KEY POINTS:
A new radar developed in New Zealand is being hailed as the most significant breakthrough in the field since 1940.
The Navico chief operating officer for Asia Pacific, John Scott, said the new broadband radar was a huge development and a paradigm shift.
"It's nice other people
are saying it because it reconfirms what you think."
Marine electronics manufacturer Navico, which has its headquarters in Norway, bought the marine division of Navman in 2007 and has made Auckland its international hub for research and development.
The company employs 150 people in New Zealand, where the new radar was developed and will be manufactured.
It was launched at the METS marine show in Amsterdam in November and the bold review was made by International Boat Industry magazine.
Navico's Broadband Radar has also won the supreme award for electronics at the National Marine Association of America annual awards.
The radar has been in development since 2002 and cost more than $10 million to develop, including more than $1 million from New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.
Scott said the new radar produced less than 1 watt of transmit power, compared with conventional radars which typically ranged from 2 to 25 kilowatts.
"It's the equivalent to having one cellphone transmitting or 25,000."
A traditional pulse radar used a powerful magnetron to generate microwave signals with short pulses of applied voltage, while the new radar used solid state broadband technology to send out a continuous transmission wave with increasing frequency.
The new radar eliminated the "dead space" experienced around boats with conventional systems, Scott said.
"If something's like 10 feet [3m] away and it's just finished a really big bang it [traditional radar] can't hear the noise," he said.
Traditional radar could also take up to two minutes to charge up. "So in an emergency situation [if] you have to flick your radar on at night, which is normally when things go wrong ... this thing turns on instantly."
It could also take about 10 uses to get comfortable tuning a traditional radar, he said.
"This [new radar] negates all the negative effects that radar has - difficult to use, safety, installation and ease of use. This fixes all of those problems."
The maximum range of the new product was 24 nautical miles, meaning boat owners wanting to see further could use both the traditional and the new broadband radar.
"We don't see any customer who wouldn't want this but we do see customers who wouldn't want or don't need the old type of radar."
Scott was not aware of anyone else in the industry developing such a radar. "They'll have to start now because I believe in the next two years we will just completely destroy the 2- and 4-kilowatt market, which accounts for 60 per cent of the boat market."
The addressable market for the new radar was worth about US$90 million a year. Scott believed any boat under about 13m would prefer the new radar.
Navico hoped to grow the overall size of the market.
The new radar would be sold under various brands including special features and was expected to sell for about US$2000 ($3945) in the United States, with limited availability from April 30.
