News

Below an overview of I-Real's news articles

16/07/10 I-Real & the environment
Want to see how our clients make their contribution to a more liveable world by implementing I-Real's solutions? Visit I-Real at stand K7 at the EnviroLive'10 exhibtion in Melbourne 22 & 23 July. Read more

05/07/10 I-Real in Asia
I-Real was one of the exhibitors at the Water Expo during the Singapore International Water Week (28 June - 2 July). Read more

4/05/10 Visit I-Real at the MMI exhibition
I-Real will exhibit its metering solutions for the utility markets at the 'Measurements & Metering Innovation' exhibition at the Hilton Brisbane Hotel, 17-19 May 2010. Read more

3/05/10 I-Real's online news magazine
I-Real has published the first edition of its online news magazine I-opener. Read, view and listen about I-Real's solutions, partners and events in an interactive way.

24/03/10 Recap OzWater'10
I-Real has exhibited its products at Australia's largest national water conference and exhibition and participated with a fact-finding mission to Melbourne and Adelaide organised by the Australian Trade Commission. Read more 

23/02/10 H2gO in Ghana
H2gO and RealSense data loggers are implemented to monitor the distribution of potable water in Ghana's second largest city, Kumasi. Read more

19/02/10 Spiderbox & I-Real join forces
Spiderbox & I-Real are working on a solution which enables deployment of wireless sensor networks for real time management of infrastructure and facilities. Read more

18/01/10 New: I-Real's Data Scan
Eliminate irrelevant and unreliable data using I-Real's Data Scan. Read more

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I-Real & the environment

By implementing I-Real's solutions our clients make their contribution to a more liveable world; a few examples:

• Implementing overflow registration solutions a too high concentration of waste water in our ecosystems can be avoided, preventing damaging the environment;

• Monitoring of utility meters makes it possible to better manage the usage of limited resources;

• By dimming street lights based on visibility conditions, electricity usage will be reduced;

• By implementing traffic control measures – like changing the recipe for traffic lights based on the traffic situation – a better traffic flow will be achieved which means less carbon emission;

• By monitoring the fill levels of containers, a more efficient logistic schedule can be implemented (trucks only pick up the content when required) meaning less fuel will be used

• By remote monitoring air and soil conditions within a field or greenhouse, farmers do not need to physically inspect their fields regularly. Again; less fuel usage, less carbon emission.

Want to know more? Visit I-Real at stand K7 at the EnviroLive'10 exhibition in Melbourne 22 & 23 July

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I-Real in Asia

I-Real has exhibited its software solutions and data loggers at the Water Expo during the Singapore International Water Week. This expo was 29 June - 1 July 2010 at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre.

We want to thank all Asian companies and governments which showed an interest in I-Real's solutions and we are very much looking forward to following up and intensifying these contacts.

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Visit I-Real at the MMI exhibition

The Measurements & Metering Innovation (MMI) conference is Australia’s premier metering event attracting leading metering managers, technologists, consultants, regulators, policy makers and many others interested in metering and the issues associated with metering.

I-Real will demonstrate its monitoring solutions for utility meters at the MMI exhibition which will take place 17-19 May at the Hilton Brisbane Hotel.

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OzWater'10 

The week of 8 – 12 March 2010 was a busy one for I-Real. From Monday until Wednesday I-Real was exhibiting its products at OzWater'10; Australia's largest national water conference and exhibition presented by the Australian Water Association (AWA).

I-Real was one of the exhibitioners on the stand of the Dutch Embassy (stand Q7). Again we like to thank Mark Versteden and Anita van Bijsterveld (respectively the Head and Officer of the Economic Affairs Division of the Dutch Embassy in Canberra) and Sjoerd Rameckers of the Australian Trade Commission for their fantastic cooperation!

A lot of organisations and people showed their interest in I-Real's innovative solutions and we are looking forward to follow up and intensify these contacts.

Fact-finding mission

Parallel Jan Katers of I-Real was one of the participants of a fact-finding mission organised by the Australian Trade Commission. In Brisbane meetings were set up with Mark Pascoe – CEO of the International Watercentre and Chair of the OzWater'10 committee, Tom Mollenkopf – Chief Executive of the AWA and last but not least Michael Choi – Parliamentary Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy and Trade.

All three gave us a detailed overview of the Australian water industry and the challenges which this industry is facing; obviously the drought but also the floodings of the last few weeks. They also gave us insight in which areas improvements are needed and collaborations with specialist (overseas) companies are desired.

Melbourne

After Brisbane the mission travelled to Melbourne where we met with Tim Holding - the Minister for Water (see picture below), David Downey – General Manager of the Department of Sustainability and representatives of Yarra Valley Water and Melbourne Water.

I-Real will definitely be back to meet with the latter two as these companies are looking for online monitoring solutions and were very interested in I-Real's solutions.

The participants of the mission with Hon. Tim Holding in the garden of Parliament House in Melbourne

Adelaide

Friday meetings were scheduled in Adelaide; particularly the forum discussion with 30 South Australian companies was very interesting as was the meeting with SA Water. This organisation has to tackle similar problems as the water authorities in Victoria. 

All in all the OzWater'10 and the fact-finding mission have given I-Real an optimal opportunity to show or tell about its solutions.

