“The Convenience Generation”

Four Reasons Why BOPIS and Curbside will Surge in 2019

By Jeff Baskin, EVP Global Partnerships

In today’s digital age, retailers need to provide their customers with choice, not just in products, but in different ways to order and fulfill them.  Alternative retail purchasing solutions like BOPIS (Buy Online Pick Up In-Store), curbside pick-up, and delivery have been around for years now. However, with the emergence of Amazon’s grocery presence, following their purchase of Whole Foods, and their own retail locations, retailers are quickly waking up and are now in a race to find the latest omni-channel innovations to improve and enhance the customer journey.

Grocers, Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), and other retailers have traditionally been slow to adopt new in-store technology and ecommerce. Now, they are innovating at a fast and furious pace. In addition to keeping up with the competition, innovation is also being driven by customers in the “Convenience Generation”, who demand immediate gratification from simply pushing a button on their mobile device - aka ‘frictionless shopping’. The convenience Generation has forced all retailers to adapt to different service models. Customers expect their order to be ready in minutes, cost the same as if they were going into the store, and be delivered to them with minimal interaction with the staff.  

According to Adobe Inc. data, this recent holiday season saw BOPIS orders increase 47% compared to last year.  “Weary holiday shoppers continue to look for alternatives to crowded stores, long lines, and empty shelves in the final push to Christmas,” Taylor Schreiner, director at Adobe Digital Insights said just before the holiday. “Retailers who can offer the easiest shopping experience, whether through excellent use of data to anticipate shoppers’ needs or by providing an option for picking up products at brick and mortar stores, are the ones people are flocking to...”

The often tech-deprived grocery space has been especially busy pushing innovation and trying to figure out new omni-channel solutions.  Krogers’ CEO recently announced in a Marketwatch interview that their ecommerce sales have increased 56% (they also just launched autonomous delivery vehicles in Arizona).  Nielsen and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) estimates that Americans’ total online grocery spending will reach $100 billion between 2021 and 2023. Walmart has especially made a huge push toward their curbside pick up program. Reporting on its third quarter of fiscal 2019 last November, the company said that it offers grocery pickup at nearly 2100 locations, allowing shoppers to buy groceries from their computers or mobile devices and pickup at the store at NO extra charge. Walmart is betting big on this initiative in 2019 and proved it its first ever cross-platform marketing campaign with a commercial during the January Golden Globes with some well known Hollywood “cars” showing off the benefits of it’s Grocery Pick up Program, such as the Mutt Cutts Mobile from “Dumb and Dumber and the “Griswold Family Truckster” from Vacation.

In addition to retailers building their own solutions, many third party delivery services, like UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub, now service the restaurant space. Instacart has done the same in the grocery space and has raised over $1.2B, and after its latest fund raising round of $600M, the company was valued at $7.6B. In addition to supplying over 14,000 grocery locations with delivery, Instacart has realized they need to be in the Pick Up game as well, and now offers curbside pick-up in over 25 US markets (Consumer Reports). “By 2022 nearly one-tenth of total grocery sales will be online, and expected to grow 13% each year, compared with the 1.3% compound annual growth rate expected in-store” (Barrington).

So why has BOPIS and curbside pick-up become so important for consumers and such a focus for retailers in 2019?

Avoid shipping or delivery charges – While delivery is great, the “convenience generation” doesn’t want to pay extra for it. Most third-party delivery services charge a fee or increase the price of the goods being ordered over the in-store price.

Get their merchandise/order sooner – If you’re like me, you don’t want to wait for something that you just purchased. For busy millennials and young families, delivery is not completely predictable. If I order groceries, I don’t want to worry about being home during a 2-hour window. For restaurants, if the restaurant cannot perfectly time the food preparation with the arrival of the third-party delivery driver, the food is not fast, nor fresh.  

Want to see the actual item – This is almost the reverse of what we used to do back in the early days. As someone who has been in the retail business for a while, I know that “showrooming” (going to the store to touch and feel the product and then ordering online for delivery) was popular and a huge problem for brick and mortar retailers. In 2019, customers will order online and pick up at the store at their convenience and so they can confirm the items are as they have ordered.

Convenience and Frictionless -  With the growing expectation of immediate order and receival of goods, customer behavior is demanding “just in time” service. Customers are pushing retailers to embrace the latest in technology, in order to create a smooth and convenient ‘frictionless’ customer experience.

If they have to wait for an extended period of time or their order is not complete you can kiss that customer goodbye.   Would seem pretty simple to execute but as even the largest retailers are finding out meeting the expectations of the “convenience generation” is quite complicated as it creates many different internal processes.

Preparing an order and timing a BOPIS or curbside pickup provides a lot of complications for the retailer. If this were The Jetsons (I know I am dating myself now!), customers would pull up to the store, slow down to 2 MPH, your order would be gently placed in their space trunk, and they would be off to Judy’s ballet recital without a moment to waste. We are not so far off from this level of timely service and convenience and with the latest innovations in IoT, Mobile sensor and location based technologies retailers can accomplish their BOPIS and Curbside goals for customers satisfaction and staff efficiency creating a great customer experience and a positive ROI.

Here’s how:

1)    Automate the customer experience – Once a customer has placed an order, don’t make them think. Allow them to go to the store at their leisure and not have to announce themselves when they are on their way, nearby, or at the store. This can all be easily automated so the customer does not have to lift a finger.

2)    Have the order ready: This seems pretty simple, but it’s actually extremely complicated for the store to coordinate the arrival of the customer with the timing of the order for pickup. When customers need to wait for their food or merchandise order, they are quickly unsatisfied and are often lost for good and even worse can be a huge resource strain.  

3)    Provide an accurate and real-time ETA to staff:  In order to accomplish the above two bullets, you need to be able to locate the customer when they are en route, nearby, and on property. With this information, staff can be alerted with the customer’s location, ensuring the order is waiting for them when they pull up.

4)    Know exactly where your customer is: In order to greet the customer upon arrival, you need to know their  location when they arrive to your store. Whether the customer has arrived in-store, in a designated pick-up zone or even the entire parking lot, knowing the location of the customer on-property saves staff time and makes for a seamless curbside or in-store pickup experience.

This past holiday season saw a 40% increase in omni-channel shoppers over Thanksgiving weekend, and a 73% increase in BOPIS orders.  As long as we can create a much better experience than what currently exists in the marketplace I expect these numbers to continue to increase as the “convenience generation” gets more and more lazy!  With the emergence of sophisticated IoT and mobile sensor technology based solutions the Jetsons way of living may just be here already!

