Broads & Technology

[LondonRascal]

Recently commenting on the topic about Richardson;'s and EE got me wondering about how technology can be used on the Broads so felt best to start a separate topic.

What can make the Broads stand out and be more accessible to many visitors is more technology – but useful tech that people will want to use and is feature rich to aid their time on the Broads in many ways.

It would be a bold move; take some money to achieve and need some ‘fresh forward thinkers’ to work at the Broads Authority, but I think could really help the area, wildlife and visitors. 

The Broads Authority could have at popular moorings interactive screens these would be work alongside a new App for phones and tablets.  These would, for example feature walks from the moorings and information on what to expect about the wildlife you will see – conservation work and what you can do to assist – a ‘tap to donate’ for example.

As one used the app for walks, it would show the map and the route on it and using GPS would keep you on track, information could then be shown as to where you are like how the marshland is drained perhaps a link Wikipedia about drainage pumps...Simple but powerful stuff. 

It could provide tide times for those wanting to travel through Yarmouth, the location of the nearest place to eat and drink - it could provide a direct link to the Broads Authority to report anything from a speeding boat, to an obstruction in the river with an ‘upload photo’ option to assist in the report and in one tap all your location data is shared too so no worry about trying to describe a location.  The possibilities are huge with local organisations being able to add information, advertise and the like too.

Imagine mooring at How Hill and being able to know with a simple tap what the clearance was at Ludham Bridge because a new ‘smart’ senor system had been installed which provided real time digital read out of the height at the bridge, and through the Web provided this data pushed to the App.  

Or how about you wanted to cruise to Acle – tap your start point and destination on the map and get a route showing your ETA complete with a real time progress along the route as you cruised.  Should it be calculated that sunset would happen before your arrival the route would be cancelled and alternative mooring locations shown with an explicit warning that would be prominent not to cruise after sunset.

If the moorings were fitted with my ‘smart mooring’ system I’ve previously spoken of, it would be able to displace how many boats where moored and if there was any space.  Naturally it would also provide details of what amenities would be found at the mooring such as electricity (and with my plan WiFi, Water and refuse collection).

Finally as a navigation aid it would show a ‘rolling road’ as a green strip to follow as one went over Breydon Water – should you deviate outside of this and get too close to posts an audible warning would trigger and not stop until the course was corrected thus reducing the risk of going outside the channel posts.

Once all of this would have been impossible or require separate units, now its just code that is needed and existing technology already found in tablets – Google maps, GPS etc.  Ok so sure my idea about having RF readers at moorings to charge for stays and count boats etc along with the bridge height sensor system is a little more complicated but the things exist – it does not need inventing – hell I even built a sensor system in secondary school for people with visual impairments to know when a cup was filled with water so not to overfill – having a system that used the height of the water to the height available under a bridge and linked to the Web is not earth shatteringinly complicated.

[SueH]

That all sounds magic.  Someone could make a fortune if they designed something like this!

 

sueH

[RevDave]

Robin has a number of interesting ideas there - but - much of it is dependent on a good reliable 3g or 4g signal - until that's sorted out .............

[LondonRascal]

There is good reliable 3G signal on most of the Broads.  Even at Salhouse where your get good reception 'on the hill' above the moorings, I managed one bar and 3G enough to stream Spotify and have a jolly good party on board the boat.  This leaves Horning as a place where signal is a tricky thing to come across a signal (at least for data).

With thousands of visitors a year, hundreds of hire boats and thousands of private boats it is amazing how little 'big data' there is and how so much of the process such as tolls, still rely upon paper.

 

[ChrisB]

Helmless boats would be good like the Google Car. Might not get hit as much and the punters can concentrate on their game box and watching soaps.

[ChrisB]

I actually think most boaters be they hirers or owners prefer to navigate "The Old Way" using the tide table and height boards. Many actually like to escape technology. The ability to make a phone call everwhere is however highly desirable.

[BroadScot]

4 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

I actually think most boaters be they hirers or owners prefer to navigate "The Old Way" using the tide table and height boards. Many actually like to escape technology. The ability to make a phone call everwhere is however highly desirable.

Trying to find a Telephone Box in todays modern age is not the easiest, IF no signal available.

Iain.

[Speleologist]

Some interesting and initially attractive ideas here but the more I think about it the less I like it for a number of reasons.

