The organisers of Prolight + Sound have released Navigator, a mobile companion for the trade show available for both the iOS and Android platforms. InAVate has been hands on with the iPhone version.
The free app contains a number of useful features including a live twitter news stream, all the media releases from the organisers and excellent way-finding functionality.
The map affords a broad overview of the fairground, and then allows you to pick a particular hall to look at stand by stand, tapping on a stand allows you to see which company is exhibiting there. The exhibitor finder contains the ability to search by company name, browse by product, hall, country of origin, or alphabetically.
Once you’ve found your company, you can choose to view the booth directly on the interactive map, or to add it to your favourites list for later review.
Registering your email address with the app allows you to search for other registered users and add them to a buddies list in the app. If they accept your request, and if they choose to make use of the “check in” function, there’s a sinister looking button labelled “show position on show floor”. This appears to show the last known location of anyone in your buddy list who has chosen to “check in”.
We’re unable to test the accuracy of this feature at the moment, but it does appear to enable you to track people down. Potentially useful, but also slightly creepy!
All in all the app has excellent functionality. It offers pretty much everything you could want from a show companion. It is slightly slow to respond at times, but not in our opinion enough to stop from you wanting to download it if you are intending to visit Prolight + Sound. The only other gripe is that the registration form is in German, but that’s a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent application.
You can download it free from the iTunes and Android stores now.
Other show organisers take note. In particular, with ISE now taking up most of Amsterdam city centre, a similar app would be a great addition to 2012's event.