Sailing news from Finland!

The other day, I received some photographs on my e-mail, which made me conclude that Planar’s 12” marine monitors have found a permanent home in Finland. In the picture above you see LX1201PTI integrated on to the sailboat steering pedestal.

Our Finnish marine monitor distributor Navigreen is working in close co-operation with yacht builder Finngulf Yachts. They have just completed a project to create a 43 feet Performance Cruiser yacht, this being hull #3 of the project Finngulf 43. The good news for us is, that the yacht’s hi-tec equipment include two LX1200s.

The yacht, pictured on the right, is called Isadora 2.0, which to me sounds like a well-suited name for the era of Web 2.0 with all of its modern equipment. The official launch was on 1st May 2009. The yacht has been designed for competing as well as for leisure sailing. The picture below shows one of the first times Isadora 2.0 ever took sail on the Baltic Sea in April 2009. Steering on the starboard side is the designer’s son, Jaripekka Salminen, and on the port side Jaripekka´s brother Jarkko Salminen.

The original order for the yacht was made by Pekka Salminen and everything in the yacht, inside and out, is tailor-made design for it. The designer of the yacht’s interior is also Pekka Salminen of PES-Architects. Their references include winning an international invitation competition for new opera house in China in summer 2008 and they specialise in airport design (projects e.g. in Helsinki and Moscow).

There is a Planar LX monitor integrated on both starboard and port pedestals, which can be seen in the picture with Jarkko and Jaripekka. These are additional to the standard display inside the cabin. The designers and builders of the yacht have already complemented the monitors: Navigreen took a risk and convinced the designers about Planar as a new supplier of marine monitors and lucky for Navigreen: their client’s expectations for the performance of these monitors have been exceeded! Sami Toivonen of Navigreen says: ”They keep telling me: ’The monitors really are as great as you told us!’ and I am not just saying that, they are really pleased with the LXs!” Navigreen also supplied the Nobeltech navigation system for Isadora 2.0. Isadora 2.0 is also mentioned as one of the 2008 highlights in Offshore Spars 2008-2009 Newsletter.

Similar yacht with more standard interior and equipment will be delivered to Chicago in June this year, though that one doesn’t have the LXs integrated... at least not yet...

Getting ready for Electronica 2008

We are currently getting ready to send the demos to Electronica 2008. Here is a brief of what we'll demonstrate out of Planar's industrial product range. You will find our team and the demos in hall A3 stand number 259.

SD2620W, our largest 3D stereoscopic monitor, has taken up the largest box to be sent. You can find information on the full range of 3D products at http://www.planar3d.com/ We have also gathered a selection of our electroluminescent (EL) displays to demonstrate the variety of our wide temperature range products available. It is a good product range to show at any time and now with the extended operating temperature range from -60 celsius to +95 celsius, we are even more happy to exhibit these products. For EL facts, read more from http://www.planarembedded.com/technology/el/.

The green version of our transparent (TASEL) displays made it on time for the show with several other TASEL demos on display. Another product extension has been in the LX-range, where more marine monitors have been added to the range, so you'll find different sizes of the LX monitors on display at our stand. More information about the LX range for marine applications can be found at http://www.planarembedded.com/products/mariner/.

You're most welcome to come and visit Planar at Electronica 2008 in Munich in November.
Hall A3 stand 259.