To learn more about the latest in curbside and BOPIS Innovations including FlyBuy™ Powered by Radius Networks please visit our website at www.radiusnetworks.com or reach out to me directly at jeff@radiusnetworks.com.  If you happen to be in Las Vegas for CES this week or next week at the NRF show in NYC please contact us to discuss this topic and our solutions further.

Radius Networks Ranked Number 71 Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2018 Technology Fast 500™

Attributes 1,855% Revenue Growth to hard work and building products that change the way our partners locate, engage, and transact with their customers.  

Washington, DC, November 15, 2018 — Radius Networks today announced it ranked 71 on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Radius Networks grew 1,855 percent during this period.

Radius Networks’ chief executive officer, Marc Wallace, credits the company’s growth rate with persistence, hard work, and building great products that change the way our partners locate, engage, and transact with their customers. He said, "we are honored to be included on Deloitte’s Fastest Growing Company in North America list. Our team has created the next generation location platform and is disrupting the location and proximity technology industry. Whether it’s curbside pickup at your local grocery store, table service at one of thousands of restaurants, or a personalized experience at your favorite theme park, millions of customers touch our technology every day. We are grateful to our clients and partners who continually drive us to innovate and create new products."

“Congratulations to the Deloitte 2018 Technology Fast 500 winners on this impressive achievement,” said Sandra Shirai, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader. “These companies are innovators who have converted their disruptive ideas into products, services and experiences that can captivate new customers and drive remarkable growth.”

“Software, which accounts for nearly two of every three companies on the list, continues to produce some of the most exciting technologies of the 21st century, including innovations in artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and robotics,” said Mohana Dissanayake, partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Industry Leader for technology, media and telecommunications, within Deloitte’s audit and assurance practice. “This year’s ranking demonstrates what is likely a national phenomenon, where many companies from all parts of America are transforming the way we do business by combining breakthrough research and development, entrepreneurship and rapid growth.”

About Deloitte’s 2018 Technology Fast 500™

Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies — both public and private — in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2014 to 2017.

In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 USD, and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million USD. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.

About Radius Networks

Radius Networks is a location technology company focused on helping businesses locate, engage and transact with their customers for order delivery, messaging, and tracking. Our wireless-enabled tableside and curbside platforms are installed globally in tens of thousands of locations globally across more than 60 countries. Our clients include some of the world's largest brands and span multiple markets such as restaurants, hospitality, gaming, grocery, and retail.  

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the “Deloitte” name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

Radius Networks Launches Proximity-based Customer Location Technology with LAFC

By Rebecca McFarland

The Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) has partnered with Radius Networks to launch their Customer Location Platform, which includes the latest in wireless location technology, at the The Fields LA. The Fields LA is recently opened, stylized urban food hall featuring award-winning chefs and restaurants at LAFC’s state-of-the-art Banc of California Stadium.

Table Service is a solution within the Radius Networks Customer Location Platform that utilizes a proprietary platform and leverages location-enabled Smart Locators and the LAFC mobile application on customers’ mobile devices for direct order delivery to the customer. This allows fans to place their order from the counter, a mobile kiosk, or using their mobile device, find a seat inside or outside on the patio at The Fields LA, and have their food and drinks delivered directly to them.

“Guests don’t want to wait in long lines or wait for their number to be called for food and drinks; they want to enjoy the game, the stadium experience, and relax,” said LAFC’s Christian Lau, Vice President of IT. “The Radius Networks platform allows our guests to order food however they would like, and have it delivered quickly to their location. With our mobile first strategy, we are excited to extend the service to mobile ordering, giving guests a more flexible and personalized dining experience.”

When the customer’s order is ready, a server views a monitor and immediately locates the customer at their table within the 15,000 square foot dining space or outdoor beer garden. The Radius Networks Customer Location Platform decreases wait time and eliminates crowding at the counter, significantly improving both the customer and staff experience.

In addition to food and beverage service, Radius Networks has collaborated with LAFC to integrate with their mobile app and create a Smart Stadium Proximity Cloud Network to further engage with fans when they are in the right place at the right time. Proximity engagement is essential for smart stadiums to help fans find their seats, drive traffic to points of interest in the stadium, promote items at the team store, and encourage social media engagement.

“With the integration of Customer Location Platform and our Proximity Cloud Network, LAFC has the ability to significantly increase the overall fan experience,” said Radius Networks EVP of Global Partnerships Jeff Baskin. “Our technology helps our partners improve the guest and staff experience, decrease wait times, increase throughput, and keep up with the increasing demand for innovation at sports, entertainment, and hospitality venues.”

About Radius Networks: Radius Networks has created the next generation location platform to change the way companies locate and engage their customers. The wireless-enabled tableside and curbside platform is installed in tens of thousands of locations globally and across more than 50 countries. Restaurants, stadiums, casinos, hotels, and other retail and hospitality venues leverage the product to improve the customer and staff experience, increase order throughput, capture insightful customer analytics, and boost store revenue. The technology also provides solutions for curbside pick-up, delivery, and drive-thru in an effort to create a seamless and expedited customer experience.

About LAFC: The Los Angeles Football Club is the newest MLS soccer club serving the greater Los Angeles area. Its ownership group is comprised of local leaders and innovators of industry with intellectual capital, financial prowess, operations expertise and success in the fields of entertainment, sports, technology, and media.

Contact: To learn more about our Customer Location Platform and other Radius Networks services, visit https://radiusnetworks.com or contact hello@radiusnetworks.com.

Radius Networks Listed on the 2017 Inc. 500 America's Fastest Growing Companies List

By Rebecca McFarland

Inc. magazine today ranked Radius Networks number 255 on its 36th annual Inc. 500, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment— its independent small and midsized businesses. Companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000.

“Our team has worked very hard to build and implement products that change the way our partners locate, engage, and transact with their customers. Making the Inc. 500 is validation of this effort,” says Radius Networks CEO Marc Wallace. “We are so grateful to our clients and partners who continually drive us to innovate and create new products.”

With a growth rate of nearly 2,000%, Washington DC based Radius Networks solidified its place on the Inc. 500 list as a first time honoree. The 2017 Inc. 5000, unveiled online at Inc.com and with the top 500 companies featured in the September issue of Inc. (available on newsstands August 16) is the most competitive crop in the list’s history. The Inc. 5000’s aggregate revenue is $206 billion, and the companies on the list collectively generated 619,500 jobs over the past three years. Radius Networks ranking and description can be found here: https://www.inc.com/profile/radius-networks.