Firstly, when I go to the Broads I go to get away from technology. Yes, I carry a smartphone, but only for emergencies and it will spend most of its time switched off. I’ll maybe switch it on once a day to check for urgent messages. One reason for this is I will not normally have any charging facilities. A boat with no engine and no battery will remain a disconnected boat. So this sort of technology is of no use to me.

Of course I could just ignore it but would that actually be the case? Would I find myself unable to moor if I couldn’t or wouldn’t use a smart mooring system? Would I potentially need electronic payment for mooring fees? Would it become ever more restrictive to be without it?

Then there are the reasons not to use it even if it were viable. I can see several:

Funding: Such a solution would have a cost and it would require funding. In this day and age the obvious sources are commercial sponsorship and/or advertising. When I go on holiday I go to get away from all of this. If I never see and advert when I’m on holiday I’m a happy man.

Privacy/Security: It would be difficult to see something like this that didn’t have the ability to track where people go and what they do. On that basis I’m definitely out.

Control of information: Anybody who manages a system like this is effectively in control of the information presented. Although it would mostly probably mostly be neutral, it would be easy to maniupulate the presentation to, for example, push specific conservation agendas or land management agendas.

Dumbing down/spoon feeding: Maybe it’s just me but I have a natural aversion to planned walks, guided routes etc. A whole part of the adventure is planning what to do myself. Similarly if I want to find out more about something then I prefer to do my own research. If a subject interests me then I expect to go and look at it in more depth. I would expect a system such as Robin is proposing to be somewhat akin to a guidebook, most of which I find too superficial. Also I question the value of links to such as Wikipedia, because the information is not reliable. Another aspect of this is the reliance placed on the technology. An app that tells people when to go through Yarmouth for example doesn’t equip them to know what to do when the technology breaks down. When I’m offshore sailing I make extensive use of technology, but I consider it absolutely vital to be in a position to manage safely and well in a situation where it is not available.

So there’s a few contributions to the debate, but in summary anything like this is the complete antithesis of what I want when I’m on the Broads.

[Guest]

I believe there's been a few attempts at smartphone aps on the Broads giving tourist info triggered by their cell location. They never seem to make much impression on the market though, (so far anyway).

I myself prefer my eReader to paper novels, it's lighter, has variable size text and holds thousand of books, saving all those bookcases.

It's a "linear" read though, from start to finish, whereas guide books and non-fiction are for reference, so you tend to dip around in them much more, where a tablet screen becomes much more cumbersome than flicking quickly through paper pages.

..and when it comes to maps, I use electronic chartplotters and "memory map" on my smartphone, but I still carry an Ordnance Survey paper map when exploring an unfamiliar area, (the "screen" is so much bigger ).

I think it will be one or two lifetimes more before paper is replaced completely......

[Gracie]

For my family and me when we are on our holiday it's the old fashioned way everytime, the tv arial doesn't even see the light of day. I don't think you can beat getting the maps and guides out and see where your next cruise will take you, not much planning, just a good old fashioned adventure. Yes we have our mobiles but only in case of an emergency. Great for people into that sort of thing but not for us

Grace

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Jonzo said:

Yeah, agreed.

I think it's part of the charm, otherwise you'd just go to the Broads theme park, just off J8 of the M25 

But you only have to look at the new builds being built by the bigger yards to see that the customers want and will pay a premium for technology.

i do smile to myself when my fellow owners insist on us PAT testing the four  3 pin plug items we have onboard (television, microwave, Dyson and heater) every year when we must take about 10 plugs with us when we are onboard that are not PAT tested!

[ranworthbreeze]

4 minutes ago, Matt said:

But you only have to look at the new builds being built by the bigger yards to see that the customers want and will pay a premium for technology.

i do smile to myself when my fellow owners insist on us PAT testing the four  3 pin plug items we have onboard (television, microwave, Dyson and heater) every year when we must take about 10 plugs with us when we are onboard that are not PAT tested!

Hi Matt,

I have deleted your duplicated post.

I can understand that your fellow owners insist on pat testing on equipment that is left aboard, it is a good policy and one that we too have as part of our maintenance, needless to say it is done by myself at the season start.

The fact that you are bringing items from home is down to you and your risk.

Items that have an inductive load are the ones that I would always check, cord, correct rated fuse for the appliance. 

To give you an idea people who hire out items such as tools etc should do pat testing when an item is returned off of hire, ready to be a stock item again.

