IoT is about to become more accessible and practical for SA companies

The booked out Powering the IoT Revolution Conference, hosted by specialist Industry 4.0 software distributor, IP Soft Distribution (IP Soft); world-leading Internet of Things (IoT) vendor, Libelium, and Vodacom on 23 October 2018, has been hailed an eye-opening success. The event was booked out before registrations closed and the partners welcomed a diversity of industry stakeholders who revelled at the chance to explore the opportunities for monetising IoT and applying IoT technologies in the real world. “Certainly, buoyed by the response, we would look at hosting more similar events in the future. Clearly, there is tremendous interest and appetite for leveraging IoT technologies in South Africa. Now, it’s about making IoT more accessible and practical for South African companies,” says Charl Ueckermann, the CEO at IP Soft, which was recently named the most Active Distributor of Libelium in the world. Being the first time that Libelium has presented at a conference in South Africa, the Powering the IoT Revolution Conference gave local IoT explorers the chance to engage with the company’s experts, learn more about its IoT innovations and their application in diverse industries across the world: from solutions for precision agriculture and smart water management, to solutions for urban and industrial environments such as smart parking, noise and pollution control and, smartphone detection. One of the highlights was the live demonstration of Libelium’s Smart Water Ions, a wireless sensor platform that dramatically simplifies remote water quality monitoring. It has multiple sensors that measure a dozen of the most relevant water quality parameters and is the first water quality-sensing platform to feature autonomous nodes that connect to the Cloud for real-time water control. Libelium’s Smart Water Ions can be used for potable water monitoring, for detecting chemical leakage in rivers, for measuring swimming pools and spas remotely, and for monitoring levels of seawater pollution. At the conference, IP Soft also introduced delegates to its IoT Marketplace which will allow the South African market to tap into ready-to-use, integrated IoT kits for universities, system integrators and corporate end users. According to Ueckermann, the IoT Marketplace will feature a curated list of solutions from Libelium’s official online store alongside RSA-developed solutions. Categories include Smart Parking, Smart Agriculture, Smart Vineyard, Smart Berry, Smart Orchard, Smart Irrigation, Smart Weather, Smart Fire Prevention, Smart Cities, Air Quality Index, Smart Noise Pollution, Smart Phone Detection Scanner, Smart Water Quality, Smart Fish Farming, Smart Flood Prevention, Smart Deep Water, Smart Buildings, Smart Safety, Smart Security, Smart Factory, eHealth. IP Soft’s IoT Marketplace is under development but will be launched in November. “These innovative, ready-to-use IoT solution kits can be applied practically and seamlessly to bring companies’ ambitions to fruition quickly. At the same time, the IoT Marketplace provides a platform for innovators to market their technologies. We want to encourage Libelium resellers and systems integrators to submit their custom Libelium solutions to feature under a specific category on the online store,” says Ueckermann, adding that access to practical IoT solutions and lack of know-how have been holding South African businesses back in the implementation of IoT technologies. “We are going to change that,” he says.

More info:

• Read more about Libelium sensor product lines in the Waspmote, Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform and Meshlium Gateway websites.