Nathan Davies

Schools Expedition Leader

Whilst trying to find a group who were off route and in thick mist, the ability to pinpoint their location accurately made our response swift and saved a lot of time that would have otherwise been spent searching.

Checking on their positions regularly in poor weather enabled us to have an incredibly accurate picture of how the groups were progressing and enabled us to deploy staff efficiently to check on their welfare.

The participants forgot they were carrying them after a while but were reassured by the fact that they could summon assistance easily if needed. They were also able to modify their route quite dramatically as many rivers were swollen without fear of being "lost" by the staff supervising them.

Knowing when a group was 5km from a designated point meant that we were able to deploy staff efficiently to check on their welfare and to catch them trying to sneak an ice cream!

Parents said that they were enthralled watching the progress of their child and one commented that they didn't get any work done all week!

I can see this technology becoming an integral part of the toolkit used by experienced staff to supervise groups out on expeditions

Phil Humphreys

Race Director, Adventure Racing World Championships

The Adventure Trackers used during the Adventure Racing World Championships 2007 proved to be an amazingly effective tool that we could use in many different ways. Firstly, the simple reassurance provided by knowing where teams were at any time was immeasurable. This allowed us to tweak race timings for our logistics operation and warn staff at transitions, CPs and rope sites about approaching teams, enabling them to get a better quality rest when possible.

We used the system to accurately track down teams that went off course (e.g. at sea) and to determine when teams failed to follow a mandatory route. Sometimes when we needed more intricate detail of team movements, we remotely increased the frequency of transmissions for a short time to allow us to do this effectively.

Sometimes we also placed spare trackers on key staff (e.g. the race doctor, incident manager, course planner etc.) in order to keep track of their whereabouts at all times so as to be more able to deploy people effectively to parts of the course where they"re needed.

For the media and spectators around the world, the live online tracking was addictive and very powerful - there is enormous potential to take this even further.

Overall, we were delighted with the system and would highly recommend it.