The Mr. Beacon Ambient IoT Podcast

From the leading journalist and podcaster on IoT – Host of The Internet of Things Podcast, Stacey Higginbotham introduces us to Sidewalk, Matter and the subject of IoT interoperability.   Plus, we have a lively discussion on privacy and Stacey’s predictions on the future of the IoT industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we speak with one of the leaders in indoor navigation, Pointr sales leader Paul Dupont, who shares how their platform has evolved over the past 5 years, the use cases that are taking off and insights into the issues that buyers should be aware of before investing into Indoor Positioning Systems.    Plus, we share some advanced information on Wiliot’s new Starter Kit, which now...

Supply chain issues are impacting our business and personal lives.  They are also a major driver of IoT projects.  This week we’re talking with Bob Trebilcock, who is the editorial director at Supply Chain Management Review, about the current state of the supply chain, where it is failing, and how it will evolve moving forward. We also talk about omni channel supply chain, which companie...

This week we’re talking with Bryan Merckling, CEO of Thinaer, about the tools and methods that companies like his are implementing which are helping to bring true scale to the IoT space. This is helping businesses take a good idea and bring it to life profitably. We cover everything from tags to robots in an effort to roll back the curtain on how companies like Thinaer are bringing asset tracking...

Today we’re talking with Ramesh Kesanupalli, who is the Co-Founder of the Accountable Digital Identity Association (ADIA), about the benefits of a single digital identity for accessing all accounts over the internet. Not only is this a much easier way to access all your accounts, it is also far more secure, preventing fraud and bringing accountability to the real world. Listen along as we discuss...

This episode we’re talking with Andy Ward, who is the Co-Founder and CTO of Ubisense, about various technologies from ultra wideband, to bluetooth, machine vision and many more, which his company utilizes within car manufacturing factories to automate the assembly line process. Listen as we discuss these various technologies, old and new, and how in combination they have the chance to change the m...

This week we’ve brought on Tim Debus, who is the President and CEO of The Reusable Packaging Association, to talk about the various benefits businesses can realize when they turn to sustainable, reusable packaging. Tim’s focus is on transportation and distribution packaging (such as bins, crates, etc.), which is an area primed for disruption and improvement. Combined with auto-ID technology, reusa...

This week we’re talking about the circular economy and the process of making fashion more sustainable with auto-ID technology. We’ve brought on Tom Cridland, who is a fashion designer, podcaster, and musician who has created a new clothing line with a 30-year guarantee in order to promote more sustainability in the fashion and clothing space. We discuss the impact of auto-ID in the fashion industr...

For this week's episode on branding in the IoT space, we have Adam Hanft on the show to share some of his strategic findings from working in the branding arena for the last several decades. Adam has a creative director background, working at many agencies as an advertiser, and has worked with the likes of Alan Kay ("If You See Something, Say Something"), and even Barack Obama with the "get out the...

This week we will hear a unique perspective. Our guest is from Minew, a Chinese company that has focused on the IoT field for more than a decade, both manufacturing their own products and acting as the hardware supplier for many other Bluetooth beacons and tag brands. They have seen the Bluetooth beacon market from its birth and have collaborated with many notable corporations, including Alibaba,...

Can you guess what the world's largest indoor location services platform is? Cisco’s DNA Spaces platform handles over 1 trillion location updates from 1 million access points deployed across 120,000 locations worldwide, so it is a serious contender for this title. The strategic implications of a giant like Cisco building a services platform like this impacts the entire ecosystem of customers...

Every day,  Kontakt.io ’s products touch millions of people in shopping malls, office buildings, and hospitals. With devices in over 50 airports, it likely that many of us have departed and arrived at once equipped with  Kontakt.io !  This week we are excited to have Rom Eizenberg, Chief Revenue Officer and an industry veteran with 15+ years of experience in IoT, on the podcast. It...

What is the state of IoT on the high seas? What can those of us on dry land learn from the evolution of this business we all depend on?  A lot has changed in the past year, and the shipping industry has been no stranger to the effects of COVID-19. Sam Jha joins us back on the podcast after his debut in 2017 to share how the shipping industry has been evolving and what Alpha Ori is doing...