“The Inc. 5000 is the most persuasive evidence I know that the American Dream is still alive,” says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. “The founders and CEOs of the Inc. 5000 tell us they think determination, risk taking, and vision were the keys to their success, and I believe them.”

The annual Inc. 5000 event honoring all the companies on the list will be held from October 10 through 12, 2017 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, CA. Speakers include some of the greatest entrepreneurs of this and past generations, such as former Ford president Alan Mullaly, FUBU CEO and founder and “Shark Tank” star Daymond John, Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dubin, researcher and #1 New York Times bestseller Brené Brown, and Gravity Payments’ founder and CEO Dan Price.

About Radius Networks: Radius Networks has created the next generation location platform to change the way companies locate, engage and transact with their customers. Our wireless-enabled tableside and curbside platform is installed in tens of thousands of locations globally across more than 50 countries. Restaurants, stadiums, casinos, hotels, and other retail and hospitality venues leverage the product to improve the customer and staff experience, increase order throughput, capture insightful customer analytics, and boost store revenue. The technology also provides solutions for curbside pick-up, delivery, and drive-thru in an effort to create a seamless and expedited customer experience.

Contact: To learn more about Radius Networks services, contact Rebecca McFarland, Director of Marketing, at rebecca@radiusnetworks.com, or visit https://radiusnetworks.com.

About Inc. and the Inc. 5000: The 2017 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2013 to 2016. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2013. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2016. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2013 is $100,000; the minimum for 2016 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.’s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media: Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. Winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012. Total monthly audience reach for the brand has grown significantly from 2,000,000 in 2010 to over 18,000,000 today. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

The Inc. 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. Started in 1982, this prestigious list of the nation’s most successful private companies has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success. The Inc. 5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony is an annual event that celebrates their remarkable achievements. The event also offers informative workshops, celebrated keynote speakers, and evening functions.

Porting LDA to Go Lang

By Eleanor Nuechterlein

One of the most fundamental uses of the customer location platform is the ability to deploy a network of wireless detectors that identify the location of a customer. When many table tents are deployed, however, it is sometimes difficult to visualize where exactly the tents are located because as more tents are added, more dimensions are created, which can make it difficult to visualize the data in two dimensions. A solution to this issue is the use of linear discriminant analysis (LDA), a method used to find a linear combination of features that separates classes of objects. In other words, LDA distributes the tents into groups of the same type (zones). LDA works when the measurements of each tent for each observation are continuous and when groups are known a priori.

I re-coded an LDA code from Java to Golang and also referenced an LDA code written in Python. The LDA code I wrote in Golang includes three functions. The first function performs a LDA on the matrix of input data where each row is an observation and each column is a variable. The code takes the training samples and number of classes as parameters and returns whether the analysis is successful. The second function performs a transformation on the matrix of input data and returns the transformed matrix. The third function performs a prediction to assess which zone a certain set of data would be located in and returns that zone. The LDA code also utilizes eigenvalues as an indication of how well that function differentiates groups. As the eigenvalue increases, the better the zones of the table tents differentiate.

Below are two graphs: the graph on the left is the output of the LDA code in Python and the graph on the right is the output of the LDA code in Golang.

Eleanor is an engineering intern at Radius Networks, she will graduate from The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia in June 2019. Started an all-girls robotics team in her freshman year and participated in the World Robotics Championship in April 2018. Eleanor plans to pursue a major in a STEM related field in college.

Radius Networks Launches Curbside Service

By Rebecca McFarland

Radius Networks launches Curbside Service, a new product within the Radius Networks Customer Location Platform, designed to automate and streamline the curbside experience for customers, staff, and delivery drivers. With this innovative technology, an entire parking lot can be transformed into serviceable spaces for food delivery.

The easily-installed system leverages Radius Networks’ proprietary wireless location system and ordering apps on the customer’s mobile device to determine the location of a customer within the parking lot. To perfectly time the food readiness with the arrival of the customer, the Radius Networks system triggers the restaurant staff when the customer is within a certain radius of the restaurant, upon entrance to the property, and when they have settled in a parking spot. Food is then brought out fast and fresh to the exact location of the customer.

“In the past we have designated specific curbside/pick-up parking spots, but it consumes prime parking spots, is confusing for the customers, and limits the number of customers and delivery drivers that can use the system at one time,” said District Taco CEO Osiris Hoil. “By turning our parking lot into a serviceable area, we see an increase in repeat customers and substantially less lines and crowding in-store during peak times of the day.”

The Radius Networks Customer Location Platform is currently installed in more than 6,000 locations worldwide, a footprint that is expected to double in the next year. Restaurants, casinos, hotels, and other retail and hospitality venues leverage the product to improve the customer and staff experience, increase order throughput, capture insightful customer analytics, and boost per customer and overall store revenue. Curbside Service is offered as an expansion to the Radius Networks Customer Location Platform, which includes capabilities for indoor and outdoor table service, robust location-dependent order routing, drive-thru pickup, and proximity engagement.

“Our Table Service customers are loving the benefits of our location-aware technology and are eager to expand this outside,” said Radius Networks Chief Strategy Officer Dan Estrada. “With the increasing demand for innovation in drive-thru, curbside, and pick-up counters, Curbside Service gives customers a convenient, comfortable, and speedy experience when on-the-go.”

About Radius Networks: Radius Networks helps companies locate and engage their customers, and is the leading provider of proximity technology solutions used by sports and entertainment venues, major retailers, restaurant chains, and mobile app developers. The Radius Networks solutions help businesses improve the customer experience, further understand behaviors, and drive incremental revenue.

Contact: To learn more about Curbside Service, visit radiusnetworks.com or contact hello(at)radiusnetworks(dot)com.

Beacon Ranging, Region Monitoring, and Advertising in iOS 11

By Michael Harper

Starting with iOS 11, the behavior of enabling and disabling Bluetooth and Wifi via Control Center changed. This behavior is described and justified in this Apple Support note. Using the Control Center to disable Bluetooth (as opposed to turning it off completely) has some interesting (and perhaps unexpected) effects on beacon ranging, beacon region monitoring, and advertising as a beacon from an iPhone.

The Swift code that demonstrates the behavior described in this article can be found here.

