Apprion has signed an OEM agreement with Motorola Inc., which extends the relationship established last year when Motorola announced it had invested in Apprion through its strategic venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures. The OEM agreement enables the two companies to jointly develop and market integrated wireless application networks for industrial enterprises. By integrating Apprion's industrial-focused wireless appliances and applications with Motorola's comprehensive line of indoor and outdoor wireless networking solutions, industrial enterprises will now be able to leverage best-of-class wireless networks, enabling them to support dozens of applications that utilize numerous wireless radios and protocols.
Steve Lambright, Apprion vice president, told me that with all the wireless capabilities of Motorola the combination is exciting.
"Industrial systems have unique requirements. As industrial enterprises adopt wireless technologies, we have seen these unique requirements grow in complexity," said Bob Mick, vice president of emerging technologies at ARC Advisory Group. "Apprion and Motorola understand the unique challenges industrial enterprises face as they go wireless. By working together, we expect them to produce wireless networking products and applications that enhance the productivity, efficiency, mobility, safety, and security of industrial enterprises."
"Motorola has a rich legacy of providing customers in industrial markets with reliable, robust wireless networking and mobility solutions that help improve operational efficiencies and empower workers with secure access to real-time voice and data applications when and where they need it," said Jim Hilton, senior director, Manufacturing Solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. "By joining forces with Apprion, we are able to better serve customers by delivering closely integrated wireless application networks that help industrial enterprises increase profitability by streamlining plant communications, enhancing manufacturing processes and increasing worker productivity."
Through the OEM agreement, Apprion and Motorola will initially incorporate wireless broadband systems and wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions from Motorola into the Apprion ION System. The second phase of enhancements will result in the full integration of Motorola products and technologies as modular components of Apprionâo[dot accent]s IONosphere and IONizer solutions. The combination of Apprion and Motorola technologies will enable a wide range of applications. Examples include mobile safety applications, unified voice communications, perimeter security, predictive maintenance, and remote monitoring and optimization of critical assets including compressors, batteries, solar panels, and pumping stations.
"While the basic building blocks for a wirelessly connected plant exist today, wireless systems and applications have remained fragmented and difficult to integrate," said Doug Donzelli, chief executive officer of Apprion. "By teaming with Motorola, Apprion will be able to seamlessly integrate Motorola's innovative wireless technologies with Apprionâo[dot accent]s ION System to create a unified wireless application network that addresses the needs of industrial enterprise customers for more cost-effective solutions for safety, security, energy efficiency and asset optimization."
The functional demands of different industrial applications require different wireless technologies. For example, wireless instrumentation may be best matched with energy-efficient radios and protocols such as WirelessHart, whereas other applications such as the video monitoring of remote sites may require long-range wireless broadband capabilities such as WiMAX.
Apprion's ION System is an open, scalable, and extensible infrastructure for monitoring, managing and securing multi-vendor wireless devices and applications. The ION System consists of the Apprion IONosphere and IONizers. The IONosphere is an industrial network appliance that manages data services, workflow, security, monitoring and maintenance, and 3rd party application integration across wireless plant networks. Apprion's IONizers are industrial wireless field appliances for multi-protocol, multi-vendor wireless networks that cost-effectively integrate and secure previously standalone w ireless applications, such as video, location tracking, voice-over-IP (VoIP) and condition-based monitoring.
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