Monitoring in supported housing
THE CHALLENGE
Mavam Group are a provider of supported housing and community support services for adults in Suffolk and surrounding areas. In conjunction with their in-house creative technology company, NullMedia, they developed a Building Management System to facilitate monitoring of door sensors throughout their properties. This sensor network assists staff in their efforts to monitor residents, in accordance with their care plan. When first developed in 2014, the system was built around wired technology, but with so many cables required it was proving to be time consuming and messy to install. With the group expanding rapidly and wanting to bring new properties online, a wireless solution was needed.
THE ROAD TO LoRaWAN
Initial R&D efforts focused on a WIFI solution, but this was quickly abandoned after testing, due to limited battery life and poor signal propagation results. The next prototype in 2017 implemented a pure LoRa to LoRa design, with custom protocols and gateways. The LoRa technology proved to be a perfect solution to the battery and signal issues, however the device software was complex and proprietary. In 2018 the decision was made to port all systems over to LorRaWAN, leveraging The Things Network’s mature protocol stack and the efforts they had put into network security.
THE SOLUTION
Implementation of a TTN based LoRaWAN solution has significantly reduced the time required to install the Building Management System - from a 4 day task involving 2 people, to just a couple of hours for one technician. Additionally, the solution is now easily deployed into rental properties, where installing and then removing wiring would have previously been prohibitively expensive. The new sensors also feature temperature and humidity monitoring, which gives an expanded view of the environment at each property.
The Present
Since 2018 Mavam Group have steadily increased their number of supported housing properties in Ipswich, with each site now equipped with LoRaWAN sensors and a TTN gateway. Currently they have 9 publicly accessible gateways deployed in and around Ipswich (including one donated to the Ipswich Makerspace). At present their application utilises 66 connected sensor devices, with more being added regularly. Mavam Group are also The Things Industries Enterprise platform subscribers, and patrons of the TTN Mapping project – helping to financially support those providing free access to the LoRaWAN network.
The Future
Mavam Group plan to take the Building Management System from an in-house project to a commercial offering at some point in the future. They are leveraging their knowledge of real-world deployments, to develop strategies around technical areas such as: efficient gateway deployment, signal mapping, performance monitoring, and security. And also, important non-technical areas such as: dealing with faults, accidental and deliberate damage, battery replacement, and crucially sensitivity to people’s trust when deploying unknown devices into their living space.
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