Setup

To test this new behavior in iOS 11, I setup a UIViewController which is also a CLLocationManagerDelegate, a CBPeripheralManagerDelegate, and a CBCentralManagerDelegate. Under normal circumstances (with Bluetooth on and with location authorization set to .authorizedAlways), when my app starts up, the following values are reported:

centralManagerDidUpdateState(_:) –> .poweredOn

locationManager(_:didChangeAuthorization:) –> .authorizedAlways

Disabling Bluetooth in the Control Panel

With the app running, I go to the Control Panel and disable Bluetooth by tapping on the Bluetooth icon. The icon now has a white background.

Upon returning to my app, I now see that centralManagerDidUpdateState(_:) has reported .poweredOff.

Next, I try to start monitoring a CLBeaconRegion and I get the following error via locationManager(_:monitoringDidFailFor:withError:):

The operation couldn't be completed. (kCLErrorDomain error 5.)

That being said, when I now turn on a beacon inside the CLBeaconRegion I tried to monitor, I now get a call to locationManager(_:didEnterRegion:) for this region! Turning off the same beacon results in a call to locationManager(_:didExitRegion:). I am also able to start ranging beacons in the region and receive callbacks to locationManager(_:didRangeBeacons:in:) including my beacon.

Finally, let’s try advertising as a beacon from my iPhone. Upon doing so, the callback to peripheralManagerDidUpdateState(_:) indicates .poweredOff. Yet the callback to peripheralManagerDidStartAdvertising(_:error:) indicates no error, and the beacon advertisement is confirmed to be successful.

Disabling Bluetooth in Settings

Now let’s go into Settings and turn Bluetooth off.

Looking at the Control Panel we see the Bluetooth icon has a gray background and a slash through it:

Now when I start monitoring the beacon region, I get the same error I got when Bluetooth was disabled:

The operation couldn't be completed. (kCLErrorDomain error 5.)

However, after turning on my beacon, I do not see a callback to locationManager(_:didEnterRegion:).

Attempting to range beacons in the region results in a callback to locationManager(_:rangingBeaconsDidFailFor:withError:) with the error:

The operation couldn't be completed. (kCLErrorDomain error 16.)

Finally, trying to advertise as a beacon from my iPhone results in a callback to peripheralManagerDidStartAdvertising(_:error:) without an error, but also without actually advertising.

What Have We Learned?

1. “Turning off” Bluetooth in the Control Panel causes the state of the CBCentralManager and CBPeripheralManager to return .poweredOff. However, in this state, you can still monitor for a beacon region, range beacons, and advertise as a Bluetooth peripheral.

2. Actually turning off Bluetooth via Settings also causes the state of the CBCentralManager and CBPeripheralManager to return .poweredOff. In this state, you cannot monitor for a beacon region, range beacons, or advertise as a Bluetooth peripheral.

What is the Bottom Line?

The bottom line is that if the state of your CBCentralManager and/or CBPeripheralManager is .poweredOff, you don’t know if you truly cannot conduct Bluetooth-related operations unless you try. Apple should really give us a different state for the case where Bluetooth is “disabled” via the Control Panel but not actually “powered off.”

3 Reasons You Should Use Smart Digital Signage

By James Nebeker

Display Kit, the digital out-of-home display solution from Radius Networks, is perfect for tons of reasons. The power and simplicity of Chrome OS as the backbone, the convenience and control of the online dashboard, and the flexibility of all the different supported content types are some of the obvious arguments for using Display Kit as your digital signage platform. But there are a number of other more subtle ways that Display Kit is better than the competition. In this post I’ll highlight my three favorite Display Kit features and how they make it the best digital signage product around.

1. DoubleClick Integration

Google’s DoubleClick ad platform powers much of the online advertising ecosystem and reaches millions of users every day. It’s a powerful and proven way to reach potential customers online and connect with them. Display Kit has built-in integration with DoubleClick, so you can use the same platform to deliver traditional online ads as well as ads in the so called “out-of-home” world. All you have to do it set up an “ad unit” in DoubleClick and then add the corresponding information to Display Kit. Once Display Kit is hooked up, you can manage your orders, creatives, etc. in DoubleClick and the Display Kit app will connect to DoubleClick and retrieve the content in real-time. Display Kit is the first and only digital signage platform compatible with DoubleClick, so if you want to break out of the browser and reach people in the real world, it’s the only way to go.

2. Seamless Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon Support

One of the shortfalls of billboards, banners, and digital signage screens is that it’s difficult to connect to passers-by and engage with them with your content. That’s different now with the existence of smartphones and the advent of Bluetooth proximity beacons. With Display Kit, you can attach a BLE beacon signal to any piece of content. When that content is shown on screen, the Display Kit player sends out that beacon signal which can then be detected by nearby smartphones. That means you can extend the outreach of your content and you can provide more context and value to the content on screen. For example, you can advertise your app or product on screen and nearby users can receive the related information directly on their phones instead of having to type in a URL or scan a clumsy QR code. All you have to do is input your beacon identifiers in the Display Kit dashboard, they can be set uniquely for each piece of content or you can specify a single beacon for each player that will always be transmitted. The Display Kit player app can broadcast multiple beacon transmissions simultaneously, so each piece of content on screen can have its own beacon associated with it. Additionally, Display Kit supports all major beacon standards, so you can set up an advertisement with any beacon use case using all the industry standard beacon formats including Eddystone URL, Eddystone UID, iBeacon, and AltBeacon.

3. Easily Create Multi-Frame Content

Most digital signage screens consist of one piece of content that fills up the entire screen, whether it’s a video, image, or something else. With Display Kit, you can create a custom multi-frame display that shows as many pieces of content you want in the layout you choose. After you specify the size and position of each frame, you can add your own CSS styles to further customize the frame however you like (e.g., add a border, give the frame a circular shape). When building your display, each frame you add gets its own playlist that it cycles through independently of the other frames. With different content templates like image, video, and ticker you can build pretty much any kind of display you can think of. Once you have the perfect display layout, you can easily duplicate it to re-use the settings with different content or to tweak things for a different use case.

Next Steps

If any or all of these features sound better than your existing digital signage solution or you’re just getting started and you want a powerful and easy way to deploy and manage an array of digital signage screens, check out our Display Kit info page or contact us to get started.

International Train the Trainer Program

By Amanda Septien Wilson

As we continue to meet and speak with countries that are interested in our Table Service / Table Locator system, it’s spreading like wildfire! Currently, we are installing our Table Service solution in 26 different countries including: United Kingdom, Australia, Guatemala, Singapore, Belgium, New Zealand, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Brazil and beyond! Each market now pairs their deployments of our technology in various restaurants around the world with a Market Partner who can support them with local, in real-time help for installation or troubleshooting.

