UK's First Marine AIS Testing Service Launches

FAREHAM, England, January 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

TÜV SÜD Product Service today launches the UK's first Automatic Identification System (AIS) testing service for the marine industry. The new AIS service is also one of only two available worldwide.

For many years there has only been one other AIS product testing service available in the world. This has resulted in a wait for tests to be completed of up to nine months, which TÜV SÜD aims to reduce to three months. The service will be available to customers via TÜV SÜD's 45 global locations in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Neil Peniket, Chief Operating Officer of SRT, the world's leading supplier of AIS technology, said: "AIS is a sizeable and growing market and requires a responsive and professional service for regulatory approvals testing. The availability of product test facilities offering marine AIS test services has been severely limited, which extends product development lifecycles and delays the emergence of new and improved products to the AIS market. For our business, this isn't acceptable and we need a strong alternative to deliver a flexible and fast service in helping us bring products to market."

The new testing service will ensure that products are able to communicate with any other AIS equipment and are also compatible with other marine communications and navigation equipment. TÜV SÜD can also certify AIS and other marine products against the requirements of the Marine Equipment Directive through its Notified Body, TÜV SÜD BABT.

Jean-Louis Evans, Managing Director of TÜV SÜD Product Service, said: "TÜV SÜD is now bringing choice to the market, ending the monopoly situation that the marine equipment industry has suffered. Our commercial understanding means that we recognise the pressure manufacturers are under to get their new products on the market and a nine month backlog was obviously unacceptable. Feedback from our customers is that the launch of an alternative AIS service is long overdue for the marine industry."

About TÜV SÜD Product Service http://www.tuvps.co.uk

TÜV SÜD Product Service is one of the world's leading experts in product testing and certification, with 150,000 product certificates in circulation globally.

TÜV SÜD Product Service's sister company, TÜV SÜD BABT, is the world's leading radio and telecommunications certification body, and is a Notified Body under the European Union's Marine Equipment Directive. http://www.babt.com