INTRODUCING RAID LIGHTNING MOBI™ – THE TRANSFORMATION OF ONLINE DIVER TRAINING

Announcing RAID Lightning Mobi™, RAID Founder Barry Coleman says: “At RAID we dive and train where you do, whether it is along your local coastline, in a lake or stream, or in some far away exotic location. We are out there with you, so we look at what is really required by divers and design all our RAID products accordingly. We also recognise some of the best diving and diver training takes place in remote areas, at resorts, on charter vessels and in developing countries; all places that commonly experience slow internet speeds. So trying to download large graphics, video rich or other large files that other training agencies may supply in these situations, makes full online access almost impossible, very expensive and extremely frustrating. Any traditional solution, like seeking faster internet speeds to address these issues, is not always practical or even achievable, and just leads to more frustration. This is why all RAID online courses were originally and specifically designed to be used in these challenging situations, not just in big city offices or homes where high speed internet services are not an issue.”

Coleman went on to say: “Now internet access is also about the use of the smartphone and other mobile devices. When the smartphone was first conceived, no one was really asking for it to be developed; but now many people use one – not only to make calls, but they depend on them for almost everything in their lives. For example, there are currently 4 billion mobile phones in use globally and over a quarter are smartphones. In other words, there are over 1 billion smartphones alone, and it is therefore understandable 50% of all internet searches are now carried out on mobile devices. This means large file sharing is not relevant when talking about mobile device use for diver training, for example. So now after extensive research we are taking it all to the next level and launching RAID Lightning Mobi™, our new mobile website which makes us the first dive training agency to take advantage of new, fast as lightning, mobile technology.”

RAID Lightening Mobi™ is instantly accessible to users via a browser across a range of devices such as the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc. It can be used in the regions of the world with the slowest of internet speeds. Because it is designed specifically for mobile devices, it makes navigation easier and lightning fast. To keep it simple, a ‘responsive mobile website’ which is what RAID now has, is a website that manages content, responds to the screen size, provides the user with the ability to view the site without too much scrolling from side to side or up and down and also allows access to the touch-screen interface. While on the other hand, Apps require a separate version to be developed for each type of device, RAID Lightening Mobi™ is easily integrated with other mobile technologies such as SMS, QR Codes and near field communications which enables electronic devices to establish communication with each other by touching the devices together.

RAID Lightening Mobi™ is also updated instantly, which is much more dynamic than an App in terms of pure flexibility with respect to up-to-date content. This allows RAID to bring you the latest information, changes to training protocols, dive theory content, etc., since the instant RAID upgrades something, you do too. For example, RAID Lightning Mobi™ will interact with the RAID ‘Learn to Scuba’ App and their standard responsive website.  This means you can switch between all RAID’s services when it suits you, to ensure RAID provides you the easiest and best possible device solution, wherever you may be, from the corporate office to the far reaches of a remote dive location.

It seems RAID Lightning Mobi™ solves the number one issue with online training accessibility by making it so much quicker to access diver training almost anywhere on a mobile device regardless of internet speed. This also means dive stores don’t need a lot of computers and other expensive hardware to run the RAID diver training system. “Almost everyone has a mobile device, so they really can do their RAIDer theory training anywhere, 24/7,” said Paul Toomer, RAID International Training Director.

RAID CEO Jim Holliday said: “So apart from the obvious, why is this announcement so important? Last year everyone at DEMA seemed to be talking about a diver online training revolution as if it was something totally new, while RAID has in fact led the way for more than 8 years with a comprehensive, advanced online training system. The others experiencing the online revolution for the first time are playing catch-up. We will fully launch RAID Lightning Mobi™ on our Freediving website first and will then quickly follow on our main website. Come by our booth at DEMA and take a look. We would love to hear your comments and suggestions as we role this exciting new innovation out.”

As much as it seems RAID is revolutionising the practical side of diver training by bringing into mainstream scuba, protocols and lessons learned from the tech diving community, they are also leading the diving world into the future with digital products like RAID Lightning Mobi™ which will truly revolutionise online learning.

To learn more contact your local RAID Regional Office or find all the information you need on all RAID programs at www.diveraid.com and on freediving at www.freedivingraid.com. You can find RAID’s Facebook page here.