Do you know the global language of business? The language of Unique Product Codes (UPCs) that identify products and companies for sale in stores and major online marketplaces? This language enables barcodes, playing to the beat of 6 million scans a day, all over the world.   This week we sit down with Melanie Nuce, SVP Corporate Development at GS1 US , to learn why more than 300,000 companies...

For the first time on the Mr. Beacon Podcast, we have put the rubber to the road and experimented with a solution internally before sitting down for the interview. This week, we are happy to welcome Nathan Dunn, CEO of BlueCats , back on the podcast to discuss the experience of deploying their contact tracing solution in our local Wiliot office. The BlueCats solution is both preventative and react...

What does it mean to ‘modernize your supply chain’? To Digimarc, it involves moving beyond the conventional barcode to an imperceptible data carrier, the Digimarc barcode, that can be repeated many times on packaging without spoiling the appearance. Digimarc is helping businesses across many industries solve for brand protection, sustainability, and traceability. Their digital identity can be appl...

How is it ‘that virtually every person on the face of the earth has the ability to scan a barcode in their pocket’?  Success in IoT depends on understanding how the ecosystem operates. Auto-ID is a building block at the heart of IoT and AIM is the industry group that defines auto-ID standards. It does the things that companies on their own, even giants, can’t achieve.   This week we have...

The next time you buy a product, a purse or a pair of shoes, imagine the capabilities that could be unlocked if it were really a platform. The purse could digitally verify its own authenticity, your shoes could seamlessly share the story of their design and origins. ‘Product to Platform’ is the transformation  Blue Bite  have been enabling: A new way of engaging customers throughout the...

Why is it that decision makers should care about data science? The simplest answer could be that some of the biggest businesses are leaders in data science. Think of Netflix, Amazon, Google, Facebook. Their content is all curated by artificial intelligence. Tune in this week to hear a fascinating episode with Dr. Stylianos Kampakis about data science in our world today and to dive into his book “T...

 You’ve heard about the Amazon Go Store and all the big box retailers implementing technology to transform the way we shop, but are we seeing the same advancements in the luxury sector? This week we talk to Inspify, a technology company that is ‘reinventing the art of retail in luxury boutiques’.   Thorsten Walther, CEO of Inspify, sits down with us to talk about their product: a custome...

Why would you want Near Field Communication, or more commonly known as NFC, technology in soccer balls, hand bags, and COVID testing kits? After this conversation with Avery Dennison’s Head of NFC business, Amir Khoshniyati, you’ll be asking ‘Why not?’.   To name a few uses that Amir mentions, the unique ID that NFC provides can enable authenticity, consumer engagement and loyalty, and supply...

Even with the obvious benefits of illuminating your supply chain with IoT technology, assembling all the pieces of the solution puzzle can seem like an onerous task. Who best to shed some light on the topic of scaling IoT than Bob Proctor, CEO of Link Labs. Bob used to be a McKinsey consultant and his company works with the largest wireless carriers, hospitality providers and eCommerce provid...

IoT insiders know that Bluetooth is not just the wireless technology that we know and use on a daily basis, but also the nick-name of the late Danish king and great communicator, Harald Bluetooth. Forkbeard, Bluetooth’s son, known for his navigational expertise is a perfect name for the company we are talking with today. Forkbeard combines the best of Bluetooth and ultra-sound technology enabling...

What could possibly go wrong when huge businesses try to engage with startups? What should startups expect when they try to sell to much larger companies?  How would a partnership between companies like Bissell, Steelcase, and Whirlpool help avoid the issues that occur when entrepreneurs penetrate large enterprises?   Join us this week with Dana Lowell, Co-founder of Seaml...

Where are the dark spots in your supply chain? How could your business transform with digital twin of your supply chain? We are talking about continuous, real time location, condition, and contextual data, when you need it.   In 2014, a team of Silicon Valley veterans built a cloud system that bridges the physical and digital worlds. Cloudleaf’s vision is to ‘take a radical new approach to un...