One area that most markets take advantage of is our capability to provide local customization. Each market has the capability to localize many areas of our kit configuration. One area of customization is our Table Locators where markets can create their own design to add local languages, QR codes for market, etc. Another area to note is not only is our solution consistent globally, our implementation to locally configure our Table Service equipment to each country is something we think closely upon. Each component is configured to each country which is no easy feat! We’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from markets on our cutting-edge capabilities of localization but our commitment to understanding cultural requirements and taking action to ensure our technology fits each Market’s needs.

Radius Networks takes pride and ownership that we create everything ourselves – whether that’s the software design and infrastructure installed within our technology, to the software that’s in the physical hardware. It’s all created in house by our Team. While our International Table service solution Ecosystem continues to grow, we are joining forces with a multitude of market-wide IT Partners who need to access the same information we see to service the Table Service solution. After many hours of critical thinking, our Engineering Team created a solution that would provide a dedicated portal for IT Partners to gain access to their market systems. It was no easy task as this has never been done. After a great bit of validation, testing, and trial/error, Radius Networks is now excited to provide our IT Partners a dedicated and custom portal to remotely access market-segmented restaurants that have our Table Service solution.

Through our International Train the Trainer Program for the Table Service installations worldwide, we’re closely working with various market-selected partners to learn, train and certify the installation, maintenance and deployment of our Table Service technology. Not only do we help establish a new way for customers to experience the future while eating a good meal, each country will have local, educated and exceptional partners to support installing this technology at a rapid rate! We send a Radius Networks Engineer to each country and with a team of Engineers, walk them through every detail and facet that is necessary and we’ve only heard great news!

Announcing Partnership with ISM Connect for Out-of-Home Market

By Rebecca McFarland

Radius Networks and ISM Connect, global leaders in proximity solutions and digital engagement at large venues, have partnered to launch a first-of-its-kind programmatic advertising platform for the digital out-of-home (DOOH) market. The market is built upon the idea of reimagining the advertising experience with a focus on highly relevant and targeted content through data driven business intelligence, and this partnership brings the companies to the forefront of that innovation.

“With access to millions of consumers today and growing, ISM Connect’s digital networks are a perfect match for Radius Networks’ industry-leading digital signage and proximity solutions that improve the consumer journey, generate revenue for large venues, and provide advertisers with the measurable ROI that is required in today’s marketing environment,” said ISM Connect CEO Kent Heyman.

ISM Connect offers a 360° engagement platform that uses a network of intelligent LG-MRI outdoor and indoor display screens and a powerful analytics engine to track and analyze the interactions, behaviors and demographics of their audience. By adding the Radius Networks Display Kit™ software to its platform, online advertisers who have been limited to accessing users through a browser will now be able to access targeted audiences at sporting events, tradeshows, multi-use retail locations, and everywhere an ISM Connect digital network exists.

Jeff Baskin, EVP of Global Partnerships at Radius Networks adds, “By bringing together the technology of Radius Networks and ISM Connect, we have developed a true end-to-end solution for world-class brands requiring a simple, effective, and measurable way to reach their targeted demographics. We are confident that this partnership will lead to a vibrant and growing digital out-of-home ad sales space by opening it up to a whole new audience of ad buyers.”

Radius Networks is the leading provider of mobile proximity solutions used by major retailers, restaurant chains, and sports venues. This partnership gives these existing customers access to innovative and interactive experiences that revolutionize how they engage and gain insights from some of the most attended events in the country.

As a marquee customer, NASCAR runs on advertising and is always searching for new ways to optimize their efforts. Through constant innovation, that advertising has grown from branding of cars, to billboards around the track, to today where at 23 of the tracks around the US they have the ISM Connect outdoor display network engaging fans. The large format screens display branded content, which then gets pushed to mobile devices to drive conversions and visits through incentivized gamification. This not only enables a channel for advertisers typically not seen at NASCAR, but also provides deeper insights about fans than NASCAR had been able to achieve in the past.

To bring our innovative out-of-home smart digital displays to your company, contact us to get started.

Radius Networks Provides Google Nearby at E3

By Rebecca McFarland

Radius Networks Powers the Entertainment Software Association’s Mega Video Game Expo with Proximity Beacon Technology

We partnered with the Entertainment Software Association to deploy our proximity beacon technology at the E3, the world’s premier event for computer and video games. At E3, the video game industry’s most talented pack the Los Angeles Convention Center, connecting tens of thousands of the best, brightest, and most innovative in the interactive entertainment industry.

The goal was simple: provide a unique way to engage conference attendees and enhance the overall experience. By installing our beacons throughout the conference center and utilizing Google Nearby notifications, the E3 staff was able to customize messages to their mobile devices when they were located in designated areas throughout the three-day event, prompting attendees to download the E3 show app or to post on social media.

Google Nearby helps users discover what’s around them, by surfacing location-specific notifications for apps and websites, with no prior app install required.

At the E3 Summit, nearby notifications were sent to the mobile devices of Android users (approximately 60% of the population) with a welcome message, a detailed list of what was in store for the conference, a prompt to download the event app, a prompt to share on social media, and a closing message.

The engagement was well-received by attendees. A simple implementation of the proximity beacon technology and Nearby Notification garnered tens of thousands of impressions with an impressive conversion rate of close to 2%. The successful streamlined messaging at the conference opened up many possibilities for continued engagement at future shows.

Get started with Google Nearby and our industry leading beacons. The RadBeacon Dot is a great way to get started.

Radius Networks engineers Anh Truong and Van Phan interviewed about the proximity installation at E3.

Proximity-Based Digital Signage is Changing the Way Companies Interact with their Customers

By Jeff Baskin and Scott Newman

Digital-Out-Of-Home (DOOH) is a term that has been around for quite a while but is getting a lot more buzz lately. With the advances in both indoor and outdoor digital signage quality and the ease in which content can be updated, companies are trading in their posters for digital screens.

It’s tough to walk through an airport, casino, sports arena or metro transit system without running into a flashy digital sign. Admittedly, some of us miss the old school clickety-clack sign at the train station telling us which track I need to sprint for–some things should never change!

Content Management Systems (CMS) allow companies to rotate content ads and provide updates easily and remotely. This provides huge opportunities for companies to get themselves in front of more eyeballs. Companies are using the advancements in digital signage to provide directions and updates, drive promotions, change menu boards and, more than ever, for good old advertising.

