Episode 28
What Hasn't Been Done
Bob Blanchard, Senior Manager of Business Development at Klika Tech, talks about how creative vision and technical execution come together in successful LoRaWAN deployments. With a background that blends artistic insight and engineering precision, Bob shares how seeing what doesn’t yet exist is a critical skill in both invention and solution design.
In this episode, Bob explains Klika Tech’s role as more than just a system integrator—they are an enhanced solution provider, capable of co-creating with clients from concept through deployment. Backed by a premiere partnership with AWS and a deep bench of senior-level engineers, Klika Tech is known for delivering complex IoT and LoRaWAN projects in real-world environments like resorts, multifamily housing, and healthcare.
We explore use cases that haven’t been fully realized—like golf course management with LoRaWAN—and how Bob helps clients uncover untapped opportunities. He also breaks down why higher-frequency wireless technologies often create more headaches than LoRaWAN, and how this “it just works” quality makes LoRaWAN a strong fit for sprawling properties and low-bandwidth, long-range sensor applications.
Bob discusses the importance of partnerships and a developed ecosystem in LoRaWAN success, including how Klika Tech’s partner network drives sales and expands reach. He shares a behind-the-scenes look at project development, emphasizing Klika’s ability to work closely with customers to iterate, adapt, and build lasting value into every solution.
Topics covered:
- Why LoRaWAN avoids interference issues common in Wi-Fi-heavy environments
- The value of co-creation with experienced engineering teams
- LoRaWAN use cases that haven’t been deployed—yet
- Challenges of other wireless protocols and what LoRaWAN does differently
- Building a referral network through trusted partners
Links:
- Helium Global IoT Coverage - Want to know if Helium coverage exists where you need it? Check out this map!
- Helium Foundation - The Helium Foundation's IoT Working Group (IOTWG) has generously provided support for the first 6 months of shows, please go check them out and consider using the Helium LoRaWAN as a primary or backup on your next deployment. With over a quarter million gateways deployed worldwide, it's likely that you have and can use Helium coverage.
- Support The Show - If you'd like to support the MetSci Show financially, here's where you can donate on a one-time or an ongoing basis. Thank you!
- MetSci Show - If you'd like to use our IoT or AI Data Value calculators, or you'd like to contact me, the MetSci Show site is the best way to do it.
- MeteoScientific Console - Use LoRaWAN - The MeteoScientific Console allows you to use LoRaWAN today. As long as you have Helium coverage (and you probably do, about 90% of populated areas in the world have a gateway within 2 miles), you can onboard a sensor. You can always check coverage at https://explorer.helium.com and switch to the "IoT" tab in the top right.
Transcript
Today's guest on
2
:MeteoScientifc's
The Business of LoRaWAN is Bob Blanchard,
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:senior manager of business
development at Klika Tech.
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:Bob brings a rare combination
of creativity and technical expertise
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:to the IoT world.
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:With decades of experience
designing and deploying wireless solutions
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:at Klika Tech, he focuses on end to end
LoRaWAN deployments from initial ideation
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:through to cloud integration,
with clients ranging from smart resorts
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:and multi-family housing developments
to medical monitoring startups.
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:In this episode, Bob shares
what actually makes LoRaWAN a slam dunk
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:fit for certain environments, how Klika
Tech identifies high ROI use cases,
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:and what common mistakes companies
make when evaluating IoT protocols.
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:He walks us through real world
deployments, like monitoring pill packs
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:to reduce opioid overdoses, and explains
how LoRaWAN avoids the interference issues
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:that plague other wireless tech
like Zigbee and Bluetooth.
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:This episode is sponsored by the Helium
Foundation's IoT Working Group.
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:Helium offers global LoRaWAN coverage that
you can use exclusively for roam onto.
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:If you'd like to see if Helium
coverage exists near you,
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:check out the links in the show notes
to get started using Helium today.
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:You can sign up for a console account
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:with MeteoScientific
at console.meteoscientific.com.
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:Now let's dig into the conversation
with Bob Blanchard.
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:Bob, welcome to the show.
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:Thanks for coming on, man.
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:All right. Hey,
it's a pleasure to be here.
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:Thank you for having me.
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:I'm super pumped.
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:I thought we'd start at the place that
you wouldn't expect anyone in IoT to be.
