We set down and talk with Dr. Derek Houtz of TerraRad Tech and Jamie Sharp with taskTracker about their L-band radiometer (turfRad). It senses how much moisture is in the soil. The amount of water in the soil changes the amplitude of the emitted microwaves, allowing them to calculate the volumetric soil moisture. The sensor can be mounted to a golf cart or a mower. Most of their testing has been on fairways. They have saw some great results so far. We even get into how to fold a shirt with Jamie’s experience working as a golf pro.
Transcript
Trent Manning: 0:05
welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we’ll learn tips and tricks. I’m your host, Trent. Manning let’s have some Welcome to the real turf text podcast, episode 94. Today, we’re talking to Dr. Derrick Houts. CEO of terrarad. And we also have Jamie Sharp. From taskTracker on the line. And we had a really good conversation on this new technology. The, the coma with. Too. Find moisture levels. And the turf. I hope you enjoy. Welcome, Derek and Jamie to the Real Turf Techs podcast. Derek is from Turf Rad and Jamie with Task Tracker, and we’re primarily gonna talk about Turf Rad today and then how it interacts with Task Tracker. So Derek, you want to give me a basic rundown of the sensor and kind of how you developed it?
Derek Houtz: 1:15
Definitely. Yeah. So, turf ad comes out of a company called Tarara Tech, and we’re actually based in Switzerland. I’m originally from Colorado, but came over to Switzerland to do some research in. In remote sensing and earth observation. So this is actually like using satellite data to measure the earth. and I ended up inventing a miniaturized version of a satellite sensor that’s measuring soil moisture. it’s called a L Band Radiometer. and then
Trent Manning: 1:44
all our listeners will know exactly what that means. radiometer. mean, I
Derek Houtz: 1:51
Apparently
Trent Manning: 1:51
know what it
Derek Houtz: 1:52
that’s become kind of like a buzzword. I mean, Jamie had heard of the L band before, uh, we started talking to him about
Jamie Sharp: 1:59
That’s only cuz I saw an obscure post on LinkedIn like talking about, I’m like, this is really cool. But it was like years ago, but that’s all I knew.
Trent Manning: 2:08
well, Jamie’s kind of tech and nerdy that way, so I, I, I could see him knowing that.
Derek Houtz: 2:13
yeah, definitely. But then, yeah, so like we, we invented this miniaturized sensor of a, a satellite. and then kind of the primary use of that sensor was soil moisture. Even though we, I was actually doing research in glaciers and. And going to Greenland, measuring melt of snow all and sea level rise and all kinds of different research topics. But then it kind of came back to soil moisture because this sensor just is measuring water content in the soil and the snow, whatever kind of natural medium you’re, you’re talking about. So then we started a spinoff company from the research institute I was at. Basically marketing this sensor, we called it at that time, the polar, the portable L band radiometer. So not,
Jamie Sharp: 3:02
rolls off the tongue.
Trent Manning: 3:04
Yeah, it does. Just right off the tongue.
Derek Houtz: 3:06
A nice long acronym for you. yeah, of course we had to rebrand that a little bit to the Turf Rad. so it’s a little spin on Tarara, which is our company, and, and RAD is for Radiometer, which is the name of the sensor. and yeah, so I mean, we were, we were kind of. Had this young company trying to sell our sensors to whoever we could convince to buy them. a lot of those people were, like the European Space Agency and Research Institutes and universities, a lot, a lot of like agriculture engineering departments like University of California, Davis, uc, Riverside. So yeah, a lot of professors and research institutes, but it, it was hard to really get a hold in the agriculture and precision agriculture market. I think because they’re kind of behind in precision irrigation. And so when we found golf, we realized that almost everyone’s using an irrigation system where you have like single head control over every sprinkler, so you can immediately start using this high resolution soil moisture data.
Trent Manning: 4:08
Oh, for sure. Yeah, because a lot of the farmers, they’re working off center pivots and I mean, they just turn those things on and let ’em go where Yeah, we’re trying to dial in. We want a little more moisture on a green or less moisture on the green and more. Water. So a lot of times around green surrounds they’ll have ends and outs. So some sprinklers, you know, would hit the green and then the other ones hit outside the green. so yeah, we’re trying to really dial it in moisture content. And I remember the old days of. Having your Swiss Army pocket knife, and that’s the way you checked moisture and, uh, greens or, that’s the way we’ve done it down here. And now we got, you know, nice sensors
Jamie Sharp: 4:52
a little chunk out. Look at it. Is that what it was?
Trent Manning: 4:55
pretty much, Yeah. Yeah. two different ways you could cut a chunk out, but a lot of times we’ve just slice, you know, in and kind of pried open a little bit. And when you’d pull your knife out, it was either dry or wet. you know, I mean, that was, that was,
Jamie Sharp: 5:11
like baking a cake,
Trent Manning: 5:12
could get. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. but now, you know, obviously they got, uh, moisture meters and that kind of things. And I mean, we’re checking that and the season, you know, when we’re really growing every day.
Jamie Sharp: 5:26
Yep.
Trent Manning: 5:26
So a product like this, I definitely think is gonna catch some traction forward.
Derek Houtz: 5:33
Yeah, I think that the golf industry is just way ahead on the precision irrigation thing, whereas ag is ahead in other things like variable rate nitrogen spraying, you know, cuz they’re spreading a lot of of inputs and fertilizers.
Trent Manning: 5:47
Mm-hmm.
Derek Houtz: 5:48
So ag is like kind of ahead in that and golf is way ahead in the precision irrigation. So yeah, for us it was just kind of a perfect storm of, okay, we have this high resolution soil moisture data, which isn’t available from any other tools yet in, in golf, you know, you have your buried sensors and you have some N D V I vegetation index, maybe from a drone or a satellite. But you know, that’s just measuring this, the surface. Color of how green is your grass, essentially. But, yeah, we’re actually getting like this subsurface soil moisture at a, you know, every foot as you’re, as you’re mowing. So yeah, our, our sensor mounts on a mower or a, a maintenance cart, and it’s just passive data collection. So every time you mow your fairways, you’re collecting data and then it, automatically uploads over wifi. and then on the task tracker platform, we have this property overview. Tab where you can go visualize the soil moisture maps of your whole course, along with the irrigation asbuilt like so the irrigation system
Trent Manning: 6:50
Mm-hmm.
Derek Houtz: 6:51
overlaid there as well.
Trent Manning: 6:52
no, that’s, that’s in, that’s incredible. It, it really is.