In a world where data is king and online advertisers are used to getting precise traffic, demographics, engagement and attribution data, the digital “Out of Home” space falls down. Advertisers need to know how many, and which, eyeballs are viewing their digital signage - as if it was seen on a website. It is not the easiest problem to solve. People walking by a retail store in downtown Manhattan have not clicked on something to say they are strolling by or are interested in that store or product. However, those same people most likely have a smartphone either glued to their hands or in their pockets. Over 77% of Americans own a smartphone* and most of them would have a panic attack if they left home without it.

This is where the combination of digital signage and mobile proximity solutions shines. Advancements in Bluetooth beacon technology and media players have not only turned posters into digital signs but have turned digital signs into technology that can actively engage users. This enables advertisers to attribute eyeballs to signage as well as drive action.

Radius Networks’s Display Kit™ technology provides an inexpensive, easy-to-use solution to help drive customer engagement and relevant content through digital signage. Coca-Cola, Google and Albertson’s Grocery Stores have used Display Kit to help drive consumer engagement and behavior in the beverage aisle.

As per the article, Greg Chambers, Global Group Director of Digital Innovation at Coke, states “We can understand who the consumer is and get the right content and messaging to him or her at the right time.” The article also states that the 250-store pilot with Albertson’s delivered a one-month return on investment. “We significantly increased category lift,” he added, “which means not only did the end-caps help sell more Coca-Cola products … everything else on the carbonated soft drink aisle, too.”

Display Kit also provides access to DoubleClick as a primary CMS and ad platform. It turns the digital display into a proximity-based marketing tool through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Technology. A retailer can change content at any time, schedule content to be displayed at different times of the day and individually configure BLE advertisements to be broadcast alongside specific content. Content from Twitter and RSS feeds can be displayed on-screen to further engage customers, advertise upcoming events and even automatically change content on a per-display basis based on important metrics (i.e. current weather conditions or geographic locations).

Through a great strategic partnership with LG-MRI and Ingenuity Sun Media, Display Kit was on full display 2 weeks ago at the famous Talladega Superspeedway for the Geico 500. It enabled advertisers to engage hundreds of thousands of race fans on large, digital screens around the racetrack property.

Whether you are in a retail store or at a superspeedway, Display Kit is helping change the way companies are engaging their target audience and getting closer to full, cross channel attribution.

Source Pew Research

2017 Update on iOS Beacon Monitoring in the Background

By Michael Harper

One of the most fundamental uses of beacons is their ability to wake up a sleeping mobile device. This post is an update of our 2015 post on Update On iOS Beacon Monitoring in the Background. For this update, we tested the time delay between when a beacon was turned on or off and when an associated beacon region entry or exit local notification was displayed on the lock screen of various Apple iOS mobile devices.

We tested an iPhone 6, iPhone 6S plus, and iPhone 7 all running iOS 10.3.1. In order to represent real-world settings, Bluetooth, wifi, and cellular data were all enabled. Testing was conducted in a typical office space with several other beacons and Bluetooth devices nearby. All devices were tested in the locked state with the screen off so that any notifications would appear on the lock screen. None of the devices were plugged in.

We used the “Local Notifications” option in our Beacon Thing for iOS app to display a local notification upon a region entry or exit event. This option creates two CLBeaconRegion objects (one that notifies only upon entry, one only upon exit), creates a UNNotificationRequest for each region, and adds them via UNUserNotificationCenter. In this way, iOS displays a local notification with the appropriate message upon region entry or exit without any additional action from the app.

To generate beacon region entry and exit events we used a RadBeacon Dot with the default advertising rate of 5Hz and default transmit power of -3dB. The beacon’s on/off switch was used to precipitate the region entry/exit events.

All mobile devices tested generated local notifications in response to a beacon region entry event similarly within a range of 2 to 15 seconds. Notifications in response to a beacon region exit event were significantly slower, in the 20 to 30 second range with some exceeding 2 minutes. In some instances no exit notification was ever received.

Device Median Entry Time Mean Entry Time Median Exit Time Mean Exit Time Max Exit Time

iPhone 6 9.5 s 8.8 s 31.5 s 31.5 s 34 s

iPhone 6S+ 5.5 s 6.7 s 60.5 s 47.5 s . 252 s

iPhone 7 5 s 6.5 s 31.5 s 57.8 s 138 s

Note that we observed a non-trivial number of times on all three devices where entry and exit events stopped being triggered within a reasonable amount of time when the device was locked. Sometimes, lifting the device or pressing the Home button caused the notification to appear immediately. Other times, a system restart was required to restore sanity to receiving notifications in a timely manner. We believe these problems were introduced with iOS 10 as discussed here.

Introducing Ambient Web for iOS

By Scott Newman

This week, we released a new application called Ambient Web for iOS to help you find and visualize nearby Physical Web places.

Open the app when you are in range of any Physical Web-enabled place or thing and you will see a card with its URL. Tapping the card will bring the web page to full-screen where you can interact with it like any normal web page.

Ambient Web discovers Physical Web-enabled places or things immediately around you and organizes their related web pages in an easy to browse collection so you can immediately dive in and start exploring your physical space.

About the Physical Web

Physical Web-enabled places or things contain special Bluetooth beacons—tiny radios that broadcast the unique web addresses for useful web pages and web services related to them.

More and more places—like transit bus stops, concert venues, sports bars and college campuses—are becoming Physical Web-enabled, giving you useful information about these venues, right at your fingertips.

Likewise, more and more things—like parking meters, vending machines, museum exhibits, and movie posters—are becoming Physical Web-enabled, giving you a much more interactive and personalized interaction with these objects.

For more information on the Physical Web project, visit the Physical Web Project page.

Create Your Own Physical Web Places

Beacons from Radius Networks support the Physical Web - you can even order one pre-configured with a URL of your choice.

Our beacons can simultanously support iBeacon™, AltBeacon™ and Eddystone™ technology, allowing you to reach your customers in multiple ways.

Feedback

We’d love to know how you are using the application or how you think it could be even better. Please let us know!

App Store Link

Keeping Teen Drivers Safe with RoadPoints

Using beacons to promote safety of teen drivers by verifying driver identity and blocking mobile phone usage while driving.

Radius Networks has teamed up to with RoadPoints to extend their innovative solutions by providing a means for verifying driver identity and blocking mobile phone usage while driving.

