Q&A with Emil Brunner, CEO of Takeoff1 GmbH

Q&A with Emil Brunner, CEO of Takeoff1 GmbH
Emil Brunner, CEO of Takeoff1 GmbH is an experienced businessman who has worked in many countries. He has dedicated more than 10 years to the intuitive method of language acquisition called the “Birkenbihl Approach” formulated by Vera F. Birkenbihl.  Emil and Vera have worked together on the digitalization of this language acquisition method which has been incorporated into Emil's language-learning platform, Brain-Friendly. 

In this interesting Q&A, Emil takes us through the Birkinbihl approach which is helping users worldwide to learn languages with ease.

MEDIA 7: Could you please tell us about your background?
EMIL BRUNNER:
 I started as a technician; then I changed to sales. In my heart, I’ve always been a salesman. I started my business as the first Xerox Partner in Austria, and then I managed a company selling office machines and equipment. It was my first time going into other countries, like Germany and Switzerland. In that business, I worked with many phone agents, so the company grew to an outbound sales call center. In the USA, I had my first technology experience and built an automated call machine. We then got the franchise partner of RTL Teleshop - it was after QVC the second largest in DACH, for Austria.  I gained knowledge in TV-Power plus Sales power and found it fascinating. The next step was to automate the call center.

In 2004, we ran a call center in a pizza box (computer) for teleshop companies. In the States, we closed orders for up to 60% of callers fully automated, the rest were connected to the classical human call center. It had a great future, but I did it with the wrong people. So the company went bankrupt, and we went back to Austria.
After that experience, back "home" - felt so small, and we went on to start a software development business.
I began working and studying TV & Film making at the same time. My master's degree was a documentary film about "Teleshop and new technologies.”

I met Vera F. Birkenbihl, and she was one of the most successful scientists for learning methods and strategies and held a lot of live seminars - long before TEDx came up. I produced about 10 of those seminars, gaining many skills in the process, and that's when I found out about the language learning method. Me and language? I had trouble all the time while I went to school. I was sure languages were not for me. However, my son was a successful young developer and was interested and started to develop an app for language learning - using the brain-friendly Birkenbihl method. Which means, you never waste time cramming vocabulary and you don't need to learn any grammar rules.

I don't know anyone who’s happy learning vocabulary. About 90+% of all people using a language (mother tongue and foreign language) are not able to describe a grammar rule — only the teachers can do it. So there must be another way without the pain. And here it was!
I tried to learn English. The goal was to speak well without thinking about what to say. I just wanted to talk.

That's it. It took me more than a year, but I had an experience I’ll never forget. I was working on my phone with many customers and collecting orders. After a while, I put the orders from my notes into the computer. Wow! I had made a request for English courses - an order from a bookstore in Birmingham. How did I do it? Yes, I did it in English, and I didn't even realize it. It was automatic. The gap, switching from German to English, was gone - forever.

In the meantime, both my sons, Herwig and Gerwin, were now professionals in software development on the international stage. I had a Swiss partner and last year, I sold my shares to set up a new company with a new app - the Birkenbihl language learning movies. The digitalization of language learning - watch a movie and get the language. Based on subscription models, we sell it now in DACH, US, and European Single markets.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning, that I am the only one, who got the okay from Vera F.Birkenbihl (she died 2011), to follow the method of the new science of language learning and take it to the next level. I got the seal of approval for the "Birkenbihl Approach" to honor products they follow with the principle of "brain-friendly" learning method.

I have put all of this experience into a new book, the follow up of Birkenbihl's bestseller "Einfach Sprachen Lernen". I completed it with Katharina Rucker, she has been on board since 2008 and is still the best blogger for language learning knowledge. The book will be published in English in Q1-2020.

"Using the brain-friendly Birkenbihl method, you never waste time cramming vocabulary and you don't need to learn any grammar rules."



M7: How far is the Birkenbihl method’s idea of ‘learning a language need not be difficult’ serving its purpose of making language acquisition effortless?
EB:
 Let me say 100%. Because the "classical" way to learn a language is totally different from the way our brain works. Our brain is trying to find new things to discover, to get new experiences and so on. What is there to discover when you use a vocabulary list? For example, table - Tisch / table - la mesa, etc. it could also be shown as table - Katze (cat). There is no sense, no meaning, no context.

If you learn it the brain-friendly way as a full sentence, and you "de-code" it, your brain has enough context, and there are new words to learn. 

So it works, and it takes a minimum amount of time because our brain is memorizing everything in connections, like synapses, and that works very well, making it fun and available to use for the rest of your life.
The newest thing we have developed is the Movie(c) courses. Birkenbihl told us all the time, "a movie is the closest experience to real life". Watching a movie is like experiencing an actual event. 

When the "de-code line" is integrated into the movie,  entertainment and learning become cohesive. The "de-code line" in the movie, works as a karaoke player. The spoken word-pair is synchronized and highlighted. So you can close your eyes or your brain will automatically follow the decode line, and you will absorb the language. Repeat it, and you become perfect. It’s the digital way to learn a foreign language.

