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Excelerate Technology is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, while also marking 20 years of exhibiting at The Emergency Services Show. For Group Sales Director Matt Wroughton, who spent 13 years as a firefighter, the milestones offer an opportunity to reflect on how technology and the needs of emergency services have evolved.
In this Q&A, we discuss how Matt’s frontline experience shapes Excelerate’s approach, the company’s latest developments in connectivity and satellite technology, and its £6m UK Space Agency-backed R&D programme. He also looks back at Excelerate’s long-standing relationship with ESS and considers what the next 20 years of emergency services technology could look like.
How has Excelerate Technology’s mission in public safety evolved over the past 25 years?
While technology, customer expectations and the public safety landscape have evolved significantly, our commitment to supporting the sector has remained constant. Public safety is at the heart of everything we do.
As the industry changes, it’s important that we evolve alongside it, anticipating future challenges and opportunities while continuing to deliver meaningful outcomes. Innovation is creating new ways of working across every sector, and by embracing emerging technologies and applying lessons from other industries, we can help our customers operate more effectively.
Looking ahead, our focus is on building on our strong foundations, remaining a trusted partner to the public safety community and continuing to innovate in ways that help keep people and communities safe.
How does your frontline experience shape Excelerate’s approach to the market?
We don’t develop technology in isolation; we develop it for the people who rely on it when it matters most. Having served as a full-time firefighter in the UK for 13 years, I understand the realities of operating in high-pressure, unpredictable environments, where reliable communications can be critical.
That experience has shaped my approach throughout my career at Excelerate and reinforces the importance of focusing on outcomes rather than technology alone. It gives us a deep understanding of the operational pressures our customers face and ensures we remain focused on delivering practical, dependable solutions.
Because we understand our customers’ environment, we can provide technology that is intuitive, resilient and effective in real-world situations. It also means we listen closely, challenge assumptions and work collaboratively with end users to ensure our solutions genuinely support frontline operations. Ultimately, our experience helps bridge the gap between innovation and operational need, enabling organisations to work more safely, efficiently and effectively.
How will Excelerate’s new three-division structure benefit emergency services?
To meet the changing needs of public safety and critical infrastructure organisations, we have aligned our expertise into three focused commercial pillars, creating a stronger platform for innovation, delivery and long-term customer success.
Complex is dedicated to bespoke, large-scale systems integration projects. From next-generation mobile incident command units to specialist operational infrastructure, it combines engineering expertise with a consultative approach to deliver mission-critical capabilities.
X-Product focuses on rapidly deployable and highly configurable technology solutions. Built around proven, scalable and portable capabilities, it enables organisations to access the tools they need quickly while supporting operational agility.
Unety Connectivity brings together cellular, multi-orbit satellite and hybrid networking technologies into a seamless, fully managed service. As organisations become increasingly data-driven, Unety provides secure, resilient and always-on connectivity wherever operations take place.
Together, these three pillars position Excelerate for continued growth, allowing us to scale faster, embrace emerging technologies and help customers remain connected, informed and operationally ready in an increasingly complex environment.
What is X-Innovate working on, particularly following its UK Space Agency funding?
Innovation has always been central to Excelerate’s growth, and X-Innovate represents the next stage in that journey. As our dedicated research and development division, it is focused on creating the next generation of mission-critical technologies that will shape the future of connectivity and operational resilience.
A key area of focus is our leadership of a UK technology consortium awarded £6 million through the UK Space Agency’s Connectivity in Low-Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme. This funding is enabling us to develop advanced satellite communication technologies that can transform how organisations remain connected in challenging environments.
At the centre of this work is MAMUT (Mobility and Autonomy Market User Terminal), a multi-orbit, multi-beam satellite antenna designed to deliver greater flexibility and resilience. Rather than being tied to a single satellite network, users will be able to switch seamlessly between operators and orbits, including LEO, MEO and GEO, without changing hardware. For emergency services and other mission-critical users, this means faster, more resilient connectivity wherever they operate. Looking ahead, MAMUT has the potential to redefine satellite communications while helping ensure frontline teams have reliable connectivity when they need it most.
What has being part of The Emergency Services Show for 20 years meant to Excelerate?
Our relationship with The Emergency Services Show is something we’re incredibly proud of because we’ve effectively grown up together. For two decades, both organisations have shared a commitment to supporting the emergency services community, encouraging innovation and bringing together the people and technologies that help keep communities safe.
For Excelerate, ESS has always been more than a trade show. It has provided an opportunity to build long-term relationships, hear directly from frontline users, understand operational challenges and showcase technologies that make a genuine difference. Many of our longest-standing customer and partner relationships began through conversations at the event.
As Excelerate has evolved from a specialist connectivity provider into a global technology and systems integration partner, ESS has grown into the UK’s leading emergency services event. Both organisations have adapted to meet changing sector needs while remaining focused on the people they serve.
Looking ahead, that partnership feels more important than ever as new technologies, challenges and opportunities emerge. We’re excited to continue working alongside ESS and the wider emergency services community to help shape the future of public safety.
How have the needs of emergency services changed since those early shows?
The biggest change has been the growing importance of information, connectivity and interoperability. Twenty years ago, many conversations focused on vehicles, equipment and individual communications systems. While those capabilities remain essential, emergency services today operate in a far more connected and data-driven environment.
Incidents have become more complex, operational demands have increased and organisations are expected to improve efficiency while collaborating more closely. As a result, there is a much greater emphasis on real-time situational awareness, resilient connectivity and the ability to share critical information across agencies.
Technology has also evolved from being a supporting function to a core operational capability. Frontline teams now rely on live video, mapping, telemetry, cloud-based applications, drones and mobile data in ways that were unimaginable two decades ago. Expectations around connectivity have changed as well, with users requiring secure, seamless access wherever they operate.
What’s particularly encouraging is that the sector has become increasingly open to innovation, adopting technologies and best practices from industries such as defence, telecommunications, healthcare and transport.
Looking ahead, innovations such as AI, autonomous systems, advanced satellite communications and predictive analytics will continue to transform operations. The challenge is ensuring those innovations are translated into practical solutions that deliver real value to frontline personnel. While the technology has changed dramatically, the mission remains the same: helping emergency services protect people, communities and critical infrastructure more effectively.
What are you most looking forward to showcasing at ESS, and what do you see shaping the next 20 years of emergency services technology?
This year is a great opportunity to celebrate not only Excelerate’s journey but also the progress made across the emergency services sector over the past two decades.
At this year’s show, I’m particularly excited to showcase how Excelerate is evolving to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. From our Unety Connectivity ecosystem and next-generation command and control capabilities to the pioneering work being delivered through X-Innovate, we’re demonstrating technologies designed to improve connectivity, resilience and operational effectiveness. We’re also looking forward to sharing our vision for the future of multi-orbit satellite communications and the potential of innovations such as MAMUT.
Looking ahead, I believe the next 20 years will be defined by the convergence of connectivity, data and automation. AI, autonomous systems, real-time situational awareness, advanced satellite networks and predictive analytics will continue to change how emergency services prepare for, respond to and recover from incidents.
However, while the technology will evolve rapidly, success will still be measured by the same outcome: helping people make better decisions in critical moments. That’s what excites me most about the future. By bringing together the best innovations from across technology, industry and public safety, we can help ensure emergency services are more connected, informed and capable than ever before.
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Excelerate is a Premier Partner and Founding Partner at The Emergency Tech Show and The Emergency Services Show 2026 at the NEC on 16-17 September, and will be exhibiting on Stand H80. Register for your free ticket here.
