• Cleantron battery packs leverage the Telit ME910C1-WW LTE module, based on products from Qualcomm Technologies, and Telit OneEdge, for remotely monitoring voltage, current, temperature and other key metrics

• Telit’s end-to-end solution also includes cellular service and a turnkey cloud platform for collecting and analyzing battery data

Telit today announced a partnership with Cleantron that provides a turnkey, end-to-end solution for optimizing the performance and cycle-life of Cleantron’s battery packs.

The partnership is the latest example of how Telit enables solution providers in any vertical—including security, agriculture, retail, health care and more—to quickly and cost-effectively leverage IoT to optimize and differentiate their products and services.

Cleantron’s new connected battery pack solution provides remote monitoring of the battery‘s health, temperature, voltage, current and state of charge data, which are critical for maximizing performance and cycle-life. Users also can track each battery’s location, providing additional key insights into the status of high-value mobile/portable assets such as medical equipment, Industry 4.0 equipment and light electric vehicles.

Cleantron is using Telit solutions for its P4 Battery Pack—designed for use in light electric vehicles and industrial applications—with the potential for expanding them across its entire portfolio. The solution is based on ME910C1-WW and Telit OneEdge:

• The ME910C1-WW is a 3GPP Release 13 LTE Category M1/NB1 module, based on the Qualcomm® MDM9206 LTE IoT Modem from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., that can be used worldwide. The ME910C1-WW also has power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to maximize battery life.

• OneEdge is the award-winning, module-integrated software and services with pre-packaged, secure, easy-to-use deployment and management tools. OneEdge enables zero touch on-boarding, security built in at the point of manufacture, SIM-less cellular subscription management, simplified enterprise integration and more. With OneEdge, Telit simplifies all aspects of IoT implementation by saving time and cost, reducing risk and speeding time to revenue by easing deployment. OneEdge-based manufactured products such as the ME910C1 and others have a ready-to-go connection to the Telit IoT platform to manage devices, connectivity and application data to deliver the ultimate value in IoT. Telit’s OneEdge solves the long-standing challenges related to integration, scalability, management and costs that system architects and their enterprise customers face as they implement IoT to transform their businesses.

“When businesses want to harness the power of IoT, they turn to Telit,” said Alon Segal, Senior Vice President, Software & Services, Telit. “Cleantron is a prime example of Telit’s ability to provide all of the software, services and devices that a business needs to quickly and cost-effectively implement IoT.”

Maarten Kelder, CTO of Cleantron, said:

“Our partnership with Telit means that Cleantron customers can now get the real-time data they need to maximize the performance and life cycle of the batteries that their vehicles, AGV’s or other valuable equipment depend on.”

“Telit is the ideal choice because it provides everything we need—modules, cellular service and all of the tools—saving us time and money versus building our connected battery pack solution in house from scratch.”

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Inpixon, a leading indoor data company that specializes in delivering indoor intelligence, today announced that it is offering certain of its location-based technology applications and services without cost or at reduced rates (depending on the solution) to healthcare providers and other organizations that are seeking solutions to assist in controlling the spread of COVID-19 or in managing the impact of the pandemic to ensure the safety and well-being of citizens.

Inpixon’s indoor intelligence solutions can equip hospitals and other indoor spaces with a means to create situational awareness and visibility into the movement of people and equipment, identifying potential risk. The company’s technology, which consists of indoor maps, positioning tags and sensors, and analytics, can help address several critical use cases including the following:

• Publish near real-time color-coded maps for patients and staff showing quarantine vs. general population zones, closed areas, etc.
• Route patients along desired paths. Use intelligent indoor navigation to direct patients to particular entrances and along desired routes within the facility to help reduce exposure or congestion.
• Locate and visualize assets and people. Track scarce resources such as ventilators, wheelchairs, gurneys, etc. Trigger alerts when an asset enters or exits a designated area. Find key staff and track patient movements.
• Record and replay device movement for contact tracing through zones.
• Visualize indoor data live on a facility map. Display IoT sensor data (room temperature, equipment health, etc.) on the map.
• Analyze person and asset counts, dwell times and movements to assess the situation and identify trends. Utilize predictive analytics based on historical data.

“This pandemic has swept the globe, disrupting our lives in nearly every way. It is a tragedy of immense proportion, and with so many unknowns, we want to help provide indoor spaces with the tools and technology needed to enhance visibility, manage scarce resources, and reduce unnecessary exposure,” commented Inpixon’s CEO, Nadir Ali.

“Organizations will need to be prepared with solutions to assist them in managing and controlling the impact of this virus over the next 12 to 18 months. Our technology can help to provide a level of certainty in uncertain times. Whether that means diminishing the risk of infected parties coming into contact with others or contact tracing to identify the movement of an infection threat, Inpixon can power multiple location-based use cases and provide invaluable intelligence.”

“Our team is sensitive to the fact that many of the affected organizations who could benefit from our solutions are currently inundated responding to day-to-day demands. When the time is right, we encourage affected organizations that believe they could benefit from the company’s indoor intelligence technology to reach out. We are immensely grateful to those on the front lines of this pandemic and have personnel standing by to assist in offering solutions when needed.”

Government public health experts are seeking the support of technology companies to examine the ways in which location data can help in this time of crisis. Location technology plays a pivotal role in the fight against pandemics, and Inpixon urges organizations to take action and explore how to safeguard the public’s well-being. In the face of a global disruption such as what we are seeing with the COVID-19 coronavirus, we need to consider all the ways technology and innovation can equip us with tools to save lives.

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Backed by €1.5 Million EC Grant, Saturas Will Package Its Ag-Tech Breakthrough on LoRa® Networks.

Kerlink, a specialist in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), and Saturas Ltd., the developer of a breakthrough stem-water measurement system for highly efficient farming, today announced that Kerlink will provide Saturas with LoRa-based hardware and software as it launches its technology commercially.

Kerlink is a leading global provider of solutions for designing, launching, and operating public and private LoRaWAN® IoT networks. It offers a comprehensive product portfolio of industrial-grade network equipment, best-of-breed network-core, operations, and management software, and value-added applications.

Saturas, an Israeli startup, has raised about $9 million, including a prestigious €1.5 million H2020 grant from the European Commission in 2019, to support its miniature, tree-embedded sensor system that continuously measures stem water potential (SWP) of trees and vines.

SWP is scientifically recognized as the most reliable measurement of water stress and an important practical tool for irrigation management. Saturas is the first company to develop a system for measuring SWP automatically, replacing the cumbersome manual devices that fruit-tree and vineyard growers have used for decades. Using Kerlink stations, the company’s tiny LoRaTM sensors transmit processed data to central, automated irrigation-control systems, tailoring irrigation to crops’ real-time needs.

Kerlink will supply Saturas’s deployments with hardware and software such as its solar-powered Wirnet iStation, Wanesy Management Center, a robust solution for managing private IoT networks, and Wanesy Network-as-a-Service, a turnkey comprehensive offer combining key infrastructure, operations, security, and professional services.

