10 ways to use a simulator

Fun with Bells

You may not have given ringing simulators a second thought before, but this episode will definitely get you scrambling up your belfry, with some sensors in hand.

Steve Farmer, tells host Cathy Booth the fascinating story of Simbell. Wanting an easy way to get get extra rope time without annoying the church neighbours with his noisy novice ringing, Steve took the unusual step of inventing his own ringing simulator.
Now simulators are not new, having been a thing since the advent of The Seague Silent Ringing Apparatus in the 1870s. However, Steve had the very clever idea of making his simulator wireless. And what is the advantage of a wireless simulator? Listen to the podcast to find out!
With technology moving so fast it’s hard to say what will come next? Steve looks into his crystal ball and gets us to imagine a future where we might all be ringing in virtual reality headsets. Sounds amazing - just as long as the ‘bong’ is in the right place.

Top 5 takeaways

• Want to attract more ringers? Hold an open day as part of the Heritage Open Days. Once you’ve go them up the tower. They’ll be hooked!
• There’s a wide choice of ringing software to choose from – have a look at Abel http://www.abelsim.co.uk/ , Virtual Belfry https://www.belfryware.com/ and Beltower http://www.beltower.co.uk
• Check out all the super simulator resources, including links to Simbell https://simbell.co.uk on the Association of Ringing Teachers website http://ringingteachers.org/resource-centre/simulator-resources
• If there’s something that would help you to ring but it doesn’t yet exist, then why not invent it yourself. If it would help you it’s bound to help others too!
• Trying to motivate young ringers? Use a simulator to score their striking rates. And if more intensive training is needed, think about running a summer simulator boot camp with hours of (silent) practice.

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART). To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth
Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).