Photography and athlete engagement platform AWOL has secured a £900,000 investment from the UK Space Agency in partnership with the European Space Agency. The funding will support developers at AWOL, based in North West England, to roll out the company’s… ‘space-enabled photography service that is able to upload images in real-time.’
The company adds that the service – which can be used at mass sporting events of all kinds including running, cycling and triathlons – means when a person passes a specific milestone on the course or crosses the finish line, their photos will be delivered instantaneously via smartphone to family and friends.
Rich Burnett, Co Founder and Operations Director, said “Essentially, we’re networking both human operated and automatic cameras at mass participation events. We add accurate GPS time and location data (to ensure the images work with Strava and other platforms) and then upload the images over satellite.
“Once in our systems, we use a combination of number, body and facial recognition to apply a ‘tag’ before serving a live image notification directly to the smartphone of the family/friend or supporter of the participant.”
The new project will see a number of rollouts at UK events in early 2021 – including the Cancer Research UK London Winter Run, Manchester Marathon, Tour de Yorkshire Ride, Royal Windsor Triathlon (organised by Human Race) and the Children with Cancer Swim Serpentine and Standard Chartered Great City Race (organised by the London Marathon Events Company) among others later in the year.
The project is being led by developers and photographers from AWOL, and supported by some of the UK’s major tech brands including SCAN Computing, BigBlu and Wex Photographic. AWOL adds that it is bringing in cutting edge tech from the likes of Microsoft, HP, Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Sony, Cobham and Europasat.
Rich Burnett said added, “Image quality is everything: not only will photos be delivered much faster than is currently possible, but it also unlocks huge potential for quality control.
“Production Managers will be able monitor the actual pictures being taken; and make a range of both physical and technical adjustments to continue pushing the boundaries of event photography.”
Nick Rusling, CEO of Human Race Events, said “AWOL is a company we’ve been pleased to work with for the last three years across our event portfolio which includes the award-winning Manchester Marathon, Manchester Half Marathon, Dragon Ride, Windsor Triathlon and others.
“It’s great to see innovation happening in the area of photography and athlete experience, especially in such a challenging time for our industry; and we look forward to reaping the benefits of this new technology as part of our ongoing and profitable partnership with AWOL”