“Precision agriculture, led by precision irrigation, is a vital and rapidly growing global business sector with an estimated annual growth rate of over 20 percent,” said Anat Halgoa Solomon, Saturas co-founder & CEO.

“Saturas is positioned to establish a strong presence in this market, and it is vital that we partner with the leading, most reliable companies in the supply chain. The quality of Kerlink’s hardware and software solutions has been proven many times in diverse, challenging environments around the world, and will be a natural fit for our global commercial rollout.”

“Smart farming, or ag-tech, is one of the Internet of Things’ most important vertical markets but it needs the breakthrough innovations that companies like Saturas are bringing to fields and orchards to deliver on its promise,” said Romain Weryk, Kerlink key account manager. “Kerlink’s equipment and software, with their flexibility for supporting customized private networks, are the backbone of IoT networks across more than 120,000 installations in 69 countries.”

The post Kerlink Solutions to Power Rollout of World’s First Automated Stem-Water Measuring System appeared first on IoT Business News.

Berg Insight has found that the global installed base of active airport asset tracking systems was over 0.2 million units in 2019.

This includes all airport asset tracking systems deployed for various motorised ground support equipment (GSE), non-motorised equipment (NME) as well as other applicable airport assets such as on-road vehicles used in airport environments.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4 percent, the active installed base is estimated to reach close to 0.5 million units worldwide in 2024. The current crisis in the aviation industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic will likely also slow down the airport asset tracking market in the short-term.

Berg Insight nevertheless anticipates increasing uptake of airport asset tracking during the forecast period driven by a number of trends related to technological advancements, collaboration and innovation among the solution providers and their prospective customers.

Rickard Andersson, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight, said:

“The airport asset tracking market is served by a number of different types of players, ranging from specialists focused exclusively on tracking and management solutions for specific airport assets, to companies that offer a more comprehensive set of solutions for the aviation sector, and more general telematics players that also serve other industries.”

Berg Insight ranks Undagrid (GSEtrack), Quantum Aviation Solutions, Resonate MP4 (XOPS) and ADVEEZ as the leading vendors of airport asset tracking solutions in terms of installed base. Undagrid and Quantum have installed bases exceeding 10,000 active units each.

“Additional major players include Targa Telematics and Sensolus, which have both partnered with the GSE rental company TCR Group, as well as INFORM, Pinnacle and Smarter Asset Management”, continued Mr. Andersson.

He adds that Pinnacle (iMATS) has notably partnered with Honeywell which has signed a major agreement with Swissport to deploy ground handling services jointly developed with Pinnacle. Smarter Asset Management (SAM) has in turn signed a global contract with Menzies Aviation to roll out telematics.

“Other players active in the airport asset tracking space include Litum IoT, EC2E, DigiMobi, Inseego, Tri-Logical Technologies, Transpoco, Katlyn International, Speedshield Technologies, SpaceTeam, Geotab and the Ortus Group, all having installed bases of at least 1,000 units each”, concluded Mr. Andersson.

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KORE today announced the launch of a new comprehensive managed services solution for Critical Asset Management (CAM), utilizing the Visilion asset tracking platform from Sony Network Communications Europe.

KORE’s solution introduces a new level of condition management, allowing companies in the medical instrumentation, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries to maintain real-time condition visibility of critical and high-value goods.

KORE is leveraging the IoT managed services expertise of recently acquired Integron to assist connected health and life sciences companies in the turnkey deployment of scalable asset management tools. Its new solution combines Sony’s advanced trackers, easy-to-use platform, robust APIs (capable of ERP integration) and reporting tools with KORE’s project management, kitting, logistics, connectivity and device management services. The result is a seamless service that allows companies to deploy monitoring solutions for critical and high-value assets.

Bryan Lubel, EVP of IoT Managed Services at KORE, commented:

“Passive monitoring has not been sufficient for the highly regulated nature of the connected health market and up to this point, active monitoring has been too fragmented, complicated, and costly.”

“With our experience in IoT deployments and connected devices, we’re simplifying the process for our customers, while improving their risk mitigation and operational efficiency.”

The Sony hardware offers best-in-class low-energy IoT connectivity, is equipped with the latest cellular and satellite connectivity to support real-time GPS positioning, as well as monitoring of temperature, shock, acceleration and tilt.

“Our focus on delivering powerful and effective IoT solutions is crystal clear. With the Visilion platform, we are able to unlock the potential of Critical Asset Management – a market that we anticipate will grow sharply in the coming months and years,” said Romil Bahl, President and CEO of KORE. “We feel confident that KORE, supported by Sony’s technology, is better positioned than anyone else to deliver impactful solutions that enable efficiencies in connected health and life sciences.”

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According to a new market research report from IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the scootersharing fleet is forecasted to grow from 774,000 vehicles worldwide in 2019 to more than 4.6 million vehicles in 2024.

The market consists of traditional sit-down electric scooters and stand-up electric scooters. The deployed fleet in traditional scootersharing services is anticipated to reach 482,000 vehicles at the end of 2024.

The fleet of stand-up scooters is anticipated to outnumber the traditional scooters by a factor of ten at the end of the forecast period. The COVID-19 pandemic now affects the scootersharing operators negatively in many countries as many cities limit people’s mobility temporarily. This should not have any impact on the long-term growth in this market, but will result in lower ridership in 2020 than first anticipated.

Scootersharing operators offer access to scooters that are spread across cities. Usage is typically billed by the minute or by distance driven with rates that include fuel/charging, parking, insurance and maintenance. The scootersharing operators have their own street team or utilise a network of partners that ensure that the scooters have fuel or are charged and are serviced on a regular basis. New technologies in the form of telematics systems and smartphones are key enablers of scootersharing services. Notable vendors of scootersharing telematics technology include COMODULE, INVERS, Vulog and Octo Telematics.

“Leading traditional scootersharing operators include Bounce, Vogo, ECooltra, CityScoot and Acciona”, said Martin Svegander, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight. During 2017–2018, new services comprising stand up scooters were introduced. The leading operators in this segment include Lime, Bird, Spin, Tier, Voi and Dott. Nearly all of the 100 specialist scootersharing service companies on the market use a free floating operational model. Today cities in many cases limit the number of stand-up scooters allowed on the streets through mandatory operator licences.

“The regulatory environment shows notable differences between regions, national markets and even on city level due to varying regulatory frameworks”, said Mr. Svegander. Vehicle registration laws is one aspect of how the regulatory environment affects the scootersharing industry. Stand up scootersharing services are still prohibited in some markets including the UK, Ireland, China and Singapore.

Mr. Svegander, added:

“There are still plenty of untapped potential markets for scootersharing operators and we also expect that more countries will allow scootersharing services in the upcoming years.”

The post The scootersharing fleet to reach 4.6 million vehicles in 2024 appeared first on IoT Business News.