Regards

Alan

 

[Matt]

37 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi Matt,

I have deleted your duplicated post.

I can understand that your fellow owners insist on pat testing on equipment that is left aboard, it is a good policy and one that we too have as part of our maintenance, needless to say it is done by myself at the season start.

The fact that you are bringing items from home is down to you and your risk.

Items that have an inductive load are the ones that I would always check, cord, correct rated fuse for the appliance. 

To give you an idea people who hire out items such as tools etc should do pat testing when an item is returned off of hire, ready to be a stock item again.

Regards

Alan

 

So if I am using my own items at my own risk, whose risk is it that I am using the PAT tested items?

[marshman]

As someone said, the new boats will have increasingly innovative systems aboard, like Whisper Emblem from Ferry, and it will all cost.

[Saily]

Taking this to its logical conclusion.....

We could all embrace the hi-tech gadgetry, go the whole hog and get our Broads 'fix' online via the www and simulators.

Just think, no more need for polluting engines, no actual boats so no need to buy tolls, no need to dredge or maintain anything, no need for 'attractions' and we could see any kind of wildlife on the telly without having to drive hundreds of miles, with the consequent reduction in road congestion and rage, etc, no more wind and rain to endure, no more iffy meals in scruffy pubs, no annoying locals with their 'git orf moi land' - I'm getting the idea now....

The Broads could be allowed to revert to their natural state, firstly to swamp, then bog, carr and woodland with a succession of different wildlife residing for just as long as their particular habitat lasted....eventually drying out so we could build houses on the land, just in time to have them washed away by the rising sea levels...then we could all move to Yorkshire, or Greece...

Sounds like heaven (not) to me.

[JennyMorgan]

I must be a Luddite! This blossoming dependence on technology, for me is a real turn off! When on holiday I leave the laptop at home and although I take a mobile it tends to stay turned off. Of choice I would consign my mobile to a lead lined bucket, the phone sealed in concrete, for the duration. I do take a radio but a TV afloat, no way! Each to their own but I reckon a holiday is about being away from such distractions.

[Saily]

Oh yes, one other thing we wouldn't need.... Unelected quangos running the place.

Although I'm not convinced some folks might still make a case for keeping them anyway, and since they're unelected, who would/could stop them?

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, Saily said:

........The Broads could be allowed to revert to their natural state, firstly to swamp, then bog, carr and woodland with a succession of different wildlife residing for just as long as their particular habitat lasted....eventually drying out so we could build houses on the land, just in time to have them washed away by the rising sea levels........

The Broads "Natural State" wasn't "dried out", it was large estuaries, so the wheel turns full circle......

[Saily]

Quite so.... I thought that's what I said....?

"...just in time to have them washed away by the rising sea levels........ "

full circle indeed - I wonder which way the Thurne will flow next time around.....

[JennyMorgan]

I thought that you did too!

I have had a similar debate with senior staff at the BA. There are those who claim that the Broads is man-made whilst there are others, like me, who claim that the Broads were once open water, subsequently silted up due to lack of dredging. Interestingly the Waveney, apparently, was once an estuary of the Rhine with a land-bridge to the continent. At what point in history do we go back to?

[Saily]

I have sometimes wondered what it would be like, having a sailing ground such as depicted on Strowager's map above - saw something similar (maybe the same map?) when I first visited WRC maybe 30-35 years ago, and wondered how deep the waters might be at the foot of Beccles' Scores... Oh for the opportunity to visit in a time machine (but then coming back, ;cos the dentistry was a bit fierce thenabouts, I think....)

If nothing else we'd be spared the revolving arguments about Potter Bridge....

[senator]

Just read Robins initial post and thought to myself, brilliant but good luck, there are those that see the TV as a new fangled gismo.

Then I read the rest 

[JennyMorgan]

No argument about Potter Bridge from me, just lower my mast and 5'6" in Spray is do-able, probably 3' in my Drascombe.

[JennyMorgan]

4 minutes ago, senator said:

Just read Robins initial post and thought to myself, brilliant but good luck, there are those that see the TV as a new fangled gismo.

Then I read the rest 

Quite right too, us natives still go 'ooh arhhh bor' when one of them quare flying things goo above us!

[CaptinDread]

they could come up with a game where you have to turn a 40 foot fairlyne around up near moonfleet in stalham.