IoT Rides on FreeWave Tech
Photo: Freewave
Today, FreeWave Technologies (Booth #637) is debuting a beta version of its radio technology that leverages the Internet of Things movement to allow developers to program the product to perform functions previously unavailable on radios.
Called the ZumLink, it’s the company’s first foray into high-speed, frequency-hopping radios that can not only perform signals intelligence and command-and-control functions, but also move video across a link. An addition, the IoT capability allows a customer to house an add-on applet that physically resides on the radio itself. Programmable in either Java or Python, once the product has a software developer kit — available in a few months — customers can deploy distributed applications to the unmanned aircraft linked to the radio.
Chief Marketing Officer Scott Allen says this is the first step in the company’s strategic decision to move away from radio hip sets into a more integrated solution.
“We’re convinced that discrete radio strategy is going to go away,” he says.
Though the solution is robust enough for military application, the company sees a lot of its customers in the oil and gas market, and Allen says FreeWave’s third largest customer base is precision agriculture.
He recently met with Oracle executives, the makers of Java, to discuss the product, and they likened it to one of the most widespread technologies today.
“That’s the approach we’re taking. This thing is really like a smartphone, if you will.”
Allen expects that the radio will be out of beta testing around June and will be available on the market shortly after. The company is taking preorders at its booth.