According to a new market research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of deployed vehicles in bikesharing schemes worldwide is forecasted to grow from 23.2 million in 2019 to reach 35.8 million in 2024.

Bikesharing is a decentralised bicycle rental service, usually focusing on short term rentals that supplements other modes of transport including walking and public transport. Traditionally, most bikesharing operators have used station-based networks operated through public-private partnerships. This operational model requires members to pick up and return the vehicle at any designated station within a city.

In Europe and North America, station-based bikesharing is the most popular operating model. Another model that is rapidly gaining in popularity is free floating services, which enables members to pick up and drop off vehicles anywhere within a designated area. Today, free floating bikesharing has become the most common bikesharing service in terms of deployed vehicles.

There are hundreds of commercial bikesharing service providers worldwide. “Prominent bikesharing operators include Hellobike, Meituan Bike, JUMP (owned by Uber), Motivate (owned by Lyft), JCDecaux, Donkey Republic and Nextbike”, said Martin Svegander, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight.

The vehicles used in bikesharing schemes are usually robust to endure more frequent usage than privately-owned bicycles. In addition, both free floating and station-based operators have in the past year launched bikesharing schemes comprising electric pedal-assisted bikes (e-bikes) to widen the service area and attract new customer segments.

There are now a handful companies on the market specialising in bikesharing technology. “Examples of solution providers include companies such as Bewegen Technologies, Conneqtech, Omni, PBSC Urban Solutions, Sitael, Smoove, SoftTech Interactive Solutions and Youon Bike Technologies”, continued Mr. Svegander.

These companies provide complete solutions including telematics hardware solutions, user identification and bike locks, information kiosks as well as fleet management platforms and mobile apps. Over time, features like yield management using dynamic pricing will be needed to support evolving services and increasingly complex partnerships with other mobility service providers.

Mr. Svegander added:

“A growing share of bikesharing operators will adopt dedicated software platforms from specialised third-party vendors in the future, rather than relying on systems developed in-house.”

Software companies specialising in shared micromobility services that serve both bikesharing and scootersharing services include Joyride, Urban Sharing, ElectricFeel and Wunder Mobility.

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• Memo Hub® monitors a person’s daily activity and flags potential minor issues before they become a crisis.
• During the current pandemic, it’s critical to support vulnerable people’s safety and wellbeing especially when alone for extended periods.
• The service is enabled by Eseye’s AnyNet Connectivity Management solution which delivers more than 99% uptime to the Memo Hub.

Millions of people are now being enabled to lead more independent and better-protected lifestyles thanks to a new smart IoT monitoring device, called Memo Hub.

Memo Hub supports the vulnerable to live confidently and safely at home, offering additional reassurance amid the current Coronavirus pandemic.

Created by next-generation telecare expert Alcuris Ltd., with the help of IoT connectivity specialist Eseye, Memo Hub connects to smart devices around a person’s home via Zigbee and Bluetooth, and monitors their daily activity., Typically it monitors a variety of items activity, such as when kettles and televisions are used and how often. Memo Hub then uses Eseye’s AnyNet Connectivity Management solution to reliably and securely backhaul the data to the Alcuris database on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud services platform.

The information and insight is then delivered to families and caregivers, via the Memo App or the Dashboard, triggering an alert if their usual pattern of behaviour changes and if there is cause for concern over their wellbeing. Any potential issues are flagged to caregivers quickly and preventative actions can be put in place.

Alexander Nash, Founder and Director of Alcuris, said:

“Our mission is to help older people, and those living with physical or mental health impairments, lead longer, happier and more independent lives, something that everyone deserves. With the threat that we are now facing, in the midst of this global coronavirus pandemic, it is crucial that the wellbeing of vulnerable people living alone is supported.”

Alcuris partnered with Eseye for its unique multi-network AnyNet 4G cellular IoT and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) connectivity expertise, which provides the highly reliable, resilient and critical connection between the Memo Hub and a 24/7 alarm monitoring centre and allows for multi-network switching instantly.

With more than 99% connectivity uptime, this multi-network reliably delivers data to Alcuris using Eseye’s native integration with managed cloud service, AWS IoT Core. This enables Alcuris to securely store data and perform in depth data analytics. Eseye’s multi-network system also allows for the uploading of software updates to the Memo Hub, ensuring it is permanently performing at peak levels. Effective and robust connectivity management is crucial – a connection failure could be the difference between life and death.

Nick Earle, CEO of Eseye, said:
“This is a significant step in the provision of care and support for independent older and vulnerable people. It’s a potentially lifesaving technology, and we are delighted to be a part of this innovative new product and service – especially at a time of such uncertainty and worry for families everywhere. The possibilities for IoT to enable market disruption and enhance our everyday lives are endless, which is why it is core to the Eseye vision.”

According to Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), there are more than 3.8 million individuals over the age of 65 living alone, while more than a million older or disabled people receive social care funded by the state.

Memo Hub will lead to more efficient caregiving: including improving how carers and support workers prioritise visits and expediting the process of checking in/out of patients’ homes – an important tool during times of restricted access. The service will also ease NHS pressures, as issues can be identified early and remedied so that hospital admissions are reduced.

The existing analogue telecommunication systems currently used to deliver telecare throughout the UK will also be defunct by 2025, and will have to switch to digital, making the development of solutions like Memo Hub vital.

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Loscam achieves operational efficiency gains with Thinxtra’s IoT “Track and Trace” solution

Founded in 1942, Loscam is Asia-Pacific’s largest pallet pooling and returnable packaging solutions company, with over 100 depots operating across the region, serving thousands of customers.

Under Loscam’s business model, customers pay a daily hire rate for returnable packaging assets to move inventory via a third-party logistics provider between manufacture and retail. Customers are required to pay a daily compensation rate to cover replacement of missing assets.

“A key pitfall in our environment is that we can’t easily track assets leased to customers. When assets go missing, customers often resist paying compensation because they feel they’ve already paid for the asset by hiring it. The challenges for us of not tracking assets were unhappy customers, lost compensation fees and replacement costs.” explains Daniel Bunnett, Executive Vice-President for Australia and New Zealand, Loscam.

Loscam needed a cost-effective, end-to-end asset tracking solution. Ten years ago the company trialled their first “Track and Trace” solution with a 3G GPS tracker that had less than seven days battery life. The trial allowed the customer to track stillage units, but the costs were prohibitive for widespread application, the need to recharge batteries weekly was not operationally viable and the business case did not stack up.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) offered another solution for asset tracking but was short-lived because the ‘scan in, scan out’ approach couldn’t offer end-to-end, real-time visibility to an asset’s location and was too cumbersome to deploy across a large customer base.

Thinxtra’s 0G Network, powered by Sigfox Technology, Enables Long Battery Life, Low Costs of Connectivity And Hardware

After a decade of trialling expensive, complex and incomplete asset management solutions, Loscam implemented a Thinxtra IoT-enabled Track and Trace solution. The implementation unlocked unexpected business value for Loscam, and its customers, by making Loscam’s returnable packaging assets smarter. Today, Loscam customers can make fact-based decisions to improve supply chain operations using Thinxtra’s scalable, cost-effective, end-to-end IoT-enabled Track and Trace solution.

