NIDEK’S LE-700 WINS VISION-X VP AWARD AT VISION-X DUBAI 2014
Nidek has announced that its LE-700 Edging Station won the first Vision-X VP Award at the Vision-X Dubai 2014 Optical Trade Show held in Dubai Nov. 25 – 27.

Vision-X is the only optical and eyecare industry event in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, bringing buyers and sellers together each year to source new products and suppliers, and catch up with the latest trends, customers, contacts and industry information.

Initiated with VisionPlus Arabia, the Vision-X VP Awards are the first ever industry awards in the region recognizing the best products in the business, as voted for by the industry.

Motoki Ozawa, president and CEO of Nidek, says, “It is a great honor to win such a prestigious award. Following the MTP Gold Medal prize in Poland, this news entitles us to prove that the LE-700 is highly evaluated by our customers. We continue to develop products which satisfy customers’ needs and expectations.”

The LE-700 is a compact, “all-in-one” solution, featuring an integrated intelligent blocker and “tracer-free” tracing technology which traces demo lenses and patterns. The color touch screen with intuitive icons makes the unit extremely user-friendly and guides the operator through the entire tracing, blocking and edging process.

Two add-on options for the LE-700 expand its capability even further. The first is a newly designed, on-board frame tracer. The second optional add-on available for the LE-700 is a grooving/safety beveling wheel which integrates these two features into one unit, providing highly accurate processing.

The LE-700 is distributed in the U.S. by Santinelli International.    


COSTA’S AL PERKINSON ACCEPTS THE LEFTY KREH SPORTSMAN
OF THE YEAR AWARD FROM BONEFISH AND TARPON TRUST
Dr. Aaron Adams presents Costa’s Al Perkinson with the Lefty Kreh Sportsman of the Year award at the International Bonefish and Tarpon Trust Symposium.

“We wanted to make a difference, and we wanted it to matter in the end,” says Al Perkinson, vice president of marketing for Costa, upon receiving only the second Lefty Kreh Sportsman of the Year Award from the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust (BTT). Perkinson accepted the prestigious honor at the recent International Bonefish and Tarpon Trust Symposium. The BTT awards selection committee chose Perkinson because of his leadership, strategic direction and dedication toward Project Permit, the joint effort between Costa and BTT to tag more than 6,000 permit in five years across Florida, Mexico, Belize and the Caribbean.

The research generated from the catch and tag retrieval will help policy-makers and regulators reach informed decisions about protecting permit fisheries. The data will also help shed light on questions such as: Are the permit that spawn on artificial reefs off southwest Florida the same permit that inhabit the Florida Keys, or do they come from elsewhere? Are the permit of Mexico a single large population, or are permit populations regional?

—Andrew Karp