Thingsee IoT Summit 2019
On 21st of May Haltian held the second Thingsee IoT Summit ever. At the event, Haltian launched a new Smart factory solution ‘Smooth Factory’ and released new IoT devices.
We invited our clients, partners, and friends to celebrate with us on site at beautiful Korjaamo in Helsinki. In addition, many people joined the event through a live stream.
Summer in Helsinki
On Tuesday morning, many Haltians met up at the Oulu airport to start our journey to Helsinki. Upon arrival, we were happy to see that spring was much further along down south than it had been in Oulu. It was a beautiful warm day and it was great to get started with the event.
The venue for our event was Korjaamo Culture Factory in a historic tram depot unit.
The excitement was building up as we set up the scene: planned the demos, checked that everything worked and waited for our guests to arrive.
One of the biggest nail biters was when one of our demos for a new device had not yet arrived to Helsinki. After some tracking down, we found out it was on its way but might not make it in time before the event started.
As it turned out, the pipe demo arrived just ten minutes before the doors opened, and it became a true testimony to how quick Haltian solutions were to install: we had all the devices installed and running in those ten minutes!
Our journey with IoT
Ville Ylläsjärvi, Haltian co-founder opened the event by taking a look back and explaining the origins of Haltian.
Halti Tunturi is the highest peak in Finland. Not only that, “Haltia” is a creature from Finnish mythology: a forest guardian who takes care of people and guides them.
“We as Haltians, we are the guys, who live and work at the highest peak of Finland. Helping others to get there as well”, Ville said.
Then, Pasi Leipälä, Haltian CEO and co-founder took over the stage and walked us through the Haltian journey with product development and IoT.
Haltian’s journey with IoT expertise began with Thingsee One.
The second generation was a special version of Thingsee one; the Snowfox trackerphone . Based on the experience from Snowfox, the idea for the third generation was born: smaller, use case-specific sensors, gateways, and an operations cloud device management.
Haltian Smooth Factory is basically the fourth generation of Haltian IoT, Pasi explained.
What’s next?
“Okey, so that’s where we are at the moment. What’s next?”
Next on the agenda was the release of Smooth Factory; Haltian Smart Factory Solution. The main change in the new solution was that all the cloud operation systems would be available in on-site installations as well. The new solution would also be 5G ready.
Read more: Smooth Factory press release
Arguably the most waited part of the day was the launch of the new devices:
Thingsee ANGLE – A wireless retrofit angle measurement device for rotational objects. One of the main use cases for ANGLE is the monitoring of valves.
Thingsee ENVIRONMENT RUGGED – A wireless device for environment and machine monitoring. RUGGED is a compact multisensor for harsh conditions. Our client Fingrid has used the sensor to measure temperatures and other parameters on power grids.
The last new device was Thingsee Gateway LAN – The foundation for an on-site edge IoT solution.
Get to know all the new devices by downloading the Thingsee Smart Factory Device Catalog at the end of this post!
How IoT can change everyday lives
After the presentation, it was time for demonstrations, food, drink and celebration!
We had four live demos on site, two from Haltian and demos from our partners Lindström and Tieto.
Lindström showcased their smart washroom solution “FlowAbility“. Harry Berg from Lindström told us about how IoT sensors inside, for example, wash towel dispensers improve efficiency and lead to a very good customer experience. The cleaning crew will get a notification about the towel running out, and change it before it runs out.
The second demo from our partners was from Tieto. Tieto had an amazing demo of their Empathic Building service which uses smart technology in your office building to boost employee well-being, happiness, productivity and, innovation. The empathic building enables the optimization of spaces and makes the everyday work of employees easier.
Both demos were great examples of IoT solutions changing everyday lives in a simple, but effective way.
Read more about Haltian’s partnership with Tieto: Buildings Must Go Empathic
Haltian set up two demos at the event. One showcased our position services using Thingsee DISTANCE -sensors. Each Haltian employee present at the event had a sensor on them, and you could see their location on a screen.
The other Haltian demo, the one that almost didn’t make it, was for the new Thingsee ANGLE sensor and how it can be used in Valve monitoring.
People were eager to try the demo out by turning the valves and seeing the changes on the screen. The application showed whether the valves were open or closed.
A great ending for a great day
The rest of the evening went smoothly networking with old and new acquaintances. Everyone felt that the day had been a success.
We were very happy to get such great feedback on not just the event, but on the presentations as well. People were excited about our new solution and devices and the same feedback echoed in the media during the following days: Haltian is solving many problems in digitalization and IoT!
Note: Nothing ever goes quite as planned, so we had some technical difficulties with the stream for a few minutes. Luckily we were able to replace the missing parts with another video.