Whether it’s creating the world’s leading sport and fitness monitoring devices or competing in a grueling race, the staff at Dynastream Innovations Inc. thrives on taking something that seems impossible and turning it into reality.

“We love pushing our limits both at work and in sport,” said Senior Software Engineer, Geoff Thomas. “We’re a pretty tenacious bunch and we feed off the challenge of overcoming obstacles whether it’s on a bike or in the lab. Most of the time one helps with the other.”

Having employees use the technology they develop in a real use case environment is something the company, creators of ANT+ digital sensing technology for sport, fitness and health monitoring, actively encourages. This concept promotes out-of-the-box thinking and helps identify solutions that may not be discovered in a typical lab environment. Employees jump at the opportunity to put their devices into action. Just ask Thomas and his nine fellow Dynastream/ANT+ coworkers whose latest challenge of mind and body was competing in the Rocketman Triathlon around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“It was amazing to race around the giant NASA buildings, and to use our technology in a real race situation was a really satisfying and valuable experience,” said Thomas. “Most of us have never raced in a triathlon before. I’m proud of how hard we all worked to get there and it’s something we will never forget.”

The multi-race event included three separate distances - Classic, International and Half Ironman - and marked the first time in history that the Kennedy Space Center's secured gates have been opened for a privately coordinated public sporting event. It’s a race that the ten athletes had been working towards for the better part of a year. Each training day leading up to the event, the group would take the same ANT+ devices they worked on so tirelessly to perfect in the lab and put them to work monitoring their performance data. Come race day, each employee had different expectations – some just wanted to finish whereas others wanted to hit a certain milestone – but all credit their meticulous training regime for helping them define their capabilities and achieve their goals.

“During the first part of the bike ride, I was passing a lot of people. I wondered if I was going out too hard, but the data I was getting from my power meter and heart rate monitor showed that I was within my limits so I kept pushing the pace,” said Staff Engineer and first time triathlete, Theo Smit. “This is where the combination of using the sensors in training and during the race gives you extra confidence that you’ll be able to complete the event to the best of your ability. You can’t know what the numbers on your power meter mean on race day if you haven’t spent the time figuring out your limits during training.”

“The swim was harder than I expected,” said Thomas. “Going from training in an indoor pool to swimming in murky ocean water made navigating the course a real struggle. However, I was able to make up some time on the bike by keeping within my target power zone and also maintaining my target pace during the run.”

With each employee overcoming adversity at different points throughout the race, they all had the their own sweet taste of victory as they cross the finish line. Now with this real-race experience added to the toolbox, these bright-minded engineers plan to take this knowledge back to the lab and apply it to the next generation of ANT+ devices. 

“During the race, I was constantly thinking of different features that could be added to the devices to help athletes through a race,” added Thomas. “I might not have thought of these ideas if I didn’t experience first-hand what an athlete goes through in a real race scenario. I plan to start putting some of these thoughts into motion immediately.”

From concept to consumer, it’s examples like this that define why ANT+ continues to revolutionize sport, fitness and health monitoring.

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