M7: How do you develop the movies and what is the approach for making users learn new languages easily with these movies?
EB: 
The classical way to learn a language is to cram grammar rules. Understanding and speaking are two processes in our brain that we have to learn separately. The idea developed by Birkenbihl was to find out how to use the mother tongue to understand a foreign language. She had done a lot of research and observed neuroscientists and decided to call the it the decode line which means you have two decoding lines – the upper line is the foreign language that you want to learn, the lower line is the word-by-word translation where you get the information about the meaning of the words.
It’s easy to follow them if you like to follow, but it’s enough if you just watch the movie. Your brain is automatically looking at the decode line and getting the information so if you repeat that you become more familiar with the sentence and you’ll understand it.

M7: How has your working with Vera F. Birkenbihl for more than 10 years helped you to come out with an intuitive method of language acquisition called the “Birkenbihl Approach”? What was the idea behind this?
EB: 
Birkenbihl told me that she’d had an experience with teachers and children. The problem was that the children didn’t enjoy learning vocabulary. It was, and still is, a pain. After a couple of days, all of the learned words go. So she thought, if most people have this problem then the problem couldn't be the people, it must be the method. There must be a better way.

After that, she started researching, and she found old documents, detailing how the aristocrats (the European marriage expansion) learned languages. There were many connections between the European Aristocrats, and this old document described how they learned. There was a transcript, a direct translation underneath and a live speaker. So the learners followed the speaker and read the word pairs.

All of the experiments she did, worked very well. I remember, it was approximately 2008, there was a teacher in Odelzhause who gave the children private English lessons Coached by Birkenbihl, in 3 months, the whole class were able to speak English very well and had no problem with vocabulary tests. That was the point we realized we were onto something. Based on our findings, my son built the first application for Windows. However, if you think that’s it, no. It took a lot of time to optimize it and to do all the beta tests. But after a while, we saw that it worked, and my experience was. WOW! - I got it.


"Watching a movie is like experiencing an actual event.   When the "de-code line" is integrated into the movie,  entertainment and learning become cohesive."


M7: How is the “Birkenbihl Approach” assisting people around the world to learn more languages efficiently?
EB:
Thanks, that’s an excellent question. You can do it, totally without any app, with paper or music. Take the lyrics of the song you love and start to “de-code” (translate it word-by-word). Yes, with the app, it’s much easier, and if you have a device ready, you can fit, learning a language, into every spare moment you have. So you waste no time, get entertained and learn simultaneously. After a while, you begin to speak automatically like a baby, who is listening for a long time.
When it becomes a year old, it starts with some words, after the second year it begins, from one day to the next to speak full sentences, only by listening. So while you improve upon your spelling skills, in your mother tongue or foreign language, always listen (day and night) in the background. Your sub-conscience will do the rest.
It is a kind of democratization of language learning; everybody can do it, independent of age or origin.

M7: You have played a vital role in digitalization of this language acquisition method. What inspired you to take up this challenge and what was your vision behind this?
EB:
Yes, first, it was a curiosity about the possibility and a challenge for myself to learn a language up to a level to be able to sell anything. Remember, I was a weak student.
Additionally, it was the feedback from the first beta tester, later from customers that they had the same experience I had, and they are now happy and successful.  So it was sensible. Yes, a little bit also to make it easier for people. So now, I see that the end of the traditional way to learn a language is coming.

Think about it... you can watch a movie, it doesn't matter which one, and you get automatically delivered the “de-code” line. I think we'll be able to get it in the near future, we are still working on it. So you don't need any teacher, because every child is learning it like their mother tongue, additionally. For example, a Hollywood movie uses about 1000 to 1500 unique words, a daily newspaper uses about 500 to 700 unique words. So let's watch Spanish movies this weekend, and that's it. My idea is that no child should have to suffer the cramming of vocabulary.


"While you grow up your spelling skills, in your mother tongue or foreign language, always listen in the background. Your sub-conscience will do the rest. It is a kind of democratization of language learning."



M7: As a language instructor, how important is resolving the problem of language acquisition as a barrier to businesses and marketing when globalization is the trend?
EB: It is vital. In two cases, one of them is, that companies spend a lot of money, year by year and nothing is changing. The costs go up, and success is equal to or less. Especially the production industries who have many difficulties, i.e. when the company is based in Germany, and the production is in Mexico. In this case, we can help. We can produce a learning movie for the technical process and add the “de-code line”, so the employees get both, the knowledge and the language. I think this is an excellent opportunity for all instructors and trainers of language. They can supply companies to work with the Birkenbihl method, and it gives more success with less time to spend. 

M7: Do you think that the Birkenbihl method will encourage more people around the world to learn languages swiftly?
EB:
Yes, that's what I hope, and it is essential to tell everybody that with this method it is possible, yes it works. Also, my hope is that it could connect people and bring more happiness. It's okay, if you start now and only spend 10 minutes every day. After approximately 6 weeks, you will get about 400 to 600 unique words. However, you can also do it in 2 weeks if you spend 10 minutes, 10 times a day (less than 2 hours). Alternatively, if you spend only 10 minutes every 3rd day, it takes a little longer. Do it when you want with the time that suits you. Overall, you get it.

