Entrepeneurs who got lost in a hotel were inspired to invent an award-winning emergency exit system.

Brian Stevens and Bernard Mcdonagh were running a business helping companies be disabledfriendly when they failed to find the way out of a large Brighton hotel.

They realised if they struggled in normal conditions they would have little chance in an emergency and decided to develop a new system.

Their solution EvacLite, based at Newhaven Enterprise Centre, has improved signage to show the safest exit from a building with flashing LED arrows.

Brian said: “The standard passive emergency exit signs have been unchanged for years and they are usually placed high up above doors. Smoke rises so the signs can be obscured if there is a fire. We saw an opportunity to use some of the latest lighting technology to develop something that could save lives.”

A more sophisticated version shows a red cross, which stops people taking the wrong route, and can be operated manually from a CCTV centre for manual control or connected to a system with algorithms, which map the spread of a fire and guide people to safety.

The business is part of a consortium involved in an EU-funded ‘Getaway’ project The consortium has been trialling the most effective way of clearing large numbers from dangerous situations with the signage with a 77% success rate.