“Port Moody Company Puts Pirates in Its Crosshairs”
Posted On: March 9th, 2011, under the Category: News
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Current Corporation provides camera systems to world’s ships, including South Korean Coast Guard
By Brian Morton METRO VANCOUVER – A Port Moody company that provides sophisticated night-vision camera systems for boats and ships now has Somali pirates in its sights. Current Corporation, which counts the South Korean Coast Guard among its clients, is set later this month to start introducing its latest system, called Night Navigator SOS (Safety On Seas). The company plans to market it for several purposes, largely to large yachts and shipping companies navigating treacherous weather conditions and other hazards in the world’s oceans. But another use for the system -developed over the past five years -is to protect ships in the deadly waters of the Indian Ocean, where Somali pirates are wreaking havoc on one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. If successful, Current’s new system is timely with many shipping companies now avoiding the area or paying huge insurance premiums to enter the high-risk pirate-infested shipping zone. “Early detection is the best implementation of any procedures that are in place,” Current president Douglas Houghton said in an interview about his company, whose motto is To Save Lives and Property at Sea. “Usually, pirates board the ship before [the ship's crew] even know they’re there. Our system gives them the most response time by the earliest detection. Then, the ship can increase speed, radio for help, change course or implement on-board safety measures.” Current’s new system will sell for about $440,000, with delivery beginning in 2013. Already, Houghton said, Current has 10 orders, all for largeyacht owners in Europe, New Zealand and Singapore. “The new system includes a high-definition camera, a highresolution thermal camera and a pulsing infrared amplification camera,” Houghton said, adding that it picks up what radar can’t. “It emits an infrared beam that has the capability to penetrate weather, such as rain, mist, smog, snow and fog. It will detect the spout of a whale from two kilometres, day or night. “The markets are anti-piracy, object detection, search and rescue and ice detection.” Houghton said the new system can detect a 10-metre small boat -the type utilized by pirates -at 14 kilometres. “The closer we get, the more detail there is. “Our goal was to see a man’s head in the water at 1,000 metres. It’s easy to see him [with the Night Navigator SOS] at 1,300 metres.” The company, which was established in 1986 as an electrical distribution company with two employees, now markets night-vision systems from $50,000 to $500,000. Eighteen years ago, it started selling night-vision goggles and monoculars to police forces in Canada as well as the Canadian Coast Guard and Fisheries and Oceans. “We still provide that service today for the Canadian market.” Current, which now has more than 30 employees, provides imaging systems to ferry operators worldwide, luxury private yachts, offshore supply vessels, patrol boats and coastal surveillance programs. But Houghton said his company has so far not sold systems to the world’s massive freighter and tanker fleet, something the Night Navigator SOS will hopefully change. “We [already] consider ourselves at the highest level of commercially available night vision systems,” Houghton said. “And this [the Night Navigator SOS] goes way beyond that.” Houghton said that 95 per cent of their business is night navigator camera systems and that their strongest markets worldwide are in Europe, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. He said sales are projected to grow 50 per cent each year for the foreseeable future and that cameras are built at their Port Moody facility, with design, software, sales and marketing handled from the head office. About 12 years ago, he said they started to build Night Navigator systems for the highspeed ferry market, adding that they were used on the BC Ferries PacifiCat vessels and are now used on over 100 ferries worldwide. He said that 12 years ago, few in the shipping business knew about Current’s products, but that today “we are lined up at our booths all day long.” at global trade shows. Meanwhile, Capt. Steve Poole, who spent 37 years with BC Ferries including 20 as a ship captain and three years as marine superintendent for North Coast operations, had a chance to try out the Navigator SOS when it was being developed. “It’s absolutely amazing,” he said in an interview. “It’s technology that’s second to none from what I’ve ever seen.” Poole said that in his years at sea, there were two people who went overboard and weren’t recovered. “With the [old] system, you couldn’t see through rain or snow. “If I had that technology [Navigator SOS] when I lost people over the side of the ship, I truly believe we would have recovered them.”
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