M7: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self?
EB:
Not much, except one thing: Whatever you do, if it doesn't work, find out how it could work, there is surely another way. But, just do it.

ABOUT BRAIN FRIENDLY

The Birkenbihl Approach (BBA) means, learning as the brain loves to learn. Our brain - look to the minds of children - how they like to discover and to understand how things work. It uses neuro mechanisms like abstracting rules (grammar) and background listening (to build synapses for spelling). To know more, visit Brain-Friendly.

More C-Suite on deck

Q&A with Cameron Worth, CEO & Founder, SharpEnd

Media 7 | April 22, 2020

Cameron Worth, CEO & Founder of SharpEnd leads the company’s mission to help brands move closer than ever to consumers by connecting packaging, retail and experiential activity. He is a regular speaker and writer on how to build brands in a connected world. He has spoken at Cannes, the Festival of Marketing, LuxePack Monaco and New York, Ad:Week Europe and New York, DMA, the Connected Consumer Conference, Mobile World Congress and the IoT World Forum. MEDIA 7: How did the idea of “the agency of things” come to your mind? CAMERON WORTH: SharpEnd was created in 2015 as the world’s first Internet of Things focused agency, so there is a slight play on words when we say we’re the Agency of Things. I think the idea of giving things their own agency is an interesting concept, and the strapline fits our capabilities on multiple levels. M7: In what way does technology drive the association of SharpEnd with global brands? What approaches are followed to enable sustainability? CW: Our simple proposition is to help build brands in a connected world, and to do that you must always start with identified consumer needs or pain points and look at technology as just an enabler to deliver an appropriate solution (when appropriate).  Take the issue of sustainability, which is often a pain point for brands that grapple with issues such as how we can reward sustainable behaviour change. One of our approaches to this could be to look at communicating the recycling credentials of the different products. Whilst the consumer can engage with a product as part of a wider consumer experience, the same technology could also house content that could tell you whether the product is recyclable, which type of bin it goes in etc. SharpEnd’s work with Unilever is a case in point. We built a digital product that incentivised recycling through gamification but also served to educate through informing people how and where to recycle in a clear fashion. All users had to do was simply scan their packaging to have all this information at their disposal.

Read More

Q&A with Sangram Vajre, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist at Terminus

MEDIA 7 | January 9, 2020

Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder & Chief Evangelist at Terminus is also an author and host of the podcast FlipmyFunnel. He is one of the leading minds in B2B marketing. MEDIA 7: What are you passionate about? SANGRAM VAJRE: Three things: Lead professionally. Grow personally. Love family. M7: Terminus has been recognized as one of Georgia’s 40 fastest-growing companies by ACG Atlanta. What factors contribute to this pace? SV: One of our core values is #OneTeam – which means we think and act as one team and know that if we treat our team right, they will treat our customers amazing. There are no great companies, only great people that make those companies.

Read More

Q&A with Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD

MEDIA 7 | December 5, 2019

Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD is an experienced Marketing and Sales Executive with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Business Process, Marketo, Sales, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and IT Service Management, Andrea is also a strong business development professional and a storyteller. MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into marketing? ANDREA LECHNER: Frankly, not having better options. I originally attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse thinking I’d major in Archaeology. I wanted to be Indiana Jones! But, after visiting the archaeology building – i.e. the cold, dark basement of the science building – where a girl sat to piece together pieces of an old Native American vase, I knew archaeology was not going to be the right path for me. And so, without being good at science and a major in art or art history was unlikely to pay my bills, I decided to go into “business”. I originally registered as a management major, but took my first marketing class and thought it was more interesting and switched my sophomore year. That was pretty much it. I’d never been involved in business classes or DECA in high school – I didn’t really know what to do or what jobs in marketing were even possible. I dumb lucked myself into it really. M7: As a storyteller, do you relate the brand to a story or story to the brand? AL: Both? Neither? I think there are stories in every brand, because there are people working on the brand and people engaging with the brand and people using what the brand creates. People, most often a single person, are at the heart of great stories. You can start with the “point” of the story you’re trying to tell. Say you have a software that help accountants better create reports for board meetings. It’s likely you’ll want to tell a success story about an accountant getting promoted to CFO in part because your software helped better communicate their work product to the board. You could have the idea for that and go looking for that story in your customers. OR, you could hear that story, and say, “That’s amazing!” and share it with customers, partners and internal people. Stories are all around us – the most important thing is to keep your ears and eyes open for finding them.

