Subtotal $0.00
Both Charles and Jassem have provided fast and personalized help and guidance with using their products. Charles is always invested in our research excursions, checking in before, during, and after cruises. In cases where issues arise, Charles and Jassem are incredibly supportive, providing feedback and expertise thoroughly and quickly. The available guidance and documentation ensures that project and research goals are met with minimal hassle.
The ISIIS plankton imager is an exceptional piece of engineering and design. The ability to integrate features and integrated instruments seamlessly has improved our data collection and processing workflows immensely. The guidance provided by Charles has allowed for repeated deployments with few hiccups, with technical specifications and setup all covered and documented. We are able to collect and write data with no lag time, and minimal interference. Our ISIIS has been successfully deployed in a variety of oceanic conditions, and been able to keep up with data collection even under periods of intense weather. The ISIIS is durable and has been deployed repeatedly without requiring extensive maintenance and repairs. The sled design is not only sleek and
modern, but functional in dealing with unexpected ocean debris. Charles is also cognizant of keeping us up to date on any new insights and developments that may influence our research.
JADE has made the process of collecting and writing data fast, intuitive, and easy to learn. The consolidation of the different data inputs into a single program has greatly reduced the complexity of our data collection process, and lowered the bar of entry for
understanding how to deploy our instrument. What before was a delicate dance of opening and running different programs associated with instrumentations has become simplified and headache-free.
The visualizations generated by JADE provide information that is not only scientifically interesting, but crucial for success in deploying our instrument. We are able to manage and understand each part of our data collection simultaneously and without
complication. The ability to see, run, and resolve errors for individual plug-ins allows for less time spent troubleshooting and getting to the root cause of errors. Ultimately, JADE has streamlined our data collection process, allowing our team to focus on the science
and not on troubleshooting. “
PhD student | Department of Integrative Biology | Hatfield Marine Science Center | Oregon State University
We received a plankton camera system and control software from Bellamare, and Charles and Jassem provided excellent guidance and support to give us the know-how to use the hardware and software efficiently. These are quite complex
systems and making all the specific design requests from researchers work is a big ask. Charles and Jassem both always did their utmost to implement our needs while not compromising on their engineering and design. Both were also always available when we needed them for questions or troubleshooting and happy to jump on a video call or remoting into the system.
I worked with 3 different camera systems built by Bellamare and all of them were built very durable and to the best specifications possible with regards to image quality, frame rate, and other important parameters such as weight, cost, data throughput. By building with Bellamare I am confident I get the best product possible.
The Jade software provided by Jassem was able to provide high-throughput data streams for our cameras and store the many terabytes per dive redundantly. The modularity of the JADE software is one of its biggest selling points as we were able to easily edit code to change settings when adding sensors such as an additional LISST-200X, or changing the format video data was saved in,
timestamping etc. While there’s certainly a learning curve like with all scientific software Jassem did a great job explaining it to us.
Research Project Leader | Marine Reserves Program | Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Charles gave us the tools and explanations to allow me and my research team to troubleshoot hardware or connectivity issues that inevitably arise in field research. Overall, the towed imaging system and its connection to a shipboard computer was
robust. Jassem was always willing to go the extra mile to help us with software debugging and explain the rationale behind the software. This gave my graduate student the tools and confidence to edit the code and make minor adjustments. We
went out on approximately 20 research cruises over the course of 3 years without any issues that me and my team of biological oceanographers could not resolve (i.e., people with no engineering background).
Hardware was user-friendly and easy to connect to the towed imaging vehicle. It also performed well. When we had minor issues with connections, we were able to diagnose the problem and address the issues while onboard the research vessel. The JADE software is complicated in the sense that there are many instances logging different types of data. However, given its flexibility and functionality, it is relatively straightforward to add new instruments and edit the graphical user interface. Jassem was skilled at explaining how these different pieces work together, and with a little refresher and help, I think my research team can add or remove instruments without introducing bugs to the software. The visualizations in the interface are useful for understanding the behavior of the vehicle and the quality of the data being collected during field deployments.”
Assistant Professor | Skidaway Institute of Oceanography | University of Georgia
Charles and Jassem provide excellent support for their products. For both hardware and software, I was able to meet and train with them, and felt very confident in operating our system. In addition to this, through the entire duration of my work with our ISIIS-DPI
system, they were always available and communicative if I reached out with questions about functionality and troubleshooting. In addition, they are both open to requests for modifications and seem interested in developments that would improve our future use of their products. Often, they checked in while we were in the field to see how things were going, before I had even reached out for support. This was crucial during our field campaigns at sea. Often Charles and Jassem were responding to requests during odd
hours or under tight/emergency time constraints. They were always happy and willing to provide help and support, going above and beyond expectations to ensure we had successful deployments of our instruments. I am so appreciative of their support!
I was the main operator of our ISIIS-DPI ROTV system, and spent plenty of time building it up, breaking it down, and maintaining its components. The design of the system is very modular, and the continuity implemented in the design allows for reconfigurations and modifications without too much effort. Our ISIIS-DPI system and tow vehicle were specifically designed for our research program. Charles is so knowledgeable in what works and what doesn’t for these types of systems, and this experience was invaluable during the entire duration of our project, which went through a few different versions and was used for different types of field deployments. Adding and removing instruments from the system was not complicated, and was relatively simple to integrate with the software program, thanks to the support of Charles and Jassem. Most of the hardware lasted through the duration of my multi-year project, and few issues arose. Thanks to the tools and material provided, or recommended during training and consultations, most (if any) issues that arose during my work with the system were able to be fixed in the field. The only “major” frustrating issue we encountered was the fragility/reliability of fiber optic connections, which occasionally seemed to fail or diminish in performance without any apparent damage or explanation.
Jassem clearly designed the JADE software with the user in mind. The learning curve was not too steep, and after learning how to integrate new instruments and change the graphical visualizations with his help at the beginning, I felt equipped to make these
modifications independently moving forward. The code is extensively documented, and largely human-readable, so any issues/errors are usually clear and not too complicated in terms of finding the cause and the solution. Jassem is responsive to requests for help, and enthusiastic about his work. He is very approachable, especially about ways to modify/customize the software to optimize the user’s experience, and implement tailor made features, specific to our setup.
PhD student | Department of Oceanography | University of Alaska,Fairbanks