RoadPoints provides an app that allows parents to monitor their teenage drivers and reward them for driving safely. It measures speed and speeding, braking and acceleration, and phone usage while driving. Based on these factors, the child receives a report card with an overall grade, determining their reward. For example, if mom selects the $50 rewards level and junior gets a B for the month, he earns $40, which is debited from her account and transferred to his automatically. With the help of Radius Networks’ beacon and proximity services team, RoadPoints has successfully integrated beacons into their solution to provide specific proximity-based information about the driver using the app.

“Beginning in May, we introduced the beacon as an add-on feature that pairs with the app and lets us know that the kid is in his own car and therefore is the driver,” said Michael Guthrie, CEO of RoadPoints. “Knowing that improves the accuracy of the grade, and it also allows us to block phone usage while driving.” “We are excited to be working with RoadPoints to enhance their already innovative mobile solution for incentivizing teen drivers to drive safely,” said Marc Wallace, CEO of Radius Networks. “We are confident that this new solution will improve the overall safety of teen drivers everywhere.”

RoadPoints strives to ensure teen-driving safety by incentivizing good driving behavior. RoadPoints provides an app that records data on speed and speeding, braking and acceleration, and phone usage while driving. Based on this information, parents receive a report card that includes information on the child’s overall grade and specific driving mistakes, and they set up a rewards plan by which the child can earn up to a certain amount of money. Ultimately, RoadPoints provides an innovative solution to promote driving safety.

Introducing Leash for iOS

By Scott Newman

This week, we released a new application called Leash for iOS to help track your stuff through the power of Bluetooth Proximity.

This app will help you configure your RadBeacon Dot quickly and allow you to range its distance. You can give your beacon a name (such as “My Keys”) and optionally ask for notifications when you go in and out of range of your beacon.

Leash has been an internal project for some time - many of us here use Dots (beacons) to track our items. We saw that others might want to do the same, so we polished up the interface and made it available for free. All you need to use the app is a RadBeacon Dot. You might also want the keychain fob accessory to attach the Dot to your keys, purse, or pet’s collar.  

Possible Uses

• Attach a Dot to your pet's collar and be notified when they leave your area

• Put a Dot on your keyring so you can see how far away your keys are when looking for them

• Stick a Dot in your purse and get notified if you walk away from it

For the Technically Curious

Under the hood, Leash uses our RadBeacon technology to locate and configure a Dot beacon via Core Bluetooth. We assign a personalized UUID and random major/minor numbers to the beacon so you don’t have to worry about what values to use. If you enable background notifications, we monitor the beacon’s region and trigger UILocalNotifications for enter and exit region events.

We do not use your GPS location, nor do we collect any analytics from the app.

Currently, you must use Radus Networks RadBeacon Dots with Leash. In the future, we may support other beacons and beacon advertisements.

Feedback

We’d love to know how you are using the application or how you think it could be even better. Please let us know!

App Store Link

Radius Networks Supports Android's Nearby Notifications

By Marc Wallace and Scott Yoder

Android’s new Nearby Notifications

Nearby Notifications, an upcoming feature in Android that shows you apps or websites from things around you, was unveiled at Google I/O a few weeks ago.  Nearby allows developers to associate their website or app with beacons and provide low-priority notifications when scanned by Android devices that are nearby.

Profiled in the announcement were Radius Networks customers taking advantage of early access to this new technology – CVS, United Airlines and Notre Dame. Radius Networks is a whitelisted developer and can register Nearby Notifications with Google on behalf of our customers and partners.

Nearby Notifications in the Wild

CVS

Radius Networks has partnered with CVS to deploy and activate the largest beacon network in the world with over 9,000 separate locations and 20,000 beacons. Using the Google Nearby technology, customers entering a CVS location will be notified that they can print photos directly from their phone to the photo kiosk located in the CVS store. They will get this notification even if they do not have the app and will be taken to the Play Store if they don’t.

United Airlines

United Airlines is using the Android functionality to remind passengers to download the United app before they board so they can take advantage of in-flight entertainment.

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame is using the new technology to enhance their campus tour with student-generated video content as they approach specific locations.

So how does it work?

In order for Android’s Nearby service to detect a Nearby Notification, you must first register your beacon in Google’s Proximity Beacon API, and add an attachment with the specific namespacedType of “com.google.nearby/en” (or “com.google.nearby/en-debug” for testing).

Note: if you use “com.google.nearby/en”, your attachment must go through an approval process with Google. If you use “com.google.nearby/en-debug”, your attachment will be immediately available to devices that are in developer mode.

The data for the attachment is a JSON object of the format:

{
  "title": "TITLE GOES HERE",
  "description": "DESCRIPTION HERE",
  "url": "https://example.com"
}

Google provides documentation on Nearby Notifications on their Developer Portal.

Once your beacon is registered and your attachment has been added, you should be able to turn on a beacon with the identifiers you registered (or use MacBeacon) and your device should respond by displaying a notification.

Summary

We at Radius Networks believe Nearby Notifications will bridge a massive gap in the use of beacon technology. Now Android users will no longer need a mobile app to be notified of value-added experiences near points of interest.

Please reach out to us to see how we can help you engage your customers using this Nearby technology from Google and Radius Networks. Click here to contact us.

Intro to Director

By Christopher Sexton

In this short introduction, Christopher Sexton offers a quick run-through of our premier beacon management tool - Director.

For more information visit director.radiusnetworks.com.

Announcing the JavaScript Beacon Library

By James Nebeker

At Radius Networks we’re proud of our extensive collection of software and development tools geared towards location services and Bluetooth beacons. Today we’re excited to announce the latest addition to this family of tools and products, the JavaScript Beacon Library.

What is the JavaScript Beacon Library?

The JavaScript Beacon Library is (surprise) a JavaScript library for broadcasting BLE beacon advertisements. It harnesses the internal Bluetooth capabilities of the host OS to send out beacon transmissions that nearby phones/tablets can discover, turning your device into the ultimate software beacon. It’s simple to use and integrate, letting developers concentrate on building cool apps that use beacon technology instead of worrying about the nuts and bolts behind the beacon advertising.

What platforms are supported?

Currently the only platform supported is Chrome OS, the JavaScript Beacon Library can be used inside Chrome apps to transmit beacon advertisements on any Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebit, etc. It leverages the Bluetooth APIs internal to Chrome OS in order to do the beacon broadcasting, which are limited in use to Chrome apps only.