Jamie Sharp: 6:56
And when we first saw it, we were really amazed by even the infancy of where they were in the program, just how much potential it had for golf and for task tracker. I know Gerald and I. we were looking for someone to partner with for moisture, cuz it’s such an important tool for the superintendent, whether it’s, you know, playability, whether it’s the health of the plant, recognizing stressed areas. It was a tool that I think every superintendent used. So we were trying to find that perfect partnership and one of our criteria was the labor side. We come out of a labor board and we’re like, how do we do this without using more labor? Right, and this is one of those sensors where like this is exactly fits within. What we’ve been looking for is to be able to mount it on a fairway unit. passively collect that data and then when the super’s ready to view it, it’s just available. There’s no planning, there’s no sending someone out, there’s no making sure you’re scheduling maybe, to do something else to get that data. It’s just available, which I think that’s what we all kind of like in this day and age is that instant, instant gratification. Like, oh, I wanna see what my moisture is today, or, I wanna see what it was yesterday. And this sensor really allowed us to do that. So that was really exciting for us. just
Trent Manning: 8:15
Yeah,
Jamie Sharp: 8:16
this sensor come out.
Trent Manning: 8:17
That’s what I like about it is yeah, it doesn’t really create any extra work. I mean, you’re already mowing fairways or tees or you know, whatever you have the sensor mounted on
Jamie Sharp: 8:26
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 8:27
and yeah, why not? So yeah, it’s really incredible.
Jamie Sharp: 8:31
That’s really cool. And I know like when we started off, you know, my dad always used to say, you know, everything’s about connections in this world. It’s about the connections you make. It’s about, you know, who you know and you wanna believe that on some sense, but you wanna say, man, if I really work hard and I have a great product, you know, things are gonna come to me. But how we ended up getting partnered was through a connection. And it was interesting that, the c o o Rob Sadine, who’s, uh, the founder of. Tarara as well. his grandmother was a member at our golf course, and so, yeah, so we knew his grandmother, Mary Louis Sadine, and so we had that connection with them and the person who actually introduced us, who’s their, uh, well, global sales advisor, Paul Hartsell was a member of our course as well, so he knew Gerald and I, and so he really introduced us to Derek and Rob. Early on and that connection with what we’ve already done with the hard work kind of aspect, kind of put everything together. So I think it was serendipitous that we were able to come together, form this partnership and I, and so far it’s been a great partnership. We’ve collaborated very well together on, on not only the hardware, but the software that we’re gonna be bringing to superintendents.
Trent Manning: 9:46
No, that’s, yeah. That’s incredible. And it is, it’s, you know, I hate saying it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, but a lot of times that’s the way it works.
Jamie Sharp: 9:56
those are when the breaks happen, right?
Trent Manning: 9:58
oh
Derek Houtz: 9:59
It was lucky for us. I mean, at that point we were just kind of like throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks as, as Rob likes to say. And I mean, that metaphor is perfect for kind of what we were doing as a young company, like just shooting in the dark almost, with neither of us had an agriculture background and we were trying to talk to farmers and convince them they needed this. Fancy,
Trent Manning: 10:20
Mm-hmm.
Derek Houtz: 10:20
you know, satellite sensor and they were like, no, I, I just pick up my soil and I know the moisture. Like what am I gonna do with this thing?
Trent Manning: 10:28
Well, yeah. They had their Swiss army knife
Jamie Sharp: 10:29
exactly. They were sticking it in the ground. They’re using probably a shovel
Trent Manning: 10:34
well, yeah. Yeah, for, for that,
Jamie Sharp: 10:36
got it.
Trent Manning: 10:37
But yeah, I could definitely, uh, see some farmers saying, boy, I’ve been doing this for, you know, however many years. Why would I need that
Jamie Sharp: 10:46
Well, the one thing that Derek brought up with the farmers is they’re so focused on the roi. It’s, it’s all about the dollars, which golf is about that too. I’m not gonna argue. But for farmers, it’s like, how much money can this put in my pocket? And we know that the sensor and golf can put money in a golf course’s pocket, especially if you’re paying for water, if you’re paying to pump it. Obviously if you can use less water, we’re gonna be paying less. But there’s other aspects to. Water use. It’s the social responsibility of saying, Hey, I am being responsible with the resources I have and the resources that we’re not having. We’re putting back into the aquifers, we’re putting back into the streams for the wildlife. we’re not overwatering, which we’re not leaching, fertilizers into the, into the ponds, and they’re moving downstream as well. And then there’s that playability aspect. It’s for golf and it’s hard to put an number on playability, but. I know as a golf pro, it was easy for me to sell a five, $600 driver to a member if I can get ’em to hit it five yards farther.
Trent Manning: 11:48
Right,
Jamie Sharp: 11:48
If they hit on the, if they hit on a dry ground, it goes 20 yards farther. Imagine what that’s worth. I mean, people are, people are so happy if they hit it 20 yards further than they’re used to. So whether it’s a new driver or whether it’s just a different cultural practice makes a huge difference. So there’s a whole bunch of different ROIs in the golf thing that you can play off of that. Just make a lot of sense for controlling moisture.
Trent Manning: 12:11
Right. Yeah. And I mean, I, I’m just imagining you pull the screen up and you say, oh, Head 18 on 10 fairway. That’s really wet there. What’s going on? So I’m in a good troubleshooting tool for your irrigation tech or superintendent, whoever’s managing your irrigation system too.
Jamie Sharp: 12:30
So we started doing some stuff with, some courses and one of the courses we went to was PGA West. They were holding a, they were holding a PGA tour event and the PGA a tour was, wanted to see what the sensor could do. So we were gonna go out there just to show them at that term we were early on, but the superintendent said, Hey, I would really like you to go over and measure this other course that we’ve been having issues with. and I’m like, yeah, I think we can figure out some time to do that. And so we go over to the course and they, they had oversedated, so it was all rye. We show up and this place is immaculate. It’s emerald green in the fairways. Of course it’s got the, it’s just got the Bermuda and the roughs. So you know, you have that, that contrast. So everything just looks beautiful. And they’re saying, and they were, they had some irrigation issues, but they think they have it fixed. And so Gerald and I are out there at eight 30 in the morning before play, and we have this thing mounted to a cart and we’re driving back and forth on this fairway. I’ve, we were, we had one of his souped up carts, so we must have been going 20, 25 miles an hour up and down this fairway. We scanned two of them. This is the first time that I’ve really sent any data back to Derek, and so we get done the data uploads and Derek sends me back. The images and I look at ’em cuz I have a meeting with not only the superintendent but the director of Agni, but the head of the management company as well. So like this is our first time really showing this thing.
