UK Technology Company ARM Forms First UK Industry Group to Combat the ‘Internet of Silos’

ARM, the UK technology leader at the heart of many of today’s electronic devices, today announced that it has invited some of the UK’s leading specialist technology companies – EnLight, Neul, Alertme and AquaMW – to establish the UK’s first industry forum to help shape the Internet of Things. The forum aims to combat what they describe as the ‘Internet of Silos’ - an unconnected world with less value to both consumers and businesses. The forum will drive a blueprint for how technologies associated with the Internet of Things should and could work together to support the 50-billion intelligent devices due to be connected to the Internet by 2020.

This coincides with ARM CEO Warren East speaking on the importance of mobile technologies and the UK’s role in developing this market at the British Government’s Business Olympics event in London from 26th July to 3rd August. The event is timed to showcase the UK contribution to international business during the Olympics, when the world spotlight is on the UK.

In 2020 everything that can benefit from an Internet connection will have one. In a similar way to people increasingly being online, every object will have a connection. This has huge potential to help use energy and natural resources more efficiently, manage our cities, monitor health more effectively and to improve lives. The Internet of Things represents a big opportunity to drive growth for both UK and worldwide economies. According to IMS Research*, governments will play a key role in defining the regulations that will propel shipments for M2M communications modules to more than 118 million units by 2016, especially in the automotive sector.

The forum’s founding members are all involved in advanced technology and solutions associated with the Internet of Things, including commercial infrastructure monitoring, energy-saving street lighting, home automation, energy monitoring and low power radio technology for sensors. Their aim is to work together to develop public policies and standards designed to create the right framework to help governments and others ensure that the Internet of Things works properly, across the globe, and enjoys the confidence of consumers and businesses. The first forum will meet 24th August in the UK and will be chaired by the Gary Atkinson, who leads the Internet of Things initiative at ARM.

“In the next five years, over £2.4 billion will be spent in the UK on smart home energy management devices, ranging from smart meters themselves to in-home devices that are connected to them. This is a great example of an Internet of Things application, but is only a fraction of the market that will open up over the next 15-20 years,” said Gary Atkinson, director of embedded, ARM. “There are massive opportunities for the UK and the industry as a whole in this market, but that requires a common approach to infrastructure and systems to enable the Internet of Things. The UK can lead this thinking and that’s why we are establishing a forum to create a blueprint for success. Working with innovative ARM partners, such as EnLight , Neul, Alertme and AquaMW, is a good place to start.”

*IMS Research – Government Regulations a Key Piece of the Cellular M2M Puzzle

More detail about the members:

Streetlight Revolution – ENLIGHT

• At a time when many councils are considering turning off one in every 10 streetlights to save money, the Enlight system delivers savings of up to 45 percent by improving the efficiency of street lights. If the eight million streetlamps in the UK were all to use the EnLight technology, this would save the UK one million tonnes of CO2 each year
• Each EnLight ballast provides soft start to increase lamp life, supports all types, makes and wattages of lamp so is truly universal and has an overall energy efficiency of 95 percent, compared to 50-60 percent for traditional magnetic versions. True linear dimmability in 1 percent increments means that the lights can be turned down after midnight – rather than off completely
• The ballast is also connected to the Internet so all the lights in each district (which could be a street or a whole village) can be managed from a central location. This enables the remote control of all streetlights, so they can be lit and dimmed from a central point, and faults can be detected and diagnosed from the office rather than an engineer having to go to each light

Home Energy Management – AlertMe

• SmartEnergy helps you identify your home's energy-hungry habits. See how much you are consuming, turn appliances off and watch your costs fall instantly. Personalised energy-saving tips protect your pocket and start reducing your energy costs long before the utility bills hit the doormat
• Founded in 2006, AlertMe is a Smart Home technology company providing home energy management and connected home services both directly to consumers and indirectly through partners such as Energy Utilities, Telecommunications companies and Retailers
• Based on a single cloud-based platform and an AlertMe hub in the home, AlertMe allows consumers to monitor, control and automate a wide range of devices in the home, related to energy consumption, heating & cooling, home monitoring and new energy sources like solar PV, online and via their Smartphone anytime, anywhere. In addition, AlertMe’s data services provide consumers with greater insight into their energy use while providing recommendations on how to reduce their consumption or use their energy more efficiently

Intelligent Cloud Sensing - AquaMW

• The technology platform from AquaMW combines the efficiency of low power ARM architecture with massive scalability of Cloud computing to deliver unique Wireless Sensing Apps. These apps “sense” the physical world through real time data acquisition “predict” future events through real time analysis and provide tools for businesses and people to “act” resulting in improving efficiency and reducing environmental impact
• Their technology is being used by leading OEM’s like Grundfos and other asset owners in commercial buildings, industrial and manufacturing sector to improve efficiency, implement new business models and transform their infrastructure
• Their vision is to unlock intelligence from the physical world around us by incorporating BRAINS to each asset and business process

Recycling the airwaves – NEUL

• Their vision is to bring about a revolution in the way devices and applications communicate. From the predicted 50 billion connected Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices, through smart metering to rural broadband, transportation and beyond
• The space that was freed up from the digital switchover is exactly the space that Neul recycles as it is licence free TV white space spectrum within the existing global TV bands.
• The costs of spectrum, network infrastructure, back haul, maintenance & deployment have been minimised, allowing customers to build & operate their own Neul networks. The Neul architecture is based on the royalty free, open network standard, 'Weightless'

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that is at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. Find out more about ARM by following these links:

• ARM website: http://www.arm.com/
• ARM Connected Community®: http://www.arm.com/community/
• Mali Developer Center www.malideveloper.com
• ARM Blogs: http://blogs.arm.com/
• ARMFlix on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ARMflix
• ARM on Twitter:

• http://twitter.com/ARMMultimedia
• http://twitter.com/ARMMobile
• http://twitter.com/ARMCommunity
• http://twitter.com/ARMEmbedded
• http://twitter.com/ARMLowPwr
• http://twitter.com/KeilTools

ENDS

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