Compact Subsea Survey Tools - Meridian Ocean Services

As government agencies, research institutions, academia, and a range of industries look for new light-weight and low-cost solutions for subsea survey and inspection tasks, it becomes clear that new companies are entering the market with the goal of providing these specific services. At the same time the industry that manufactures the tools for these tasks, such as ROV’s, AUV’s and sensors and visualization software are also bringing in compact and affordable, yet powerful, products. Using the latest technology applied to inshore and offshore areas, these companies may soon be competing with established brands and in some case they offer services that few companies in the world can offer, creating their own niche. Today we will take a look at one of these up-and-coming companies: Meridian Ocean Services.

Meridian Ocean Services is a young company that provides subsea survey and inspection solutions that leverage the latest in ROV, AUV and advanced imaging technology. Meridian, which was founded in 2012, works across a variety of industries to optimize subsea survey and inspection efforts. While it is true that work class vehicles are capable, yet not ideal for inshore work, shallow and mid-water deployments or wide area survey, their purchase and operational costs can be prohibitive.

Meridian has built its observation and light work class fleet to be agile and can be quickly deployed with a small crew. With innovative approaches that employ combined deployments of ROVs and AUVs to address industry-specific survey and inspection requirements, Meridian’s fleet of vehicles is available for rapid deployment around the world. This globally deployable concept can definitely be interesting for time sensitive projects. Meridian is headquartered in Newport, Rhode Island and has additional presence in Houston, Texas; Lafayette, Louisiana; Pensacola, Florida; and Nassau, Bahamas.

Meridian specializes in subsea imaging inspection and their compact ROV's are ideal for subsea infrastructure inspection, including various non-destructive testing methods, such as water jetting, CP, UT, FMD, MPI and CVI. Their ROV's can operate in a traditional LARS format (Launch and Recovery) or in a free flying containerized format to minimize deck space. They currently use these ROV’s and AUV;

• Sub-Atlantic Super Mohawk

• Saab Seaeye Lynx

• Saab Seaeye Falcon & Falcon DR

• VideoRay Pro4

• Iver AUV

Meridian's in and offshore vehicle deployments are faster while leaving a small footprint. Meridian also is mindful that different jobs require different equipment and stresses the fact that there is no reason to be saddled with size and power that you don't need. Which is a very true fact and one that if not addressed, can lead to unnecessary expenses and lost time.