In partnership with Sensor City, Stream Technologies will be bringing Liverpool to the Internet of Things with the deployment of the LoRaWAN™ low power wide area network technology.
Stream’s IoT-X platform will enable and manage the network, allowing the development and use of devices for applications including air quality monitoring, asset tracking and social care.
IoTUK Boost is funded by Government as part of the IoTUK research and innovation programme, underlining the importance of IoT for the UK’s digital economy. As part of IoTUK Boost, Stream will be involved in holding meet ups, open calls and training workshops to stimulate engagement with the test network for a minimum of six months.
Stream and Sensor City aim is to work with at least 10 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or entrepreneurs, helping them to bring early stage IoT products and services to a commercial prototype stage, or early market release.
As part of the Boost initiative, Sensor City and Stream will be able to provide SMEs and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to become quickly productive and innovative through the use of LoRa. With longer range, decreased power requirements and lower cost than a mobile network, LoRaWAN enable a much wider range of IoT applications.
UK Minister of State for Digital and Culture, Matt Hancock said: “The Internet of Things stands to benefit a great number of people as well as the wider economy. Due to the strong interest shown so far in this initiative, we have doubled the amount of funding available to give more entrepreneurs the opportunity to test their products. Boost will help to provide local infrastructure and support for promising IoT businesses to innovate and bring exciting new IoT products and services to market”.
The CEO of Digital Catapult, Dr. Jeremy Silver, said: “Internet of Things is no longer a vision of the future, it’s here and transforming the world around us. By 2020 the IoT marketplace in the UK could be worth £20 billion (US$ 25billion). Boost has a key role to play in making the most of this opportunity, and we are delighted to be working with our six selected partners from across the UK to achieve this. For the potential of IoT to be truly realised it is vital that we see regional IoT industry growth, and develop applications relevant for the local community.”
Dr Joanne Phoenix, Business Development for Sensor City, added: “We are delighted to be part of the IoTUK Boost pilot and to be able to offer our developing ecosystem of businesses and entrepreneurs the toolset to allow them to explore the benefits of IoT. I see this as an essential part of the Sensor City offering and it really does allow us to ‘do what it says on the tin! We are now looking for companies interested to access the network and become early adopters. We expect competition for support to be fierce and I really encourage companies to get in touch with us as soon as possible.”
Mohsen Shakoor, Strategic Partnerships, Stream Technologies, commented:“Stream are delighted to deploy IoT-X’s LoRaWAN™ solution to bring Liverpool to the Internet of Things. This network will allow enterprises, and the public, to connect sensors and gather real-time data, including location information without the need for GPS, with a battery life span of up to 10 years.”
Said Nigel Chadwick, CEO of Stream Technologies: “Stream are seeing a tremendous increase in adoption of IoT-X in smart city deployments, due to its granular control of IoT networks – including LoRa®, cellular and satellite. Liverpool will have the advantage of IoT-X’s cutting edge technology to enable low-cost and long-range connectivity.”
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