Bunnett says:

“We wanted to solve our tracking challenges by making our returnable packaging assets smarter. When Thinxtra’s IoT solutions arrived, the overall costs of connectivity, hardware and deployment became feasible. The devices were getting smarter too, particularly for extending battery life to years instead of months.”

Loscam chose Thinxtra to design and deploy an IoT-enabled Track and Trace solution for a major customer:
“We chose Thinxtra because of their expertise designing IoT-enabled fit-for-purpose, end-to-end tracking solutions delivering nationwide visibility, low data production costs and a three-year battery life. Successful IoT deployment is not only about having the right technology, it also demands operational viability and a partner who understands what it takes to make the business case work. Thinxtra’s long IoT experience means they understood all the cost elements to make the business case viable for us. No other technology company, solution provider or telco could meet our requirements,” says Michael Winter, Customer Solutions Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Loscam

An early example of Loscam’s IoT-enabled Track and Trace solution tracked inventory moving between Sydney and Melbourne, a distance of around 700 kilometres/400 miles. The solution captured unexpected extra value from the sensor data, which made the business case even more compelling for the customer than tracking location alone. The sensor data alerted the customer the goods temperature was declining in transit. The customer knew the exact vehicle location so the logistics provider contacted the driver. It was discovered the goods were mistakenly loaded to a refrigerated truck. The logistics provider shifted the inventory to the correct truck, salvaged the goods and completed delivery.

The Benefits of Data From Asset Tracking

“The first IoT-enabled Track and Trace deployment was a lightbulb moment for us. We knew tracking the location of our returnable packaging solutions was important but suddenly realised that tracking other data generated by the device could add enormous extra value to customers. That put us on the path to make IoT-enabled tracking work for our business on a larger scale,” says Bunnett.

Loscam moved beyond live location tracking to explore different types of data that would be useful to customers, including alarms linked to temperature, humidity, whether units were open or closed and geo-fencing to enable notification of arrival.

An early example of the success of Loscam’s Track and Trace solution was with a high value automobile spare parts provider. 220 pallets, used to ship spare parts to dealerships around Australia, were fitted with Thinxtra’s smart tracking solution.

Within four months of the tracking devices being fitted, the solution traced five per cent of units incorrectly delivered to a competitor’s warehouse, eight per cent of units that moved outside the customer’s logistics provider network and one per cent of units that were mistakenly shipped to a location where the customer didn’t have a dealership. By quickly recovering the missing units, the customer saved compensation fees and reduced the total number of units leased from Loscam by twenty-five per cent because smart tracking allowed them to use each existing leased unit more efficiently.

“All our customers have different needs. Our returnable packaging solutions hold inventory ranging from car parts to frozen goods, paint cans and more. We needed a partner who could work with us to create a scalable IoT solution to enable fact-based actions for customers, whether tracking location, temperature, humidity or something else, on a robust, low-cost national network. Thinxtra created that for us. We’re excited by the future of what IoT can do for our business.”

“Successful IoT deployment is not only about having the right technology, it also demands operational viability and a partner who understands what it takes to make the business case work,” concludes Bunnett.

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Provides customers with powerful, configurable, extensible, and field-ready IoT-enabled Asset Tracking solution.

Particle, the edge-to-cloud IoT platform built to connect the unconnected, today announced its new Tracking System to provide organizations with the ability to track the locations of a wide variety of mobile assets with its powerful, configurable, extensible and field-ready solution.

In a forthcoming study from Particle that surveyed over 1,000 IoT engineers and industry experts, Asset Tracking ranked as one of the top three most in-demand applications for IoT technology.

Built on the Particle platform spanning integrated Internet-of-Things (IoT) hardware, edge software, connectivity, and cloud-based management software, Particle’s Tracking System empowers customers to track the real-time location of critical assets and capture additional intelligence via sensor data including temperature and acceleration as well as remotely control mobile equipment and vehicles.

Asset Tracking operations are critical for both emerging and established industries, including supply chain & logistics providers, cold chain operations, micromobility businesses such as connected scooter & eBike vendors, transportation, and general purpose high-value capital asset tracking and monitoring. While conventional Asset Tracking and telematics tools have often historically focused on basic use cases such as collecting the location data of critical assets, next-generation capabilities powered by IoT technologies enable organizations to develop more sophisticated solutions to support industry-specific use cases:

• Transportation & logistics managers use real-time data and for comprehensive fleet management, to monitor the quality of goods in transit, and identify where organizations can save energy and resources
• Cold chain logistics providers need to ensure quality and compliance for at rest and in-transit goods ranging from food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals
• Manufacturers and distributors of machines and equipment across a wide range of industries from construction to equipment rental firms must track the location of high-value capital assets to maximize asset utilization, prevent theft and loss, and monitor inventory
• Micromobility providers require not only basic capabilities to track scooters / e-bikes by location, but also need to remotely update the device to continually improve their product and address evolving compliance standards as well as monitor operational status, such as tracking whether a scooter’s headlights are on or off upon parking.

Particle’s Tracking System builds on the existing edge-to-cloud IoT platform with the following new offerings:

• Tracking Services is a suite of software purpose-built for asset tracking applications that extends Particle’s platform with geolocation services (mapping and geodatabase) and a configuration service for defining fleet-wide behaviors such as reporting interval on-the-fly. Tracker Services also includes an open firmware application framework for devices that integrates with off-the-shelf IoT sensors and can be deeply customized to support sophisticated tracker applications.
• Tracker SoM is a powerful, configurable, and extensible IoT System-on-Module (SoM) that builds on Particle’s Tracking Services foundation and provides a powerful MCU, GNSS, and advanced peripherals in a compact form factor. Tracker SoM serves as an accelerated starting point to organizations that require a tailored tracking solution for sophisticated applications as well as a fully-certified foundation for original equipment manufacturers developing commercial products.
• Tracker One is a field-ready Asset Tracking solution that utilizes the Particle Tracking Services and Tracker SoM to provide customers with an out-of-the-box product that incorporates edge hardware, edge software, cellular connectivity, and software capabilities. Tracker One is fully certified, immediately deployable, and requires no additional development on the behalf of users for a true off-the-shelf solution.

“IoT is an extraordinarily broad industry, and many businesses who want to remotely monitor or control their machines and equipment don’t have high-quality off-the-shelf IoT products available to them that suit their needs,” says Zach Supalla, CEO of Particle.

“With Particle’s new Asset Tracking developments, we are providing a field-ready product that can be modified, reconfigured, and reprogrammed to suit the needs of every customer with mobile machines, vehicles, and equipment, allowing them to quickly start collecting critical data and real-time intelligence off of these machines and assets and start solving real problems for their customers.”