Derek Houtz: 13:55
And you should mention I was processing the data. Cause like if this is a prototype sensor, it’s not like the automated process we have now. So like, yeah, Jamie’s emailing me data in Switzerland. I’m up at midnight, like processing the data,
Jamie Sharp: 14:08
am like faster. Faster. I said, 30 minutes. I gotta be down minutes
Trent Manning: 14:12
It’s
Jamie Sharp: 14:13
So Derek’s trying to get this and he sends it back to me and I immediately call him. I’m like, I can’t show this data. I said, I can’t show it. He’s like, why? I said, I was just out there. The wheels were squeaking from the water. There was a, there was dew on the course. It was perfect. And this thing is showing that everything’s bone dry. I, I, are you sure the sensor’s right? He’s like, well, that’s, that’s what the moisture is, and that’s, that’s what, that’s what you should show ’em. I said, I don’t, I don’t really want to show ’em. He said, just, just show ’em and see what, what they say. So we step into this meeting and this is like, this is to your point, like you to have this visual to say, Hey, this is what’s going wrong. You’re like, It’s pretty powerful. And I kind of tried to drag out the meeting as long as possible. Cause I did not wanna show these images. But finally they said, well, show us the image. Just show us the image. I’m like, all right, now I’m, I’m now brace yourself. I, this is our first time doing. I’m, I’m putting all the caveats out there, like, all right. And of course I bring up the image and the room just goes dead quiet. And I’m like, do I say anything? Do I, do I even do, I say, what do I do? I, this is like a fr and then all of a sudden the director of agronomy speaks up. and he goes, so those red areas, those are all the dry areas, right? And I’m like, yeah, those are, those are the dry areas. It is that right? He said, well, I’ll tell you this. That’s exactly where we lose turf every year in transition because it gets so dry. And what it told them is that their irrigation, what they thought had been fixed, was still not adequate enough to keep the Bermuda moist enough through the winter. So when the transition happened, they were gonna lose it. So that was kind of a validation on our point. It was the scariest moment of I’m like, well, we’re done with this company. This is, it was, it sounded but, it validated it. We went out with probes later and it, it was dry. So it was one of those things that were like, man, this thing is powerful cuz we couldn’t see it with our naked eye. We couldn’t, I thought I could have sworn that that course was perfect, but, uh, it showed us that it wasn’t and it gave the superintendent an opportunity to correct the situation before. He actually saw it, maybe it might have been a month down the road before it actually started affecting him. So that was a, that was kind of a cool first introduction to the sensor. And we’ve had stories like that to every course that we’ve visited. Like, are you sure it’s wet there? I’m like, that’s what it’s saying. I, I know I don’t want show it to you because it looks perfect. Then we go out and measure it and it’s, oh yeah, it’s 40%. Or we, it’s, it is amazing cuz you, Gerald and I would go out on golf courses and I’m sure I’m a golf pro, so I don’t know much about moisture, but Gerald knows about moisture and we would try to step on the ground and guess the moisture, we weren’t right anymore than if we were just guessing cuz we was like, oh, it’s 20% we stick to probe 38, no it’s 15. Stick to probe in 35. So it was one of those things where like, man, even a seasoned superintendent has a difficult time. at least Gerald did of, of figuring out what the moisture was. Just by stepping in it, he’d have to put a probe into the ground to actually get a accurate measurement at that point. That was another thing that interesting.
Trent Manning: 17:20
just maybe a week ago I was with our superintendent on one of the Putin greens and he is like, Ooh, I bet these things are really dry today. I’m gonna go get the moisture meter. And he comes out there and he is like, no, it’s perfect
Jamie Sharp: 17:31
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 17:32
You know, so having, having that to, to go off of is cuz. We’re pretty much just educate guests right now unless we do use the moisture meter,
Jamie Sharp: 17:43
exactly.
Trent Manning: 17:44
and that’s really labor intensive too, cuz you gotta have a person out there sticking a probe in the ground every however many square feet you wanna get the data from.
Jamie Sharp: 17:54
Yeah. It’s, it’s inter, I mean that’s, that’s another point that it comes down to is like we have, labor has become so tight. We see this throughout the industry. Even on task tracker, everyone’s labor is dropping. The amount of people they have working on the golf courses, for the most part is going down. They just don’t have the bodies. to fill the positions and they need to be doing more with less. And one of those areas, just like we saw at Austin Country Club when we’re scanning, is they’re able to recognize where the dry areas are. So instead of scouting, they’re doing more, watering, so they’re not scouting as much cuz they’re letting the scout for ’em and they’re like, these are the hotspots we want to hit. And then they send out their waterers to hit those hotspots. So, again, there’s another ROI thing that you’re talking about is like you wanna be efficient with your labor cuz you really don’t have a ton of it. You have a finite amount of labor that you can use. So being able to sheer scouting off of the list possibly can help with that aspect. So that was another cool thing.
Derek Houtz: 18:57
that was another like validation though. Like they were sending out the hand waters at Austin Country Club and then we would scan again and you would see like clear change from the hand watering that they brought it up to like kind of that 18% green moisture level. That was kind of the optimal they were looking for. So that, that was really cool to see
Trent Manning: 19:15
No, that’s, yeah, really, really cool. And that’s what I was thinking the, what you were just talking about. I know I’ve volunteered at some of these bigger tournaments and a lot of times they will hand water fairways. You know, to get ’em the perfect firmness and you know, moisture content and all those things. But they also have to have a guy, like you’re talking about Jamie scouting with a moisture probe to tell somebody where to water in the fairway.
Jamie Sharp: 19:42
If those tournaments are gonna air, they’re gonna air on the dry side. They’re not gonna air on the wet side cuz they don’t want, they don’t want their tour players plugging balls. They want those things to run out. So even before that, you could watch a course even when we’re scanning and it just gets drier and drier and drier, and they’re really hesitant to turn on any irrigation because they don’t wanna get it to the point where the ball’s gonna plug. So that becomes handy.
Trent Manning: 20:08
Well, Derek, tell us, uh, a little bit more about the sensor. So how, how does it hook to a vehicle? What powers it?
Derek Houtz: 20:20
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 20:21
and then the, you said it was wifi, so do you have to, does it store the information locally and then when it gets back to the shop, it uploads?
