CTI Holds Successful Workshop In Charleston, South Carolina

Sea Technology, Mar 2008

Mountain Valley, California-based Chesapeake Technology Inc. (CTI) recently hosted more than 63 professionals for a hands-on training seminar focusing on the use of side scan and sub-bottom sonar software.

The three-day event held in the Charleston, South Carolina, area was CTI's third annual workshop for underwater survey professionals.

The training included two four-hour sessions aboard the Silver Crescent, a research vessel provided by South Carolina's Department of Natural Resources.

As the participants experienced the field exercise aboard the Silver Crescent, the ship simultaneously towed two side scan sonars.

Both an L-3 Klein (Salem, New Hampshire) System 3900 and a Marine Sonic (White Marsh, Virginia) Sea Scan PC system provided a live demonstration for those aboard the vessel.

"We believe the classroom portion of the workshop was very informative, and the field work aboard the Silver Crescent was a great learning experience for the participants," explained John Gann, CTI's vice president of software development and a facilitator at the event.

The attendees set up a survey grid and mosaicked the wreck of the USS Patapsco and its surrounding area using both the Klein 3900 and Marine Sonic Sea Scan sonars. The Patapsco, an iron-clad ship sunk by a Confederate mine between Forts Sumter and Moultrie, was originally discovered in 1981.

The location of the Patapsco was provided to CTI by Ralph Wilbanks, a local surveyor and former state marine archaeologist.

"The Silver Crescents expert helmsmen did a great job locating the Patapsco's location," added Gann. "They were guided over the survey lines using our flagship software for real-time side scan sonar acquisition and mosaicking-SonarWiz.MAP."

Presentations of the new SonarWiz.MAP contact database/reporting tools, 3D sonar visualization tools and a slide show by Garry Kozak of L3-Klein were also presented during the three days in Charleston.

"Another interesting part of the event involved giving SonarWiz and SonarWeb users the opportunity to guide future development of CTI releases," said Gann. "Participants voted for the top 30 enhancements they would like to see added to SonarWiz.MAP in 2008. We believe this adds to the value of the event."