Key capabilities of the new Asset Tracking solutions include:

• Integrated software suite offering an intuitive interface to monitor assets, configure hardware, manage industry-leading remote over-the-air updates, generate reports, and manage integrations
• “All-in-one” edge-to-cloud platform spanning purpose-built edge hardware, edge software, cellular connectivity, and management software to avoid the cost, complexity, and security risks of a piecemeal approach
• Rapid time to market through out-of-the-box field-ready solutions
• The opportunity to configure and customize solutions for sophisticated asset tracking applications
• Global cellular connectivity options including LTE CAT M1 in North America and LTE CAT 1 with 3G and 2G fallback in EMEAA
• Powerful and accurate real-time location tracking with GNSS and onboard dead-reckoning for 1.8m CEP50 GPS accuracy paired with onboard capabilities including a high-precision thermistor as well as an accelerometer and gyroscope for motion detection, positioning, and orientation insight
• High-extensibility via onboard integrated CAN Bus controller and transceiver as well as an I/O expander for additional capability expansion via industry standard protocols
• Purpose-built, open source edge software for comprehensive device management out-of-the-box paired with accessible libraries for advanced configuration and custom development

“As the world’s first platform offering logistics players smart, light electric vehicles as a service, IoT-enabled asset tracking capabilities are critical to our business and Particle has been a trusted solution provider and strong partner,” says Mina Nada, CEO and Co-Founder of Bolt Bikes. “We are excited to see Particle’s continued advancement with the introduction of their new asset tracking solution and look forward to continuing to leverage their edge-to-cloud offering.”

Particle works with customers across a wide range of industries including supply chain and logistics providers, industrial manufacturing, agriculture, micromobility, and local governments implementing smart city solutions. Particle’s Asset Tracking solution is available now in an early access program.

The post Particle Announces New Tracking System to Support IoT Deployments in Transportation & Logistics, Cold Chain, and Micromobility appeared first on IoT Business News.

Proximity Trace Helps Organizations Minimize Exposure for Workers and Aims to Get Them Back to Work More Safely.

In response to the need for greater worker protection during the COVID-19 pandemic, Triax Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of Internet of Things (IoT) worksite technology, announced a new IoT system, Proximity Trace™.

The new solution provides proximity distancing alerts and contact tracing through a wearable device for workers across many industries, including construction, heavy industrial, energy and manufacturing. It offers added protection for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and helps companies get workers back to work safely, while addressing recommended social distancing practices.

“In talking with our customers, we recognized a critical industry need to keep workers safe from COVID-19 exposure on the worksite, so we quickly got to work developing a solution,” said Robert Costantini, Triax Technologies CEO.

“We leveraged our experience in IoT technology and workforce safety monitoring to address companies’ urgent needs for workers to maintain appropriate distances, to perform historical contact tracing for any employee testing positive for the virus, and to assist companies in getting their workforce back on the job as they implement new safety protocols. Our solution is designed to ease the burden on workers to maintain appropriate distances as part of new safety practices that very well could become the next normal.”

The Proximity Trace devices are affixed to a hard hat or worn on the body with a lanyard and emit a progressively louder alarm, alerting workers when they are too close to each other. This enables them to focus on their work, rather than worrying about their proximity to another worker or potential exposure to the virus. The alarm can also serve to change behaviors by reminding workers to practice safe social distancing.

In the event that there is a confirmed case of COVID-19, an employer can conduct contact tracing using historical data captured passively by the worker’s device to identify who may have been exposed. Traditional methods of contact tracing rely on workers’ memories and whether they can identify by name other workers they were in contact with during a given time period. With more reliable information, companies can decide who needs to be in mandatory or precautionary quarantine per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, and whether the site can continue to operate safely without the need to shut down the entire operation.

“Worker safety is our top priority, so we were thrilled to hear that our technology partner Triax developed a solution to address the social distancing and contact tracing problems the industry is facing during COVID-19,” said Jason Pelkey, senior vice president, Chief Information Officer, Gilbane Building Company. “We’re rolling this out at our active sites and we’re excited about the role it could play in keeping workers safer at those sites as well as non-essential sites as we begin returning those to full operational status in the months to come.”

Proximity Trace was designed to support appropriate social distancing guidelines as outlined by government agencies. It can be used alongside an organization’s internal policies on social distancing and other safety guidelines.

Proximity Trace doesn’t use Triax’s proprietary mesh network, but rather communicates separately to a cloud dashboard specifically designed for contact tracing. The product is undergoing field testing and key feedback from early customers will be incorporated into production for commercial availability.

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Solution Leverages the Companies’ Expertise in Indoor Asset Tracking and Monitoring, Powered by LoRaWAN® and Without Smartphones or GPS Technology.

Kerlink, a specialist in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), and Microshare, the leading data management solution for the IoT era, today announced their collaboration in delivering a turnkey solution to trace contacts proximity in the workplace to help to fight spread of Covid-19.

Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO) officials stressed the importance for countries to combine testing, isolation and tracing of new cases to suppress the spread of the virus¹. Suppression is essential for buying time to develop new medicines and new vaccines, to manufacture much-needed equipment, and to design reactive solutions to prevent the spreading of illnesses.

This crisis also reveals that personnel are both the most important and most vulnerable assets of companies and industries, as well as public-service and government agencies. Suppression is thus an especially key challenge during the outbreak and the transition out of confinement phases for all businesses and services. Private and public sector entities are torn between the imperative to strictly follow locally personal hygiene and safety rules and their critical challenge to maintain business continuity, while ensuring the safety of their personnel.

There is wide agreement that effective, close monitoring – known as contact tracing – is essential to identify people who came in contact with infected people to guide proactive prevention and to follow up with the contacts identified².

Factories, plants, warehouses, construction sites, mining and oil & gas sites, prisons, barracks, schools, hospitals health-care and elder-care facilities are many of the environments where smartphones and public apps are not a reliable response to this crisis. Often, people within these facilities and sites either are prohibited from using a smartphone, may not own one or simply refuse to use one. Even those carrying smartphones on a regular basis may have disabled geo-tracking to protect their privacy or deal with limited battery capacity.

Microshare and Kerlink have combined their deep experience in indoor asset tracking within facilities and around ring-fenced properties to deliver a cost-effective contact-tracing solution. Microshare’s Universal Contact Tracing™ solution is powered by Kerlink’s brand-new Wanesy™ Wave scanners, industrial-grade indoor and outdoor Wirnet iSerie LoRaWAN® gateways and Wanesy™ Management Center core network and network management tools. This turnkey solution can be deployed in weeks rather than months or years, with no need to design new hardware, or install new complex networks or intrusive data-management systems. This solution runs entirely on a network separate from sensitive corporate databases and closes a loophole opened by systems relying on smartphones.

Its use is very simple, secure and anonymized:

• Staff are issued simple and inexpensive autonomous Bluetooth-enabled badges, key-rings or wristbands with a unique ID. No Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is used and data transmitted and recorded is only based on device User Identifier (UID).

