Sonardyne
Support Centre
eShop
Jump to
Speak to an expert

Unrivalled stability, accuracy and results

Delivering unrivalled stability, position accuracy and results in real-time, Equinox is your integrated, towed multi aperture sonar with improved area coverage rates for mine countermeasures (MCM) and hydrographic operations.
At its core, is Solstice multiple aperture sonar (MAS) delivering imagery of the highest quality possible from side-scan sonar enabling detection and classification of seafloor objects across the whole swath.

Combined excellence

Overview

Equinox is a true example of how Covelya Group technologies combine to provide ground-breaking products. Designed around the Solstice MAS from Wavefront Systems, it is commercialised by Sonardyne and features our state-of-the-art SPRINT INS and Mini-Ranger 2 USBL for state-of-the-art navigation and positioning.

The Sonardyne and Wavefront Systems payloads are all mounted on EIVA’s renowned ScanFish 3D, a steerable remotely operated towed vehicle (ROTV). EIVA’s NaviSuite Kuda user interface is used to plan, autopilot and display the gathered data in real-time.

Producing stunningly accurate pictures, it’s ideal for vessels of opportunity or unmanned surface vessels delivering hydrographic, archaeological, search, salvage, unexploded ordnance, and mine countermeasure missions.

At a glance

  • Mission ready; designed to support search, classify and map (SCM) and hydrographic operations
  • Survey more ground in a single pass; effective area coverage rate (ACR) of up to 1.6 km2/hr
  • Along track resolution of 0.15°; best in class delivering maximum detection rates
  • Co-located side-scan image and bathy improves your situational awareness
  • Real-time motion compensation and positioning accuracies better than 1 m DRMS
  • Automatically follows terrain and avoids obstacles
  • Suitable for site survey and characterisation and high tempo MCM missions

Why Equinox is perfect for your operations

The ScanFish 3D is a trusted ROTV and, thanks to its inherent stability, the ideal platform to operate Solstice from. At a total weight of 220 kg in air, Equinox can be easily mobilised.

Unlike towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) systems, Equinox offers you an affordable, lower-logistics alternative still capable of providing high area coverage rates. By combining leading navigation and positioning from Mini-Ranger 2 USBL and SPRINT INS, imaging data is geo-referenced with an accuracy that’s unrivalled for these types of applications at this price.

Planning a mission is easy. Using NaviSuite Kuda software, you can define your sailing route and run-lines by simply selecting the area you would like to cover. During the mission, NaviSuite Kuda continuously updates the vessel and ScanFish 3D position in real-time.

Equinox also provides real-time geo-rectified waterfall, mosaics and DTM maps and the user interface tools that enable an operator to mark and process objects, including automatic target recognition using AI.

That’s not all; ScanFish 3D can carry heavier payloads and there is room in the fibre cable to include additional payload sensors such as gap fillers. Equinox users can count on improved probability of detection and decreased probability of false alarms, improving the efficiency of your mine countermeasures, archaeological, search and salvage missions.

Equinox case studies

Defence

Improved MCM operations using multi-aperture sonar

Read more

General

• All-in-one, rapidly mobilised solution for MCM, SCM and hydrography
• High stability platform with automatic terrain following
• NaviSuite Kuda software reduces planning times and improves processing times
• Everything supplied, including winch and 1Gbps cable

Performance

• Depth rated to 300 m
• Across track resolution 37.5 mm
• Along-track resolution 0.15°
• Geo-rectified waterfall display
• Image resolution 30 mm x 30 mm
• Co-located 200m swath side-scan and bathy
• Real-time CAD/CAC option

Design (SCANFISH)

• 1210 mm x 1858 mm x 1049 mm, 220 kg in air (73 kg in water)
• Survey speeds 3 to 6 knots
• Pitch and roll stabilised
• Automatic altitude following

Ownership

• What’s in the box: ScanFish 3D, NaviSuite Kuda software, cable and winch, Solstice MAS, Mini-Ranger 2 USBL, WSM 6+, SPRINT 500 INS, DVL
• Warranty: 1 year return to Sonardyne/EIVA service centre
• ITAR Controlled: No
• UK Export License: TBD

Need help finding a system or product?

Our team can help find the right system to suit your needs. Please contact us via our support centre or clicking here.

Datasheets

Equinox – Datasheets

You may also be interested in

Solstice

Mini-Ranger 2

SPRINT

Jump to
Speak to an expert

Overview

Low power, high resolution sonar imaging

Solstice multi-aperture side-scan sonar (MAS) significantly increases the operational envelope of your underwater vehicle by providing wide swath coverage, at high resolution – all while consuming very low power.

Solstice side scan sonar

Capture every feature and every detail in ultra-high resolution.

