RTLS Providers
Monday, March 9, 2009 at 11:16PM RTLS (Real Time Location Systems) landscape has gotten very complicated over the last 5 years. A lot of new companies have entered this domain and some have already exited.
There a many companies that provide solutions that integrate integrate with one (or more) RTLS providers. The RTLS companies that are in the market can be divided up by many different criteria. The most common is the type of technology they are providing. Their approach to the market - that is if they are a hardware only provider that delivers their products through solution providers or they deliver both the hardware and the solution or a hybrid approach is also a criteria. This article aims to identify only the companies that provide their own technologies to the market regardless if they are also application providers. Take a look and comment away.
- Centrak: A relatively new entry to the market. Primary technologies used: RF & IR
- Sonitor: The only ultrasound provider. It is a Norwegian company with primary sales operations in US.
- Awarepoint: The only zigbee / mesh networking (RF) provider. They are typically direct to market.
- Aeroscout: Primarily WiFi, supplemented with Low Frequency RF and Ultrawide Band. Wide penetration in non-healthcare industries and good relationships with major networking providers such as Cisco
- Ekahau: Pure WiFi solution.
- Versus: The grand daddy of RTLS. Primary technologies used: IR & RF
- Radianse: One of the earlier vendors. Primary technologies used: IR & RF
- Radarfind: Pure RF technology with a mixed business model.
- Ubisense: Primarily non-healthcare Ultra Wide Band (UWB) provider.
- Time Domain: Big licensor of UWB RTLS solutions. Aeroscout licenses their technology.
Out of business (or haven't heard about them in a long while!)
- Parco: UWB provider. They were licensing their solution from other UWB providers.
- Pango: One of the first WiFi based providers. Merged with Innerwireless. Innerwireless seems to be a VAR of Aeroscout.
- Exi: Was a Canadian provider of RTLS solutions. I think they first got purchased by Verichip, now their domain resolves to Xmark, provider of wander management and other security solutions.
I am pretty sure I am missing some. Will add more in future posts.
Reader Comments (1)
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