Active Northumberland are the latest leisure organisation to introduce SWIMTAG after we completed an installation at Wentworth Leisure Centre in the picturesque town of Hexam in early November.

SWIMTAG came in shortly after their reception area was completely refurbished and dozens of users have already given SWIMTAG a try at the busy site.

Mark Seymour, the Head of Swimming for Active Northumberland said "We're really pleased with SWIMTAG so far. We're only just beginning to promote it and we've already got plans for our first featured challenge in February when we'll be challenging our swimmers to "Escape from Alcatraz". That combined with the January rush should see numbers soaring. What we're particularly pleased to see is the wide range of people who use SWIMTAG. It's not just triathletes who enjoy using it, we've got one chap called Ian who comes in regularly. He suffers from MS, but he doesn't let it stop him from exercising. He's already signed up to the Isle of Wight swim, the Swimmer's Mile competition and he's completed 15 swims with SWIMTAG since it was installed only 3 weeks ago, logging 10.5 hours in the water already. As a leisure provider, the value of having access to all this data is immeasurable."

You can now use SWIMTAG in one of the largest pools in the UK after Sheffield International Venues (SIV) installed SWIMTAG at Ponds Forge, their flagship centre.

SWIMTAG has been up and running at Ponds Forge since they officially launched on 4th November and they have already had over 100 people use SWIMTAG in the first few weeks.

Business Development Manager for 222 Sports Colin Scott said "Ponds Forge is an iconic swimming location and SIV are a great organisation to be partnering with. To get so many people using SWIMTAG so quickly is testament to how hard the team have been working to promote SWIMTAG, both in person at the centre and on social media, so we are looking forward to seeing just how high the numbers can go".

Sarah Livesey the Programme Development Manager at SIV said "We're really pleased with the start we've had with SWIMTAG at Ponds Forge. The reception team are getting great feedback from users, we've got one swimmer who has already logged 17 swims in 24 days, and we'll be starting our first Featured Challenge in December with over 20 swimmers already signed up to "Escape from Alcatraz". The senior management team have also been so impressed that they are already looking at the possibility of adding SWIMTAG to a 2nd SIV site".

Places Leisure will once again be running a featured challenge for their SWIMTAG users across all 70 of their pools.

From 1st - 24th December, users will be invited to swim the "Christmas Island Beaches Challenge", a swim between two of the largest beaches on the festively named tropical island, famed for its migrating red crabs. Around 7000 swimmers log approximately 35000 swims every month in Places Leisure swimming pools.

Featured Challenges are a great way to get users engaged and pools who run them regularly see a big increase in the number of swims logged in a typical month.

222 Sports MD Kieran Sloyan said "our shared goal is to get more people more active more often and the evidence shows that when pools run featured challenges, it motivates more swimmers to take part, and to complete the challenge, they either visit the pool more regularly, or they swim more lengths on each visit.

December is usually a quiet time, and we know that in the days before Christmas, people will visit less as Christmas shopping and office parties start to take priority, but if users are completing a challenge, they are more likely to keep coming up until closer to Christmas.

We've created lots of featured challenges so pools can set up the "Dead Sea Swim" in October. We've got the Dublin Bay swim, ideal to run in March for St Patrick's day, and lots of other great routes like the English Channel, Escape from Alcatraz and Lake Windermere. We can even map out customised routes for pools wishing to swim a local body of water.

So while swimmers at other pools will be easing off, more people at Places Leisure sites will be keeping their exercise routine going right up until Christmas, making it much easier to ease back into their swimming in the New Year".

The live challenge map is available to view here: https://www.swimtag.net/challenge/28452/Christmas-Island-Beaches

This month we are launching the new SWIMTAG application for Windows POS computers. You can remove your SWIMTAG monitor, Zotac computer and card reader from reception and alternatively install the SWIMTAG Docking Station application on your POS computer. You simply plug your current Docking Station tower into an available USB socket on your POS computer. The application is compatible with MK2, MK3 and the new MK4 Docking Station towers. The reception team simply open the SWIMTAG application using a desktop icon whenever they want to issue a wristband. When its not in use they simply minimise it to the task bar or close the application.

Running the application on your POS computer will free up space and network ports at reception. We can also use the existing readers plugged into the POS computer (if required). Additionally, your reception team do not need to walk over to the SWIMTAG computer to collect or return wristbands.

If you would like to use the new application please contact the support team on 01225 282 177 or email Denne e-postadressen er beskyttet mot programmer som samler e-postadresser. Du må aktivere javaskript for å kunne se den.

We've added a number of new Challenges to SWIMTAG, some of which are only visible to pool operators (until you set them up as a featured challenge). One such challenge is the "Dead Sea Swim" which was specifically designed with October & Halloween in mind. Why not set it up as a "Featured Challenge" in October and get more people swimming!