Oct 13, 2020

Vesper Marine, a leading manufacturer of innovative marine safety products, announced today the WatchMate XB-8000 smartAIS has been awarded the Product of Excellence Award by the 2020 National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) Conference and Expo in the AIS category. The awards were presented virtually on Saturday, September 26, 2020.

The Product of Excellence Awards are voted on by professional marine electronics installing NMEA dealers, qualified NMEA technicians and fellow marine electronics manufacturers.

“We are honored to have our XB-8000 selected as a Product of Excellence winner and are grateful to the NMEA for their support,” said Brady Cox, Vesper Marine CEO. “Our smartAIS technology we built for this product has become widely known in the industry and trusted by our customers. With well proven benefits, we chose to carry this innovative functionality into further product lines, including our Vision2 and revolutionary Cortex system that reimagines VHF technology.”

The Vesper smartAIS transponders incorporate built-in safety alarms to alert boaters of potential collision, dragging anchor and man overboard situations. An extensible platform, smartAIS receives new innovative features updated automatically through a smartphone app. The XB-8000 smartAIS device includes WiFi connectivity for up to five mobile devices anywhere on board, allowing boaters using the WatchMate app to monitor vessel information, manage alarms and much more – right from their mobile device.

The smartAIS technology developed for the WatchMate XB-8000 and Vision products has received numerous awards and has become a key part of future product development for Vesper Marine. smartAIS was a building block of the recently released Vesper Marine Cortex, the world’s first VHF radio with wireless touchscreen handsets, a built-in Class B SOTDMA smartAIS transponder and remote vessel monitoring. Using smartAIS, Cortex provides unparalleled safety by alerting boaters of collision risks, providing key information about the potential threat and making it easy to communicate. Touchscreen handsets make typically complicated functions easy to use. 

For more information on the XB-8000 smartAIS system, Cortex or Vesper Marine visit www.vespermarine.com.