BF868 allows robust and reliable addressable control and monitoring in any kind of project over long distances regardless of the building materials used.

BLE mesh networks give excellent operability, and user experience, by utilising an array of nodes that communicate over short distances across a building.

However, the construction materials of many buildings can limit effective radio communication between devices.

In an extensive system, large numbers of Bluetooth devices need to relay information over many ‘hops’ and this ultimately limits the amount of data that can be moved around, restricting what can be achieved at scale.

868MHz allows for robust communication over longer distances and through more challenging construction materials than BLE.

However, multiple nodes in dense layouts create a great deal of radio noise causing the network to become saturated and unreliable.

BF868 allows the client to have the excellent user experience of Bluetooth with the increased range of the 868MHz longer frequency radio wave, in one mesh network. 

BF868 gives the benefits of both technologies and eliminates the drawbacks. A hybrid of both 868MHz and Bluetooth creates the correct environment with small ‘Islands of Bluetooth’ bridged together with BF868s.

BF868 has a built-in antenna, but for areas needing longer ranges there is the option to attach a remote antenna, making it the perfect solution for distribution centres, factories, dockyards, airports, shopping malls, schools and hospitals. 

Office to office, or even building to building, communication can be maintained connecting islands of Bluetooth.

BF868 allows outdoor sports facilities such as sports stadia the ability to communicate over longer distances between columns and luminaires, enabling the user to control their luminaires from the comfort of one central point such as a clubhouse or control room.

Within heritage buildings, the materials used can mean control could be difficult using BLE alone. Utilising the longer frequency to penetrate the brickwork BF868s can enable a mesh network in the most challenging of areas.

For residential buildings, utilising the range of the BF868s, lighting can be controlled from anywhere in the garden or even further afield.

The judges said it solved a genuine problem in the market.