BOSTON, MA and HOUSTON, TX -- 10/02/07 --
From its booth (#1876) at the
ISA Expo, Sensicast Systems®, today announced The SensiNet Open Platform,
which allows its SensiNet wireless sensor networking (WSN) system to be
easily integrated into existing or new products, so that suppliers can
resell it as part of their own line of products and services. To meet the
varying needs of individual vendors, systems integrators, and OEMs, The
SensiNet Open Platform allows Sensicast partners to choose any of the
leading wireless industry standards (802.15.4, low power 802.11 (Wi-Fi),
and ISA100 protocols) they wish to use for their own WSN offering, based
upon SensiNet.
60 Days to Market: Rapid Market Entry
"Vendors of systems for industrial and commercial automation, process
control, and energy management are looking for an easy way to provision
wireless sensor monitoring to complement and extend their offerings," said
Gary Ambrosino, CEO of Sensicast. "Configurable without engineering, The
SensiNet Open Platform has everything vendors need to build and deliver
their own wireless sensor network system and generate revenue within 60
days of initial engagement with Sensicast."
SensiNet's building-block approach gives providers of commercial/industrial
products and services a powerful and flexible platform to enhance their
offerings with a proven wireless sensor solution for monitoring physical
environments and conditions. SensiNet's plug-and-play architecture supports
any application and is optimized for interoperability, accommodating a
variety of sensor systems on the front end and support for a range of
business logic and wireless protocols on back end.
Have it Your Way: SensiNet Supports 802.15.4, Wi-Fi, and other wireless
protocols
"As no two enterprises are alike, no two wireless sensor networking
deployments are identical," said Ambrosino. "In order to deliver wireless
sensor network systems that fit the varied infrastructure and IT profiles
of their customers' enterprises, OEMs and others can build SensiNet systems
that will support their preferred wireless protocol."
Sensicast vendor-partners, whose customers have little-or-no IT
infrastructure within their facilities, will likely opt to deploy
Sensicast's SensiMesh industry-leading 802.15.4 protocol as the best choice
for "Zero-IT" enterprises. As Frost & Sullivan wrote when it presented
Sensicast with its award for "2007 Wireless Sensor Company of the Year,"
the SensiMesh 802.15.4 standard works out of the box with no investment
required to engineer the system. Hundreds of SensiNet wireless sensor
networks are running under 802.15.4 in production networks in facilities
worldwide.
Customers new to wireless sensor networking have been asking Sensicast for
a version of Wi-Fi enabled SensiNet that will work transparently with their
legacy Cisco and Symbol Wi-Fi networks. Beyond its ability to offer support
systems based on the SensiMesh 802.15.4 protocol, the SensiNet Open
Platform, allows Sensicast to offer solutions providers a complete SensiNet
Wi-Fi system running under IEEE 802.11 b/g.
"Open systems have been a foundation for all progress in networking --
wired and wireless -- for the past
two decades," said Craig J. Mathias, a Principal with the wireless and
mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group (Ashland, MA). "The SensiNet Open
Platform enables sensor mesh applications to work over the most appropriate
wireless network. I'm especially intrigued by the inclusion of Wi-Fi, as I
expect Wi-Fi to play an increasing role in future sensor network
deployments."
"Wireless sensing nodes require low power. Sensicast is the first wireless
sensing company to offer the option of a low-power Wi-Fi based sensor in
addition to IEEE 802.15.4," said Harry Forbes of ARC Advisory Group. "The
option of 802.11 or Wi-Fi sensors will especially suit applications where
new sensors can simply piggy-back on existing Wi-Fi infrastructure.
Wireless sensors have not been able to do this in the past."
To bring its SensiNet Wi-Fi sensor solution to market immediately,
Sensicast today announced its ongoing development partnership with Gainspan
Corporation (www.gainspan.com). Gainspan's GS1010 Wi-Fi system on a chip
will run in SensiNet Smart Sensors and deliver unprecedented intelligent
power management enabling Wi-Fi SensiNet nodes to operate in industrial
facilities for years on a single battery.
Before this new Gainspan/Sensicast functionality, Wi-Fi devices consumed an
impractical amount of electricity and were required to be powered through
rechargeable, plug-in devices or alternatively, with batteries having a
useable life of only a few days. This breakthrough in wireless sensors now
makes it possible to use existing Wi-Fi networks for new applications of
wireless sensor networks.
"Gainspan is the first company to meet our stringent requirements for
battery-operated Wi-Fi sensor networks," said Gary Ambrosino, CEO of
Sensicast.
"We are delighted to partner with Sensicast to integrate Gainspan's
low-power Wi-Fi system into a solid platform for rapid development of Wi-Fi
SensiNet systems, available from Sensicast, the industry leader in turnkey
wireless sensor networking systems," said Vijay Parmar, President & CEO of
Gainspan.
Looking Ahead to ISA100
"ISA100 is the umbrella under which wireless protocols and standards will
coalesce in order for wireless sensor networks to reach critical mass,"
said Jay Werb, CTO of Sensicast and DLL Technical Editor (for mesh layer)
of the ISA100.11a standard. "To meet the demand from customers and partners
Sensicast is committed to supporting this true industry standard when it is
ratified. The choice now before vendors (selecting 802.15.4 or Wi-Fi)
depends on their customers' various needs, applications in use, and the
infrastructure of each enterprise. For optimum flexibility, SensiNet is
expressly designed as a modular architecture delivering comprehensive
wireless sensor network functionality with support for multiple protocols,"
said Werb.
The SensiNet Open Platform
For more information on how The SensiNet Open Platform can be put to work
for your products, services and end-user customers, contact Paul Richards,
VP of Sales at prichards@sensicast.com.
About Sensicast
Sensicast provides turnkey Wireless Sensor Network solutions that help
operating managers run sustainable commercial and industrial operations
through systems that dramatically reduce costs, improve efficiency and
document compliance. Sensicast's patented, easy-to-deploy SensiNet®
systems capture real-time physical data from applications, processes, and
facility conditions and make the information available and actionable
through internal and remote Web-based access. SensiNet's Open Platform and
Green Technology meet the needs of a wide range of enterprises and
applications, including remote monitoring of temperature, energy,
moisture/humidity, and other data types, while facilitating
governmental/environmental compliance. www.sensicast.com.
Sensicast and SensiNet are registered trademarks of Sensicast Systems, Inc.
All other marks are property of their respective owners.
Press Contact:
Patrick Rafter
Email Contact
(617) 901-2697 m