Key benefits

  • Mission ready; designed to support search, classify and map (SCM) and hydrographic operations
  • Small and compact arrays; optimised for low-logistic AUVs and towed bodies
  • Survey more ground in a single pass; 200 m-wide swath ensures high coverage rates
  • Along track resolution of 0.15°; best in class delivering maximum detection rates
  • Collocated side scan image and bathy improves your situational awareness
  • Consumes only 18 W power: budget friendly and increases your AUV’s endurance
  • Depth rated to 300 or 600 m

Solstice offers enhanced underwater detection capabilities for various missions, including mine countermeasures, archaeological, search, and salvage operations. The system provides high-performance coverage with large 200m swaths on each side, enabling efficient site characterisation without sacrificing detail. Its class-leading imagery allows you to make confident classification decisions more quickly, with the added versatility of deployment on both autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and towfish platforms. By improving probability of detection and decreasing false alarms, Solstice significantly increases the overall efficiency and reliability of underwater exploration and survey missions. It is suitable for:

 

  • Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV)
  • Site survey and characterisation
  • Mine countermeasures (MCM)
  • Remotely operated vehicles (ROV)
  • Delivering pixel perfect imaging

Exceptional high-contrast seafloor imagery across diverse water depths

How it works

Solstice, designed by Wavefront Systems and commercialised by Sonardyne, is a world-leading side scan sonar for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and towed bodies. Its advanced technology delivers exceptional seafloor imagery through multiple aperture arrays with 32 multibeam elements, enabling superior signal-to-noise ratio performance and stunning imagery at extended ranges. The sonar’s unique back-projection beam-forming technique ensures focused imaging for every pixel, eliminating distortions caused by platform motion and guaranteeing 100% ground coverage across diverse water depths.

Designed for a wide range of marine missions including hydrographic, archaeological, search, salvage, and mine countermeasure operations, Solstice stands out through its innovative features. Its real-time array calibration dynamically recalibrates hydrophone elements multiple times per second, compensating for dynamic strains and maintaining linear element alignment. The system produces high-contrast imagery in environments ranging from 600-metre depths to very shallow littoral waters, utilising a specialised array technology that provides wide swath coverage with exceptional shadow contrast.

For further details and full product specifications, please visit the Solstice pages on Wavefront’s website.

Solstice case studies

Defence

Improved MCM operations using multi-aperture sonar

Read more
Ocean science

Mapping the future for seagrass beds in Plymouth Sound

Seagrass beds are vital ecosystems that provide habitat and nursery grounds for marine life, store carbon to help combat climate change, and stabilise the seabed. In coastal areas such as Plymouth Sound, they also reduce erosion and improve water quality by trapping sediments and nutrients.

Read more

You may also be interested in

Sentinel

Sentry

Vigilant

Jump to
Speak to an expert

Overview

Efficient, secure, safe

Underwater mine clearance operations put your people, assets and missions at risk. Our Initiation Transponder 6 (IT 6) helps mitigate this risk; enabling mine neutralisers to be efficiently, securely and wirelessly activated from a safe distance. Suitable for a range of scenarios, from military diving, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), ROVs, MCM and site survey and characterisation

Secure and reliable

When safety is paramount in your survey and clearance operations, IT 6 offers a solution to ensure your success.

For energy: With any offshore energy development, there’s the potential to encounter unexploded ordnance (UXO). IT 6 improves the safety and efficiency of clearance operations, keeping your personnel away from risk and your project on track.

For defence: An important new addition to the MCM and underwater ordnance playbook, IT 6 helps your clearance divers and robotic platforms dispose of modern day and historical ordnance, quickly and effectively.

IT 6 is based on our field-proven Wideband 2 digital signal technology, which offers a reliable and long-range underwater wireless communications link. With IT 6, your personnel no longer need to hard wire mine neutralisers up to signal relay buoys on the surface and can set up an initiation operation in bad weather and outside of daylight hours.

Initiation Transponder 6 (IT 6) is designed to be connected directly to a remotely deployed, non-electric (NONEL) mine neutralisation device, such as a Viper from ECS Special Projects. This allows commercial and naval EOD teams to send a wireless, acoustic command from their vessel to initiate a shock tube.

It can be placed directly by a clearance diver or remotely operated vehicles (ROV). Divers and ROVs are constrained by the equipment and payload they can carry so we’ve designed IT 6 to be small and lightweight yet tough enough to withstand everyday operational situations.

With use cases from offshore renewable energy to government and defence, IT 6 transponders are suitable for high order detonation and low order deflagration scenarios.

