Feb 03, 2022Presented here are recent news announcements regarding the following organizations: Nedap, Securitas Electronic Security, Promod, Digital Matter, Silicon Labs, LORIOT, IMST, Semtech and Scribe Security.
Nedap Partners with Securitas Electronic Security, Promod
Securitas Electronic Security (SES) has announced a strategic partnership with Nedap to provide RFID and cloud-based loss-prevention solutions. This partnership expands SES's offerings to include Nedap's portfolio of retail offerings focused on inventory visibility and shopping experiences, including electronic article surveillance, omnichannel shopping, supply chain visibility and loss prevention.
The announcement follows SES's recent acquisition of FE Moran Security Solutions. Nedap says its retail solutions are focused on EAS to connect inventory data to a single source, and to provide actionable inventory-based and loss-prevention insights. These retail solutions are designed to help clients improve loss prevention and identify ways to ensure they have the right products available, by creating a transparent view into their supply chains.
"SES is pleased to bring Nedap's loss-prevention, asset-protection and supply-chain solutions to our technology portfolio," said Rob Raymond, SES's senior VP of strategic account sales, in a prepared statement. "This expanded strategic partnership provides SES with new, innovative retail-centric solutions for clients and enables retailers to best protect their stores, assets, employees and customers through our holistic retail-centric solutions. SES continues to focus on offering leading, innovative solutions to all clients across North America."
In addition, Nedap has been selected by French womenswear retailer Promod to deploy its iD Cloud platform throughout Promod's stores. The deployment of all owned and affiliated stores has been achieved within less than a year, the company reports, and the objective is to leverage real-time inventory data to enable pick-from-store and allow Promod to use store inventory for omnichannel purposes.
To make sure goods reach the correct sales channels, Promod applies RFID labels at the point of manufacture, allowing it to provide item tracking at all 420 of its stores, as well as real-time inbound verification at distribution centers. This unified view of its inventory data, the company explains, provides Promod with accurate demand fulfilment, whether a consumer purchases items online or in-store.
"Retail and the way consumers are engaging with brands is changing," said Olivier Parenti, Promod's international sales manager, in a separate prepared statement. "That means we had to change, too. We have always been good at building great customer experiences, especially in our stores. To enhance this experience now and in the future, we need to know exactly where items are in the supply chain. In addition to location, it is also important that we know their status. That way, we can be sure that an item reserved online to be picked up later from the store is not accidentally sold in the meantime. This is only possible if we have real-time insight into stock data."
Claire Thelliez, Promod's CIO, added in the statement, "We were looking for a robust solution with proven technology. Nedap appeared to be the best vendor in the market, able to offer a scalable solution. The API-driven approach allowed us to start and scale quickly with a small task force. The fact that a far-reaching IT project can be completed so quickly with a small team, in the middle of a lockdown due to a pandemic, says enough about the scalability of this solution. People on the store floor are also responding enthusiastically to the iD Cloud solution. This is positive for us, as it will further accelerate the adoption of RFID technology within our organization in partnership with Nedap."
"We are delighted that Promod has chosen us as its RFID partner," added Myriam Beugnet, Nedap France's director of RFID retail solutions, in the prepared statement. "The pragmatic approach of both their project team and ours has proven to be a pleasant collaboration so far. We are proud to have successfully rolled out our RFID solution during a challenging period where we couldn't always meet in person and will continue to help them pursue their digitalization strategy, where providing the ultimate shopping experience is ultimately our common goal."
Digital Matter Intros IoT Datalogger
Digital Matter has announced the Hawk, a multi-functional Internet of Things (IoT) datalogger that supports sensor-monitoring applications across cellular (LTE-M/NB-IoT), LoRaWAN and other communication technologies. The system is currently at the prototyping stage, with full production slated for the third quarter of 2022. IoT dataloggers record and transmit critical asset or environmental data via onboard or external sensors. In IoT applications, the captured data can be transmitted via low-power-wide-area networks (LPWANs), such as cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT, LoRaWAN and IoT satellite networks, to an end software platform for processing and analysis.
Dataloggers vary between general-purpose sensor monitoring for a range of measurement applications (temperature, humidity, tank level, vibration and soil moisture), and specific devices for measuring in a single environment or application type. Common applications include agricultural measurements: soil moisture, temperature, pH and conductivity; environmental or cold chain monitoring, such as temperature and humidity; tank level; flow rate (pulse counting on tanks); wind speed and direction; rainfall (pulse count on tipping rain gauge); and door or gate opening and closing.
Utilizing modular plug-in I/O cards that provide an interface to connect to a range of sensors, the Hawk is designed to support hundreds of IoT sensor-monitoring applications, the company reports. The device features a rechargeable Li-Po battery pack to support multiple power options. It can be wired to power with a backup battery, may be charged and deployed in the field for a season before recharging, and can be wired directly to a 12-volt solar panel. The sensor interfaces and protocol are managed by the I/O cards, a range of plug-in cards standardized for common applications. Custom cards can be designed, and users can develop their own firmware if necessary.
Silicon Labs Adds AI, ML to Battery-Powered IoT Devices
Silicon Labs, a provider of wireless technologies, has announced its BG24 and MG24 families of 2.4 GHz wireless systems-on-chip for Bluetooth and multiple-protocol operations. The hardware and software platform is intended to enable artificial-intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) applications on battery-powered edge devices. The BG24 and MG24 support multiple wireless protocols and incorporate PSA Level 3 Secure Vault protection, suitable for smart-home, medical and industrial applications.