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I-Real implements H2gO in Ghana

I-Real is involved in a large potable water project in Kumasi, Ghana; the goal of this project is to increase the supply of clean potable water for the locals by 30%. 80 kilometer of new pipes have been added to the existing 930km pipeline to secure potable water for the entire city. However, 40% of the total water produced cannot be accounted for; it is unknown what its final destination is.

To find out what the causes are, it has been decided to implement telemetry. 60 flow rate meters, 6 pressure sensors and 4 level measurement devices have been installed to help in fine tuning the Hydraulic Network model, increase efficiency in the distribution of water, supply water to all the local people at nominal pressures to reduce leakages in the system and also monitor Non Revenue Water (NRW).

All these devices will be connected to 64 RealSense GPRS data loggers and the measurements will be communicated to the H2gO Communication Server. Through the H2gO process information system the measurements will be retrieved and visualised. I-Real will also provide training regarding measuring equipment and monitoring software for local staff.

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Connecting physical environments with information systems

I-Real and Spiderbox join forces

A growing number of nodes are being deployed around the globe as businesses start to realise the true value sensor data brings to their organisation. The kind of real-time intelligence this sensor data affords is dramatically changing the way organisations manage their operations with substantial benefit.

I-Real is always interested in collaborations with business partners whose products complement those of I-Real. Alliances like these are able to deliver our clients a satisfying end-to-end solution as a result of a transparent implementation project.

When Spiderbox approached I-Real last year in their quest to find business partners offering front-end process information systems to interface with their intelligent Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), I-Real didn't have to think twice about this opportunity.

About Spiderbox

Spiderbox is an independently owned Australian telecommunications provider with a legacy of unparalleled customer service and leading edge contribution to the industry through their ongoing commitment to Research and Development. With a dual focus on the National SME market and the Business Park developments where they cluster. Through leveraging strategic partnerships with leading industry product and technology suppliers they bring together best-of-breed solutions to support their comprehensive suite of affordable integrated voice, video and data services.

Spiderbox is the next generation in communications and connectivity solutions designed to enhance business functions and guarantee "always on" business continuity. The head office encompasses research and development, the technology centre, and highly skilled team of system engineers that directly support tailored customer solutions.

Wireless Sensor Networks

Spiderbox R&D program has developed the capability to create tailored WSN solutions including production of customised motes (small computing devices); a network of motes is able to perform the following:

• Sensors in the motes acquire information from the physical world. E.g.

• whether personnel are present or if doors are open or closed;

• measuring conditions of the air, ground and water on various spots in an (outdoor) area;

• Each mote is also able to receive data individually or broadcasted- An LED display is used to communicate received messages for that particular mote - This can then be used to advise staff of emergency or provide instructions;

The network is unmanned, intelligent and self healing. The BaseStation receives data from each of the motes and communicates this data using a GPRS modem via a secured network to RealM2M.

RealM2M

Within RealM2M a protocol has been developed to interpret the data which is sent by the BaseStations. Literally hundreds of base stations can be configured within RealM2M and because a single WSN can consist of hundreds of motes, it is possible to set up extensive monitoring networks with the I-Real / Spiderbox solution.

RealM2M visualises the data received from the motes into client-defined reports and graphs. Data can also be imported or exported for use in enterprise systems providing seamless interoperability.

Another feature RealM2M offers is alarm management; alerts can be triggered when measurements breach acceptable ranges or when a combination of measurements gives reason to investigate the situation more closely.

Benefits

WSN's enable the remote monitoring and management of critical devices while providing data to enable more informed decision-making, better control, and increased revenue opportunities. A key benefit is the ability to deploy motes in complex locations that a wired system could not normally monitor because of their independent power and small operating systems.

I-Real's and Spiderbox's combined solution delivers wirelessly enabled process optimisation, asset management and preventative maintenance solutions to improve the overall process efficiency at significantly reduced installation and management cost.

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New: I-Real's Data Scan

Eliminate irrelevant and unreliable data by frequently checking your measurement data

Within the water industry large quantities of data are collated through all sorts of measuring equipment: groundwater levels and quality, number of operation hours of pumps, flow rates etc. These measurements are automatically stored in a database but this data is often not frequently checked (often due to lack of time). So-called 'data graveyards' are created and unreliable data is used when undertaking analyses.

Based on the outcomes of these analysis decisions on investments are made so it is important to have the correct data available; to achieve this I-Real has developed Data Scan.

The data used for validating sewage models is often unreliable because of incorrect measurements or the omission of measurements due to outages of measuring equipment. I-Real's Data Scan offers the possibility to carry out a practical check of measurement data on a frequent basis.

This scan detects odd measurements; this way errors in measurement ranges can be avoided. The Data Scan can also locate incorrect connections.

The frequency of the Data Scan (monthly, quartery, ...) will be determined by the measurement frequency, the scale and the grid of the measurement data. The Data Scan consists of a newly developed data analysis and validation module plus a check by an expert. The data validation module automatically checks the data on extreme values, zero-point drifts, cross-correlation and auto-correlation. A report will be prepared with the results of the Data Scan.

The Data Scan can be used for all telemetry systems.