Satellite tracking, SOS button, and Messaging to enhance competitor’s safety and make tracking more efficient and reliable
Western Cape, South Africa – April 18, 2017 – SPOT, the leader in satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies, today announced that the organisers of this year’s Expedition Africa Adventure race, the Africa leg of the Adventure Racing World Series, have chosen to deploy SPOT Gen3 satellite trackers to enhance the tracking, monitoring and safety of the 40 teams from 14 countries attending this event. Since 2007, SPOT has initiated almost 5000 rescues worldwide, many life-saving.
Expedition Africa, taking place from 14th – 21st May 2017, sees athletes compete over 7 days covering 500 km through the rugged Baviaanskloof and the surrounding areas in the Kouga region. Mobile communications in this remote terrain are limited, making satellite the only reliable way of communicating in this environment.
Each team will have a small, robust SPOT Gen3 on their backpack, allowing race organisers, emergency support teams, sponsors, family and friends to precisely track each rider’s location online.
In the case of emergency, a team can press the device’s SOS button to request help. The SPOT Gen3 transmits his or her location to the organising team, making it easy to dispatch the closest support within minutes.
Kinetic, is providing Expedition Africa with a customised online tracking solution. Kinetic mapping system makes it easy for anyone to locate the positions of individuals and track their progress. Supporters and family can follow teams 24 hours a day on this tracking system www.expafrica.live
“We chose to use SPOT Gen3 after trial testing it in the remotest areas of the route”. This year’s Expedition Africa race stretches across a 500km area with limited cell phone signal. We realised that in order to provide reliable communication services for our athletes we had to drop the GSM based system we have been using for the past 6 years and move towards the Satellite operated technology that the SPOT Gen3 offers” said Stephan Muller, Official organiser of Expedition Africa.
Deborah Fourie, SPOT Africa’s Marketing Manager “We are proud to be associated with Expedition Africa who will certainly see an improvement from the GSM service used previously to our satellite-based technology. We operate best off-the-grid and will make monitoring athletes an easier and more efficient process”.
About SPOT LLC
SPOT LLC, a subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc., provides affordable satellite communication and tracking devices for recreational use. SPOT messaging devices use both the GPS satellite network and the Globalstar network to transmit text messages and GPS coordinates. Since 2007, SPOT has provided peace of mind by allowing customers to remain in contact completely independent of cellular coverage, having initiated over 4,000 rescues worldwide. For more information, visit Africa.FindMeSPOT.com.
Note that all SPOT products described in this press release are the products of SPOT LLC, which is not affiliated in any manner with Spot Image of Toulouse, France or Spot Image Corporation of Chantilly, Virginia. SPOT Connect is a trademark of SPOT LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For media information, please contact:
Deborah Fourie
Marketing Manager – Africa
Globalstar
deborah.fourie@globalstar.com
