As more and more machines are connected, it’s becoming increasingly important to make sure those machines can be remotely monitored in an efficient manner. Decision makers interested in monitoring these devices—lighting, security, logistics, metering, thermostats, ATMs, vending machines and more—can do so remotely through one interface thanks to modern M2M solutions provided by SMARTCom.
Each of these connected devices gives off a signal. And many of those signals are coded in different protocols. SMARTCom’s solution—the SMARTCom1000—bridges the gap between the fragmented languages.
“Whether it’s wire-to-wireless or wireless-to-wireless, our devices pick that signal up, read it and transmit it through the platform,” Christopher Sidote, SMARTCom’s sales manager, told IoTevolutionworld at ITEXPO yesterday. “There are a variety of different building automation protocols. Our device speaks with almost all of them.”
Founded two years ago, SMARTCom was acquired by NRG Energy earlier this month. NRG has a lot of capital behind it, and until it acquired SMARTCom, the company lacked the wherewithal for research and development.
“We’re really excited about this,” said Ron Leonardi, SMARTCom’s director of sales and marketing. “They didn’t have a technology component. Now, the SMARTCom division is the R&D component of NRG.”
SMARTCom benefits from its strong relationship with Verizon, which offers them a lot of flexibility on the different kinds of plans they can offer. The company also stands behind the unique strength of its product to stay a step ahead of its competitors.
“We have a solution in a box that’s faster, more secure and less expensive than any offering on the market,” Leonardi said. “But the real strength of our product is the software. It’s faster to use and more customizable.”
The company’s target market is medium to large users of electricity. If there is a large building with systems in place to control boilers, lighting, thermostats, chillers, security cameras and more, SMARTCom’s solutions can discover all those systems and integrate them, finding efficiencies that were previously undiscovered.
SMARTCom is excited to showcase the SMARTCom1000 at ITEXPO, the company’s first product that is a 3G modem used in a wide array of M2M applications over wireless connections to the cloud. Those applications include electric meter data routing, energy monitoring, demand response, building management systems and more. The company’s showcased the product publicly once before, Sidote said, and those who saw what it does said the device was a “game changer.”
The SMARTCom1000 has the ability to send power failure messages and save data before shutdown. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sandy, for example, many gas tankers would arrive at gas stations that lacked the power to pump gas. If those gas stations had the SMARTCom1000 in place, it would be known which gas stations had power, and resources could have been directed to those locations instead.
Sidote said the staple products against which SMARTCom competes are at the end of their lives. But while the company’s happy to showcase its latest product, it remains at work developing many more.
“We’ve got data management and data monitoring devices and building automation controllers coming out very soon,” he said.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
