Garmin is riding high after taking away “Best of Show” honors at the annual ICAST fishing conference in Orlando, Florida. The company’s latest release, Panoptix LiveScope, bested 973 other products from 331 companies all vying for the same bragging rights. This win was not entirely unexpected. Earlier in the event, LiveScope had taken top honors for ICAST’s New Product Showcase, which was awarded by members of the fishing media.
LiveScope includes a sonar black box and a two-way transducer that provides real-time scanning sonar. You can point it forward to see around your boat or straight down to see what’s beneath. In either case, LiveScope will resolve to a distance of 200 feet. What’s truly amazing about the technology, is the clarity with which you can make out structure or fish.
Whatever your preferred mode of fishing, the transducer and software combo resolves crystal-clear images on your compatible Garmin chartplotter and even includes AHRS stabilization so that your sonar view is steady in rough conditions. What’s more, the functionality works just as well when your boat is in motion as it does at anchor. Garmin says that the clarity is so powerful that, in some cases, not only can actually see your own lure, you can often even identify different species of fish.
Even if you are not an avid sportfisher, it is not hard to see how LiveScope changes the game for fish-finding technology and sets the bar high for Garmin’s competitors.
