Software for processing multi-beam acoustic data

SAV Monitoring/Mapping CoP Monitoring in the Field
1

Hi All,

A colleague at VIMS is helping to setup a multi-beam system on our large research vessel. They have acquisition software, but are looking at the options for processing the data for seafloor mapping. Does anyone have experience with this and could share suggestions?

Thanks!

  • Dave
2

Hi Dave,
One of the labs at DISL uses a multi-beam for benthic habitat mapping for fisheries and maybe able to help. I’ve emailed the lead technician and will post again once I get his reply.
Dottie

1 Like
3

@dwilcox here’s what I found out…

That’s literally what I do, so here’s my promo:

I’ve been using SonarWiz since I started working on sonar projects here - so I don’t know much about other software - but SonarWiz does everything from running the sonar to captain navigation displays to post-processing and bathy editing. It’s meant to be an all-in-one modular package compatible with any sonar (side-scan, multibeam, sub-bottom, magnetometer, etc). And if it doesn’t they brag that they’ll just change it to make it so. The downside I will mention is that since they are constantly updating it, there are the occasional bugs that randomly pop up with a new version. But their team is easy to work with and responsive. They have annual workshops and online videos - thank God - to train you. Or do what Stan always said and RTFM (Read The heckin Manual).

Chesapeake Technology - Makers of SonarWiz

SonarWiz Videos and Webinars | Chesapeake Technology

SW-BathymetryDatasheet2021.pdf (chesapeaketech.com)

I can put these two folks together if your colleague has more questions :relaxed:

4

Thanks! I’ll pass along the info.

1 Like
5

Hi Dave - I’ve had a lot of success using SonarTRX for sidescan (for SAV mapping) and echo soundings (for depth) processing and its a fantastic software package: https://www.sonartrx.com/

Very affordable at about $300 for a single license and software, and it can be used with many acquisition units (garmin, lowrance, humminbird, starfish, edgetech etc). Note this is an economy software made to work with economy units - I think most of the bigger outfits like Klein have their own processing software.

Jill

1 Like
6

Thanks! I’ll pass this along.