Derek Houtz: 20:32
Yeah, so, so question one, the mount system. so we designed kind of a universal mount where you can mount it on your fairway unit or on your maintenance cart, and it has little steel plates with like a super strong adhesive, like basically two-sided tape from 3m. That’s. Crazy strong. so you kind of just clean off the fiberglass hood of the fairway unit or the aluminum, bed of the carryall, whatever you’re mounting on. And you just put these magnetic steel plates there. And then the mounting structure has these strong magnets that basically yeah, just stick onto those steel plates. so it makes it super easy to pull off the sensor, you know, when you want to put something else in your carry all. or you don’t, you know, wanna switch from mower to mower. so that’s kind of how the mount structure works. And it has a kind of adjustable angle with the legs. have a couple of notches to make
Trent Manning: 21:26
How, how critical is that angle and the height above the turf?
Derek Houtz: 21:31
It’s not so critical. So I mean, we, we just make the adjustability more for looks than anything. we do have to let know that angle if it’s like, Very far off. Like some of the triplex have kind of more angled hood than the fairway units. so we would just measure that with, with like a phone app, you know, on, on your iPhone. You can go to measure and you can see what the angle is. So then we can just input that to, to our algorithm. And, and you still get, yeah, the same accuracy of, of moisture measurements. and then the second question, I guess was about the, the power. yeah, so we’re shipping right now with a, just like a cigarette lighter 12 volt, uh, plug. And we found that most of those, uh, vehicles have that 12 volt, like cigarette lighter style plug. I guess there’s a couple of the newer electric carts that just have a USB connector.
Trent Manning: 22:27
Okay. Yep.
Derek Houtz: 22:28
So I actually just ordered a USB to cigarette lighter little adapter, and uh, I’m pretty sure that works. All the specs work out on that for to be powered just directly off of usb, which is like a five volt. it’s pretty flexible, like how it’s powered and it’s really low power consumption, so it uses four watts. and it has an internal battery. So that was actually one of the last requirements that, that Jamie, uh, brought on us at the last minute there that we had to kind of hustle for. But it has an internal battery. So when you turn off the fairway unit, so like if you know there’s golfers on the course and you’re trying to mow, and then they’re, they’re playing through and you go over to the side and turn the engine off, the sensor keeps running. It doesn’t have to, you know, refine the g p s lock. or restart at all. It just keeps collecting data while it’s turned off. And that also allows it, when it gets back to the garage or the wherever your, your mowers are stored, it allows it some, some buffer time to finish uploading the data. and also gets updates, over the wifi so it’s all remotely updated. Like it’s always gonna have the newest firmware. Uh, so it’s never, never getting out outdated. You don’t have to ship it back for service or anything. and yeah, so the data’s being stored locally until you get back to the, the garage, or the pro shop or like, you know, the, the cart barn. and then it uploads over wifi when you get there. And then within 30 minutes you have that map available in the task tracker, property overview
Trent Manning: 23:57
Okay. That’s awesome. Very,
Jamie Sharp: 23:59
Tr tr here’s. A question for a technician, that would be you. So what’s the thought about putting a, the sticky stuff on the, the hood of a, of attraction unit? That’s, that’s my new word for the day. As a golf pro, I learned that from you guys, but as, as one of those units being put on there, is that, is that, that’s, is that something that most techs you think are willing to do is units?
Trent Manning: 24:21
I think, I think so because I remember seeing it at the show, and it’s not like it’s a huge, you know, eyesore. If the sensor wasn’t on there and you were just looking at the little disc, I don’t think it’s that big a deal. I mean, there could be, you know, some clubs or whatever Yeah. That rejects to it, but, I mean, that’s the other thing I guess I’ve learned in life is you’re never gonna make everybody happy. So if you can, uh, get the majority happy, you’re okay.
Jamie Sharp: 24:52
Yep.
Trent Manning: 24:53
those special people, they need special care and, uh, you come up with something special just for them.
Jamie Sharp: 25:00
There you go,
Trent Manning: 25:01
and
Derek Houtz: 25:02
you need green plates to match your John Deere, we’ll make ’em green. If you need red plates to match your Toro, we’ll make ’em red.
Trent Manning: 25:07
well, and I mean, honestly, that’s probably a pretty good idea. Uh, paint ’em. Yeah, whatever color. So they’re more camouflaged and doesn’t stick out. I think that’s a great idea. we’re just coming up with all kind of ideas right here on Real Turf Techs for your product, and I love it. It’s good stuff.
Derek Houtz: 25:25
So yeah, the next uh, request is gonna be like, all right, can I get the one set of green plates and one set of red plates?
Trent Manning: 25:31
Yep. That’ll, that’ll be it. And then you’ll have, uh, a club that wants to sensor painted a certain color.
Derek Houtz: 25:39
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 25:40
I know. There’s one club that buys a lot of Toro equipment and they don’t like the red color and Toros paints it gray for them.
Jamie Sharp: 25:49
Oh really?
Trent Manning: 25:50
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Sharp: 25:52
Well, we’ll send him a check for $10 and then he’ll get some krylon paint
Trent Manning: 25:57
Okay. Yes.
Derek Houtz: 25:59
Yeah, I mean that, that was a difficult decision cuz our, our sensor’s white. and so people kept asking us like, isn’t it gonna get dirty? Why did you make it white? You know, there’s grass everywhere. This is a dirty kind of, Kind of job that we’re doing. And, but we’ve figured, you know, you can hose it off. It’s fully waterproof. It’s like glossy white plastic.
Trent Manning: 26:22
Mm-hmm.
Derek Houtz: 26:23
and it, it cleans up nice. And uh, yeah, we kind of like the white color.
Trent Manning: 26:27
Yeah. Ain’t
Jamie Sharp: 26:28
we’re taking the Henry Ford approach. We got it in every color. As long as you like white
Trent Manning: 26:33
Yes, that’s right. I love that. Oh, that’s good stuff.
Jamie Sharp: 26:38
Well, I was just, I actually just received our sensor today here at the. At Task Tracker and I did an unboxing of it and, and did all that. So I was, I was excited to kind of go through everything that came in the box. It was almost like Christmas day for, uh, for me. I pulled out the sensor, which everything looked fantastic. And then of course we have the mounts that now I gotta build a mounting video. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to put that together with the instructions that came in the box. That’s kind of next after, after I finished talking with you guys. I’m gonna go back to filming that and. hopefully post it up to see how, how easy it is to put together.
