 | Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Issue 705 | | Will Smith, Editor |  |
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Editor's Note: Today's top story is Alien Technology's foray into runner tracking for large races in Scandinavia.
RFID printer manufacturer Zebra has agreed to acquire Navis for $145 million. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Navis provides logistics solutions to marine terminals and other operations managing cargo in the supply chain. Zebra also announced the acquisition of all outstanding shares of proveo, an RTLS company that serves the ground-handling operations of airports. That purchase price was $16.3 million. See the announcement for more details on both acquisitions.
Healthcare equipment management services provider SYMX Technologies has launched a new solution built atop Microsoft's recently released BizTalk Server 2006 R2. It uses active RFID data to enable hospitals with inventory visibility, managed workflow, and, ultimately, improved safety. Recall that one of the touted impacts of the BizTalk release is the ability for rapid development of just this type of niche RFID application by vertically-focused solutions providers (see Microsoft's RFID Offering a "Watershed Moment").
RFID tag and chip manufacturer Impinj has added seven suppliers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) to its reseller network. The company has also appointed Leon de Ridder director of sales for the EMEA region. Based in the Netherlands, Ridder comes to Impinj from Omron, where he was general manager of the giant sensor manufacturer's RFID division in Europe.
Embedded RFID module maker SkyeTek announced that high tech electronics distributor Component Distributors Inc. (CDI) has agreed to distribute the company's HF and UHF readers in North America.
Lastly, note the new classified listing below for IDTechEx's Active RFID and RTLS Summit taking place in Dallas, Texas, from December 5th through the 6th. |
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Alien Races Into RFID Runner Tracking
RFID products and services provider Alien Technology has announced that its tags and readers will by deployed by Sweden's Racetimer, which organizes and times large running and racing events. Specifically, Racetimer will use UHF Gen2 tags from Alien at the Blodomloppet race, Scandinavia's second largest cross-country race which includes more than 40,000 runners.
Racetimer is touting key benefits of UHF over the historically common LF-based RFID. In particular, UHF can be read accurately at much higher distances, sometimes up to 20 meters. That allows runners to be reliably registered at key points during the race, including the finish line itself, where runners no longer have to wait in line for their tags to be scanned by race organizers. This alone can save several minutes per runner, which, in a race with thousands of runners, is significant.
The UHF tags are also cheaper and disposable, so runners aren't required to return them to organizers at the conclusion of a race. "Collecting the tags after the race completion can be a time-consuming and inefficient distraction for race organizers and runners alike," Stephen Crocker, Alien's director of sales and channels for EMEA/India, was quoted in the announcement. He added that there might be sentimental benefit as well, in that a runner's tag could serve as a memento of the race.
In total, Racetimer calculates that using Alien's RFID versus older LF or even bar code solutions will save it 20 percent in costs and up to 5 man hours per race.
Alien's work with Racetimer is indicative of a few trends at the company. First is its continuing diversification away from a strict focus on the compliance and supply chain markets. (See Alien Looks to Channel, Non-Mandate RFID Adoption for more.) Second is the company's strategy of cultivating relationships with value-added resellers and solutions providers that develop custom applications for niche markets. And third is its work with local companies in foreign markets, which widens the company's channel and its global footprint. The Racetimer announcement is the fourth in which a non-US company deployed a solution in its local market based on Alien's technology (the others: work-in-process in Portugal and Italy, and vehicle tracking in Turkey).
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| Upcoming Events | Active RFID and RTLS - Dallas, Texas - December 5-6, 2007
Attend the only event dedicated to Active RFID and RTLS; Dallas, Texas on December 5-6, 2007. All the technologies and main Active RFID markets are covered from ultra wide band to ubiquitous sensor networks, from postal applications to Active RFID in hospitals. Visit www.IDTechEx.com/active to find out more and register! | Free Seminar from Motorola: RFID and Field Mobility
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