distributor covering the most important market segments of Olex; fishery, commersial and leisure.
Italy
Simrad S.r.l. have offices in both Rome and Milano, in addition to being represented through a number of dealers around the coast of Italy. Simrad also have a close cooperation with among others Marangoni, which is another very known distributor in Italy.
Greece
Aegean Electronics is a distributor with long traditions in Greece, and with a large client base within different marine market segments.Aegean Electronics have their main office in Piraeus (Athens), one of the most busy ports in Greece.
For contact information to our distributors, click here.
February 17, 2003:
Olex AS and the british company Simrad Ltd has entered a distribution contract wich covers Olex sale in England, Wales and Ireland, with the exception of Scotland where Olex is already represented by the scottish company Woodsons of Aberdeen. Olex AS considers England, Wales and Ireland as important markets, and believes that the cooperation with Simrad Ltd will give the Olex chart system a strong position as the chart system number one among the professional fishing vessels in these countries. Simrad Ltd has its main office in Fareham, England.
January 17, 2003
The latest Olex version comes with two important new features:
- it allows hardness calculation in shallow water if the shortest pulse length is used (only for Olex/ES60 users)
- it shows the current lunar phase in the tide window
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6 November 2002
| In september, Grete Hjelsvold started working at Olex AS. Grete has a Master of Science degree in telematics and computer science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and has several years of experience from the telecom industry. Her first task as an Olex programmer will be to implement the new digital vector charts in format S57 ed. 3 to Olex format. This will make way for use of S57 ENC's from the national hydrographic offices around the world. |
18 October 2002
21 September 2001
27 June 2001
Teist in harbour, Trondheim
The vessel is dedicated to research and product development, but will also be used for demonstration trips, first time during the aquaculture show AquaNor in august.
As one might expect, the Olex
system is in place, together with a Simrad radar.
13 March 2001
Click and drag to move the camera. Look around by scrolling
the 3D map. Watch the camera symbol rotate on the 2D map while scrolling
the 3D map.
3 January 2001
Trond Ulven (Simrad), Ole B. Hestvik
(Olex) and
Petter Jørgensen (Simrad)
19 October 2000
5 October 2000
25 September 2000
6 June 2000
- rudimentary support for trawl positioning with Simrad ITI
- experimental seabed hardness classification with Simrad ES60
- DGPS not required for survey anymore
- demo system have much more vector charts
- multiline comments for fishing plot data
- colorfilled user-defined areas
- improved depth resolution
- better sounder error filtering
- lots of other improvement
2 May 2000
2 May 2000
3 April 2000
9 March 2000
10 Febrary 2000
13 January 2000
24 November 1999
New feature in this release is tracking of ROV (separate upgrade), and the ability to save tracklines from ARPA-targets and HPR. There is also made a print button, for printing screenshots for publications and reports. The print function prints a "screendump" to a connected printer and to a file, using the tiff format.
For less complicated problem solving, the output from the serial ports can now be viewed on the screen.
11 November 1999
The screenshot shows the ship with trackline and course vector.
11 November 1999
The system is tested and delivered to the University of Bergen onboard the research vessel F/F Hans Brattstrøm.
This new feature of the Olex system is offered as a separate software upgrade.
The ship with the ROV in 3D view. The ROV is shown on the
surface as a filled square, and in the water column
on the actual depth as an open square. Its shadow
appears on the seafloor. The surface symbol is given a
calculated course vector and an information box.
The screenshot is from the testing onboard F/F Hans Brattstrøm.
13 October 1999
12 October 1999
30 September 1999
6 September 1999
Interested visitors at the Icefish exhibition
30 August 1999:
A special feature for the passanger boats are the arrival schedule window. The timetable is always correct, and takes into account the different delay times for the different harbours. If some of the harbours are skipped, the timetable will change according to the new route.
The position of the ship between the GPS fixes are now beeing calculated. This gives a more correct visualization of the position and speed.
A snapshot from the screen: The fastboat on its way from
Kristiansund to Trondheim is soon to
reach the waypoint "Midtfjords". The ship is in
the green light sector, and will arrive at Limvågodden
at 11.37 AM.
2 August 1999:
Users of Olex will be offered a free upgrade.