Trent Manning: 27:13
Okay. Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah. So how many of these do you have out
Jamie Sharp: 27:19
18.
Trent Manning: 27:20
18?
Derek Houtz: 27:20
So we have eight courses and 18 sensors. So anywhere between one or four sensors, per, per course, kind of depending if they’re using it on a maintenance card as like, kind of like on demand sensor. Like a lot of the supers wanted to have personal control over it and put it on their gator or their, you know, their cart and, and control it. And other courses were fine just putting ’em on all their fairway units and just. Passively collecting the data, kind of like how we intended. so I mean, for us it is, it’s however, however you supers want to do it. Like it’s pretty flexible. But, uh, yeah, our first eight courses are kind of spread all over the west. And, bit in the, in the central US as well, Missouri and,
Jamie Sharp: 28:07
so I think we, we have is we have a. I think we have two or three courses that are mount mounting ’em on faraway units. And so they’re gonna, they bought, three and, and four units to go on all their faroh units, so they’re gonna be mounting ’em on there. And then I, we have one course that bought three units, but they’re making a mount, it’s almost like a sprayer mount where it kind of unfolds. And then they have three sensors on this mount, and it’s on a golf cart, it’s on a cart, so they’re gonna send that person out every day cuz he wants to get moisture every day. So he’s gonna be sending that out every day, and they’re gonna go back and forth on the, on the fairways with that, with that apparatus. So we have, an array of three going out there. And then the last, the last couple that we have are individual ones that will be going out and, and just attached to a golf cart. And I think they’ll be just going back and forth on those fairways to get that information.
Trent Manning: 29:03
So how wide is the, not the sensor, but what it’s sensing.
Derek Houtz: 29:09
The swath,
Trent Manning: 29:10
Yeah, that’s wide. Thank
Derek Houtz: 29:11
guess. it’s about the width of the, of a golf cart.
Trent Manning: 29:15
Okay, so
Derek Houtz: 29:15
like four feet.
Trent Manning: 29:16
All right.
Jamie Sharp: 29:17
What I like about it too is cuz I don’t know, when we were testing, and this is one thing they brought up when we were doing our, with our probes, if we put a probe in the ground, you put a probe in the ground two trend, I’m sure, and you read it and it says it’s 23 and you move it. you know, four inches and it says it’s 28 and you move it over here and it’s 17. And you’re like, so, you know, what’s, what’s the number? It might be the number between those two probes or the actual moisture that that may be true. But overall, can you apply that to the, the sprinkler head that you’re gonna be adjusting? I, you’d have to take a lot of probe measurements in sense, like Derek said, it’s, it’s like a flashlight that this thing has like taken a reading of it. From the sensor, it’s like it, it has this cone that it takes a measure and it takes this, it takes a pretty good sample size. So you kind of avoid those, those areas that are maybe have different types of. Soil compaction or something like that where you can get these weird readings and it kind of gets a nice average, which then we actually get a true measurement of what that moisture is. So it becomes a lot easier to say, yeah, this area is wet, or This area is dry. We’re not just absolutely hitting one of those little dry pockets or one of those little wet pockets that we can hit with a probe.
Trent Manning: 30:30
right.
Derek Houtz: 30:31
Yeah, it’s like the sensitive volume of the soil is, is large, that you’re averaging over all of these, you know, small variabilities.
Trent Manning: 30:39
Gotcha. So with the GPS and it, knowing where you’re at, do you have to have R T k or how’s the GPS done?
Derek Houtz: 30:49
Yeah, I mean, we don’t have an R TK G P s, because of that four foot swath, the GPS is, you know, on the order of that three foot accuracy. so the R T K thing is more for these drones that are measuring, you know, subin scale. Pictures and then trying to stitch them together, you know, from one photo to the next where you really need like one inch sub-in accuracy of the gps. but yeah, our, our geo location is on the, the order of the swath width of the sensitivity of the sensor. So like three, four feet.
Jamie Sharp: 31:24
I always find, I always find that g p s really interesting cuz Derek, you’re saying that when you’re moving your g p s is actually more accurate than when you’re moving, than when you’re actually standing still. Is that correct?
Derek Houtz: 31:34
Yeah. Yeah. That’s just a function of, of GPS that Yeah, I mean, you, you can compare the triangulation of the, the satellites better when, when you’re on the move.
Jamie Sharp: 31:47
So that’s, that’s another benefit is that we are, we’re taking measurements while we’re moving with other maybe units that are, you have to stop, stick it in the ground. Wait, you’re stationary. So, You know, even though we may, you be using the same g p s type receiver, we’re being more accurate cuz we’re on the move than maybe one that you have to stop and take a measurement. So in a way it becomes a more accurate way of taking that moisture, which I found very interesting.
Trent Manning: 32:16
Yeah. Yeah. No, that is interesting. But it kind of makes sense too. I mean, I’ve been out in the woods with a handheld gps and it’s constantly picking up different satellites when you’re standing dead still.
Jamie Sharp: 32:29
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 32:29
So when you’re moving, makes sense.
Jamie Sharp: 32:33
Yep.
Trent Manning: 32:34
So from a mechanic standpoint, What am I gonna have to do when I buy one of these units other than mount it on the machine
Jamie Sharp: 32:43
This is the real question right here,
Trent Manning: 32:45
Yeah. This is the real
Jamie Sharp: 32:46
This is where rubber meets the road.
Trent Manning: 32:48
this is what my listeners want to know.
Jamie Sharp: 32:50
like what’s, what’s in it? What’s in it for me? Or how much time is it gonna take me? I’m gonna let Derek answer that.
Derek Houtz: 32:58
Putting me on the spot. I mean, to be perfectly honest, we designed it so that the mechanic doesn’t have to do anything. the goal is that it’s, it’s working. You pull the sensor off when you wanna open up the hood and, and do some maintenance. It’s just like those magnets. I mean, we, we we’re super careful to make sure that we’re not killing the, the batteries on the vehicles. so it’s like automatically shutting off, you know, with its own, with its own battery power. so
Trent Manning: 33:26
Yeah, that’s definitely a good thing.
Derek Houtz: 33:28
I guess it’s gonna to, to be perfectly honest, it’s gonna take some time to figure out exactly what, what the, the mechanic’s role is gonna be.