Read More

Q&A with Cameron Worth, CEO & Founder, SharpEnd

Media 7 | April 22, 2020

Cameron Worth, CEO & Founder of SharpEnd leads the company’s mission to help brands move closer than ever to consumers by connecting packaging, retail and experiential activity. He is a regular speaker and writer on how to build brands in a connected world. He has spoken at Cannes, the Festival of Marketing, LuxePack Monaco and New York, Ad:Week Europe and New York, DMA, the Connected Consumer Conference, Mobile World Congress and the IoT World Forum. MEDIA 7: How did the idea of “the agency of things” come to your mind? CAMERON WORTH: SharpEnd was created in 2015 as the world’s first Internet of Things focused agency, so there is a slight play on words when we say we’re the Agency of Things. I think the idea of giving things their own agency is an interesting concept, and the strapline fits our capabilities on multiple levels. M7: In what way does technology drive the association of SharpEnd with global brands? What approaches are followed to enable sustainability? CW: Our simple proposition is to help build brands in a connected world, and to do that you must always start with identified consumer needs or pain points and look at technology as just an enabler to deliver an appropriate solution (when appropriate).  Take the issue of sustainability, which is often a pain point for brands that grapple with issues such as how we can reward sustainable behaviour change. One of our approaches to this could be to look at communicating the recycling credentials of the different products. Whilst the consumer can engage with a product as part of a wider consumer experience, the same technology could also house content that could tell you whether the product is recyclable, which type of bin it goes in etc. SharpEnd’s work with Unilever is a case in point. We built a digital product that incentivised recycling through gamification but also served to educate through informing people how and where to recycle in a clear fashion. All users had to do was simply scan their packaging to have all this information at their disposal.

Read More

Q&A with Sangram Vajre, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist at Terminus

MEDIA 7 | January 9, 2020

Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder & Chief Evangelist at Terminus is also an author and host of the podcast FlipmyFunnel. He is one of the leading minds in B2B marketing. MEDIA 7: What are you passionate about? SANGRAM VAJRE: Three things: Lead professionally. Grow personally. Love family. M7: Terminus has been recognized as one of Georgia’s 40 fastest-growing companies by ACG Atlanta. What factors contribute to this pace? SV: One of our core values is #OneTeam – which means we think and act as one team and know that if we treat our team right, they will treat our customers amazing. There are no great companies, only great people that make those companies.

Read More

Q&A with Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD

MEDIA 7 | December 5, 2019

Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD is an experienced Marketing and Sales Executive with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Business Process, Marketo, Sales, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and IT Service Management, Andrea is also a strong business development professional and a storyteller. MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into marketing? ANDREA LECHNER: Frankly, not having better options. I originally attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse thinking I’d major in Archaeology. I wanted to be Indiana Jones! But, after visiting the archaeology building – i.e. the cold, dark basement of the science building – where a girl sat to piece together pieces of an old Native American vase, I knew archaeology was not going to be the right path for me. And so, without being good at science and a major in art or art history was unlikely to pay my bills, I decided to go into “business”. I originally registered as a management major, but took my first marketing class and thought it was more interesting and switched my sophomore year. That was pretty much it. I’d never been involved in business classes or DECA in high school – I didn’t really know what to do or what jobs in marketing were even possible. I dumb lucked myself into it really. M7: As a storyteller, do you relate the brand to a story or story to the brand? AL: Both? Neither? I think there are stories in every brand, because there are people working on the brand and people engaging with the brand and people using what the brand creates. People, most often a single person, are at the heart of great stories. You can start with the “point” of the story you’re trying to tell. Say you have a software that help accountants better create reports for board meetings. It’s likely you’ll want to tell a success story about an accountant getting promoted to CFO in part because your software helped better communicate their work product to the board. You could have the idea for that and go looking for that story in your customers. OR, you could hear that story, and say, “That’s amazing!” and share it with customers, partners and internal people. Stories are all around us – the most important thing is to keep your ears and eyes open for finding them.