• When devices come in close proximity to each other, they scan and record each other’s UID through an encrypted code and regularly upload these UIDs “encounters” to a central, secure, searchable and auditable database.

• Only duly enabled government agencies, corporate-wellness and security officers, facility managers or other officials responsible for mitigating Covid-19 exposure can then identify the wearer of the device, thanks to its unique UID, and trace previous movements of people who subsequently test positive or who develop symptoms.

Designed to be interoperative with standard interfaces and widely deployed commercial data dashboards, Universal Contact Tracing™ ensures end-to-end security, privacy and reliability for the delivery of critical information where it’s needed. The data it produces is secure, GDPR-compliant and delivered through Microshare’s patent-pending rules and sharing engine to only the appropriate, designated people at the right time.

Microshare cofounder and CEO Ron Rock, said:

“Building on our existing Asset Zoning solution, which tracks the location of items such as hospital beds and wheelchairs, Kerlink and Microshare developed Fitbit-style wearable Bluetooth devices coupled with a non-invasive long-range network. They can be used for workplace proximity tracing even where cellphones aren’t allowed.”

“We realized that tracking employees inside a building wasn’t dissimilar to tracking hospital beds.”

“In this difficult time for companies, health-care facilities, government agencies and all their employees it is crucial for technology companies to help mitigate the effects of Covid-19,” said Stephane Dejean, Kerlink CMO. “The Kerlink and Microshare solution helps workers to feel safe in their workplace and protect their personal data. It also supports companies’ determination to efficiently and safely get back to business when government officials give them the green light.”

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Wanesy Wave Is Part of End-to-End Solutions That Strongly Position Kerlink in Additional Major IoT Markets.

Extending its expertise to major markets such as smart retailing and smart facilities, Kerlink, a specialist in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), today is launching a real-time, indoor asset-tracking-and-counting system that uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Wanesy™ Wave is an indoor anchor that includes both Wi-Fi and BLE tracking technologies. It can detect and locate Wi-Fi devices (like smartphones), using their probe request (when the smartphone automatically requests a new Wi-Fi service to connect), and can also track Bluetooth-enabled devices or tags. Once detected, it then transmits the data using a LoRaWAN® link to an industrial-grade LoRaWAN® gateway, such as a Kerlink Wirnet™ iFemtoCell. The gateway then transfers the information to any business-application server via Kerlink’s Wanesy Management Center, which operates and manages the end-to-end LoRaWAN® networks.

This anchor can notably be used in end-to-end solutions to enable retail shops, commercial malls or museums to count visitors, trace their movements and retrieve their customer journeys in stores and buildings, including the amount of time they spend in different areas, such as in front of product displays or masterpieces. Deployed across factories, warehouses and service buildings such as hospitals, the system also helps improve management-and-operation efficiency by inexpensively enabling real-time location of devices, by tracking use of assets over a period of time or by getting instant inventory of tools or equipment in a given area.

Wanesy™ Wave also powers social-contact-tracing information to help to suppress the spread of Covid-19.

Combining Wi-Fi, BLE and LoRa® for this tracking-and-tracing solution is the perfect match to reach key expected capabilities: a relevant accuracy in an extended indoor range, a combination of area detection and various types of targets (fixed or mobile assets, people) and, of course, low energy consumption ensuring extended lifetime for battery-powered devices and tags.

The technology complements Kerlink’s existing outdoor asset-tracking offer, WanesyTM Geolocation, which allows asset locating and monitoring across large areas. That system is based on time-stamped signals from three or more LoRaWAN® gateways.

Kerlink Product Manager Guillaume Boisgontier said:

“Wanesy™ Wave is the right set up for retail, industry, services and leisure verticals that want to quickly leverage a track-and-trace, industrial-grade solution to improve their operations.”

“Merchants and other small businesses can easily deploy this indoor and very low-energy tracking solution to better understand customer behavior, measure the effectiveness of displays and marketing campaigns, and manage inventory. Industrial sites and hospitals can quickly deploy a solution to geolocate and manage their critical assets to save time and reach a high level of efficiency. This product also underscores Kerlink’s expertise and continuing success at enabling innovative, essential IoT connectivity benefits for a variety of verticals and sectors, and it definitely completes our portfolio of smart solutions.”

The post Kerlink Launches Cost-Efficient LoRaWAN® Multi-Technology Tracking Anchor for Smart-Retail and Smart-Facility Applications appeared first on IoT Business News.

Berg Insight, the leading IoT market research provider, today released a new market report covering the connected video camera market.

The report focuses on the following five application areas: city surveillance; commercial buildings and industrial site surveillance; smart home security cameras; body-worn cameras; and video telematics for commercial vehicles.

The installed base of video cameras in Europe and North America will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1 percent from 183.0 million units in 2019 to 420.3 million units in 2024. North America is the most successful region of the two and accounted for close to 70 percent of the total installed base in 2019. Today, city, commercial building and industrial site surveillance is the largest segment accounting for 60.1 percent of the installed base. Smart home security cameras is the second largest segment, accounting for 38.4 percent of the installed base. Video telematics for commercial vehicles and body-worn cameras are smaller segments, representing around 1.1 percent and 0.4 percent of the installed base respectively.

Video cameras connected via cellular networks have traditionally been rather uncommon mainly due to requirements on bandwidth and reliability. Berg Insight estimates that only about 2 percent of the installed base of connected video cameras today use cellular technology. With the introduction of 5G networks, which is currently being rolled out across Europe and North America, the number of video cameras featuring cellular connectivity is anticipated to grow fast. Berg Insight forecasts that the installed base of video cameras featuring cellular connectivity will grow at a CAGR of 40.7 percent from 3.7 million units 2019 to 20.4 million units in 2024.

5G communications technology will have a major impact on all the video camera segments covered in this study and will result in a range of new use cases as well. Video surveillance systems will now be possible to install at remote or difficult locations. Body-worn cameras can provide police officers and other workers in the field with real-time data that are crucial for operations.

“Video is anticipated to become one of the early volume 5G IoT connectivity use cases”, says Martin Backman, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight. He adds that video camera vendors are now ramping up their efforts to offer a range of 5G video cameras in the near future.

Mr. Backman concludes:

“The market potential for all connected video camera segments is huge as new breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition are adopted on a wider scale.”

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Polte-enabled CoreKinect Mobile IoT devices eliminate barriers to entry for smaller, individual asset tracking when the supply chain needs it most.

Polte Corporation, the innovator of Cloud Location over Cellular (C-LoC) technology, and CoreKinect, a leader in scalable hardware design and manufacturing, today announced a partnership to launch end to end supply chain tracking solutions powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) for enterprises worldwide.

Polte’s breakthrough location technology, embedded into CoreKinect’s proprietary hardware architecture, will finally fill a hole in the market to drive accessible transparency for smaller, individual assets such as packages and pallets both indoors and outdoors.

