The ultimate in mobile CCTV

Anvil works with a verity of partners to help them create some things that is special and unique within their market. ICU Technologies has developed an outdoor video camera with a secure built in 3G router  ready to house one of our fixed IP data SIMs.

All the unit needs is power and a mobile 3G signal to operate anywhere. You can connect to the camera from anywhere in the world by just typing the IP address into a browser. This approach is much less expensive and complex than installing servers and complex systems and you don’t need a fixed internet connection. When you want to, just move the camera to a new position,  plug it in and you are back on line again. 

The camera also supports sensors to trigger alarms and activate the video coverage or you can just check in whenever you like to see what is happening on site.

Power can be from a standard mains supply or from a 12V battery.  Some examples of applications for this most flexible solution are see below.

Construction and engineering project sites. The area you need to cover with video surveillance changes as the project develops. Materials and equipment get moved around and the video camera can be moved as and when required.

Agriculture, equipment and materials have to be taken back to a safe place where security cameras can protect them –or – save time and effort by moving the security camera instead.

 Events of all kinds need security. Installing internet connections where they are needed is expensive, time consuming and the cables are easily detected.  3G video cameras can be mounted wherever needed and moved around easily to accommodate changing environments.

Mobile. Whether on a boat, bus, van, truck, train or car the camera is accessible even when on the move. If there is a mobile 3G signal, you take the internet with you as you go.

Temporary (ad hoc) installations. You may want video coverage for a few hours, days or weeks for a specific reason.  This could be to counteract a threat e.g. vandalism, or watch something of interest such as wildlife or a one off sports event.

Remote and rural locations where fixed line internet is simply not available. The nearest BT exchange may be many miles away. The cost of laying cables would be much too expensive and the longer the cable, the less bandwidth you get when connected. Video just doesn’t work when the speed drops below a certain level, whereas 3G simply needs a decent signal to handle good quality video traffic.

 

The 4G race is speeding up!

It’s finally happened other major mobile networks in the UK have announced when they’ll be launching their 4G networks. EE has had a head start on the market as it was given permission by Ofcom to use some of its existing spectrum to offer a 4G service. It has made some inroads but will this give them an advantage now that the other networks are about to launch theirs? 

O2 has announced this week that it’ll start to switch on its 4G network on the 29^th August in London, Leeds and Bradford. The network claims that this will give 5 million people access to the high speed mobile internet service.  13 cities are planned to be activated by the end of 2013 these are as follows London, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Vodafone has also announced that it will be launching its 4G network on 29^th August which is the same day as rival network O2. London will also be the first city to get 4G coverage from Vodafone with 12 further cities by the end of the year: Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield.

Once again Three has decided to do things differently. This is necessarily a bad thing as they are the smallest of the UK networks and they are also looking at being the last to launch a 4G network. However this does mean that they’re able to learn from the other networks mistakes, plus there current network already supplies high speeds, but are by no means as fast as 4G. One trump card that they have announced is that they pledge to offer their 4g services as a no-cost upgrade, which looks to be a move that will ruffle a few feathers and may spark a price war. 

It currently looks like 4G offerings will really be hotting up towards the end of the year, when all the networks have gone live and coverage is more comprehensive. Customers will also have to make sure that their device is 4G compatible as most won’t be the LTE version.

Derwent Hydro uses Anvil fixed IP SIMs for remote management

Derwent Hydro, a provider of small hydropower solutions in the UK, is using Anvil Mobile’s Simply Connect fixed IP data services to remotely monitor, manage and troubleshoot its hydro-electric power generation installations.

With full remote access to the hydro-electric control systems, Derwent engineers do not have to make long site visits for routine maintenance or service calls and also receive automatic text message alerts if there are any problems.

Derwent Hydro has integrated the Simply Connect IP data service into its own operated hydro-electric installation at Gerlan in Wales to control two 500kW Pelton turbines on the rivers Caseg and Llafar that feed into the UK’s national electricity grid.

Another fixed IP service provides remote management of a 230kW hydro-electric generator in Longbridge run by Derby City Council to power a local office building and sell additional energy back to the grid.
Anvil’s data service uses the GPRS/3G Three mobile network for coverage, but provides a private APN (Access Point Name) and fixed IP address with a highly-secure Layer 2 connection to deliver point-to-point traffic that is never exposed to a public network.

This lessens complexity and is one less point of failure in the system, making the Anvil data SIM ideal for monitoring, remote diagnostics, polling, process control and remote surveillance, as well as the ability to upload new software and reboot applications or entire systems.

Derwent works for an increasing range of customers from individuals and estates to businesses, public sector organisations, community groups and charities including Snowdonia National Park Authority, the National Trust and the Environment Agency.

‘With hydro installations spread across the country often in remote locations, the Anvil fixed IP data service provides the most flexible, reliable and cost-effective solution for managing and maintaining our hydro plants without long site visits,’ said Simon Needle at Derwent Hydroelectric Power.

‘Remote management has improved our efficiency as we can respond immediately to technical issues and changing conditions; and it has also helped us reduce our carbon footprint by eliminating unnecessary journeys. It is simple to integrate into our control systems and HMI (human, machine interface) for new sites as well as existing hydro-plants to increase the speed and level of remote support,’ said Needle.