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:Which is?
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:You're a self-described
inventor and artist.
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:So walk me through
how someone like that comes to tech.
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:Comes to IoT and LoRaWAN.
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:Oh, you know, it's it's funny.
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:You know, it's a creative mind thing.
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:I'm one of those weird people
that has both sides of the brain
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:functioning at that,
you know, equal level, so to speak.
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:I've been a photographer
my whole life, you know, literally
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:since I was a young teenager
and published very early
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:and have always been behind the camera
creating, and that carried forward.
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:You know, I had a passion for technology.
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:So even when I was just a youngster
in high school
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:and I've been around a long time
here, you know, pre-internet, everything,
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:but I always had a passion
for technology as well.
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:So the two converge in a in a big way.
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:So when you talk about an inventor,
an artist, call it a Renaissance
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:man thing or whatever,
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:but it's it's about having vision
to see things before they actually exist.
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:So whenever I take a picture
or create a photograph or whatever,
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:I'm always composing it in my mind
and then creating it in a camera.
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:And whenever you invent something,
what's the first thing that happens?
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:You're imagining it in your mind, and
then you're figuring out how to create it.
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:You know,
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:you can see if you have a mind like this,
you can literally see
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:the end product in extreme detail before
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:the first step has ever been done
to execute on that product.
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:And you have no idea what the road between
the inspiration
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:and the end path is going to be like
is usually very zigzag.
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:Yeah, rarely ever straight, but
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:you just have that ability
to see what is going to be at the end.
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:And it's just that creative mind that does
that.
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:You can paint the picture
and see it clearly before it ever exists.
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:Well, it's a it's a nice way
to skip ahead to my last question
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:and we'll come back to the rest of them.
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:But it begs the question, what do you see
now that doesn't exist yet?
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:Specifically in LoRaWAN
but could be in the wider world of IoT
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:that is like, okay,
this is very clearly coming.
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:I'm not sure how we're going to get there,
but this is what's going to happen.
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:I actually see a lot of things.
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:I see a lot of use cases
that that haven't been explored yet.
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:In fact, in some cases, we've even written
some articles for LinkedIn
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:for things that nobody has done yet
with LoRaWAN.
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:That can happen.
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:You know, one of the cases that I put out
there, just arbitrarily, not
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:to my knowledge, doesn't even exist, was,
you know, golf course management,
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:you know, using LoRaWAN
for golf course management
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:to do everything
from judging distance to holes to,
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:you know, managing the entire greens
keeping process and ensuring
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:that you're not putting holes
in the same place that they were before,
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:or monitoring the soil
for nutrient contents
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:for moisture to better conserve water
and make the course just healthier.
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:And it's a total arbitrary case,
but it's very doable with LoRaWAN,
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:and it's the perfect solution for it,
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:because again, you're dealing
with a very vast area where long range
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:communication is necessary because you're
certainly not going to bury wires.
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:To do all of this,
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:you need to have radio communications
that can reach those distances
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:and yet monitor those sensors and devices
that you put out there.
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:And at the same time,
it can actually enhance the
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:the user experience as well by saying,
here's the exact distance to the hole.
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:We've got a sensor in the flagstick or
something, and we know exactly where it is
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:on the green.
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:And here's from your cart.
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:Here's exactly where it is.
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:So there's and you could do that
through a mobile app or whatever.
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:So there's lots of opportunity there
that people just don't think about.
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:And and I think
that's where that comes in.
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:I mean, even within building management
and property management,
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:there are so many unexplored
and untapped capabilities within long
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:range, low bandwidth protocols
like LoRaWAN
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:that can make the infrastructure
so much easier to manage
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:without a lot of infrastructure headache,
of having to deal with
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:lots of gateways and lots of wire
pulling and, you know, switch ports
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:and all the things that you have to do
to deal with traditional IoT management.
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:LoRaWAN gives you capabilities
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:for those types of use cases
where it's such a shoe in fit.
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:And one of the things that I always talk
to customers about when it comes to
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:LoRaWAN is especially when you're
dealing with things like multifamily homes
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:or resorts in hotel environments
and things like that,
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:you don't understand
a lot of times the way that wireless
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:technologies interact and interfere
with one another.
