It’s showtime!

Our CEO, Chris Brooks talks about shows and expos, the importance of attending or exhibiting, and the huge amount of interest generated for our CSignum EM technology.

San Diego – Oceanology International

It is many years since I had last visited San Diego and it was great to be back. It really is a wonderful city. We were staying downtown and the conference venue was just a ten minute walk through the Gaslamp Quarter.

This particular conference is held in London and San Diego on alternate years and although we exhibited in London one last year, this was our first time demonstrating our technology, and boy are we glad we did! The reception (excuse the pun!) our EM-1 modem got was stupendous!

Get ready, get set …

Our booth was in a great location, just opposite the exit from all the talks and plenary sessions, so we were in a perfect place to speak to people as they came out.

We had lots of “bits of kit” to show attendees and had many interesting conversations with potential partners – as well as some we have been working with already. This included Ocean Aero, the marine engineering company who have created the first ever AUSV (Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicle) which can sail and submerge autonomously to collect data both above and under the ocean’s surface.

Some ideal conversations

One of our main strengths at CSignum is to marry up with robotics companies for data harvesting, and several of our conversations at Oi were with people in the robotics industries. The common thread was definitely surprise at the capability and the results of all our EM-1 trials. Even people who have been involved in this sort of technology for many years were impressed by the reliability and repeated successes of our data transfer testing.

Our reputation is growing … and our language evolving

One of the things that really struck me was that other people were talking about us too! People would come over to the stand and exclaim “Oh you are the guys that so-and-so was telling us about!” and that was really heartening.

Another real positive to come out of San Diego was how much talking to people about your technology helps us to refine and finesse how we talk about our technology! We have come back with some great ideas about how to laser-focus our messaging, and we could easily see that explaining how it’s all to do with magnetism really grabbed attention.

The Eagles on the stereo

You know you have done a good show when you have absolutely no voice left at the end of it! Well, that was me. It was also great to spend time with the team, outside of normal work, and to go out for a team dinner. If you are ever in San Diego, you must try The Wolf in the Woods – kind of New Mexican fusion cookery. Delicious! And then it was time to drive to LAX … with The Eagles playing on the stereo, of course!

Subsea Expo – Aberdeen

This event was billed as a ‘showcase of the UK’s £8billion underwater industry’ – apparently there were more than 6,000 attendees over the 3 days, from more than 60 countries.

It was definitely busy! We were not exhibiting at this event, just ‘walking the floor’ and mingling, but it was so worthwhile to do so! It was clear by the second day in that the great reception we got in San Diego for how we connect wirelessly through the surface to reach underwater data sources was only building.

The Eureka moment

Whether speaking with sensor manufacturers, uncrewed vehicles, ports or US Navy personnel, finally bringing data

out of the water
into the air
onto a standard network
WITHOUT CABLES

typically generated big smiles!

The smiles were followed by expressions of a true ‘Aha’ moment – the simplicity of using the energy of magnetism (instead of sound or light because these fail) through the surface, into the air, and back again.

Magnets, paper and iron filings

It was fun to hear people recall their science lessons in school – seems like everyone who ever did even the most basic physics remembered doing something with magnets, paper and iron filings! Those electro-magnet science projects of their youth meant that they could imagine and visualise connecting magnetic fields – which exactly sums up our method of transmitting data without cables.

What the future holds

Several companies have requested follow-up meetings to explore the details, including sensor providers, port authorities, and suppliers of uncrewed vehicles.

Scotland looked as beautiful as ever – from the plane! Next time hopefully I will be able to stay a little longer, sample the scenery, maybe even sample a whisky or two!

Ocean Business – Southampton

At Ocean Business 2023, we had the opportunity to showcase a live demo of the EM-1. That’s right, we had an actual fish tank at our stand! With the EM-1 sitting inside the fish tank, we demonstrated the seamless transmission of data WIRELESSLY through the water-air barrier.

Later, Marine Technology TV caught up with us to discuss our revolutionary technology. Topics such as: