- Markets
- Oil and gas
- Marine
- Nuclear
- Defence
- Transport and infrastructure
- Renewable energy
- Ports and terminals
- Construction
- Services
- Inspection and monitoring
- Lifting and handling
- Marine services
- Mooring and fendering
- Nuclear equipment and services
- Offshore support
- Design and engineering
- Submarine rescue
- Subsea
- Investors
- COVID-19
- Share price summary and chart
- Major shareholders
- Financial information
- Board of Directors
- Advisors and registrars
- AGM information
- Investor news (RNS)
- Governance
- Investor relations contact information
- Be ScamSmart
- Condition monitoring
- Construction plant productivity and safety
- Onshore geotechnical monitoring
- Load cells
- Marine safety systems
- Nuclear plant characterisations
- Offshore safety systems
- PyroSentry™
- Radiation detection equipment
- Strain rings
- Structural monitoring
- X-ray inspection systems
- Container Weight System™
- Crane overload monitoring
- Hose and umbilical reelers
- Lifting equipment
- Load links
- Load shackles
- Marine cranes
- Winches and hoists
- Fuels infrastructure
- Mermaid®
- Offshore personnel
- Offshore Wind Management System®
- Ship management services
- Ship-to-ship transfers
- Ship-to-Turbine™
- Shoreside support
- Surface preparation
- Vessel chartering
- Wind turbine blade inspections
- Site preparation
- Installation and commissioning
- Operations and maintenance
- Digital solutions
- Anchor and chain monitoring
- Deck and mooring equipment
- Fendering
- Flotation
- Line tension monitors
- Mooring load monitoring
- Towing load monitoring
- Building infrastructure and services
- Containerised systems
- Engineered containments
- Manipulators and tooling
- Mechanical and remote handling
- Radiation tolerant equipment
- Remote inspection systems
- Safety and control systems
- Shielded equipment and facilities
- Trials, training and simulation
- Artificial lift
- Compressors and breathing air compressors
- Centrifugal and positive displacement pumps
- Heat suppression
- Offshore equipment
- Offshore pipeline services
- Steam generators
- Safety slick joint
- Safety bails
- Well test support
- Aerospace engineering
- Fabrication
- Hazardous area design and engineering
- Marine projects
- Mechanical and electrical design
- Specialist engineering design
- Specialist structures consultancy
- Atmosphere sampler
- ELSS pods and bags
- Equipment assessment and support
- Flyaway ROV systems
- Inflatable freeboard extender
- Intervention targets
- James Fisher Submarine Rescue Service
- LR5 manned submersible
- Submarine escape training tower
- Submersible mating targets
- Subsea operations training
- Transfer under pressure systems
- Dive equipment
- Diving services
- Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs)
- Salvage
- Subsea excavation
- Subsea engineering
- Containerised deployment solutions
- Launch and recovery systems
- Swimmer delivery vehicles
- Special operations consultancy
- Special operations training
- Company reports, accounts and presentations
- Dividend centre
- Financial calendar
- Five year record
- Sector review
- Our stakeholders
- Committees
- Principal risks and uncertainties
- Business ethics, anti-bribery and corruption policies
- Modern slavery act transparency statement
- Gender pay report
- Tax strategy
- Health and safety
- Our people
- The Sir John Fisher Foundation
- Board changes - Remuneration
- James Fisher Renewables backs APAC offshore wind growth with six in-market appointments for Korea and Taiwan
- James Fisher and Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Group sign strategic agreement
- James Fisher Renewables commits to further investment in Taiwan to support local government
- JFD completes three consecutive Submarine Rescue Exercises in Quarter One 2022
- Archive
- JFD conducts a hydrostatic pressure test
- James Fisher increases offshore wind asset operations and maintenance (O&M) portfolio
- JFD hosts a dive tank test and demonstration
- JFD tests a submarine hull at their National Hyperbaric Centre
- Archive
14 February 2017
JFD's HeliCom system to be used in NASA and NEDU experiment
Subsea to space communication: JFD's helium speech communication system to be used in world-first experiment.
JFD, the world-leading subsea operations and manufacturing company and part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has the opportunity to be part of a ground breaking experiment through its helium speech communication system, the HeliCom Matrix.
The experiment, to conduct a call between an astronaut in space and a diver in saturation will be the first of its kind. NASA and NEDU (Navy Experimental Diving Unit, part of the US Navy) have been comparing similarities between outer space and subsea and are to arrange a telephone call between an astronaut living at the international space station and a diver in saturation within the NEDU facility in Panama City, Florida. This is to be conducted through the HeliCom Matrix based at NEDU, to allow the effects of helium on the diver's speech to be removed making his communications more audible.
The HeliCom Matrix is designed for helium speech communications with the occupants of a complete saturation chamber complex. As saturation divers breathe heliox (a mix of helium and oxygen) their speech becomes high pitched and resembles what many know as the “Donald Duck” effect. This makes understanding what the divers say very difficult. The JFD range of Divex HeliCom unscramblers and matrix system unscrambles the helium speech using a vocal tract modeller digital helium unscrambler which essentially converts raw helium speech back to intelligible communications as if no heliox is present.
There is a huge improvement to diver safety when highly intelligible communications are in place. When a supervisor can understand divers clearly using the unscrambling technology offered on the HeliCom unscrambler range, this eliminates potential miscommunication or misunderstanding, especially when a diver may be trying to communicate an issue.
The HeliCom Matrix's primary function is to provide communications between the chamber occupants and the supervisor however it also provides for entertainment and telephone calls. This allows a diver's family to call from home and speak to them through the matrix system, where the unscrambler function will reverse the effects on their speech caused by the heliox gas mix and allow a normal conversation to take place.
Watch a news clip about the NASA NEDU HeliCom experiment.
UPDATE:
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, onboard the International Space Station, successfully spoke to US Navy divers in a simulated 500ft saturation dive at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, USA. The divers talked to Pesquet for over 10 minutes about the similarities of the environments they faced, which was live-streamed on Facebook.
"The physiology and science is similar between saturation diving and going into outer space."
Said Navy Experimental Diving Unit Lt. David Meadows.
Their mission was to test their lines of communication, from deep-sea to space.
"Diving communications are important because the diver is the eyes and ears and hands of the control room or the Master Diver who's supervising the dives."
said NEDU Dive & Medical Officer Lt. Jonathan Brown.
Watch the space to subsea conversation on Facebook.
You can also find out more about the call from the International Space Station to the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit with these articles:
- Navy Experimental Diving Unit works with astronaut during saturation dive - Panama City local news.