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:And when you're dealing with IoT devices
that are being used heavily in a customer
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:Wi-Fi environment,
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:you're all working
in the same frequency range,
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:whether you're using Zigbee
or whether you're using
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:Bluetooth or whatever,
and those create problems.
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:It interferes with guests ability
to use Wi-Fi
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:and interferes with your ability
to monitor your devices.
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:When you put LoRaWAN in play,
it works at frequency ranges
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:well outside of that 2.4GHz spectrum,
and gives you the ability
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:not to have to worry about that you're not
dealing with impacting your guests.
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:You're not dealing with having to worry
about whether you're going
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:to get a sensor reading, because there's
so many people using Wi-Fi or whatever.
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:And you're not able to be
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:on top of channel management
and all the things you have to watch.
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:So it's those types of things
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:that I don't think a lot of people
really calculate in when they're looking
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:at their wireless solutions
for those types of environments.
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:And that's where I see
a lot of untapped capability,
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:not to mention the fact
that, you know, again,
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:in even inside of a building,
you don't need very many gateways at all.
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:You know, maybe a couple,
maybe one per property.
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:It just depends on the construction.
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:But it's nothing
like if you're putting in the higher
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:bandwidth, shorter distance protocols,
you've got to have them everywhere.
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:And so it cuts way down on the expense
and the maintenance.
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:Okay.
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:So I can I can see just from that
how you might pitch a potential customer
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:for, for Klika Tech
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:because you obviously obviously can talk
about what LoRaWAN can do.
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:Can you walk me through maybe how you're
finding or targeting those customers?
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:If it's not, if it's not secret sauce,
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:and then if there's kind
of a standard customer flow, we say, hey,
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:we found this person.
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:Here's how we kind of process them
through from a business perspective,
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:what we're doing.
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:Yeah.
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:In many cases, in some cases they come
to us obviously through our site.
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:In many cases
we might contact them in a trade show
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:where we we're pretty active
in the trade show scene, where
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:we're out there looking for the people
who are looking for the solutions.
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:And as well as we have incredible partners
that we work with.
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:And a lot of times our partners
this where we're very diverse.
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:We're not just, you know, a company that
specializes in LoRaWAN or anything else.
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:We work in all levels of technology.
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:We're really an enhanced solution provider
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:all the way from the cloud,
all the way back to the device.
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:And literally everything
in between mobile app development,
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:web app development, cloud infrastructure,
all of that.
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:So many times our partners are referring
their clients to us
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:who are building something, and they need
that long range protocol environment.
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:So we'll get a lot of leads
from them as well.
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:As, you know, we're out there obviously
active more actively marketing as well.
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:We've got a great marketing team
and they're doing a great job.
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:But again, going out and finding people
and as a result we've had yeah.
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:So multi multi-headed I guess
is basically the best way to put it.
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:We don't have one
simple approach. It's many.
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:And is there a
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:like the most common problem if someone
kind of pulls you aside at a trade show
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:they're like oh, what do you do
when you start talking to them?
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:You're like, oh, I can totally help you.
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:Is there something that you're looking for
other than like,
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:oh, they need some kind of long
range solution?
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:Or are there
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:specific things that you guys are like,
oh my God, we've
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:we've rolled out these smart buildings
so many times,
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:I can have this rolled out
faster than anyone else
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:just because we've done it
a thousand times kind of thing.
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:Yeah, I would say, well, you know,
environment has a lot to do with it.
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:For example,
I'm here in the heart of Orlando.
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:I'm literally three miles down the road
from Disney World.
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:So there are a lot of mega resorts around
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:us, and they're big properties
in many cases.
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:They're multi building.
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:Some of them have 5 or 6 golf
courses on them, etc. etc.
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:etc..
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:Well,
how do you manage an environment like that
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:without pulling infrastructure
all over the place?
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:I mean, some of these properties are 2
or 300 acres
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:and LoRaWAN is a perfect solution
for that, for interconnecting
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:your entire campus
and being able to manage it.
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:And so some of it is just slam dunk
type stuff.
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:Right?
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:And even when you're talking about
intra building, as I alluded to before,
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:where you really just trying
to cut down on infrastructure cost
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:and all you have are devices
that are speaking very,
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:very small amounts of data that,
at a relatively infrequent rate of time.
