Speleolabs

Meet & Greet

We hope to some of you at the forthcoming Council of Higher Education Caving Clubs (CHECC) weekend (28-30 November, Wales). Please come and say hello. We'll be the ones throwing the shapes on the dancefloor.

Rodent Exploration Technology

Some of you have recently asked what we were recently doing in the Priddy Green Area clutching a couple of ferrets. Whilst we can't tell you everything (industrial secret) I can reveal that they were in fact top Speleolabs sponsored experimental ferrets which are being used to test the common ferret's ability to do cave survey work.

So far results are mixed - they are very good at squeezes, swimming, going round in circles etc, but less good at drawing the actual surveys. We are consequently currently working on a solution to this in the labs which it involves strapping miniature sonar suits to them and feeding back the results to a waterproof laptop using digital telemetry (as used in Formula 1).

This is part one of our four part gameplan. Part two is where we get to the point where we can release them at the entrance to say, Swildons then retire to the New Inn and watch the results downloaded using wireless technology. This is programmed for about 2004.

Part three (2005) involves dominating the distribution of this realtime cave action. Our project is called "Hut TV" and means that each caving hut in the UK will have a TV integrating ferret technology. Each hut signed up will be assigned a ferret which will receive data and information and transmit it to the hut in realtime using a 'SomerSet Top Box'.

Part four (2006) widens the range of channels on offer so we can offer hut visitors a wide range of speleochannels and films on demand. In addition to the live cave channels we are also planning a series of specialist caving channels. So far we've thought of a live 'Speleoshop', 'Dig TV', 'Speleolabs Men and Beards', The Recovery Channel (Sunday morning hangover help), Squeezes From Hell, CNCCTV, CDGTV, 'Live from the Hunters' (a music channel) and 999 starring Michael Buerk. Although we think the last one may have already been done.

All we need is a huge injection of cash. Please give generously.

Tackle Bag R&D

Well, the labs has been getting back to its roots with a good bit of R&D. This may disgust my business associate Paul, but this is a speleological USEFUL item!! The Darenn Cilau specific tacklebag. The "Penatrator" is a bag designed for carrying 2 daren drums and a pair of cowstails on the top. In the "Crawl Probe" mode the back straps are completely demountable and stow inside. It has 3 easigrip verticle straps round the body and a super streamline lid. On test last weekend it did the job. We camped in Daren for 2 nights in order to grade 5 survey borrowed boots streamway, and the bag did a great job! Expect to see it on the site soon, but it aint going to be cheap!
Remember, Student Forum coming up at the end of the month, its going to be good and sponsored by SPELEOLABS

We Know Where You Live

As part of out tireless mission to fully understand and nurture the Speleolabs brand we have discovered the concept of psychographic brand profiling - see this. Apparently it helps to better understand 'the psychology, identity and contextual issues that influence brand or service perceptions and use and provides a holistic and focused overview of what drives the choices, needs, expectations and relationships.' Maybe we should be doing something like this? Would it help us bring our branded fleece speleopants to market?