A friend and I are looking to go in together and purchase a Garmin Livescope Panoptix system.

I've been with a guide who used it once on the ice and it was simply amazing.  That was 2 years ago.

And...we are curious if there is a way to take that thing and then get it on a boat for open water fishing.

Anyone do this?  How do you convert it to open water?  Any pros/cons to be aware of concerning the unit itself?  Should we wait and look at Lowrance and/or Humminbird?  And...where should I look at purchasing the unit to get the best price?

Very curious to hear from those that have the unit concerning how it works and how it converts to open water fishing.