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:You know, I always tell people
I probably wouldn't recommend LoRaWAN
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:for a missile warning system,
it arrived ten minutes ago.
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:But I would
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:certainly recommend it for,
you know, wanting to know if there was a,
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:you know, a leak somewhere
or something like that where you can
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:still respond
within a reasonable amount of time
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:without it being a life threatening event,
kind of a deal.
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:And are there customers
that you hear about
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:that are kind of commonly thought
of as being LoRaWAN customers,
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:where you think,
I just there's not enough money in that.
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:And for me,
agriculture comes to mind in some sense
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:where it's like how you like,
you really got to have the right
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:type of farmer who’s saying or rancher
saying, yep, this is what I want to do,
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:and I can very clearly see the cost
savings, etc..
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:Are there customers out there like, oh,
that's not really what we are looking for,
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:you know, not really.
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:I never try to pigeonhole
anybody like that.
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:I always try to look at it from,
what's your problem?
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:And we're going to give you a solution.
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:Maybe it's LoRaWAN maybe it isn't,
but we're going to evaluate it.
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:And in many cases, for example, gosh,
we've done things.
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:Everything.
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:One of the coolest ones that we've done
was a pillpack monitoring system
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:that where it's blister packs of medicine
that insert into a simple cradle,
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:and there's a company whose name is
Counted, we helped them develop this?
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:It basically lets the
the monitoring facilities know
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:that this person
is taking their medication,
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:or they forgot to take their medication,
or they took too much of their medication.
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:So every time they pop a pill,
it trips a sensor in the pack
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:and sends a LoRaWAN message back and says,
super cool.
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:Yeah.
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:So that's kind of one of the cooler ones
that we've done.
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:But again, you needed something
that you don't know if they're out
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:sitting in a restaurant
or if they're at home or where they are.
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:So you have to be able to monitor
that happening
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:in a reasonable amount of time
and be able to alert,
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:you know, number one,
if they didn't take their medication
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:when they were supposed to
or they took too much of it
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:and it was really driven
the person who did
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:it had a medical background
and saw the opioid problem,
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:and he wanted to come up with a solution
to prevent
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:opioid overdoses by, you know, people
taking too much of their medicine
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:or whatever.
And that was what was kind of the driver.
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:It was a really cool project to work on.
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:Really nice folks.
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:When you do those,
you must learn a ton from every project.
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:Are there
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:things that you've learned over the years
were like, oh, this would really help.
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:Like, let's say
there's someone listening to this
246
:who just started their LoRaWAN company
or their IoT company and you're like,
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:okay, I'm listening to this
because I want to learn from folks.
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:You've been there.
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:What are some kind of lessons from the,
I think, lesson from the Masters?
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:Lessons from
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:the trenches were like, well,
don't don't do this or definitely do that.
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:Oh my goodness.
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:Yeah. There's always lessons
learned in every single project.
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:I would say
I've probably learned more lessons
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:from the higher frequency band problems
that I have from LoRaWAN.
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:To be honest with you.
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:I mean, that's a good signal
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:in that LoRaWAN
just doesn't have as many problems.
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:Right?
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:I can tell you about a particular project
that we worked on in my past,
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:where we were doing a Zigbee mesh network
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:and did all the scientific work
to figure out
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:what this particular facility
needed, etc., etc., etc.
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:and once it got deployed, nothing worked
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:and we couldn't figure out why
nothing worked.
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:And of course they're calling us
and they're upset
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:because their Zigbee mesh network
was very unreliable, to say the least.
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:And when we went back in
and looked at the building,
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:they had hung metallic wall art,
all of the walls inside of the building.
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:So there were signal blockers everywhere.
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:Yeah.
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:And of course,
where do you put the infrastructure in?
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:None of that was there.
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:So you couldn't test it, you know,
and that's, you know, that's obviously
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:always the shortcoming of radio
signals of any type
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:that, you know,
there are things that they can go through
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:very well, and there are other things
they can't go through very well.
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:But what you will find
is that with LoRaWAN,
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:it can go through things a lot
better than almost anything else can.
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:It is pretty special that way. Yeah, yeah.
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:It's always an amazing thing where like,
I know you see this thick set of walls,
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:but trust me,
your signal can can get in or get out.
