It could be a typical barbecue setting with the blokes watching sports on the big screen, the women clustered around the latest episode of Desperate Housewives and the kids off somewhere engrossed in DVDs or PlayStation.
Nothing unusual about this scenario except the group is 500 miles from civilisation in the middle of the Simpson Desert on a four-wheel drive club trip.
The rough and tumble of an outback 4WD track seems an unlikely place to find the latest hi-tech gadgets, but it is becoming the norm for many 4WD club members.
"It’s more and more popular. In our club in the past 18 months technology has started to sneak in," says Len Wellington, the outgoing president of the Dubbo 4WD Club.
"We’ve got almost 100 members and about 40 to 50 percent have a technology mix of some sort including laptops, GPS, mobiles and digital cameras."
So much so, that the club has had to run technology education seminars to help its members run all the gadgets they’re getting fitted into their vehicles.
"We did a trip last September to the Flinders Ranges, and of the 10 4WD vehicles on that trip, there were seven laptops in those 10 cars. All for various purposes, downloading digital pictures or running moving maps, he says. In Wellington’s case, he has a laptop with a program called OziExplorer hooked to the GPS. This allows him to run moving maps while out in the scrub so he knows what he is up against next.
What started out as basic safety and convenience has escalated to full-blown off-road multi-media entertainment for some members.
"On one of our trips to the Snowy Mountains, one member had a big inverter (a power converter) in their 4WD and set up a data projector. We all sat around the campfire and showed the photos that everyone had taken during the day on a big screen," Wellington says.
Kind of reminds you of slide-night on steroids.
"That’s not commonplace, but every now and then we’ll do something silly like that. It’s amazing how far technology has come, and what you can do with it in the middle of nowhere."
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| Wellington: Runs technology seminars for members |
The Dubbo 4WD club is also into GeoCaching -- the technological equivalent of a treasure hunt.
"People go out and hide things in the bush, take GPS coordinates, post that on the internet for someone else to go and find. You get the coordinates and plot on the [electronic] map how you’re going to get there. Once you find the 'treasure', you swap the trinkets and write it in a log book. Then you come back home and log it onto the net as well. It’s great fun," he says.
Getting tech support and repairs done can be pretty hard in the middle of nowhere, although Wellington says there is usually someone on the trip that knows enough to have a tinker.
"Some of the places we go are very, very remote, so if you have a major laptop failure then it stays broken until you come back. Some people have had hard drive failures because of the vibrations but we never have. If the track gets too rough, we just turn it off," he says.
The bigger enemy is fine, red desert dust, and delicate equipment sometimes has to be stored in dust-proof containers.
There are the occasional reception difficulties when the GPS is in dense rainforest canopies that block access to the sky, but some of the newer ones with external antennae do not have that sort of problem.
Wellington says club members get around the power-sucking tendencies of tech gadgets by installing solar panels. However, most people run a dual battery system in their 4WD anyway, so they can run their fridges.
"I run an inverter hooked up to the battery and when the motor stops it will run overnight no worries at all," Wellington says.
GPS getting popular
The owner of Sydney-based GPS OZ, Brian Sommerville, says his company is experiencing a steep increase in sales at the moment.
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| A GPS system used in a 4WB |
"We’re up 75 percent compared to last year and up 100 percent compared to the year before that. The technology has become more affordable and it’s now at a point where it’s no longer just techotechnology; it’s now usable by the average person."
He says four-wheel drivers are using notebooks as companion products to other things such as GPS, mobile phones and digital cameras; however, GPS technology is growing at a far greater rate than anything else at the moment.
Some of the Dubbo 4WD club has just started using Bluetooth and relish the freedom from the mass of cords usually spewing from the cigarette lighter. "Some of the newer GPSs will run on Bluetooth back to the laptop rather than having all the cords.
"Some of our members are now running little GPS units which hook on top of palm pilots or Tablet PCs which run their moving maps as well," Wellington says.
While some newer 4WDs now come with all sorts of in-built gadgetry, there will always be those who want something that does not come standard.
Resellers and distributors could service the market really well if they put together packages for four-wheel drivers.
Wellington’s ideal package would include a laptop or Tablet PC that is locked down, secure and out of sight with maybe a little 10-inch screen somewhere near the front of the car; a touch screen to hook to your GPS all the time.
Of course there are GPS, digital cameras and a host of mapping software alternatives to choose from, depending on whether you were off-road, up creek beds or in the big smoke.
"We’ve got new phones now with a modem in it and we’re just trying that out in the bush at the moment. It’s one of the new Nokias with Bluetooth and camera built in," Wellington says.
Sommerville says what is still to come in terms of mapping advances is "really off the beaten track-type fire trails and 4WD tracks and it won’t be long. In the next year we’ll see some very exciting things in terms of topographical mapping for the real off-roaders".
Expect to see more extensive map coverage from people like Hema and Sensis. "Hema are specialist map providers and they’re very good at doing popular destination-type maps for places like Kakadu and the Kimberleys."
He says there will soon be tourist-type GPSs so that as you approach a particular town, you can book yourself into the local 4WD campground or make dinner reservations by pressing a button.
"They will also be linked to traffic information, so if there’s an accident on the road ahead, it will direct you around it on an alternative route," Sommerville says. New technology like that could be just what another kind of travelling techadopter needs.
The tens of thousands of retirees blatting about Australia in their motorhomes -- affectionately called the Grey Nomads -- are fast adopting new technology as they take to the roads for one or many months of the year.
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| Tech-savvy motorhomers hit Alice Springs |
A 2004 survey showed there were 350,000 motorhomes and caravans in Australia, with another 18,700 expected to be added that year.
The Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA) is the largest of its kind in Australia and grows by 700 new members each month. As of June, the CMCA had almost 43,000 members.
That is a lot of people hitting the road each year, and with each member spending up to $600 per week while travelling, they may as well be spending it on tech gear.
"Six years ago only 14 percent of CMCA members had laptops," says Don Eldred, one sun-seeker who is currently working his way up north via the Great Inland Way.
"Now it’s 60 percent, and they typically have a laptop, digital camera and mobile phone. Beyond that amount of tech gear they start to run into space and power problems," he says.
What started out as some basic safety and communications equipment in Eldred’s own motorhome has now grown to include a notebook computer, mobile phone, connection to the mobile to download email and surf the internet, digital camera, photo editing software, printer, and in the past satellite comms equipment.
It is not all just for fun, or for communicating with family while on the road. Eldred is surveying the Great Inland Way on behalf of the CMCA, looking at it from a mobile tourist’s point of view.
"I’ve got masses of notes and I’m uploading all my reports to head office all the time.
‘There’s a massive amount of Excel, and my lifeblood, Microsoft Word. My notebook doesn’t get time to cool down,’ Eldred says.
In his spare time, he edits fi lms and photos, and runs a variety of editing software.
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| GPO's Sommerville: More interest from Grey Nomads |
"I’ve got the usual range of scanners, printers, SCSI scanner and a USB2 photoquality printer. I’ve got external DVD burners so I can copy and do primary editing of photographs. I use the latest Kyocera mobile and a digital cable straight into the notebook, appropriate software and away I go. It’s not rocket science," he says.
Maybe not for a tech-savvy gentleman like Don, but for most Grey Nomads, that would be a little daunting. Most just want to email family from the comfort of their own motorhomes, without having to fight for space at the local internet cafe. Those establishments are certainly not the first choice.
"Good Lord yes. Internet cafes are a last resort," Eldred says. "They’re not terribly popular with us."
Apart from email and net access, Grey Nomads are also starting to adopt GPS and moving-map technology as well. GPS OZ’s Sommerville says there is more and more interest from Grey Nomads in this kind of gear.
"They typically want a unit that gives them voice navigation as they’re concerned about the difficulty of turning their motorhome around if they get stuck in cul de sacs or one way streets."
Using voice navigation also helps take the stress out of finding their way through big cities.
Ninety-nine percent of the time Eldred runs all his kit and the rest of the motorhome on solar power. He has a generator on board if he runs into a stretch of cloudy weather but rarely uses it.
"There is a limit to what you can do, how far you can go because of the life of your batteries. When you’re on the road you’ve got to power this lot. I have a scanner going, optical character recognition, printer, and the hardware and software to run a 7000 digital camera. I run external disk drives because of the amount of photos I take, and disk space becomes a premium on the laptop. But then I start to grind to a halt because firing this lot up on solar panels, I have to watch the power consumption a bit," he says.
While he has the power issue largely sorted, he does find signal dropout, slow download speed and high utilisation costs the bain of his existence.
"You’re very circumspect on what you can download; graphics are the very enemy."
And so is spam. "It’s not enough to just have your own spam filter…you need the ISP to filter it before you get it."
So cost is a factor, power is a factor and depending on the size of your vehicle, you are limited to what you can carry.
He says most motorhome travellers he comes across have the basics: email, notebook and digital camera capability.
Getting tech support in out-of-theway places is a challenge. Eldred says the most common tech problem facing motorhomers is usually the notebook dying because of some virus or corrupt program.
"You’ve just got to wait until you get to a town of reputable size and go to a computer shop. We suggest to our members that they take all their primary discs with them at all times, but for every mechanical breakdown like a disk not working, I’ve seen 10 corruption problems related to a virus."
There’s still a high percentage of tech illiteracy amongst older motorhomers, and Eldred has heard horror stories of computer repair charlatans who take advantage of ignorance and a mobile population that will not pass by again for a few years -- or ever.
Eldred would like to see a system of signage outside computer shops -- much like NRMA-approved motor mechanics -- so that motorhomers can get tech support with confidence.
There are two big rallies each year for motorhomers, always in a different place. In April this year, 1200 motorhomes and 1700 members descended on Horsham Victoria for the rally.
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| Eldred: Uses mobile technology while on the road |
Now many members are unhurriedly making their way up north to Maryborough for September’s big rally in Queensland.
There are always telco stands at the rallies, but opportunities for other tech providers as well.
In the last weekend of June, Sydney hosted the national 4x4 show, the fishing show and the outdoors expo. A spokesperson for the expo says there is definitely an increase in the number of exhibitors showcasing technology solutions for motorhomes and 4WDs, and a lot of interest from visitors at the stands.
"Many more people exhibiting those products. Even companies like Paddy Palin are selling a range of GPS navigation systems alongside their traditional stock of outdoor gear," the spokesperson says.
Dean Cummings, manager of TJM 4x4 Megastore in Darwin agrees there is much greater interest in notebooks and GPS devices in vehicles, refl ected in a steep growth in his sales recently.
"There’s a lot more older people travelling around the country at the moment, and I find that Grey Nomads are quite good at picking up new technology. Five years ago, to have laptops and GPS in your vehicle was virtually unheard of," Cummings says.
Other things making a big impression on motorhomers now are reversing cameras for caravans and 4WDs, and tyre pressure monitors. At the moment, these all have separate displays on the dash.
"If you get a number of these technologies together, as well as a notebook and GPS, it starts to look like the cockpit of a Jumbo. But it won’t be long until they’re all linked into the one screen," Cummings says.
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