Sonavision brings three decades of experience in underwater technology. It is a leader in the fields of seabed classification, imaging sonar, subsea sensors, and through-water emergency communications for diver safety. We supply a range of specialist lights and cameras for subsea use.

Our customers are subsea service companies working in oil and gas, commercial fishermen, diving companies, underwater surveyors, and suppliers to the defence sector.

We provide and support our products worldwide via a network of international distributors, and offer product service and support from our base in Aberdeen in the UK.

Through-water communications

Through-water communication tools can be a vital piece of equipment, particularly in emergency situations where the diver needs to communicate with the surface vessel during failure of the wired communications sytem in the diving bell.

Sonavision is a developer of communications, lights, sensors, sonar and camera equipment for subsea applications.
Subcomm 2000 is a trusted safety system for all major diving companies.
Sonarvision will develop a custom video camera if none of the 26 models in the Hawkeye range suit customer requirements.
The RoxAnn GD-Z stereo gathers data from two independent echo sounder sources and maps sediment types and depths of softer sediments overlying harder substrates.
The SV1010 is an upgrade of the company’s Mercury scanning sonar, with a high resolution and a scan rate improvement of 100%.

The system operates acoustically through the water between two transducers, allowing it to bypass the wired bell umbilical, and has a battery time of more than 20 hours.

Sonavision’s Subcom 2000 has become the industry standard in emergency through-water communications, and has become a trusted safety system for all major diving companies over the past two decades.

It operates at 27kHz with 4.2kHz bandwidth. All of the bell unit electronics are housed in external pressure housings to eliminate helium ingression and high humidity problems.

Key features of the Subcom 2000 include:

  • Up to 3km range
  • 1,000m pressure rated
  • Robust and simple to operate
  • Suitable for air and helium environments
  • Independent rechargeable power supply option
  • Modularity for simple maintenance
  • High visibility strobe light option

Hawkeye video cameras

Sonavision’s Hawkeye cameras and lamps are simple, compact and easy to use and maintain. Using the latest camera modules, a wide range of cameras and lights are available in a variety of materials to suit varying water depths. These range from acetol, aluminium and steel to titanium for extreme applications.

Choices for cameras include colour or low-light black and white; transmission of signal can either be by balanced line or composite video. There is also a choice of connectors and power supply.

Sonavision’s balanced line driver overcomes the losses of a composite video signal over a long cable and can drive several hundreds of metres of twisted pair, depending on the condition of the cable. A small adapter converts the balanced line output to composite video for display/recording. This is particularly useful on ROVs and in diving operations where there are noisy or old cables in the system.

  • Diver helmet mounted
  • ROV mounted
  • Suitable for long cables
  • Remote access
  • Low light options
  • Colour and black white cameras
  • Composite video output
  • Balanced line drive output
  • Acetol and titanium body
  • Suitable for helium gas environment

Our ever-expanding range of Hawkeye video cameras now boasts a grand total of 26 different models.

Seabed classification products

RoxAnn works by identifying the material characteristics of the sea bottom from echosounder returns from the seabed. It interfaces with a GPS and a PC running a 2D or 3D mapping package to enable seabed classification mapping in real time.

The RoxAnn GD family consists of:

  • RoxAnn GD Fishing with RoxMap Fishing software – a single frequency system that is economical and particularly suitable for commercial fishermen
  • RoxAnn GD-A system for survey with RoxMap scientific software – this is available for operation of a single frequency, dual frequency or four frequency system
  • RoxAnn GroundMaster (RoxAnn GD-X and RxAnnGD-X2 ) for survey – this is a self-contained portable, to be used on board small vessels when no dedicated survey vessel is available; GroundMaster comes with its own built-in echosounder and is available for single or dual frequency operation
  • RoxAnn Stereo (RoxAnn GD-Z) with RoxAnn Stereo software – gathers data simultaneously from two independent echo sounder sources and maps sediment types and depths of softer sediments overlying harder substrates
  • RoxAnn Swath (RoxAnn GD-S) multi beam system with RoxAnn swath software – the GD-S multi-beam capability allows the user to cover more seabed in each pass than would be possible using a single beam system, leading to greater efficiency and reduced survey costs

Sonar and survey sensors

Sonavision provides three sonar models in the range: SV1010, SV2020 and SV4040. They are mechanical scanning sonars and operate over a wide range of tuneable frequency. The models mainly vary based on tuneable frequency and range. The tuneability feature gives the advantage of long range towards the lower end of frequency and high-resolution images towards high frequencies.

The heart of these sonars is a class-leading 1:3 composite transducer providing operation over a wide range of these tuneable frequencies.

  • SV1010 – frequency range 600kHz to 1,200kHz; range up to 75m; depth (optional) either 300m (acetol) or 3,000m (titanium housing); possible areas of usage: small ROVs, body searching, etc.
  • SV2020 – frequency range 325kHz to 675kHz; range up to 150m; depth 3,000m (titanium housing); possible areas of usage: medium ROVs, positioning platforms
  • SV4040 – frequency range 250kHz to 500kHz; range up to 350m; depth 3,000m (titanium housing); possible areas of usage: work class ROVs, positioning platforms, long-range useful for surveillance – due to high source levels (power output) this could be useful for scanning while ploughing where the dirt and dust obstruct the images

Repair and maintenance services

Sonavision has customers around the world, using an installed base of both current products and legacy products dating back over 20 years.

We are equipped with a 4m x 3m x 2m water tank and pressure test system, which enables us to test our underwater equipment thoroughly.

All products undergoing service or repair are tested prior to certification and return to the customer.

Because of harsh working environments and many years of use, some products returned to us may be beyond economic repair. In this case we’ll offer customers an appropriate alternative.