Trent Manning: 33:36
don’t worry at the golf course, we will find the weak link in, in your product. And I mean, that’s not, you know, a, a hint at you or whatever. It’s every piece of equipment we’re gonna find out. The weak link and most, uh, actually every course that I’ve ever been to in my life has that guy, and more than likely that guy, they won’t put on, you know, the fairway mower with this unit because
Derek Houtz: 34:02
guy that, breaks everything, is that, is that who he is?
Trent Manning: 34:05
do something.
Jamie Sharp: 34:07
Well that’s the kind of interesting, that’s what we want to know as a company too, is like, What are those pain points like? We think we made it easy for the technician, but maybe we missed something major. And I think that’s part of us with a slow rollout with only having seven, eight courses on this. I mean, we could have had a lot more, but we said, you know what? We really want to listen to what the super saying and what they, how they want the software built. but we also want to hear from the technicians, like, man, when I got the box I couldn’t even read the instructions. wanna know that cause that just is gonna, we’re gonna pivot on that and say, how do we make this better? Because when it shows up in your hands, Trent, we wanna be like, ah, I unbox it, I stick it on the unit and it’s five minutes outta my day. It’s not two days outta my day to put something like this on. I.
Derek Houtz: 34:58
Yeah, I mean we, we had Gerald, Gerald Flaherty, who’s, who’s Jamie’s co-founder. He was the superintendent at the Valley Club in Sun Valley for like, what, 30 years? 25 years or something. I mean, he was basically helping us to design this product for golf. like, you know, I said we were, we were shooting in the dark or just tossing things at the wall and seeing what stuck. But then once we had this realization that golf was, was our market, Gerald was our, our light in the dark like guided us to say, okay, it needs to be easy, it needs to be durable, it needs to be waterproof. We need to hose this thing down. Like, you know, he kind of gave us the list and then we went back to the drawing board and we’re like, we designed this product for. the golf courses.
Trent Manning: 35:42
Oh, well, yeah. Yeah. No, that’s, that’s awesome because all those are really valid points because yeah, it is gonna get wet and it’s needs to be somewhat robust, making it as light as you can. And I mean, I understand those limitations, but, uh,
Derek Houtz: 36:01
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 36:01
as the old saying, go, shit happens. it’s, it’s, it’s gonna, it is gonna happen sooner or later. So,
Derek Houtz: 36:09
so we didn’t have a r a mechanic’s perspective, but I think, Gerald Gerald has some, some insight from, from the mechanics and, he’s pretty handy himself. So I, I think that he gave some, some positive input from kind of the mechanic’s perspective.
Jamie Sharp: 36:23
Well, well, we did have a mechanic on onsite when we were building the prototype, when we were using his tools. You know, they always have a watchful eye when you start using their saws and everything, and he was, he was giving us advice on what we should doing, should not doing
Trent Manning: 36:38
Yes.
Jamie Sharp: 36:38
golf.
Trent Manning: 36:38
good.
Jamie Sharp: 36:40
A, a metal saw, you know,
Trent Manning: 36:42
Yeah. Yep.
Jamie Sharp: 36:43
kind of scary.
Trent Manning: 36:44
That’s funny. That’s good stuff. else y’all wanna hit on here?
Jamie Sharp: 36:49
what?
Derek Houtz: 36:50
I guess I can throw the same question back to you, like, uh, what, what would you expect to have to do with a sensor like this and what, what about it seems in your, your kind of comfort zone and is there parts of it that seems like out of your comfort zone or that would. kind of intimidate you from using or, having a super use a sensor on that car
Trent Manning: 37:11
Yeah, I don’t, uh, that’s a good question and I like getting put on the spot too. So, but I mean, from what I know about the sensor and that’s just seeing it at the show, I mean, it looks pretty easy to, to mount it. and kinda like Jamie was saying, the ease of unboxing and setting it up. you know, is very important. So having detailed instructions, if there is, you know, some nuances on, if you’re putting it on this piece of equipment, you might need to do this. If you’re putting it on this piece of equipment, you might need to do that. because I could see that coming about, you know, just because there is so many different mowers and even fairway mowers cuz some manufacturers have a triplex fairway mower. You know, it still has five wheels, but it’s only three wheels, and then a lot of four wheel fairway units. So having those instructions detailed enough to, uh, help us out. and I do like that it has its own battery and we’re not killing batteries, especially if we left it plugged in for, you know, a longer period of time, whether it’s raining or you know, whatever reason, we’re not sending that mower out. And the sensors on it, because I have run into that on, uh, some G P S sensors, if a unit sets for a month, battery’s dead. because the GPS sensor’s pulling it down
Derek Houtz: 38:42
Right.
Trent Manning: 38:43
something down the road. I mean, I guess a lot of people would probably figure it out. But if you don’t have the sensor on a mower, where are you gonna store it? So having, you know, a, another set of, uh, washers, you know, where you could store it on a wall somewhere on a shelf or, or whatever. Just some things I think about off the top of my head.
Jamie Sharp: 39:05
That’s actually a good I thought about storage. You always think it’s always, always gonna be on there, but just like a, just like your. Weed whacker, your weed whipper or whatever, you’re putting those on the walls and probably do same thing with a sensor when you’re, it’s not in use. Maybe in the winter you would take it off and, and how do you do, how do you store that sensor?
Trent Manning: 39:24
Hmm.
Jamie Sharp: 39:25
not
Derek Houtz: 39:25
That’s funny that you mentioned the washers though, Trent. I mean we, when we came to the show, the G C S A, we forgot the steel plates. So like the day before the show, we had to go to the Home Depot and get like the biggest steel washers that they had to, to mount the sensor on. But yeah, those, those were great. so yeah, it’s definitely a substitute for our fancy painted steel plates. you can use big washers.
Trent Manning: 39:50
I do. I mean, I do think the, the. the painted ones is, uh, a good idea, for sure. So you got anything to add, Jamie
Jamie Sharp: 40:00
On the, um, on the task tracker side as far as the, the software goes. know, what I’m excited about is, is the software. I mean, that’s gonna ultimately what makes or breaks the software. You can have a great piece of hardware, but if. you don’t have a piece of software that’s usable and it’s going to give you what we call actionable data, cuz that’s another thing that a lot of times you get. Down this rabbit hole and you’re like, you’ve got all this great data, but how do you present it? And you know, the nice thing about us being in the industry, Gerald being a superintendent, me being a golf pro, you may not consider that being in the industry, but you know, I under I
Trent Manning: 40:40
not, that’s not in the industry, Jamie. Okay, let’s, we’ve gotta get this straight right here.
