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The line marking how
much a strategically smart supplier like Airmar contributes to an end
product versus what the brand OEM contributes is purposely very gray.
Brand X may get Airmar to perfect and build a certain idea, and the resulting
part may then be all Xs. Or, like the broadband technology discussed here
or the intriguing Weather Station I wrote about last April, Airmar might
come up with something new that it makes available to all its clients,
who can use the sensor as is or fashion it into a larger integrated system
improvement.
The case of the Maptech
FishFinder seems to be all of the above! Other manufacturers are working
with the hardware that Airmar calls its BBFF170, for 170-kHz Black Box
FishFinder, and new end-user products may ensue, but apparently at least
one data string coming out of that box is proprietary to Maptech because
its contractor NSI codeveloped it.
Companies like Airmar,
successful with numerous clients who compete vigorously, are naturally
darn quiet about all they know, but there’s still gratification,
even fun, to be had in the multiteam creation process. I picked up that
the project developers at all three firms involved with 3-D fishfinder
not only respect each other but had some good times fishing—errr,
I mean testing—together. Airmar and Maptech, which is in Amesbury,
Massachusetts, both have off-site test boats, but NSI’s little office
outside Annapolis is purposely just a short walk to a marina where partners
Mark Pringle and Floyd Philips keep two capable test vessels commissioned
year-round. Never mind that the newer one has Maptech painted all over
it; that’s part of a business plan that’s finally working well
after ten years defined partially by struggle (wrong partner, unpaid royalties,
lawsuits, and so forth).
Today the pair knows
NSI’s niche (and regard Airmar with unbridled awe). And, with only
one employee, it’s responsible for the contour modules in several
Maptech products as well as in Raymarine’s RayTech, plus the cool
and real—they actually survey the lakes—Bass Tracker animations
you may have seen on ESPN or Fox Sports. NSI is also working on Bathy
Creator software that will intelligently blend high-resolution sonar readings
into existing 3-D bathymetry on the fly; I saw a prototype that I’m
sure will fire up some fishermen, or other amateur Capt. Cooks like me,
whether it’s integrated into i3 or sold directly by NSI, or both.
Google can’t find NSI, a downside of working behind the scenes, but
you can learn more at www.nsiworldwide.com.
What you won’t find out, and I can’t tell you, are the other
marine screens where NSI’s 3-D work may eventually pop up.
The 3-D fishfinder may
be unique, at least for now, but its development wasn’t. Multiple
teams, often layered and overlapping, commonly conspire to fashion the
big integrated systems we see at our helms. But you don’t want to
be overly clever with that knowledge; the whole is usually much more than
the sum of its parts.
Don’t assume, for
instance, that a particular Airmar transducer will work the same with
a different fishfinder or that identical radar scanners will produce identical
results on different display heads. And you certainly shouldn’t worry
about it; one job of the big guys is to put it all together so your boating
and shopping is easier. However, if you’re looking for help in a
defined niche or clues as to what’s coming next, or just enjoy understanding
how the marine electronics business really works, poke around behind the
scenes.
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