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Marport Names Sean Chapman as Chief Sonar Engineer

ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND – APRIL 20, 2011 - Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc., a leading developer of Software Defined Sonar® technology, has named Sean Chapman as Chief Sonar Engineer. Chapman has nearly 20 years of technical leadership in the design and development of Synthetic Aperture Sonar for commercial and military programs.

Working closely with Marport’s acoustic imaging science and engineering teams, Chapman will ensure that Marport’s new imaging sonar solutions are designed and built on sound physics and engineering principles, while paying close attention to management of technical risks. He will directly lead the product team responsible for the overall engineering and system architecture for Marport’s software-defined Synthetic Aperture Sonar platform.

“Sean Chapman is highly regarded in the underwater defence community for his applied technical expertise and deep domain experience," said Karl Kenny, President & CEO of Marport. “His leadership, combined with his ability to understand complex mission requirements and apply sophisticated technology, will serve to strengthen Marport’s sonar capabilities as we support our commercial and military customers.”

“I am delighted to join this team. Marport’s commitment to developing innovative underwater acoustic technologies will enable us to continue our global growth. The integration of Software Defined Sonar® with Synthetic Aperture Sonar technology provides us with a unique opportunity to build an advanced acoustics platform for ocean exploration and underwater defence," says Chapman.

Chapman joins Marport from Ultra Electronics, where, as Chief Scientist for Sonar Systems, he was responsible for the engineering and integration of highly complex sonar systems. He previously served as Ultra’s Assistant Chief Engineer and was the engineering lead for development of advanced sonar hardware. Prior to Ultra, Sean was technical leader for high resolution mine countermeasure sonars at QinetiQ UK, which included the UK Ministry of Defence Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) research program. During his service, he designed broadband mine-hunting sonars for conventional and SAS operation. Key activities included development of robust SAS processing architecture and implementation of sonar digital signal processing in FPGAs.

Sean began his professional engineering career at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency UK working on research and development programs related to advanced military sonar systems. He received his First Class honours B.Sc. in Pure and Applied Physics with Electronics from Nottingham University, UK.

Sean commences employment with Marport on May 16 th and will be based in Weymouth, UK.

About Synthetic Aperture Sonar

Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) provides image quality that is unmatched by conventional sonars and is a key underwater technology whenever high resolution is required. The technology can contribute towards the reduction of several capability shortfalls identified by NATO navies, such as difficulties in detecting and classifying maritime mines for reasons of size, shape, material or location. Furthermore, a by-product of SAS is a highly accurate ground velocity for autonomous underwater vehicle navigation applications, to further limit the drift of aided inertial navigation systems. In addition, when combined with depth estimation techniques, SAS can deliver high quality 3D images of the seabed which are sufficient to meet or exceed even the most demanding standards for hydrographic surveys today.

About Software Defined Sonar

Software Defined Sonar (SDS) is a technology platform for underwater sensing and communications that uses software and hardware modules that can be dynamically re-programmed for multi-function applications. The use of SDS technology allows many new features and capabilities to be added to existing sonar systems without requiring expensive upgrades. Marport’s SDS transceivers are software-defined and capable of operating over a frequency spectrum of 1 kHz to 1.25 MHz with a variable simultaneous bandwidth of 100Hz narrowband) up to 1.25MHz for spread spectrum applications. The transceivers are modular in design and can be scaled to over 2,000 individual channels to address a wide variety of underwater sensing and communications for military and commercial applications. Digital signal processing is executed in multiple FPGA cores allowing very high flexibility and massively parallel processing performance. The flexibility of the system’s software reconfigurable “sonar computer” increases underwater tactical capability, improves functionality, enhances signal processing and substantially reduces costs - all while replacing racks of legacy sonar equipment.

About Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc.

Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc. is a world leading innovator and developer of Software Defined Sonar® technology and products used in a wide variety of underwater sensing and communication applications in Commercial Fisheries, Underwater Defense, Offshore Energy and Ocean Science. Unlike traditional hardware sonar designs, Marport’s software-centric sonar platform is unique in that it supports dynamic re-configuration of multiple functions, waveforms and signal processing techniques. Marport was recently named by Marine Technology Reporter as one of the Top 100 marine technology companies in the world. For more information, visit www.marport.com

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