Cluster Insight With Metas

– Through cooperation with our partner, Equinor, we are installing the first full scale pilot of our subsea Wide Area Active Monitoring system (WAAM) this month. This is our first product which will have a wide applicability in the industrial market place, says Michael T. Smith from Metas.

Cluster insight is a column where we ask six questions to catch a glimpse into the daily business-lives of the cluster partners and members.

In a recent Cluster Insight we spoke with Richard Nilsen from Mekatronikk who sent the baton over to Michael Smith at Metas; a company focusing on the development, production and marketing of acoustic subsea monitoring.

1. What is your role in Metas Michael?

   As with most small businesses, I cover many roles in Metas. My official title is CEO, but that basically means every role we don’t have a resource for falls under me to cover. Sales, marketing, and business development are fully on my shoulders with project planning and resource management a close second in demands for my time.

2. Your main focus at work right now is?

   This month, the main focus is operations; finalising the projects we are delivering. We had some delays which pushed several Factory Acceptance Tests to just before summer vacation. Now we are finalising documentation, so we can ship those products.

3. Biggest challenges for Metas in the future?

   We have just celebrated 10 years in operation. For most of those years we have developed and delivered specialised subsea instrumentation packages for specific marine ecosystem research projects, while exploring new ways to understand and protect the marine environment. Through cooperation with our partner, Equinor, we are installing the first full scale pilot of our subsea Wide Area Active Monitoring system (WAAM) this month. This is our first product which will have a wide applicability in the industrial market place. Hence our biggest challenge in the future is to gain market acceptance of our Wide Area Active Monitoring System which will allow hydrocarbon producers to monitor and identify abnormalities in the environment around their subsea production systems, including leakage of hydrocarbon to sea. As this market acceptance grows, we must change our business from focused on one-off specialised subsea instrumentation packages for the research community to be a manufacturer of standardised subsea industrial products.

4. Best part of being member in a cluster

   If I had to sum it up with one word, it would be “access”. Access to people and expertise, access to industry events and exhibitions and access to training and growth tools. It is up to each member to utilise this access to meet their own needs.

5. Your business motto

   I don’t have a specific business motto, but a quote from the movie Dune has stuck in my head for 35 years; « Without change (challenges) something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken». In my world view change is the normal state of being, both in our personal lives and our businesses, resisting or ignoring change is complacency, sleeping. If we aren’t challenging ourselves, our colleagues and our industry to recognize and adapt to our changing environment and society, we will not awaken (thrive) as individuals, businesses or as an industry.

6. Which cluster member should we interview next?

   Pro Well Plan

Thank you for the insight Michael.

Learn more about Metas.