Read More

Related News

Platforms

Quectel Expands Its IoT Antenna Portfolio With Six New 4G and 5G Antennas

Business Wire | October 26, 2023

Quectel, a global IoT solutions provider, has unveiled six new antennas designed to provide robust connectivity performance for IoT devices. The new antennas cover a wide range of use cases from 5G to non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) bringing new capabilities to customers. We’re delighted to further augment our comprehensive range of antennas with the addition of these new antennas and evaluation boards, said Norbert Muhrer, President and CSO, Quectel Wireless Solutions. “Internet of Things applications increasingly demand high-performance antennas that meet their specific needs whether that’s for competitive cost, access to specific network technologies in particular frequency bands or for robust, safe characteristics such as IP ratings and RoHS and REACH compliance. The expanded Quectel antenna range is sure to meet the needs of your device and deployment and is backed by our design support and deployment experience, alongside, of course, our widely deployed and comprehensive range of modules.” The Quectel YC0001CA is a 4G surface-mount design (SMD) antenna that is optimized for LTE, LTE-M and Narrow Band-IoT (NB-IoT) networks. This low-profile antenna, which measures just 35.0 x 8.5 x 3.0mm, operates in the 700-960MHz and 1710-2700MHz and is both RoHS and REACH compliant for use in sensitive environments. In addition, the antenna can be supplied on tape and reel for high-volume applications and is compatible with all of Quectel’s 4G, 3G, 2G and LPWA IoT modules. The Quectel YC0018CA is a 5G SMD antenna that covers 5G New Radio (NR) Sub-6GHz frequency bands. Depending on the ground plane, the antenna is designed to be mounted directly to the printed circuit board (PCB) using a conventional PCB reflow process. Measuring 40.0 x 7.0 x 3.0mm, the antenna operates between -40 °C to +85 °C and weighs 15g. The antenna can be tuned specifically for the final device environment with a simple, PI matching circuit and, when used with other 5G antennas, it can achieve multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) performance. Also available on tape and reel, the antenna can also be supplied with the YC0018CAEVB evaluation board. The Quectel YECN028AA is a 5G or NTN external antenna that supports the 410-470MHz, 617-960MHz and 1425-6000MHz frequency bands. With dimensions of 225 x 54.5 x 13.0mm, the antenna is IP66, RoHS and REACH compliant so it has wide applicability to use cases in sensitive environments. Featuring high efficiency and gain, the antenna offers omni-directional high-speed data transmission and can be used in a wide range of wireless devices such as access points, outdoor equipment, real-time monitoring devices and many others. The Quectel YEMX223J1A is a 5G x 2 combo antenna that is IP67, RoHS and REACH compliant. Measuring 186.0 x 176.0 x 100.5mm, the combo antenna supports the 410-470MHz, 617-960MHz, 1420-1520MHz, 1710-2690MHz, 3300-3800MHz and 4000-6000MHz frequency bands. The ultra-wideband antenna box is also backward compatible supporting 2G and 3G networks as well as Cat-M and NB-IoT. Designed for ease of integration with connection via two cable lengths from 450-5000mm, the pole, wall suction mount omni-directional antenna offers ease of installation and durability thanks to its IP67 and IP69K compliant enclosure. Quectel offers flexible installation option with custom cable length and connector options The Quectel YEMX425J1A is a 5G x 4 combo antenna that measures 186.0 x 176.0 x 150mm. The combo antenna supports the 410-470MHz, 617-2690 MHZ and 3300-6000MHz frequency bands and both RoHS and REACH compliant. Offering backward compatibility with 2G, 3G, Cat-M and NB-IoT, the antenna is, in common with the YEMX223J1A, compatible with Quectel’s RM520x Series of IoT modules. In addition, durability is assured thanks to the combo antenna’s IP67 and IP69K ASA enclosure. Rounding out the latest wave of Quectel antenna introductions, the Quectel YSIS001AA, metal spring antenna operates in the 412-427MHz band, the 433-435 MHz band and the 450-470MHz band which is compatible with LTE B31 plus EU433 applications. Measuring 29.0 x 7.0 x 7.90mm, the RoHS and REACH compliant antenna is mounted to the host device PCB using the conventional SMD reflow process, offering high efficiency. In common with all Quectel antennas, these new additions to the range also gain Quectel’s comprehensive antenna design support including simulation, testing and manufacturing for custom antenna solutions to meet customers’ specific application needs. About Quectel Quectel’s passion for a smarter world drives us to accelerate IoT innovation. A highly customer-centric organization, we are a global IoT solutions provider backed by outstanding support and services. Our growing global team of 5,900 professionals sets the pace for innovation in cellular, GNSS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules as well as antennas and services. With regional offices and support across the globe, our international leadership is devoted to advancing IoT and helping build a smarter world.

Read More

Enterprise Iot

Nozomi Networks Delivers Industry's First Multi-Spectrum Wireless Security Sensor for Global OT and IoT Environments

Nozomi Networks | January 25, 2024

Nozomi Networks Inc., the leader in OT and IoT security, today introduced Guardian Air™, the industry's only wireless spectrum sensor purpose-built for OT and IoT environments worldwide. With 80 percent of new IoT deployments wirelessly connected, wireless is quickly becoming a preferred network. The explosion of wirelessly connected devices increases potential access points and exploitation of networks. This puts critical infrastructure at risk of cyberattacks and disruptions to operations. Guardian Air provides much-needed visibility into wirelessly enabled devices which until now were only detected once connected to the wired network. Guardian Air monitors several prominent wireless frequencies, not just Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, to provide security teams with immediate visibility of connected sensors, devices, laptops and cell phones. With the addition of Guardian Air, customers have a comprehensive network solution all in one integrated platform. "Nozomi Networks has once again innovated to address an unmet need for wireless-level monitoring in OT and IoT environments," said Danielle VanZandt, an industry manager for commercial and public security research at Frost & Sullivan. "From smart manufacturing to digital medicine, to building automation, to modern oil field production and more, today industrial organizations are relying on billions of wireless devices to speed production and time to market. Guardian Air gives IT security professionals and OT operators the visibility they need to get a firm handle on wireless risk management and response." With Guardian Air, IT security professionals and OT operators can: Continuously monitor prominent wireless frequency technologies used in OT and IoT environments including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, LoRaWAN, Zigbee, GPS, drone RF protocols, WirelessHART and more, Immediately detect wirelessly connected assets and gain asset information to quickly address unauthorized installations, Detect wireless-specific threats, including brute force attacks, spoofing, and bluejacking – with the added ability to determine the location of the devices performing the attacks, Seamlessly integrate wireless data into a single OT & IoT security platform that unifies asset visibility from the endpoint and across wired and wireless networks. "Wireless is fundamentally changing the way industrial organizations operate. Unfortunately, it also massively expands the potential attack surface," said Nozomi Networks Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Andrea Carcano. "Guardian Air solves this problem by giving customers the accurate visibility they need at the wireless level to minimize risk while maximizing resiliency. Because Guardian Air integrates easily into the Nozomi Networks Vantage platform, customers can combine network, endpoint and wireless for the greatest visibility, threat detection and AI-powered analysis for real-time security management and remediation across the entire attack surface." The Nozomi Guardian Air wireless sensor will be available this spring from Nozomi Networks and its extensive global network of channel partners. About Nozomi Networks Nozomi Networks accelerates digital transformation by protecting the world's critical infrastructure, industrial and government organizations from cyber threats. Our solution delivers exceptional network and asset visibility, threat detection, and insights for OT and IoT environments. Customers rely on us to minimize risk and complexity while maximizing operational resilience. www.nozominetworks.com