The partnership positions Polte and CoreKinect with the ability to address the rapidly evolving enterprise demands for operational efficiency and real-time asset visibility in the supply chain. To date, many IoT asset tracking use cases have been forced to rely on traditional location technologies that were not designed for IoT. GPS, Wi-Fi, and BLE often fall short, with issues ranging from steep upfront deployment costs and complex amalgamations of multiple technologies to accomplish both indoor and outdoor insights, to security vulnerabilities – making implementation difficult at best, unrealistic at worst for the majority of enterprise assets.

Polte’s and CoreKinect’s solution solves the inherent challenges of today’s approaches by enabling rapid, simplified deployments. Polte’s multi-patented C-LoC technology leverages the Polte IoT Cloud (PIC) and ubiquitous 4G & 5G cellular network signals to calculate an asset’s position, allowing accurate location to be derived both indoors and outdoors. Polte’s use of existing Mobile IoT networks scraps the need for additional infrastructure, using a single cellular radio and offloading computational complexity from the device to the cloud.

Delivered in unison, CoreKinect’s US designed and manufactured devices allow for seamless scalability without compromising quality. By providing more security, less bulk, lower cost and longer battery life, Polte and CoreKinect are redefining what is possible with Enterprise IoT.

“Global supply chains have been impacted by the ripple effects of COVID-19, partially due to a lack in visibility of their assets,” Polte CEO Ed Chao explained.

“Where companies were once able to track hundreds of trucks, they can now track the millions of assets and packages that are inside the trucks. We’re excited to partner with CoreKinect to provide accuracy sufficient for the vast majority of IoT use cases, while addressing the broad limitations of competing technologies.”

“The ability to offer a truly low-cost, scalable solution is critical in the adoption of IoT for enterprises,” CoreKinect CEO and Co-founder Assar Badri said. “CoreKinect’s scalable and modular design expertise is unlocking a whole new range of use cases and giving companies the real-time insights and transparency they need to take action.”

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• US-manufactured tracking solutions at disruptive price points expand IoT opportunities
• Innovative tracking technology provides accurate indoor and outdoor location without GPS
• Industry-leading low power consumption extends battery life well beyond traditional GPS

Sequans Communications S.A., a leading maker of 5G/4G chips and modules for massive, broadband and critical IoT, and CoreKinect, a leader in US-based scalable hardware design and manufacturing, today announced Zenith, a new line of asset trackers connected by Sequans’ Monarch GM01Q module.

Monarch is the world’s most highly optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT solution featuring industry-leading low power consumption, global deployment capability, and a location engine that enables indoor and outdoor locating capability without traditional GPS technology.

“The new CoreKinect trackers are making it possible for IoT companies to address many new tracking opportunities that were not economically feasible before,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO.

“Intelligent design combined with CoreKinect cost optimizations and Monarch’s proven reliability and location technology that removes the need for GPS, results in Zenith trackers that disrupt on both price and quality.”

CoreKinect Zenith trackers are simple to use and easy to deploy. Available in two versions, the Zenith Ruggedized Tracker is designed for industrial applications, and the Zenith Slim Tracker is designed for applications needing a small form factor. Both trackers include an accelerometer, temperature sensor, and Bluetooth Low Energy, and have an IP67 environmental rating.

“Partnering with a world class organization such as Sequans enables us to deliver game-changing solutions,” said Assar Badri, CEO, CoreKinect. “By making things simple, we allow our customers to focus on what’s important to them.”

The CoreKinect Zenith trackers are connected by Sequans’ Monarch GM01Q module that comprises Sequans’ Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT chip and all other elements necessary for a complete LTE modem system. These include an LTE-optimized transceiver, a complete Single SKU™ RF front-end to support LTE bands worldwide, and key interfaces, all in a single compact LGA package. Monarch GM01Q delivers the industry’s lowest PSM (power saving mode) power consumption at 1 micro amp, enabling ultra long battery life, and features Sequans’ IoT-Findit™ location engine that enables accurate indoor and outdoor location service without GPS, enabling much lower power consumption and cost.

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What if you could mine data from every electrical device in your lab, school, or building just by plugging it in?

WattIQ today announces the commercial availability of the first scalable, enterprise-grade IoT solution for asset utilization and condition monitoring built around smart plugs.

Now, enterprises can monitor device utilization, health, and location of assets simply by plugging into WattIQ’s network of connected smart plugs.

Formerly known as Ibis Networks, WattIQ applies machine learning to power consumption at the device level, analyzing assets like centrifuges, incubators, HPLCs, vending machines, freezers, and other electrical office equipment as soon as they connect to the smart plugs.

WattIQ’s low-touch solution gets assets connected to the network in just minutes. Within 60 seconds of being connected, power data for the asset is visible, and actionable insights are available within 24 hours. It is also possible to pilot or fully deploy the technology without the need to invite WattIQ onsite.

The WattIQ system is both manufacturer- and device type-agnostic and can scale from tens to thousands of assets within a building or across multiple sites. The centralized dashboard enables easy management of the smart plugs, as well as insights from an individual asset to an aggregated asset class or department view.

WattIQ’s insights into asset utilization and the true cost of ownership makes it possible to optimize CapEx and OpEx by redeploying under-utilized assets, moving to usage-based maintenance and asset sharing. The added benefit of proactive asset health monitoring prevents unplanned failures, protecting the enterprise’s science and products.

Since its founding, WattIQ has been an established partner in helping life sciences, higher education, and commercial real estate facilities improve sustainability through energy management. Now, its expanded smart plug-based IoT solution is mining and transforming the value of energy data to give organizations unparalleled insight into their asset utilization at low cost and with minimal disruption.

Priya Vijayakumar, CEO, WattIQ:
“We are building on our roots in energy management at the device level to enable an even bigger sustainability impact by eliminating the waste from severe underutilization of billions of assets. By addressing the pervasive blind spots that still exist in many industries – how often are all our assets being used and when? Are we paying for maintenance on equipment that is rarely used? Which manufacturer has the optimal cost of ownership vs utilization? Could I monitor the health of my devices in a cost-effective way? WattIQ is today enabling customers in the life sciences, higher education and commercial real estate businesses to reimagine their asset sharing, procurement, maintenance and monitoring.”

Luis Rodriguez, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, RENOVO SOLUTIONS:
“Partnering with WattIQ removes some of the blind spots we’ve had with regard to asset utilization data. Now, we are able to help our customers lower the total cost of ownership of their equipment and make smarter capital equipment purchasing decisions. We work with every make, model, and type of equipment on the market, so the fact WattIQ’s asset utilization solution is device and vendor-neutral adds a whole other layer of value to our partnership, something that also benefits our customers tremendously.”

Lab Operations at a WattIQ customer:
“The implementation happened during Shelter in Place (SIP). WattIQ was able to remotely build and set up our very detailed floor plan and ship the gateways and plugs with detailed instructions on how to install successfully. Internally, we experienced delays in IT support, due to SIP, and activated some of our ethernet jacks. WattIQ quickly deployed the mobile hotspots to get us up and running while we awaited IT support to provide us with several weeks of baseline data.”