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:Okay, so it sounds like, Klika
Tech is doing kind of the whole thing.
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:Is there anything in there
that you guys out there
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:that you think is super special
about what you do or you're like, oh,
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:this is the one thing we do probably
better than anyone else in the world.
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:I mean, you guys are partners of AWS.
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:It's you're not a small venture.
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:You're figuring it out.
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:Yeah.
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:We actually just got
our premier partnership with AWS.
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:As a matter of fact,
it's been a big deal for us.
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:And so we're really proud of that.
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:I think probably our biggest thing
that we bring is our ability
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:to co-create with our customers.
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:So we just don't listen to them and say,
what do you want us to do?
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:And we'll do it.
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:We actually sit down
and really engage with them
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:and we really help them
develop their idea.
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:We give them a lot of our lessons
learned as, as you said, and teach them.
301
:Yeah, that's probably not the best way
to approach that.
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:But this other approach works
a lot better. We've experienced this.
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:We've done it. This way
and it works really well.
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:It's an ability to sit down with that
customer, really understand their needs.
305
:We have probably the best R&D team
that I've ever been around.
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:I mean, these guys are really,
really good,
307
:and I know they're going to probably
308
:watch this podcast
and I'll never hear the end of it,
309
:but that's okay, I will
I will blow their horn all day long.
310
:They're really good people. Really.
All of our people are.
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:We don't have any junior level
people in this company.
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:Everybody that we have on
board is a serious,
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:seriously good engineer, or developer.
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:And, you know, so it's fun to work around
that, you know, for,
315
:for people who have ever been
in that place where
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:you're kind of that go to person
that's doing it all.
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:And I've been in companies
where I was in that role.
318
:Yeah, man, I came here and I'm
just a face in the crowd.
319
:It's fun because you can get into
some ideation sessions in this place
320
:that will absolutely blow your mind,
and the ideas
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:and the solutions that come out of it
are just as fun as could be.
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:So that is what I would say
is probably our
323
:our biggest strong
suit is our people are all really smart,
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:they're really creative,
and they really are customer obsessed.
325
:And and it shows, you know,
in all the products that we help produce.
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:So that's right.
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:It's it's always good to have
a super strong, stable very cool. Bob.
328
:Thanks ton for making the time.
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:I know
all of the folks in IoT are super busy.
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:There's always a million other things
you can do.
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:I appreciate you coming on
and kind of talking us
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:through a little bit of what you do,
thanks man.
333
:Alright Hey,
I appreciate it, man. Thank you.
334
:That's it for
this episode of The Business of LoRaWAN.
335
:I built This for you.
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:So whether you're a business owner,
a lawyer, one professional or a hobbyist,
337
:the intent is to give you great
LoRaWAN information.
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:And of course,
the best information doesn't come from me.
339
:It comes from the conversations
340
:we have with the people building
and deploying this tech in the real world.
341
:And that's where you come in.
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:LoRaWAN is a global
patchwork of talent and ideas.
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:And ironically,
for a globally connected network,
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:most of the brilliant folks working on it
aren’t connected yet.
345
:Help me change that.
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:Introduce me
to someone awesome in your network,
347
:someone doing meaningful work in LoRaWAN
work.
348
:Just shoot me a name.
349
:I'll take it from there
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:and get them on the show
so we can share their work with the world.
351
:You can always find me at metsci.show
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:That's M-E-T-S-C-I dot
353
:S-H-O-W, metsci.show.
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:If you want to support the show
in other ways, you can subscribe,
355
:leave a review,
share it with your corner of the world.
356
:All those are super helpful.
357
:If you'd like to support financially,
you can go to support.metsci.show
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:for both one time and recurring options.
359
:We're also open to sponsors.
360
:If your company serves
the LoRaWAN community
361
:and you want to reach this dedicated
audience, let's talk.
362
:If you want to try LoRaWAN for yourself,
create a MeteoScientific account
363
:at console.meteoscientific.com
and get your first 400 DC for free,
364
:which is enough to run a device
sending hourly for about a year.
365
:This show is supported
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:by a grant from the Helium Foundation
and produced by Gristle King, Inc..
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:I'm Nik Hawks.
I'll see you on the next show.