Communicating our elevators will allow us to improve the final service and optimize to the maximum its operation and maintenance
The connected elevator is a revolution in the way we understand the service and manage the business. The advent of connectivity to the elevator sector will allow new features to be deployed that were totally unthinkable just a few years ago. Functionalities devised, on the one hand, to improve the final service in order to achieve a better user experience, and on the other hand, to optimize all the operation and maintenance of the elevator itself.
The experience of the connected elevator in Spain was caused by the new regulation that required the sector that elevators must be connected in order to make emergency calls in case the user gets stuck. The first communications that were deployed to connect the elevator were via STN – switched telephone network -, what we know colloquially as a fixed telephone line, and allowed the user to make an emergency call in case the elevator stopped between two floors and it was totally impossible to get out of the cabin.
The advent of M2M/IoT communications, just a few years later, goes one step further allowing manufacturers and service maintainers to make two-way calls and be able to control the operation of the elevator remotely and in real time, without the need for a technician to be physically displaced, with the corresponding cost savings.
The connected elevator challenge
The connected elevator forces all actors in the sector – manufacturers, installers, conservators, integrators and the telecom operator itself – to work together, and in a coordinated manner, to provide integrated and secure connectivity to the elevator. The telecommunications operator now enters the scene with a dual function; on the one hand, facilitating integration with the elevator system and with the different peripherals/manufacturers involved, and on the other hand, ensuring communications. The role of the operator becomes decisive, ensuring the connectivity of the elevator to guarantee its proper operation and react quickly in case of service incident.
But, what are the advantages of the connected elevator really? In addition to the emergency call function, which ultimately drives through the regulation to provide connectivity to the elevator, there are a number of advantages that mark a before and after in the way we understand the elevator today. Have real-time elevator information, allow the elevator technician to have visibility and be able to remotely control the various maneuvers of the elevator (opening and closing, up, down…), drastically reduce incident care time and staff travels, make test calls, automatically and randomly, to check the proper functioning of the elevator… Connectivity adds enormous potential to the elevator in terms of new features.
Along with these advantages there are other, no less interesting, that can add value to the elevator and, ultimately, to the building, such as: managing audiovisual content – advertising, music videos, informational messages…-, or sensorizing cabin comfort variables – air levels and quality, temperature, TVOC (total volatile organic compounds) and CO2- and being able to monitor and control it remotely in real time. This last advantage, if possible, takes on more prominence at this time of global pandemic that we are going through to ensure the physical integrity of the user.
What is the role of the M2M/IoT Operator?
In this new era of the connected elevator, the role of the Telecommunication Operator is, as we said before, fundamental.
The ultimate goal of the operator should be to ensure elevator connectivity with a view to ensure all emergency calls and telemetry and remote control between the elevator and customer’s central systems. In addition to this mission the operator must ensure that this connectivity is carried out at all times safely against fraudulent uses and malicious attacks by third parties. The number of cyber attacks on critical businesses, institutions, and infrastructures that we live on a daily basis makes service-critical to ensure security in M2M/IoT communications. The operator must work closely with manufacturers and maintenance companies in this regard.
A value proposition
Alai Secure has been offering service since 2005 as an M2M/IOT Operator in Telco Security, specializing in the management of mission-critical communications in sectors such as private security or health care, where it’s about human lives, and special management of communications is needed. Alai Secure currently manages in Spain the communications of just over 106,000 elevators -distributed throughout the country – integrated with some of the leading manufacturers and service-maintaining companies such as Schindler or Nayar Systems.
Its special multi-coverage SIM for M2M/IoT communications allows it to connect to different mobile networks, making it possible to select at the time of installation the best network coverage in each location, with the added advantage that, in the event of a mobile network crash, SIM automatically seeks to connect to another available network to ensure service availability.
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Alai Secure
LOCATION: Colombia | Chile | España
PHONE: +34 662692891
E-MAIL: marketing@alaisecure.com
WEB: https://alaisecure.co/
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