Micro-ROV Experts Receive Awards at Industry Conference

Annual VIPS Dinner in Key Largo is host to Ceremony

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	Marcus Kolb, Director of Research and Development at VideoRay LLC, awards Most Innovative VideoRay Accessory to Lee Thompson, CTO of BlueView Technologies

At the VideoRay International Partner Symposium (VIPS), awards constructed from actual Alpha-test GTO thrusters were given to the best in the micro-ROV industry. These individuals demonstrated their superiority in a number of different categories.

The Most Challenging Mission award was presented to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, for their use of six VideoRays simultaneously in the search for James King in the St. Louis River in Duluth, MN. Mr. King’s widow, Judy King, attended the conference and gave a stirring talk about how much rescuers mean to drowning victims’ survivors.

The Best Operations Story award went to Steve Van Meter of NASA, who managed to leave a VideoRay behind in water deeper than 200 feet not once but twice inside of two months. Steve explained how this happened, and how it cost him two cases of beer to have the units recovered, in his presentation earlier in the week “What to Do if when You Have a Bad Day”

The VideoRay Skills Competition went to Christopher Stanton of the US Navy in Groton, Connecticut. Mr. Stanton’s score on the VideoRay ‘Lympics course in the Marriot Pool was outstanding. The best ROVINFO web posting award went to Jon Myers of the US Coast Guard Marine Safety and Security Team 91101 (Seattle), for his post on the use of a VideoRay in Testing and Evaluation of the RB-S 25 ft Defender Class Boat.

The Best VideoRay Gadget award, in a controversial decision, went to the director of the conference – Tom Glebas, of VideoRay LLC for his clear plastic float block protector. This was a result of the technique used to decide the award – a popular vote among the 20 choices. The judges determined that, in the future, manufacturers and their employees would be declared ineligible for awards, but were unable to change the technique for the 2005 calendar year.

The coveted "Marcus Kolb" – Most Innovative VideoRay Accessory Award went to BlueView Technologies of Seattle, Washington for their ProViewer 450 multibeam sonar. This new device – just recently announced – was demonstrated on a VideoRay at the conference and was a frequent topic of discussion in the ongoing search for better techniques to find objects and navigate in murky water.

VideoRay now has far more Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) in service around the world than any manufacturer, and is delivering additional ROVs at an increasing rate. Weighing just 8 pounds and starting at $5995 USD, VideoRays can be equipped with sonar, positioning systems or other accessories, and are used for underwater surveys, offshore inspections, search and recovery, homeland defense, science, fish farming and a range of applications in underwater environments. In August, the General Services Administration (GSA) awarded VideoRay a contract to supply vehicles to the US government, making it easier and faster for many agencies to acquire one. See http://www.videoray.com/GSA for more information.

For further information:
Chris Gibson chris.gibson@videoray.com
VideoRay LLC Director, Marketing
Phone: 610.458.3000
www.videoray.com

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