Read More

Industrial IoT

Tuya Smart Delivers IoT Best Practice Using Amazon Aurora, Leads the Direction of Cloud Database Innovation Use Cases with Amazon Web Services

Tuya Smart | January 24, 2024

Tuya Smart, the global IoT developer service provider, has delivered its Best Practices in using Amazon Aurora at IoT industry. Amazon Aurora is a relational database management system (RDBMS) built for the cloud with full MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility. Tuya and Amazon Web Services (AWS) built a solid basis of collaboration in database use cases exploration while also delivering smooth operation of billions of devices requiring high concurrency and low latency. Tuya and AWS: Building a benchmark for database implementation practice Tuya is a leading technology company focused on making our lives smarter. Tuya does this by offering a cloud platform that connects a range of devices via the IoT. By building interconnectivity standards, Tuya bridges the intelligent needs of brands, OEMs, developers, and retail chains across a broad range of smart devices and industries. Tuya's solutions enable partners and customers by improving the value of their products while making consumers' lives more convenient through the application of technology. As of September 30, 2023, the Tuya IoT Developer Platform has accumulated over 909,000 registered developers from over 200 countries and regions, covering industries including real estate, hospitality, residential, industry, agriculture, etc. The greater the breadth of business coverage, the more advanced technological support required. Tuya faces high-frequency reads and writes as well as enormous data storage challenges from billion-level online devices. Meanwhile, due to the commercial scenarios involving smart homes and smart industries, Tuya's operating response demands low latency in order to deliver a smoother user experience. Furthermore, Tuya's quick expansion and regular business changes have posed significant challenges to its operation and maintenance management. Tuya selected Amazon Aurora as core database engine for its unparalleled performance and availability at global scale. How does Tuya specifically leverage the Amazon Aurora database? Tuya currently manages billions of real-time online devices and can keep cloud message processing response times under 10 milliseconds. However, billions online devices provide a challenge. During holidays, there will be peak traffic volume, with tens of millions of devices going online and offline virtually simultaneously. Tuya used Amazon Aurora to construct a data storage solution to solve the main problem of rapid increase in short-term traffic, and to fully utilize resources. Aurora's design, which separates compute and storage and low-latency replication functionality, improves system throughput by enhancing the effect of read-write separation. Aurora provides up to 15 read replicas, setting the groundwork for Tuya's read flexibility development. At the same time, Tuya has integrated Aurora Serverless, which includes seconds-level elastic expansion and contraction, allowing Tuya to handle extremely heavy business traffic smoothly. Tuya's customers are located throughout more than 200 nations and regions, and they deal with widespread access to IoT data. Different countries and regions have different regulations on data compliance, such as GDPR and local PII. Tuya needs to adhere to each region's data security compliance regulations. As Tuya's primary business data storage provider, Amazon Aurora was among the first in the public cloud sector to enable physical encryption for database products, which significantly decreased the cost of Tuya's security compliance transformation and gave Tuya excellent basic security guarantees. In addition, Tuya is continuously testing out additional new innovation unique to Aurora, such as Enhanced Binlog, zero-ETL, and Limitless Database. Aurora's ongoing investment in innovative technologies provides more opportunities for Tuya to expand its business. Additionally, based on Tuya's comprehensive IoT developer platform architecture, both parties have collaborated to enhance Tuya IoT applications performance indicators like stability, low latency, scalability, and security in the real-world application of databases, revealing more potential and possibilities and enabling the IoT. Tuya and AWS: Continuously promoting the evolution of cloud experience Data-driven approaches will usher in a new era of innovation in tandem with the swift advancement of data applications. At this year's re:Invent conference, Peter DeSantis, Senior Vice President of AWS, reviewed the relational database's development history in great detail. In 2014, AWS created Aurora based on log architecture. In 2018, the release of Aurora Serverless allowed for seamless scaling of database resources through virtualization technology. This year, AWS announced the launch of the Amazon Aurora Limitless Database, which automatically scales to millions of write transactions per second well beyond current limits of a single PostgreSQL instance. It is apparent from Amazon Aurora's development history that AWS has always been dedicated to innovation. Customers and partners from a range of industries actively utilizes AWS to enable rapid innovation in a variety of ways, while also working together to enhance the cloud experience. Similar to how Tuya and AWS work together, Tuya's effective and user-friendly IoT developer platform and rich and varied IoT solutions have built a significant lighthouse, embracing the Amazon Aurora's innovation and accelerated the process of building a more secure and reliable IoT database use case. Amazon Aurora VP Yan Leshinsky said, "Amazon Aurora is the fastest growing service in the history of AWS and is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers. We innovate by working backwards from customers' needs, and we appreciate the feedback that Tuya has shared. We remain committed in developing new Aurora features and capabilities so all customers can accelerate their applications' capabilities and business growth by using Aurora." "Tuya has always committed to strengthening advanced and valuable innovations, while offering open and neutral ecosystem assistance for global partners. We provide our developers with enhanced operational and maintenance control, adaptable data storage options, superior product experience, and a global business layout by utilizing the Amazon Aurora database. We will continue to work with AWS to benefit the world in the future in areas including technology, ecosystems, and cloud computing, helping customers achieve commercial success." said Eva Na, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Cooperation, and CMO of Tuya Smart. Enhancing the partnership with AWS, Tuya delivered IoT best practice using Amazon Aurora database, giving the industry's growth additional impetus. Tuya will maintain its open and neutral stance going forward, collaborating with cloud service providers like AWS to offer global developers a more secure, reliable, and productive cloud environment, thereby advancing the innovation and development of the entire industry.

