Garmin, Furuno take top marine electronics awards

Oct 13, 2017 by Triton Staff

The marine electronics industry honored several manufacturers with product awards at the annual International Marine Electronics Conference & Expo, held Sept. 26-28 in Bellevue, Washington.

Garmin was named 2017 NMEA Manufacturer of the Year for support of its products in the field.

The 2017 NMEA Technology Award went to Furuno’s DFF3D deep-water multi-beam sonar in a competition involving 10 nominated products. This annual award scores new products based on innovation, benefit to boaters, practicality and value. An independent four-person panel of judges selected the winner.

“What stood out about the Furuno DFF3D from the many worthy contenders is that it is the industry’s first deep-water multi-beam sonar,” the judges wrote. “It delivers a side-scan range of more than 650 feet and can see straight down to over 1,000 feet. Its unique 165 kHz frequency allows you to view the DFF3D sonar while simultaneously utilizing your conventional or CHIRP sonar. On top of that, boaters can customize its display using four modes-cross-section, 3D sounder history, triple/single-beam sounder and side scan.”

There were 18 product categories this year, including two new ones: Marine PC Software and Remote Vessel Monitoring System. The 2017 NMEA Product of Excellence Award winners are:

For Autopilots, the Garmin GHP Reactor.
For Multi-Function Display, the Garmin GPSMAP 8624.
For Radar, the Garmin GMR 24 Fantom Dome.
For Fish Finder, the Garmin GSD 26 CHIRP Pro Sonar Module.
For Marine VHF Radio, the Icom M605.
For Satellite Communications Antenna, KVH’s TracPhone V3IP.
For Underwater Lights, Lumishore’s EOS TIX402.
For Commercial, Furuno’s FAR2127 IMO Radar.
For Marine PC Software, Nobeltec’s TZ Professional.
For Satellite TV Antenna, KVH’s TracVision TV3.
For AIS, the Garmin AIS 600 Blackbox Transceiver.
For NMEA 2000 Sensor, the Actisense NGT-1.
For Marine App – Aids to Navigation, the Garmin BlueChart.
For Marine App – Technical, the Garmin Helm.
For Marine Camera, Flir’s M-625.
For Multimedia Entertainment, Fusion’s MS-AV750.
For Safety Device, the McMurdo SmartFind G5 Auto GPS EPIRB.
For Remote Vessel Monitoring System, Gost’s Phantom Insight HD.

Judges included NMEA certified marine electronics technicians (CMETs) Steve Wallace of Lunde Marine Electronics and Greg Pohl of Yacht Systems Northwest, along with boating electronics writer David Schmidt and Marine Electronics Journal Editor Jim Fullilove.

For more information, visit www.nmea.org.

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