How the New RFID Devices Enable Long Range Communication

By CIO Applications | Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Tony Kington, President & CEO

The new range of RFID devices will enable firms to transmit long-range data for a variety of field service operations.

FREMONT, CA: Omni-ID has rolled out a new range of Long Range (LoRa), and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-enabled devices. The firm is the provider of passive industrial radio frequency identification (RFID) tags utilized by major global organizations to offer information on the location as well as the identity of assets. 

“Omni-ID pioneered passive identification and tracking technologies which are relied on by large organizations worldwide and will remain at the core of our business alongside newer IoT product developments. New IoT devices like the Sense family are complementary to the existing passive range and allow our customers to benefit from the connectivity and extended range of Bluetooth Low Energy, LoRaWAN and other LPWAN technologies to create intelligent IoT solutions that are built to last,” says Tony Kington, CEO of Omni-ID.  

The new ‘Sense’ range of RFID devices utilizes sensors to transmit status and situational data over GPS, BLE, and open standard Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) communication protocols, allowing the devices to be utilized within disparate arrays of IoT infrastructures and applications. The new Sense devices are powerful yet extremely energy-efficient, allowing them to be used for up to five years within remote and harsh operating environments: offsetting the cost and time needed to replace devices in the field. According to a senior leader, customers with ambitious IoT projects will gain significantly from Omni-ID’s rapid ‘go to market’ abilities driven by its vertical, integrated structure.

The early Sense range will contain five devices serving two major application types: Asset Management & Logistics and Conditioning Monitoring, with more product types to be released through the year.

The Sense LoRa products provide long-range communications: over 15km in flat, open space, or 3-4km in an urban setting, and contain a compact battery that lasts over five years. The devices can be operated through a call button configuration, or range finder, making them relevant to a variety of facilities management as well as field service applications. When using the accelerometer and GPS features, Sense LoRa devices will provide positional accuracy of 3-5m during movement.

Omni-ID has found its mention in CIO Review’s 20 Most Promising oil and gas providers in 2019. Omni-ID’s existing global client base has already expressed huge interest in the application of its new range of RFID devices for distribution, logistics, and asset management within the automotive manufacture, mining, oil & gas, cold chain condition monitoring, field operations, facilities management, ports construction, worker safety, emergency detection, and accountability as well as fleet monitoring.