Many of you will be aware of the concept of so-called “SMART” – Science Monitoring and Reliable Telecommunications cables.  The idea is simple – to incorporate temperature, pressure and acceleration sensors into repeaters for the purposes of detecting earthquakes and tsunamis, studying climate and improving our knowledge of the Earth’s interior.  However, the implementation has not been simple; despite a decade of study, no SMART cables have yet been developed or deployed.  Naturally, the endeavor has chicken and egg syndrome: without a proven, working example, no one will undertake the effort to develop one.  Anything that will slow the installation, increase the cost, or (possibly) reduce the reliability of a submarine cable system is anathema to developers and owners.

Last week, Ocean Specialists (OSI), was well represented at ITW2019 with the attendance of Tom Soja (VP) and Tony Mosley (Director of Business Development), who formed part of the more than 7000 attendees of this key annual telecom conference. Running from the 22^nd to the 25^th of June, this was the first year that the conference was held in Atlanta, GA.

As articles of subsea cable system installations become more prominent in news feeds, the focus tends to be on the route and installation. Knowing that there is a myriad of critical steps during the development, fabrication, and installation of a subsea cable, one that is not talked about often is that of the cable load, the reason probably due to the monotony of the process.

Ocean Specialists, Inc. (OSI) was represented by Perry Wright, Director of Integrated Subsea Systems at the International Cable Protection Committee’s 2019 Plenary Meeting in San Diego in May. The Plenary was a well-attended 3-day event with wide-ranging presentations, discussions, and meetings on just about every topic that is current and relevant to the protection of existing and planned submarine cables across the world.

Ocean Specialists Inc. (OSI) was in Houston last month for the 50th anniversary of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), where the theme of “Going the Distance” reflected on what is there to expect for the next 50 years of the conference and offshore Oil and Gas technology. With almost 60 thousand attendees from over 100 nations, OTC proved to be the conference to attend for all things O&G.

On May 7th, QTS hosted a NAP Summit at their Richmond data center and Ocean Specialists Inc (OSI) was there to understand how data center growth will interact with and drive subsea network development.