CATHX OCEAN:DIVING IS BIG business and, with safety a key issue, devotees are prepared to pay for the best equipment available.

Cathx Ocean, a start-up in Kildare, is making the most of this by launching a range of top-end, hand-held diving lights that will sell for about about €500 each. They are aimed at the search and rescue market as well as recreational divers.

The lights, which are designed and manufactured in Ireland, are controlled by microprocessor. They claim to be brighter, more compact and have a longer burning time than others on the market.

Initially Cathx founders Adrian Boyle and Michael Flynn were interested in designing lighting for deep water engineering and imaging effective at depths of 3,000 metres. Having looked at the underwater market as a whole, however, they decided to start with products suitable for depths of 1,000 metres or less and to scale up from there later.

“We decided to bring a product to market quickly in order to generate revenues that would support our RD for deep-water lighting systems,” says Boyle.

“We have a new product for the oil and gas industries due for launch in January and we have also launched a wide-beam video light, which is suitable for underwater TV and for use by divers who like to shoot their own videos. Our technology dramatically improves colour imaging and consequently the quality of the video being shot. Our systems can also be used in marine research and in underwater vehicles.”

Boyle and Flynn are experienced in technology start-ups and come from science and engineering backgrounds respectively.

They funded the initial stages of Cathx Ocean themselves and have since brought Enterprise Ireland and private investors on board. They are now seeking investment to develop the business. The firm employs six full-time and four contract staff.

Boyle and Flynn are sailors rather than divers, and it was a chance visit to the Marine Science Institute in NUI Galway that triggered their interest in marine lighting.

“We had been looking at using laser and semiconductor technology in solar panel manufacturing,” says Boyle. “But, when we realised the cost of lighting systems for underwater vehicles, we immediately saw that the technology could be applied to marine lighting and we took it from there.”