Jamie Sharp: 40:46
anyway, uh, but Gerald, you know, it’s, it’s about giving him the information he needs to make a decision. the charts are beautiful. The, the overlay’s beautiful, but I think down in the end you’re like, what heads do I need to look at? What heads do I need to turn up? What heads do I need to turn down? H how do I get that piece of information from my irrigation tech? And that’s one of the areas that what I like about the software so far is that we’re showing those alerts in the software. Like, all right, you’ve got three heads you gotta look at on hole number one, you’ve got two heads you gotta look at. On hole number four, you’ve got four heads you gotta look at on hole number eight. And then there’s these other heads that, man, the, the uniformity’s weird. like the uniformity is not perfect. It’s not in that eighties zone, it’s like in seventies. Is there something going on there? Is there a stuck head? Is there a nozzle that’s a problem? Um, something that maybe needs your attention where you can send out the irrigation, uh, tech to go ahead and take a look at that. So I think having a great piece of hardware, but boiling it down to what the super needs to do and saying, just show me that information. So he’s not spending his entire day looking at. These beautiful maps, but really what he wants to get down to is what do I need to do so I can get home?
Trent Manning: 41:59
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So, and but the, it will tell you, cuz it’s overlaid on your asbuilt, you can link it to your sprinkler head.
Derek Houtz: 42:10
Yep.
Jamie Sharp: 42:10
the asbuilt is Derek, you know, they, they overlay the Asalt asbuilt on there, so it’ll light up the irrigation heads that need to be adjusted. We don’t have a direct integration into Toro or Rain Bird yet.
Trent Manning: 42:23
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Sharp: 42:23
Uh, but I feel that’s gonna come, I mean, I, the technology is so good. I don’t see why an irrigation company wouldn’t want to incorporate something like this into their system, because again, it comes down to what makes the supers job more easier, what makes the crew job more e easier so they can go ahead and, and focus on the stuff that the members see all the time. the irrigation stuff, if we can make that job just a little easier. I, I think, I think irrigation companies want that.
Trent Manning: 42:53
Yeah,
Derek Houtz: 42:54
I mean, we’re, we’re talking to all three of those, like Toro, rain Bird, and Hunter. and yeah, the, as-built on that topic, the, the as-built integration has been, A huge component of, of this whole process and making the actionable data as, as, as Jamie mentioned, like I remember when I first integrated the as-builts, and showed Gerald and he was like, oh, wow, okay, this, this is game changer. Like it’s not just a pretty map of soil moisture, it’s telling you the actual mean moisture within the throw radius of every head on your fairways.
Trent Manning: 43:29
Yeah. That’s impressive.
Jamie Sharp: 43:31
Yeah.
Derek Houtz: 43:31
and then we’ve been integrating all sorts of as-builts from these eight courses that we onboarded. So I mean, literally from, from hand drawn maps to fully digitized like shape files, we’ve, you know, been working with the whole spectrum of as-builts and whatever we get, we can convert into our, our platform right now. So yeah, we’re pretty proud of that as-built integration and. I think some of the guys were intimidated to say like, well, I just have hand drawn maps. And, uh, we’re like, that’s fine. Like, we’re gonna digitize that. We’re gonna georeference it in our GIS software and we’re gonna put it, make it exactly the same as all the other customers. So,
Trent Manning: 44:17
Okay. Very cool. And I think on the software side, if you can make it where it prints you off, a list of problem heads. and you can just hand that right to the irrigation tech. So you need to look at all these heads,
Derek Houtz: 44:32
Exactly.
Jamie Sharp: 44:33
That’s, uh, that’s coming. I know we have the maps, we have the alerts, and then we’ll have the daily, we’ll be able to aggregate those into a daily sheet. Like here’s everything that needs to be adjusted. Easy to go up and easy to go down. So I, I think that’s gonna come with the feet. You already, you already step ahead. Tread as always,
Trent Manning: 44:50
uh, always. That’s why I was gonna say always I got.
Jamie Sharp: 44:54
So, yeah, that’s, that’s one of the, that’s one of the avenues that we’re going down is to say, Hey, gimme that Excel sheet. What do I need to change?
Trent Manning: 45:02
Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s, that’s awesome. But, and if you can integrate it with, uh, rain Bird and Toro and Hunter and those people where Yeah, it’s just touchless. You don’t even have to
Jamie Sharp: 45:13
And it’s like,
Trent Manning: 45:14
unless you have a
Jamie Sharp: 45:16
Apply
Trent Manning: 45:17
Yeah. A weird problem, you know, going on with the head, like you were saying, the nozzle clogged or, you know, something like that. I don’t, I don’t think technology’s there yet, but
Jamie Sharp: 45:27
But Well, that’s the cool part about it, is that the software can recognize like uneven uniformity. So they’re like, oh, this, this isn’t watering like it should be. It’s, we can turn up or down the water. We don’t think that’s going to fix the issue. It’s something else that you need to take a look at. And you’ve, you know, I’m sure every superintendent’s done the distribution. Test and they have those little thousands of little cups out there trying to, trying to get their irrigation system perfect. Well this is even one step better cuz now we’re trying to get the moisture perfect. Which is ultimately what you want is like, how does the moisture flow through the ground so we can dial that in And so,
Trent Manning: 46:06
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Sharp: 46:08
We could see that, like on that one course where they had, where they had pressure problems with the irrigation, you could see the donuts on the moisture map. You could see the, the wet spot in the middle and the dry spot in the donut, and then the wet spot again on the outside. So it was, was cool.
Trent Manning: 46:25
Yeah. Due to low water pressure,
Jamie Sharp: 46:28
to low water pressure.
Trent Manning: 46:29
Yeah. Huh. That’s crazy. That’s, yeah. That’s super cool stuff. really, really excited to, uh, To see it firsthand
Jamie Sharp: 46:39
Yeah. Well, we we’re excited too to roll it out. It’s, it’s something that I, it just kind of checks all those boxes that you’re looking for. It’s one of those things like, is this, can this really be true? It’s one of those things like, I, there seems to be so many good things about it. You’re like, what’s, what’s gonna be the thing that isn’t? And we haven’t found that yet, but it seems like everything is, is. is what we’re looking for to be able to manage that precision irrigation.
Trent Manning: 47:06
I don’t, do y’all see people using it in on fairways? I mean, sorry, on greens?
