boatieblog: 2012 NMEA Conference

I can’t lie, probably the most exciting part of attending this year’s National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) Conference was that I attended as a member of the press for the first time. And it was my very first press pass experience. For me, it was a great reminder of just how passionate the people in this industry are towards both pleasure and professional boating.

If you are unfamiliar with NMEA, they are an organization of manufacturers, dealers, distributors, boat builders, trade associates, and sales representatives that help develop technical standards for marine industry electronics. As an ANSI approved standards developer, they establish standards to help keep manufacturers, installers, and users on course in an ever changing technological landscape. As new and old systems combine and interface (and then somehow sync with your iPhone) the people at NMEA are behind the details of how these devices operate and communicate.

Click past the jump break to see some of the products I found at this year’s exhibits.

Pro Series Colours XFM HD and Controller

Speaking of passion, Zack Savage of OceanLED was by far the most passionate vendor I met at the conference. Zack enthusiastically showed me the blinding color choices available in the new Pro Series Colours XFM HD underwater light. OK, he didn’t have time to show me all of the 16 million color options, but he did cycle through enough to make his point. The light, or group of lights, can even be controlled with your iPhone or iPad via a wi-fi connection. If you have to ask you probably won’t want to pay for the full array to light up your hull like an underwater UFO. You’d also have to figure out a way to bring yourself to letting someone put that many 4 inch holes in your boat’s hull. On the other hand, think of how jealous your slip neighbor will be though.

ACR ResQLink Personal Locator Beacon

Next I stopped by the ACR booth to learn about their EPIRBs, PLBs, Rescue Lights, and Survival Products. Personally, I’ve been shopping around some PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) and it was nice to be able to ask some questions. Probably one of my favorite features of the ACR PLBs is that if you use it (legitimately) they will replace it free of charge. While the beacon’s battery is good for 6 years after date of manufacture or 5 years after service date, instead of buying a new one you can send the beacon into ACR and they will replace the battery and bring the unit up to snuff for a minimal fee, but that beats completely replacing it. If you wait till you need one it will be too late. If you act now ACR has some sweet promotions on select items. The ad below is the PLB I’ll be saving up for.

FLIRs Handheld Marine Lineup

The last booth I’ll tell you about was the FLIR display. As the forward looking infrared (FLIR) cameras have evolved and become more popular, the prices have come down and they have some great options for small boat owners as well. The handheld units are a great option for small boat owners as they can be used as a scope/binocular for night vision or you can soft mount the HM and BHM series and output their video to an external monitor. Plus, with the handheld units, they can pull double duty when you go out night hunting for bigfoot. FLIR’s top of the line model is a beast. Gyrostabilizer, two thermal cameras, and a daylight/lowlight camera; the Voyager III can lock onto and track a target and it has a visibility range of 4 miles. The Voyager III makes me want a large boat just so I can have this thing mounted on top. Check out FLIR’s full line of marine products here.

FLIR Voyager III

Unfortunately that was all the time I had at the NMEA conference. There were a lot more booths to see and some great conference seminars to attend, I'll at least have a much better idea what to expect the next time around. One last thing, NMEA offers a buyers guide tool that helps you not only find certified products but also certified dealers and installers to make sure you get the most out of your electronics. Follow this link for the guide.