‘The Simply Connect Service lends itself ideally to the requirements of Derwent Hydro and with the M2M market growing at over 30% per year, according to Gartner, we are able to support a wide range of robust and flexible 3G-enabled applications from smart buildings, and lighting control to meter reading and point of sale solutions,’ said Ian Philip, CEO at Anvil Mobile.

New Anvil Logo

New logos and corporate identity

Anvil is going though a re-branding exercise and one of the items that we wanted to change was our logo. The logo is an important component of any company as it's what people will see when they first make contact. For this reason we wanted something that was smart, clear and distinctive while being easily recognisable and not just blend into the background. We also wanted something that would work well with certain other colours that we are introducing to give each of our business units an individual identity.

Re-Styled web site coming soon!

Some of the key requirements for the logo.

• For it to be clean and simple
• Contemporary but still be relevant 5 years from now
• Unique
• Versatile
• Easily recognisable
• To compliment other colours we use on web pages and marketing materials

After much deliberation we decided to go with the following for the company identity

We will use the following variations for the different business units

Data products and services

Security products and services

Voice products and services

Mobile products and services

Mobile World Congress 2013

The world’s biggest mobile industry event Mobile World Congress 2013 has now finished. We can now look back at the event and analyse the main points. If you want to see all of the most talked about devices in the mobile market, you can do it one week before and a couple of weeks after MWC. This isn't a joke as it's actually want is starting to happen as more and more companies are running their own events to launch flagship devices. Here are a few examples

• Sony announced the Xperia Z in January.
• HTC's flagship device "The One" was announced a week before MWC.
• Samsung are launching the Galaxy S IV ten days after the event.
• Apple has traditionally been absent from the event.
• Microsoft was predominately represented by its partners.
• Google didn't even have a booth.

This doesn't mean that the event didn't have any announcements as ZTE, Huawei, LG and some other smaller names have given us new product launches with their latest flagship devices. Samsung did show off the Galaxy Note 8.0. Nokia launched a group of low-end phones which should do very well in the African and developing markets. Plus Sony was giving out its Xperia Tablet Z to a select few to try out. 

So for news from the big players, MWC isn't  the Mecca it once was, however, with more exhibitors focussed on areas such as application development, hardware, accessories, mobile device management and unified communications, it really is a great event. From a business standpoint, MWC provides a chance to see all of the aspects of the mobile, connected world in one place and gives insight into the trends and opportunities for the future. It’s all about data.

4G the results

After more than 50 rounds of bidding, 4G spectrum has been won by Everything Everywhere, Hutchison 3G UK, Niche Spectrum Ventures Ltd (a subsidiary of BT Group plc), Telefónica UK Ltd and Vodafone Ltd. This spectrum, sometimes known as LTE, is suitable for rolling out new super fast mobile broadband services to consumers and to small and large businesses across the UK.

Although the auction has been completed, it hasn't all been a total success as it was £1 billion short if the government’s estimate of £3.5 billion as announced in the Autumn of 2012. There is a final round of bidding to determine exactly where in each band  (800mhz or 2.6ghz) the blocks that have been assigned will reside, although it is very unlikely that this bidding will make a significant dent in the cash shortfall. When you compare this outcome to the 3G auction which raised £22.5 billion in 2000, it really is not that impressive considering that mobile data use is forecast to continue rising until it overtakes voice traffic on the mobile networks.

Ofcom suggests that the networks will start rolling out 4G in the spring and summer 2013. 4G coverage should  extend far beyond that of existing 3G services, covering 98% of the UK population indoors and even more when outdoors.  This should be good news for parts of the country with limited mobile broadband currently.

By the year 2030 demand for mobile data could be 80 times higher than it is today. To help meet this exponential growth and to stop any capacity crunch, more spectrum is needed in the long term, along with other technologies to make the mobile broadband network more efficient. Ofcom is planning to support the release of further chunks of spectrum to accommodate the rapid growth and for possible future ‘5G’ mobile services.

EE have pushed 4G into nine more UK towns

EE which is the first UK provider to roll out 4G has expanded it's super fast mobile network to nine more UK towns. The service is now available in 27 towns and cities covering 45% of the UK population. As well as adding the new locations, the operator has also improved network density in existing areas, which should improve the service.

the nine new locations are.

• Amersham
• Chelmsford
• Hemel Hempstead
• Southend-on-Sea
• Stockport
• Sunderland 
• Sutton Coldfield
• Wolverhampton

EE expects to have 98 percent of the U.K. population covered by the end of 2014. So far, the company is on track, but getting the low-invested areas of rural countryside swathed with LTE coverage will be expensive.

 

EE CEO Olaf Swantee said: “As the first operator to bring 4G to the UK it is important that we make it accessible to as much of the population as possible, as quickly as possible. To be ahead of schedule and covering approximately 45 per cent of the population within just 90 days of the launch is a great achievement for our network team.”  Source ; http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/01/31/ee-rolls-out-4g-ahead-of-schedule-to-9-more-uk-towns-covering-45-of-the-population/

 Ofcom has opened up the spectrum bidding process to other operators just over a week ago, but the process will take weeks and then the spectrum will be divided up between the bidders which may take a couple of months. These rival networks hope to start rolling out 4G by mid August or September at the latest.