Back 'app' and running

As part of Westonbirt’s continuing mission to ‘connect people with trees’, we like to try new things to engage with our audiences here at the Arboretum.

The Westonbirt Project allowed us to test new technological boundaries and after consultation with a wide range of visitors and our fabulous youth forum, Team WB, a mobile app was created! It offers the opportunity to discover new species, awesome facts and areas of the arboretum that you may not have even set foot in before.

The app launched in August 2015, and has received positive reviews. However, some negative comments came about due to some technical issues with our beacons. These ‘beacons’ are small white boxes positioned in 50 trees around the site. They ‘talk’ to the app via Bluetooth and tell the app to alert you when you are near a tree. Unfortunately, the beacons themselves appeared to stop working, which in effect made the app unusable…

Not to be discouraged by such things, we have continued to work to resolve this – working closely with our developers, who in turn have worked tirelessly with the beacon manufacturers to come up with a solution.

You will now see little grey boxes around the arboretum which are our new, robust, ‘belt and braces’ beacons! They are more conspicuous at the moment, but bear with us as we work to position them in to best way possible to allow users of mobile technology to connect with their surroundings whilst also allowing for those who wishing to be ‘tech-free’ to still enjoy our wonderful tree collection.

If you fancy having a go at the app head to the App Store or Google Play Store, create your own quest and explore the arboretum in a new and exciting way!