Telemetry equipment. The MoD requires a Management Information System and a tracking system for the Ten Tors Event and other similar activities. The system should be able to track by GPS up to 400 Teams as they hike up to 55 miles across Dartmoor on this annual youth development event. The MIS is the sole automated system providing Management Information to the exercise commander and his staff on the current and anticipated locations of the teams, the members of that team, and the supporting organisations and staff, allowing the Commander and Staff to manage the event safely both in normal running and emergencies. The MIS will also provide the data to feed the Public Information to parents and supporters via the Exeter University website.

An MIS based on Loggers, and an independent Tracker system, are being retired this year after a decade and more of development and use. It has allowed the event organisers to understand the Use Cases in considerable detail and the requirements for its successor. The replacement is to have a range of significant enhancements over its predecessor:

Coverage and latency of position reporting is to be much improved. For reachback, the current system uses the GPRS network that has poor coverage over much of the moor; the ‘store and forward' workround when a team enters a blackspot induces considerable latency in the presented Operating Picture causing even greater confusion. A more reliable system, possibly using a satellite-based bearer, is required.

The system should integrate the three functions of: Tracking the Teams' current location, automatically Logging the time of their arrival at the numerous checkpoints en route, and monitoring the Teams' manually set Status. In general, the Logging is used by the staff during normal running and by the parents for their situation awareness, the Tracking information and prediction is used during heightened and emergency situations by the staff, and the Status information is used by the staff when one or all of the Team quit the event prematurely.

The system should have greater integration of the functionality and be intuitive for the Ops Room staff to allow common tasks to be completed with the minimum of user input. To clearly and accurately present what is happening, and going to happen, in any particular piece of real estate in a medium appropriate to the operator's needs will be the measure of any offered system. The seamless linkages from current position to extrapolated locations and finish times of teams, and from individuals to teams to organisations and routes and States will be highly regarded.

The system's information has traditionally been displayed to the many users solely within the Ops room and the substations within Okehampton Camp. Increasingly the information requirement will be from mobile devices throughout the Camp, and wider afield. As the potential of the MIS is better understood, there may be opportunities to make better use of the information held, and integrate with other agencies that are involved with the event such as Police and mountain rescue organisations. The MIS should have the capacity to develop in these areas.

Each Team should be equipped with a tracker, simple to operate, robust for the task. The contractor will provide, manage, activate, test and issue the trackers prior to the event and collect them in at the end of the Event. The preference would be for Satellite trackers in order to provide the greatest level of coverage across the moor in order to better inform the MIS.

The fixed infrastructure in Okehampton Camp will be established and managed by military comms professionals. The contractor will be responsible for establishing any additional components and delivering a working MIS throughout the event.

The MOD currently own terminal and LAN infrastructure within Okehampton camp. The contractor is to provide 6 new terminals. The Contractor is required to operate and maintain the MIS during the event.

The MIS is the sole automatic management tool for this event and is a key component in mitigating the inherent risk in this large, complex event that runs over a considerable period over harsh and unforgiving terrain involving a large number of vulnerable youths. The MIS' availability must be as close to 100 % as possible to allow the Commander to deliver the event within tolerable-risk limits.

The next Ten Tors Event takes place over the weekend 10/11 May 14 at Okehampton, Devon.