Read More

Platforms

Quectel Expands Its IoT Antenna Portfolio With Six New 4G and 5G Antennas

Business Wire | October 26, 2023

Quectel, a global IoT solutions provider, has unveiled six new antennas designed to provide robust connectivity performance for IoT devices. The new antennas cover a wide range of use cases from 5G to non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) bringing new capabilities to customers. We’re delighted to further augment our comprehensive range of antennas with the addition of these new antennas and evaluation boards, said Norbert Muhrer, President and CSO, Quectel Wireless Solutions. “Internet of Things applications increasingly demand high-performance antennas that meet their specific needs whether that’s for competitive cost, access to specific network technologies in particular frequency bands or for robust, safe characteristics such as IP ratings and RoHS and REACH compliance. The expanded Quectel antenna range is sure to meet the needs of your device and deployment and is backed by our design support and deployment experience, alongside, of course, our widely deployed and comprehensive range of modules.” The Quectel YC0001CA is a 4G surface-mount design (SMD) antenna that is optimized for LTE, LTE-M and Narrow Band-IoT (NB-IoT) networks. This low-profile antenna, which measures just 35.0 x 8.5 x 3.0mm, operates in the 700-960MHz and 1710-2700MHz and is both RoHS and REACH compliant for use in sensitive environments. In addition, the antenna can be supplied on tape and reel for high-volume applications and is compatible with all of Quectel’s 4G, 3G, 2G and LPWA IoT modules. The Quectel YC0018CA is a 5G SMD antenna that covers 5G New Radio (NR) Sub-6GHz frequency bands. Depending on the ground plane, the antenna is designed to be mounted directly to the printed circuit board (PCB) using a conventional PCB reflow process. Measuring 40.0 x 7.0 x 3.0mm, the antenna operates between -40 °C to +85 °C and weighs 15g. The antenna can be tuned specifically for the final device environment with a simple, PI matching circuit and, when used with other 5G antennas, it can achieve multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) performance. Also available on tape and reel, the antenna can also be supplied with the YC0018CAEVB evaluation board. The Quectel YECN028AA is a 5G or NTN external antenna that supports the 410-470MHz, 617-960MHz and 1425-6000MHz frequency bands. With dimensions of 225 x 54.5 x 13.0mm, the antenna is IP66, RoHS and REACH compliant so it has wide applicability to use cases in sensitive environments. Featuring high efficiency and gain, the antenna offers omni-directional high-speed data transmission and can be used in a wide range of wireless devices such as access points, outdoor equipment, real-time monitoring devices and many others. The Quectel YEMX223J1A is a 5G x 2 combo antenna that is IP67, RoHS and REACH compliant. Measuring 186.0 x 176.0 x 100.5mm, the combo antenna supports the 410-470MHz, 617-960MHz, 1420-1520MHz, 1710-2690MHz, 3300-3800MHz and 4000-6000MHz frequency bands. The ultra-wideband antenna box is also backward compatible supporting 2G and 3G networks as well as Cat-M and NB-IoT. Designed for ease of integration with connection via two cable lengths from 450-5000mm, the pole, wall suction mount omni-directional antenna offers ease of installation and durability thanks to its IP67 and IP69K compliant enclosure. Quectel offers flexible installation option with custom cable length and connector options The Quectel YEMX425J1A is a 5G x 4 combo antenna that measures 186.0 x 176.0 x 150mm. The combo antenna supports the 410-470MHz, 617-2690 MHZ and 3300-6000MHz frequency bands and both RoHS and REACH compliant. Offering backward compatibility with 2G, 3G, Cat-M and NB-IoT, the antenna is, in common with the YEMX223J1A, compatible with Quectel’s RM520x Series of IoT modules. In addition, durability is assured thanks to the combo antenna’s IP67 and IP69K ASA enclosure. Rounding out the latest wave of Quectel antenna introductions, the Quectel YSIS001AA, metal spring antenna operates in the 412-427MHz band, the 433-435 MHz band and the 450-470MHz band which is compatible with LTE B31 plus EU433 applications. Measuring 29.0 x 7.0 x 7.90mm, the RoHS and REACH compliant antenna is mounted to the host device PCB using the conventional SMD reflow process, offering high efficiency. In common with all Quectel antennas, these new additions to the range also gain Quectel’s comprehensive antenna design support including simulation, testing and manufacturing for custom antenna solutions to meet customers’ specific application needs. About Quectel Quectel’s passion for a smarter world drives us to accelerate IoT innovation. A highly customer-centric organization, we are a global IoT solutions provider backed by outstanding support and services. Our growing global team of 5,900 professionals sets the pace for innovation in cellular, GNSS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules as well as antennas and services. With regional offices and support across the globe, our international leadership is devoted to advancing IoT and helping build a smarter world.