At a glance:

  • Efficient, secure, safe
  • 357 mm tall by 55 mm in diameter; 0.10 kg weight in water; designed to be carried by clearance divers or small ROVs
  • Controlled using IP67-rated Deck Topside and cabled acoustic dunker
  • Safe: automatic time-outs, hydrostatic switch, independent circuits for acoustics and firing
  • Built using 6G hardware and Wideband 2 digital signal architecture: track with our Ranger 2 family of USBL tracking systems

The complete solution

Built for your UXO, MCM and EOD missions

Wireless

Underwater acoustic command and control is in our DNA, so IT 6 can be considered as reliable and as secure as traditional methods involving shock tubes and a lot safer than electrical detonation lines.

Safe

Safety and simplicity are key with the IT 6 and it features several fixed and user-configurable safety features.

Firstly, the IT 6 comes complete with a hydrostatic switch, which means the unit cannot be put into an armed state when shallower than the fixed hydrostatic switch depth. If recovered back to deck, the IT 6 will also render itself impossible to arm when it goes below the minimum allowed depth.

Configurable off-deck delays and seabed timeouts mean fixed arming and firing windows can be set. The internal circuitry of the IT 6 also means that no power is applied to the independent detonation circuitry until the operator chooses to fire/initiate the NONEL output from the IT 6.

The clear housing on the IT 6 contains three status LEDs which allow the operator to quickly assess the state of the transponder and its safety. A magnetic ‘remove before use’ pin also means the IT 6 has a long operational battery life and can be powered down completely when not in use.

IT 6 is controlled using our field-proven Deck Topside system. Environmentally rated to IP67, the topside features a daylight readable 7-inch resistive touch screen, physical initiate/arm buttons and rechargeable battery – perfect for operating from small craft with no external power.

A further operational benefit of IT 6 is that its location can be tracked using any our Ranger 2 USBL systems which are installed on hundreds of energy, defence and science vessels globally.

Need help finding a system or product?

General

• Wireless; replaces need for a hard-wired surface-to-seafloor connection
• Size and weight optimised, perfect for divers and small vehicles
• Low risk; engineered using COTS acoustic technologies in use globally
• Improves the efficiency and safety of improve the safety and efficiency of UXO, MCM and EOD operations

Ownership

• What’s in the box: IT 6
• Accessories: Float, pressure test kit
• Warranty: 1 year return to Sonardyne service centre
• ITAR Controlled: No
• UK Export Licence: Yes PL8001.a.3.

Performance

• MF operating frequency (20-34 kHz)
• Depth rated to 300 m
• Operating range > 1,000 m
• 11-pin Size-A CRE connectors x 2. Custom connectors on request
• Accepts 3 mm shock tube
• Alkaline battery
• 0 m, 2 m and 8 m hydrostatic switch options

Design

• 357 x 55 mm, 0.1 kg weight in water
• Acetal housing construction, clear
• Magnetic on/off switch
• External mounting point
• Integrated inclinometer for monitoring orientation
• High brightness internal status LEDs
• 262,144 unique addresses available

Specifications table

Feature Type 8373
Depth Rating 300 m
Operating Frequency MF (23–31 kHz)
Transducer Beam shape Hemispherical
Transmit Source Level (dB re 1 µPa @1 m) 184 dB
Operating Range >1000 m
Hydrostatic switch 0 m, 2 m and 8 m options available
Subsea status indicators LEDs and acoustic communication
Shock tube outer diameter accepted 3 mm
Operational Battery Life (Alkaline) >45 days in not ready to arm state,
>22.5 days in ready to arm state
Storage battery life >3 years
Repeat Firings with firing pin >10
Mechanical Construction Acetal
Operating Temperature -20 to 55ºC
Storage Temperature -20 to 55ºC
Maximum Dimensions (Length x Diameter) 357 x 55 mm
Weight in Air/Water 0.85 kg / 0.10 kg
Export Status Controlled under PL8001.a.3
Standards UKCA

Manuals and quick start guides


IT 6 – Manuals

Datasheets


IT 6 – Datasheets

STP files


IT 6 – STP Files

STP files

IT 6 – STP Files

Datasheets

IT 6 – Datasheets

Manuals and quick start guides

IT 6 – Manuals

Did you know?

RT 6-6000 can be used with our Ranger 2 USBL family or Deck Topside

You may also be interested in

Deck Topside

Deck Topside is our new generation of command and control topside for RT 6 and IT 6 transponders. Designed for use in the workshop and on the back deck, it’s packed with innovative design features to keep you working in any weather, on any type of boat, all day long.

RT 6-1000

Deploy it. Track it. Locate it. Recover it. RT 6-1000 does it all. Our new entry-level acoustic release transponder has features that are far from entry-level. Such as 1,000 metre depth rating, battery life of over a year and release mechanism that won’t let you down.

IT 6

Deep water instrument mooring or structure installation: RT 6-3000 takes the hard work out of your deploying ocean sensors and heavy lifting. It features an impressive battery life of over 32 months and a depth rating of 3,000 m.
Let's start a conversation