EnPointe Fencing

Date: 21-Oct-2026

From a broken wire reel to the world's leading wireless scoring system. Callum Laurenson was the volunteer armourer at the Monash University Fencing Club, forever repairing the wired reels that kept snapping and tangling underfoot.

One day he asked himself a simple question: why not just make the sport wireless? What he thought would be an easy fix became a years long development journey, and today that journey has become EnPointe Fencing, whose wireless scoring systems have sold in their thousands into more than 30 countries and have now run official scoring at World Cups, Satellite events and European Championships.

EnPointe Fencing designs and manufactures the world's leading wireless scoring technology for the sport of fencing, replacing the tethered wire reels that have defined the sport for decades with a lightweight, modern system built for speed, reliability and ease of use.

"At EnPointe, our mission is to provide high-quality wireless scoring for fencers, by fencers," the founders say. "In a sport decided by thousandths of a second, trust in your equipment is critical. EnPointe is dedicated to developing, manufacturing, and maintaining, the absolute best scoring solutions in the world."

Three Monash students and a broken wire reel

EnPointe's three founders, Callum Laurenson, Tony Grubman and Rachel Muir-Smith, met while studying at Monash University. Callum and Tony were both studying Electrical Engineering, while Rachel, studying Arts/Science, met Callum when she joined the Monash University Fencing Club.

It was Callum's job as the club's volunteer armourer to keep the wired scoring reels working, and their constant breakdowns became the spark for the company. "Why not just make the sport wireless?" he thought, a question that seemed simple enough at the time but turned into a genuinely difficult, years long engineering problem to solve.

The trouble with wires

Fencing's fast, unpredictable nature means it depends on electronic scoring to tell who hit whom, and to distinguish between hits to the on-target area (which score a point) and the off-target area. In traditional wired scoring, each fencer runs a wire down their arm from weapon to jacket, plugged into a reel at the end of the piste, completing an electric circuit, and lighting up the scoring light, when a hit lands.

That system comes with real problems. Reels tether fencers to the back of the piste, restricting movement. When a reel's spring fails, it can leave tangles of wire on the piste that trip fencers up. The wires themselves break, undermining reliability, and the reels are heavy, slowing setup and take down. On top of all that, physical wires give spectators the impression of an old fashioned sport that hasn't caught up with the 21st century.

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A world-leading sensor

Making fencing wireless sounds simple in an era of wireless everything, keyboards, phones, headphones, but the real challenge isn't transmitting information wirelessly. It's detecting the touch itself, without wires connecting the fencers, there's no path for current to flow, which means the traditional method of sensing a hit simply doesn't work.

EnPointe's answer was to develop a world-leading, unique sensor that uses multiple contact points on each fencer to generate a series of complex electric fields. By measuring those fields, generated by both fencers, and how they change as the fencers move, the sensor can determine exactly when a hit happened with sub-millisecond accuracy, and distinguish between hits to the metallic jacket, the opponent's blade, or bare skin, even in conditions of extreme sweat. Unlike other systems on the market, it requires no calibration or additional equipment, making it easy to transport, quick to set up and intuitive to use. Investment in good design for manufacture also let EnPointe reduce the labour costs of Australian manufacturing, offering a more competitive price alongside a better product than other scoring solutions on the market.

Thousands of systems, one Australian design

EnPointe has grown from a completely unknown startup to one of the best known and most reputable scoring machine manufacturers for fencing worldwide. The company has sold thousands of fencing systems into more than 30 countries, from Belgium to Bermuda, Singapore to Sweden, and is now one of the leading choices for fencing clubs globally. Beyond equipment sales, EnPointe has had the privilege of running a number of international Fencing and Modern Pentathlon events, including World Cups, Satellite events and European Championships.

The company's attention to accessible design, including features developed and tested for users with colour blindness, earned its wireless Display Box a Good Design Award from Good Design Australia. Clubs have also reported that the reduced weight, size and setup time of EnPointe's systems has let them scale up to more pistes and more fencers than wired systems allowed, driving greater participation and recruitment of beginners into the sport. Along the way, connections made through the Australian Sports Technologies Network have helped EnPointe tap into the broader Australian sports ecosystem, linking the company with other businesses and individuals and helping it scout for growth opportunities in the global sports industry.

What's next

EnPointe has a number of new products planned, including a new Display Box showing score and time, and a remote control with revolutionary features designed to make officiating easier and more intuitive. The team is also keen to build a brand-new "tournament version" of the system, with a more robust design able to withstand high-pressure broadcast environments, expanding back into running high-level competitions.

"No company is an island," the founders say. "Without a strong community of sports companies, sharing advice on processes, and providing strong links, each individual company would find it harder to expand and maintain market leadership." It's a philosophy that extends to EnPointe's hope for its ongoing relationship with ASTN, the company hopes ASTN can continue to provide contacts, connections and advice on processes as it moves into new, unfamiliar territory over the years ahead.