SafetyCulture, the world’s leading platform for workplace safety and efficiency, and the National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo), Australia’s longest-running LoRaWAN network operator, today released new food and environmental safety IoT solutions available with LoRaWAN connectivity for Australian and global markets.
The solutions incorporate SafetyCulture purpose-built temperature and humidity sensors, with carrier-grade LoRaWAN connectivity and N2N-DL data platform provided by NNNCo, and data visualisation, real-time alerts, and corrective actions via SafetyCulture’s iAuditor application.
SafetyCulture Chief Operating Officer, Alistair Venn, said:
“In our initial roll-out we’ve got 330 gateways supplied by NNNCo and devices going out to customers in Europe and Australia for immediate deployment.”
“Instead of relying on staff to regularly check critical environmental conditions, and manually input the results in a physical or digital form, these solutions enable automated data to feed back to iAuditor, and alert those who need to know whenever conditions change,” Mr Venn added.
The new temperature and humidity devices are available on the AS923 band for Australia and Asia Pacific, US915 for the Americas and EU868 for Europe and much of the rest of the world.
NNNCo CEO Rob Zagarella said:
“As more quality devices and sensors become available across multiple band plans we’re seeing increased economies of scale within the ecosystem as well as roaming and international opportunities.”
“That’s great news for enterprise customers who will see improvements in food quality and environmental safety, reduced loss and waste, and significant operational efficiencies,” Mr Zagarella added.
Sofia Dias, Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager at Marley Spoon, installed SafetyCulture’s sensors in their industrial fridges to make sure over $100,000 of stock stayed at the right temperature.
“Late one Saturday night, we got an SMS alert from the sensors to flag that temperatures were rising,” Ms Dias said. “We sent someone to check straight away and sure enough, the compressor had failed and required urgent repair. If we had only found out about it when we arrived on Monday, we would have had to throw out everything in the cold room”, she said. “That one little message saved us tens of thousands of dollars.”
SafetyCulture and NNNCo have been working together for over 18 months, with NNNCo integrating the SafetyCulture sensors into its enterprise data platform N2N-DL to enable seamless data aggregation and ensure global network readiness.
“Having N2N-DL as the data middleware platform means that we can securely deliver the data coming from the sensors through the network right into the customers’ hands with iAuditor,” Mr Zagarella said.
Mr Venn added:
“With all this data coming back to one spot in iAuditor, businesses are realising a new level of visibility. iAuditor gives them a holistic view of all safety, quality and performance information in one place, regardless of whether the information is captured by human or sensor.”
The new IoT devices and solutions will assist enterprise customers beyond the food industry. The companies say that other use cases include temperature monitoring in server rooms to detect air conditioning failures, humidity monitoring in aviation maintenance facilities where aircraft blackboxes are installed, air quality monitoring in schools and office buildings, and detecting dangerous gases in underground mines.
Mr Zagarella said:
“There has been a clear and natural synergy right from the start working with the SafetyCulture team. We’re excited about the potential for these solutions to solve real problems and make real savings for SafetyCulture’s existing and future global customer base.”
“LoRaWAN has become the defacto network technology for IoT solutions requiring secure low cost low power connectivity with over 800,000 LoRaWAN gateways now deployed worldwide and over 145 million LoRa chipsets shipped.”
Mr Venn said: “We’re proud to be working with an Australian network operator on a global scale. NNNCo has become a true partner and worked with us closely to realise this opportunity.”