Derek Houtz: 47:14
We’re, that’s the next step. So like right now we’re offering the, the fairway. Product. I mean, cuz that’s where most of the water’s being used and, you know, the bigger, biggest piece of acreage on the course. But, uh, we wanna really test with a, a roller, because, you know, it’s, I think it’s maybe a little big for the push mowers.
Trent Manning: 47:37
Mm-hmm.
Derek Houtz: 47:38
So I think the roller is kind of the perfect, piece of equipment that most people are, you know, bringing onto the greens. Unless, you know, some, some guys are plexing the greens I guess. But, I think the roller would be the most kind of universal, piece of equipment to mounted on for greens. So that’s definitely, that’s coming next.
Jamie Sharp: 47:57
We know.
Trent Manning: 47:57
about rough? Because rough can be a large acreage area too.
Derek Houtz: 48:03
Yeah. Yeah, we can do that.
Jamie Sharp: 48:05
Yeah. R’S not an issue. I know we’re just focusing on the fairways, but we’ve done ruffs and. I know greens are gonna be coming, and I know there’s gonna be some crafty tech out there who’s gonna build a mount for a roller and they’re gonna mount this thing on there, and then they’re gonna they’re gonna send us the data and say, Hey, what does that look like? which I, we would be interested in seeing that kind of data for sure
Trent Manning: 48:27
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Sharp: 48:28
on their, on their greens.
Trent Manning: 48:30
I don’t send me a sensor.
Jamie Sharp: 48:31
You wanna see
Trent Manning: 48:32
I’ll put one on. Yeah. I got two rollers. We’ll,
Jamie Sharp: 48:35
I’m having a hard time getting one for myself right now.
Trent Manning: 48:38
Well you said, you said you just unboxed
Jamie Sharp: 48:41
I know I, I’ve been waiting only for
Trent Manning: 48:42
it back up and
Jamie Sharp: 48:44
I’ll do a rebox.
Trent Manning: 48:45
Yeah, do a rebox it and send it this way. Yeah.
Jamie Sharp: 48:50
I’m have to make a trip out there.
Trent Manning: 48:52
yeah, definitely.
Jamie Sharp: 48:53
That would be fun.
Trent Manning: 48:54
any time. Yeah, any, any. If y’all are ever in the Atlanta area, let me, uh, know. We had actor shooter going on and
Jamie Sharp: 49:02
I saw that.
Trent Manning: 49:03
lockdown today
Derek Houtz: 49:04
Oh no.
Jamie Sharp: 49:05
gosh.
Trent Manning: 49:06
Yeah. Crazy
Jamie Sharp: 49:07
Probably a disgruntled golf pro
Trent Manning: 49:09
could be very, very well, could be. I think we’re looking for, uh, at least two golf pro assistants right now.
Jamie Sharp: 49:17
Oh, oh, right. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 49:18
Yeah, and I heard that, yeah, there was several other area clubs were, uh, looking for golf pro assistance too. Heard that today?
Derek Houtz: 49:28
Well, I’m working on bringing my 19 handicap down, so maybe I can apply
Trent Manning: 49:32
Oh yeah. Come on. Come on,
Jamie Sharp: 49:35
How do you fold a shirt? That’s the real question, Derek. That’s where, that’s where the rubber meets the road again. It’s like, can you fold that shirt perfectly every time?
Derek Houtz: 49:44
So that’s the real job,
Jamie Sharp: 49:46
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 49:46
That’s right. That’s funny. So I know we’re kind of rambling here, but That’s all right. I enjoy it. I was talking to Jordan Roth, he’s, uh, em at Champions Run in Nebraska and he started down the Golf Professional Road and he said he didn’t like folding shirts. No, I’m kidding. but he, he did start down that road and, uh, but that was one of the questions I asked him. I said, did they have a whole class on how to fold a shirt? He’s like, I didn’t get that far.
Jamie Sharp: 50:21
There’s no classes on folding. I’m gonna, I’m gonna dispel that myth right now. There’s no classes on
Trent Manning: 50:27
classes. What about, uh, calligraphy?
Jamie Sharp: 50:30
no class. Well, actually there probably is classes on calligraphy, but I never took one. But, yeah. Yeah. But that’s basically what it seems like it boils down to, for a golf, it’s probably all you guys starting those rumors. It’s all about just
Trent Manning: 50:42
Yeah, it is.
Jamie Sharp: 50:43
shirts,
Trent Manning: 50:43
It is. Yep. That’s
Derek Houtz: 50:45
Wait, what? What is the calligraphy about? That’s like Asian writing
Jamie Sharp: 50:48
Yep. It’s about doing scoreboards.
Trent Manning: 50:51
Yeah. Doing golf scoreboards
Jamie Sharp: 50:53
That’s how we got our name Advanced Scoreboards Trent, is that when we originally, I originally started writing software. I had no intention of writing a labor tracking platform. It was about every person asked me about, oh, did you go to school for calligraphy? Did you do that? But really the one person had to stay out there the entire tournament. Cause once you start one person with calligraphy, no one else can do the board. So that person has to be there all the time. So I wanted to create a digital board that basically we put all of our scores up on. This was before, golf Genius and Blue Golf and all that had their digital boards. We made a digital board and I’m like, I’m gonna start a company called Advanced Scoreboard. I didn’t have enough technical knowledge to actually really create the company, but I. I did file for an L L C for advanced scoreboards thinking I’m gonna do this one day. And then, so that’s how we got the name Advanced Scoreboards. And then Gerald came along and said, well, we’ll just make this task Tracker product with it as well. And that just took off. So that’s, that’s kind of how, that’s why, like is it Advanced scoreboard? It’s kind of weird.
Trent Manning: 51:58
Yeah. Now I had won that. I wondered where The
Derek Houtz: 52:01
I didn’t know the background of that, about calligraphy either, so I, I’m learning a lot today.
Trent Manning: 52:05
Yeah. what the Real Turf Tax Podcast is all about. we all learn something. I’m learning stuff. Y’all are learning things. That’s great. No, thank you so much, uh, Derek and Jamie for, uh, being on the Real Turf Tech podcast. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this and, uh, it’s been a, been a good time.
Jamie Sharp: 52:25
Well, we appreciate you having us on,
Trent Manning: 52:27
we learned some things
Derek Houtz: 52:29
Definitely
Jamie Sharp: 52:30
as we always do with this podcast.
Trent Manning: 52:33
exactly
Jamie Sharp: 52:34
we appreciate that too.
Trent Manning: 52:40
thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don’t forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you’d like to discuss, or you’d like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.