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Geolocation solution from Everynet to track runners in real time, and pushbutton alerts enable swift response to provide for a safe, successful event.

Semtech Corporation announced that Everynet^* has leveraged the geolocation and asset tracking capabilities of Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN protocol to monitor runner safety at the annual Tor des Géants ultramarathon in Italy.

The LoRaWAN-based application tracks the approximately 900 race participants in real time over hundreds of kilometers, providing support staff with accurate data to prevent injuries and lost runners.

“With LoRaWAN-based connectivity, Everynet was able to simply and efficiently provide coverage to the entirety of Tor des Géants, including difficult terrain, without requiring additional network infrastructure,” said Antonio Terlizzi, Sr. Vice President of Global Sales for Everynet.

“Combining the strong network coverage of LoRaWAN with reliable tracking sensors provides race organizers with the accurate, consistent and real-time data necessary to keep runners safe and help ensure a successful event.”

Among the most challenging yearly races of its kind, participants in Tor des Géants run more than 300 kilometers and cover over 24 kilometers of elevation change in less than 150 hours. For the fourth consecutive year, Everynet’s LoRa-based solution monitored runner location over the course of the event with the goal of helping guarantee participant safety and wellbeing. Each runner is provided with a LoRa-based sensor that transmit real-time geolocation data to Everynet gateways deployed throughout the race’s course. Race organizers chose Everynet’s LoRa-based application as the race’s location in the Italian mountains leave the course uncovered by Cellular networks.

In addition, LoRa devices’ long-range capabilities and low power consumption provide consistent and reliable data on runner location throughout the race’s week-long duration, with most devices using no more than 30 percent of its total battery capacity by the event’s conclusion. Following the introduction of Everynet’s application to Tor des Géants, race staff have been able to directly intervene on a number of occasions to ensure runner safety.

“The successful deployment of network infrastructure to cover Tor des Géants is an example of the proven flexibility and diversity of use case applications possible with Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol,” said Marc Pegulu, Vice President of IoT in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group.

“Solutions built on LoRa devices enable reliable and secure, long range IoT applications for use cases in nearly any possible vertical market. LoRa devices simplify IoT development, enabling Semtech customers, such as Everynet, to deliver high value solutions to effectively address market need.”

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The company co-founded by Napster’s Shawn Fanning and Amir Haleem is introducing a first-of-its-kind IoT tracking device one year after its peer-to-peer network goes live in more than 1,000 North American cities.

Helium, the company behind one of the world’s first peer-to-peer wireless networks, is announcing the introduction of Helium Tabs, its first branded IoT tracking device that runs on The People’s Network.

In addition, after launching its network in 1,000 cities in North America within one year, the company is expanding to Europe to address growing market demand with Helium Hotspots shipping to the region starting July 2020.

Since its launch in June 2019, Helium quickly grew its footprint with Hotspots covering more than 700,000 square miles across North America. Helium is now expanding to Europe to allow for seamless use of connected devices across borders. Powered by entrepreneurs looking to own a piece of the people-powered network, Helium’s open-source blockchain technology incentivizes individuals to deploy Hotspots and earn Helium (HNT), a new cryptocurrency, for simultaneously building the network and enabling IoT devices to send data to the Internet. When connected with other nearby Hotspots, this acts as the backbone of the network.

Amir Haleem, Helium’s CEO and co-founder, said:

“We’re excited to launch Helium Tabs at a time where we’ve seen incredible growth of The People’s Network across North America.”

“We could not have accomplished what we have done, in such a short amount of time, without the support of our partners and our incredible community. We look forward to launching The People’s Network in Europe and eventually bringing Helium Tabs and other third-party IoT devices to consumers there.”

Introducing Helium Tabs that Run on The People’s Network

Unlike other tracking devices, Tabs uses LongFi technology, which combines the LoRaWAN wireless protocol with the Helium blockchain, and provides network coverage up to 10 miles away from a single Hotspot. This is a game-changer compared to WiFi and Bluetooth enabled tracking devices which only work up to 100 feet from a network source. What’s more, due to Helium’s unique blockchain-based rewards system, Hotspot owners will be rewarded with Helium (HNT) each time a Tab connects to its network.

In addition to its increased growth with partners and customers, Helium has also seen accelerated expansion of its Helium Patrons program, which was introduced in late 2019. All three combined have helped to strengthen its network.

Patrons are entrepreneurial customers who purchase 15 or more Hotspots to help blanket their cities with coverage and enable customers, who use the network. In return, they receive discounts, priority shipping, network tools, and Helium support. Currently, the program has more than 70 Patrons throughout North America and is expanding to Europe.

Key brands that use the Helium Network include:

• Nestle, ReadyRefresh, a beverage delivery service company
• Agulus, an agricultural tech company
• Conserv, a collections-focused environmental monitoring platform

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The MimicGO sensor offers instant, portable and secure deployment, while providing real-time status updates on asset location or room tampering.

Semtech Corporation announced that Smart Mimic, a leading provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for security on-the-go, has integrated Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol into its new MimicGO line of consumer products for enabling safe and secure rooms and belongings.

The LoRa-based devices deploy indoor or outdoor to monitor condition changes in a range of applications, including door sensing, belonging movements and tampering, motion sensing in rooms, and open/closed status in drawers or safes.

“Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol connect flexible consumer security devices for smarter management and deliver the ideal combination of low power and consistent data monitoring required for the MimicGO product line,” said Burak Yalcinkaya, Co-founder and Head of Marketing at Smart Mimic.

“With LoRa integrated, MimicGO represents one of the first IoT-enabled consumer security solutions of its kind, offering instant, portable and secure deployment, and providing real-time status updates on asset location or door tampering. As a result, these on-the-go devices provide customers peace of mind, safety and prevent the loss or theft of belongings.”

LoRa-based MimicGO sensors are low power, wireless and compact, enabling increased deployment flexibility into a variety of potential uses for smarter monitoring. Upon detecting a change in status, the device activates an alarm to discourage theft or tampering with monitored locations. Additionally, these customizable alarms, combined with real-time smartphone notifications, make MimicGO a leading solution for connecting smart homes and assets for those with hearing impairments. The solution leverages LoRa devices’ proven geolocation capabilities to enable swift asset location and loss prevention, saving end users time and money.

“Integrating LoRa devices for easy-to-use consumer products enables end users to directly receive the benefits of smarter data monitoring without needing prior IoT experience,” said Marc Pegulu, Vice President of IoT in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “LoRa-based products are flexible and deploy almost anywhere without requiring external wiring or other infrastructure. Smart Mimic leveraged these deployment advantages, along with LoRa devices’ capabilities for reliable data monitoring and notification, to deliver products that simplify personal security for individuals and their belongings.”

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