Vismo’s global tracking app to be used during US elections on 8/11
Vismo’s Global Tracking App will be on smartphones used by British journalists and other media personnel covering the US presidential election and the House of Representatives and Senate elections on November 8th.
The app will help them counter threats to their personal security in the event of any incident that might endanger them and their colleagues.
The app, which is used in and outside trouble hotspots around the world, uses GPS and other technologies to provide the best possible location service tracking, even indoors. Vismo, a British company, has patented technology that significantly reduces phone battery drain and boosts location accuracy, and works globally on GSM, 3G, WCDMA and CDMA networks.
The app works via a Vismo panic button on the user’s phone, enabling the user to make immediate contact with a security centre and for the app to share information with emergency and other services, including intelligence services.
Location and other information are fed into a mapping solution that is commonly used by those services and helps to give advice to users and facilitate any rescue attempt.
If the services learn of an incident before users in its locality have reported it via the panic button, the users are sent an alert via SMS and email giving them details about it including its location and the action to take to reduce risk to their wellbeing.
One of the app’s key features is the covert recordings it makes as soon as the panic button is activated, automatically transmitting them in real time to a security centre, where staff listen to them and use information gained to help build a picture of what is going on and ascertain the level of danger faced by users, and the nature of it.
The app is used around the world by at-risk staff of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies – and smaller companies – and several UN agencies. It was used successfully in Iraq by a team of Danish journalists after a multiple bomb blast and shootings at an election rally in 2014, helping team members locate a missing colleague and ensuring she reached safety, all via the app on their phones and personnel at a remote security centre.
British media covering the US elections and equipping staff with the app include national newspapers and public and commercial tv and radio broadcasters. The app is one of the products provided to them by Cellhire plc, which is supplying the media operators with hundreds of voice/video and data communications equipment, including smartphones, 3G and 4G SIM cards and MiFis – small, highly secure portable routers.
The equipment will enable them to file reports any time from anywhere in the US.
Says Colin Dale, Business Development Director for Vismo Global Tracking Solutions:
“Where there is no mobile signal, or it’s not useable, users will have the option to use Cellhire-provided satellite phones, which will also be equipped with our app. Along with smartphones, satellite phones give app users complete global coverage.
“Hopefully there will be no incident that requires the use of our app, but if there is it will gather, send and share information with one outcome in mind: ensuring the safety of users and their colleagues and anybody else in the vicinity.”
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