Getting started with the JavaScript Beacon Library

First you’ll need a Chrome app to start integrating the library, I recommend starting with this guide from the Chrome developer site for a quick introduction to Chrome apps and how to start developing one of your own. There you’ll find a sample app you can download to start developing with if you want a quick start. Once you have a Chrome app set up, head to the JBL Github repo where you can download a copy of the library, the file is called beacon.js. Drop this into your project directory and add it to the header of the app’s index.html file:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="beacon.js"></script>
</head>
</html>

Now the library will be available in your app’s JavaScript source.

Registering a beacon advertisement

To begin broadcasting as a beacon in your Chrome app, you need to register a beacon advertisement with the JBL. This is done with the registerAdvertisement() method, which takes in an hash of options that dictate the beacon type, identifiers, and advertised transmit power.

This method is asynchronous; it returns a promise, for which you can specify the appropriate callback functions for success and failure of the advertisement registration.

Below is an example of registering a beacon advertisement of type AltBeacon:

beacon.registerAdvertisement({
  type: 'altbeacon',
  ids: ['2F234454CF6D4A0FADF2F4911BA9FFA6', 1, 1],
  advertisedTxPower: -59
}).then(advertisement => {
  console.log('Advertising: ' + advertisement)
}).catch(error => console.log(error.message));

If an advertisement is successfully registered, it will be transmitted by the OS until it is unregistered. The registered advertisement is stored in an array, accessible at beacon.advertisements, where it can be unregistered later on when you no longer want to transmit this beacon. This is done the unregisterAdvertisement() method:

let registered_adv = beacon.advertisements[0];
registered_adv.unregisterAdvertisement().then(() => {
  console.log('Advertisement unregistered successfully.');
}).catch(error => console.log(error.message));

Only one advertisement can be registered at a time, so if you want to register a new beacon advertisement you first need to unregister any existing ones.

Registering custom beacon types

By default, the JavaScript Beacon Library supports three beacon types:

• AltBeacon: 'altbeacon'

• Eddystone UID: 'eddystone_uid'

• Eddystone URL: 'eddystone_url'

Additionally, the JBL supports any custom beacon type, so you can register any other beacon standards and broadcast with them just the same.

To register a custom beacon type you only need to specify a name, beacon layout string, and either a manufacturer ID or a service UUID depending on the type of Bluetooth advertisement the beacon standard utilizes. This is done with the registerBeaconType() method, for example:

beacon.registerBeaconType({
  type: 'cool_beacon',
  beaconLayout: 'm:2-3=0000,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24',
  manufacturerId: 0x1234
})

After registering a new beacon type, you can then register a beacon advertisement of that type using the name you specified.
For more information on the beaconLayout string used to classify custom beacon types check out this page from the Android Beacon Library docs.

Physical Web Display

With the release of the JavaScript Beacon Library, we’ve released an update to the Physical Web Display Chrome app in the Chrome Web Store. This new version incorporates the JBL, now enabling all major beacon types, not just Eddystone URL. This opens up the app to many other exciting use cases and extends the number of users you can reach drastically. To grab a copy of the newest version check out Physical Web Display in the Chrome Web Store, or check out this blog post for more info.

A note about Chrome OS BLE Advertising

One important limitation of BLE advertising on Chrome OS is that it is limited to Chrome apps running in “auto-launched kiosk mode” by default. This is a security decision made by the Chrome team, and can only be circumvented by enabling the “BLE Advertising in Chrome Apps” flag in chrome://flags. Without this flag enabled, only a Chrome app running in kiosk mode that is launched automatically at startup will be able to advertise BLE. For information on developing kiosk apps and putting your Chrome OS device into “kiosk mode” check out these links:

• Kiosk Apps Chrome Developer Page

• Use a Chromebook as a kiosk

• Turn on auto-launched kiosk mode

Eddystone Support for MacBeacon and ScanBeacon

By Scott Yoder

Today Radius Networks would like to announce new versions of our beacon tools for Mac: MacBeacon 2 and ScanBeacon 3. Both of these tools now support a full range of beacon advertisements including iBeacon, AltBeacon, Eddystone UID, Eddystone EID, Eddystone TLM, and Eddystone URL (Physical Web).

We have found these tools to be invaluable while developing mobile apps which respond to beacons and we’re excited to extend them to support the full line of Eddystone advertisement types.

MacBeacon 2

With MacBeacon 2, you can easily simulate iBeacon, AltBeacon, and Eddystone beacons. It is even possible to do interleaved advertising to broadcast multiple beacon types simultaneously.

Registering an EID with MacBeacon

MacBeacon 2 also supports Eddystone EID. With Eddystone EID, you have the option of registering your beacon with Google’s Proximity Beacon API and adding attachments to it so that your app can receive the attachments when the beacon is detected. Before getting started, you may need to create a new Google project using the Google Developer Console.

In order to register, you must first fill in all the fields with valid values including the “Identity Key” field which will be computed during the registration process (you can initially enter all zeros for this). After you have filled everything in, you must check the “Enabled” checkbox in order for the “Register” button to appear. When you click “Register”, you must authorize MacBeacon so that it can register beacons into your project on your behalf. Then you must select your project from the list. If registration is successful, MacBeacon will enable advertising and you should see some “advertising information” (including your registered beacon’s name) display below the form.

One thing to note: the “Namespace” and “Instance” combination must be globally unique. if you attempt to register an EID using a Namespace and Instance combo that is already registered, Google’s API will return a “409” error indicating that there is a conflict.

ScanBeacon 3

In addition to supporting Eddystone, ScanBeacon 3 also allows more advanced filtering of the advertisements that appear in the list. You can select which beacon types you want to include via the “Beacon Types” drop-down menu.

The search field has become much more powerful and allows you do do a “full text search” on your list of beacons. For example, you can search for all Eddystone advertisements by entering “eddystone” or all Eddystone URL advertisements by typing in “url”. You could enter “uid 2f23” to find all Eddystone UID advertisements with “2F23” in either the namespace or instance identifiers.

You also have the ability to look at the advertisement bytes via the “Inspect Bytes” (CMD-I) command.

If you plan to use both MacBeacon and ScanBeacon on the same computer, you should know that ScanBeacon cannot see beacons that you broadcast using MacBeacon because they will both use the same bluetooth chip in your computer.

Available for Download Now

Both utilities are available on our accounts page in the utilities section. Download them and get started developing Eddystone EID enabled apps now:

Download Now on Radius Networks Accounts

Hope these tools help you build something cool. When you do, we’d love to hear about it.