In a time where marking specific locations have never been more important to aid in carrying out safe social distancing, security teams can struggle to communicate locations that do not have physical addresses. Traditional street addresses can only work to a certain extent, globally 70% of addresses will not take one to the front door, with 74% of people saying clients, services and deliveries struggle to find them.
Many places don’t have an address at all, so teams are left to depend on landmark-based descriptions such as, for example an address mentioning behind the third building to the left of the large tree, just after the crossroads. GPS coordinates can help, but they are difficult to communicate over the radio.
what3words is a free app which has divided the world into 57 trillion 3-metre squares and given each square a unique combination of three words, a what3words address. The what3words app enables people to easily convey locations from specific building entrances or parking spots, and it provides easy location references in places with no street addresses, such as building sites, event spaces and large offices with multiple entrances.
Location and property management company, The Movie Lot, use what3words to manage their security operations. The Movie Lot specialise in film and television security, location support, and traffic management for the British entertainment industry. They are experts at using cutting-edge GPS technology to ensure that even the most complex operations are equipped to cover the smallest detail. The Movie Lot use what3words to coordinate production and security crews as well as equipment whilst on location, and have also provided security staff for University College Hospital London during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as working on some of the world’s renowned household name entertainment productions, such as the Fantastic Beasts and Doctor Who movie franchises.
The Director at The Move Lot, Mark Davies, explains how what3words has helped their security. He said, “We are proud to be partnered with what3words, it has been a huge addition for us to navigate guards to their exact position on locations. We’ve used what3words to coordinate guards on locations from Hospital sites to outdoor film sets.”
Mark adds, “what3words is commonly used in the film industry and being able to utilise it on site to describe precise locations has given our team great support.” what3words has also been credited for its capability of saving lives, with emergency services urging the public to download the app in order to facilitate a more efficient response. what3words works offline, making it ideal for use in rural areas or areas with an unreliable data connection.
