Applied Acoustics Debuts Nexus 2

At this year’s Oceanology International Conference & Exhibition in London, Applied Acoustic Engineering (AAE) launched several new products, including an enhanced USBL system. Nexus 2 is the second generation two-way digital system designed and produced by the U.K.-based company that takes the performance and features of the Nexus USBL system to a new level. Developed with an emphasis on far greater accuracy whilst positioning over an extended operational range, the Nexus 2 provides a reliable and secure acoustic link with an extremely low susceptibility to interference.

Fundamental to the Nexus 2 system is AAE’s Sigma 2 digital acoustic coding, a proprietary set of bidirectional spread spectrum acoustic protocols devised by the company’s in-house R&D team. These protocols working with a complementary transducer design mean that positional accuracies of up to 0.15 percent slant range have been achieved.

Alongside the USBL development, AAE also showcased a new series of acoustic beacons to complement the Nexus 2. Based on the same Sigma 2 protocols, the 1100 Series Beacon has evolved to provide more accurate positioning, very long battery life and now has the addition of data telemetry options when used with the Nexus 2. 

For standard positioning and tracking tasks, Nexus 2 is also compatible with AAE’s 1000 Series beacons, 1200A and 1300A Micro beacons, and some of the older AAE ‘tone’ products (900 Series).