The SoC and software for the IoT includes two new families of 2.4 GHz wireless SoCs, which feature integrated AI/ML accelerators; support for Matter, Zigbee, OpenThread, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Bluetooth mesh, proprietary and multi-protocol operation; and industry security certification and ultra-low power capabilities. The solution comes with a software toolkit designed to allow developers to build and deploy AI and ML algorithms using popular tool suites, such as TensorFlow.
"The BG24 and MG24 wireless SoCs represent an awesome combination of industry capabilities including broad wireless multiprotocol support, battery life, machine learning, and security for IoT edge applications," said Matt Johnson, Silicon Labs' CEO, in a prepared statement. "IoT product designers see the tremendous potential of AI and machine learning to bring even greater intelligence to edge applications like home security systems, wearable medical monitors, sensors monitoring commercial facilities and industrial equipment, and more. But those considering deploying AI or machine learning at the edge are faced with steep penalties in performance and energy use that may outweigh the benefits."
The system is designed to quickly handle complex calculations, the company reports, with internal testing showing up to a fourfold improvement in performance and up to a sixfold improvement in energy efficiency. Because the ML calculations happen on the local device rather than in the cloud, network latency is eliminated for faster decision-making and actions, according to the company. The single-die BG24 and MG24 SoCs feature a 78 MHz ARM Cortex-M33 processor, a 2.4 GHz radio, a 20-bit ADC, a combination of Flash (up to 1,536 kB) and RAM (up to 256 kB), and an AI/ML hardware accelerator for processing machine-learning algorithms while offloading the Cortex-M33, so applications have more cycles to do other work.
LORIOT, IMST Support Semtech LoRa 2.4 GHz Band
Swiss LoRaWAN network server provider LORIOT, in partnership with Germany's IMST competence center for RF development, have announced that they have finalized testing and are now offering full support for the LoRa 2.4 GHz frequency band offered by Semtech. After integrating the new technology into their respective solutions and performing extensive interoperability tests, LORIOT and IMST will support 2.4 GHz, which the companies say paves the way for the deployment of new use cases in the global IoT market.
IMST's iM282A-L radio module operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and contains both an Arm Cortex-M3 controller and Semtech's SX1280 transceiver. The module and the 2.4 GHz gateway, slated to soon be made available on the market, are supported on LORIOT's Network Server Osprey, allowing users to configure and deploy ultra-long-range networks worldwide.
"The 2.4 GHz worldwide harmonized band enables new industrial business opportunities, while leveraging unique features inherent in LoRa physical layer including an extraordinary performance, robustness against interferences and low power consumption" said Heinz Syrzisko, the head of IMST's wireless solutions department, in a prepared statement. "With more than 30 years' experience within the development of wireless communication systems as well as having introduced the first module that contained LoRa in 2013, IMST GmbH has a solid base to face new challenges and continue extending the ecosystem."
"The value of technological innovation is measured by its ability to solve real problems," added Julian Studer, LORIOT's founder and CEO, in the prepared statement. "Our main focus is on the needs of the market, which we gain insight into from a continuous dialogue with our customers and the companies that approach us. This is why we are pleased to offer our customers the possibility of using the 2.4 GHz frequency band. LoRa 2.4 GHz with its unique characteristics will allow for solutions in new areas, responding to real needs and generating great value."
In addition to inheriting LoRa core capabilities, such as long range and deep penetration outdoors and indoors, the 2.4 GHz band is intended to meet the needs of markets requiring a single stock-keeping unit, worldwide interoperability, high data rates and no duty cycle limitations, the companies report. This enables new business opportunities and vertical solutions in various industries, including asset tracking, logistics, food and medicines supply chain monitoring, agriculture, construction, mining and more.
Scribe Security Raises Supply Chain Software Seed Round
Scribe Security, which provides a software-as-a-service platform for securing software across various supply chains, has raised more than $7 million in a seed round from Elron Ventures, Tal Ventures, YYM Ventures and other companies. Scribe's platform allows organizations to develop, distribute and maintain code, while also verifying the code components' integrity, provenance, authenticity and reputation. According to the company, the solution ensures the visibility and assurance of an entire software development lifecycle, from early design stages to final deployment.
"Cyberattacks on the software supply chain may be carried out by dependency manipulation, a third-party software component, or during the code-delivery process," said Rubi Arbel, Scribe's cofounder and CEO, in a prepared statement. "Software supply chains have become an attractive attack vector for a wide range of threat actors. Experts predict that almost half of all organizations globally are likely to suffer from such attack consequences by 2025." Scribe was founded in 2021 by Arbel and fellow cybersecurity and cryptography experts Daniel Nebenzahl and Guy Chernobrov.
"We believe that the threat to the organization's software supply chain is steadily increasing," said Zohar Rozenberg, Elron Ventures' venture partner, in the prepared statement. "While a growing percentage of the code is being developed outside the organization, the attack surface is highly complex. With no single entity that had visibility and the ability to secure the code end to end, this is a super complicated issue. We believe that Scribe is serving a market with huge potential and has the right team to take on this complex task."