Read More

Enterprise Iot

Nozomi Networks Delivers Industry's First Multi-Spectrum Wireless Security Sensor for Global OT and IoT Environments

Nozomi Networks | January 25, 2024

Nozomi Networks Inc., the leader in OT and IoT security, today introduced Guardian Air™, the industry's only wireless spectrum sensor purpose-built for OT and IoT environments worldwide. With 80 percent of new IoT deployments wirelessly connected, wireless is quickly becoming a preferred network. The explosion of wirelessly connected devices increases potential access points and exploitation of networks. This puts critical infrastructure at risk of cyberattacks and disruptions to operations. Guardian Air provides much-needed visibility into wirelessly enabled devices which until now were only detected once connected to the wired network. Guardian Air monitors several prominent wireless frequencies, not just Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, to provide security teams with immediate visibility of connected sensors, devices, laptops and cell phones. With the addition of Guardian Air, customers have a comprehensive network solution all in one integrated platform. "Nozomi Networks has once again innovated to address an unmet need for wireless-level monitoring in OT and IoT environments," said Danielle VanZandt, an industry manager for commercial and public security research at Frost & Sullivan. "From smart manufacturing to digital medicine, to building automation, to modern oil field production and more, today industrial organizations are relying on billions of wireless devices to speed production and time to market. Guardian Air gives IT security professionals and OT operators the visibility they need to get a firm handle on wireless risk management and response." With Guardian Air, IT security professionals and OT operators can: Continuously monitor prominent wireless frequency technologies used in OT and IoT environments including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, LoRaWAN, Zigbee, GPS, drone RF protocols, WirelessHART and more, Immediately detect wirelessly connected assets and gain asset information to quickly address unauthorized installations, Detect wireless-specific threats, including brute force attacks, spoofing, and bluejacking – with the added ability to determine the location of the devices performing the attacks, Seamlessly integrate wireless data into a single OT & IoT security platform that unifies asset visibility from the endpoint and across wired and wireless networks. "Wireless is fundamentally changing the way industrial organizations operate. Unfortunately, it also massively expands the potential attack surface," said Nozomi Networks Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Andrea Carcano. "Guardian Air solves this problem by giving customers the accurate visibility they need at the wireless level to minimize risk while maximizing resiliency. Because Guardian Air integrates easily into the Nozomi Networks Vantage platform, customers can combine network, endpoint and wireless for the greatest visibility, threat detection and AI-powered analysis for real-time security management and remediation across the entire attack surface." The Nozomi Guardian Air wireless sensor will be available this spring from Nozomi Networks and its extensive global network of channel partners. About Nozomi Networks Nozomi Networks accelerates digital transformation by protecting the world's critical infrastructure, industrial and government organizations from cyber threats. Our solution delivers exceptional network and asset visibility, threat detection, and insights for OT and IoT environments. Customers rely on us to minimize risk and complexity while maximizing operational resilience. www.nozominetworks.com

Read More

Industrial IoT

Tuya Smart Delivers IoT Best Practice Using Amazon Aurora, Leads the Direction of Cloud Database Innovation Use Cases with Amazon Web Services

Tuya Smart | January 24, 2024

Tuya Smart, the global IoT developer service provider, has delivered its Best Practices in using Amazon Aurora at IoT industry. Amazon Aurora is a relational database management system (RDBMS) built for the cloud with full MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility. Tuya and Amazon Web Services (AWS) built a solid basis of collaboration in database use cases exploration while also delivering smooth operation of billions of devices requiring high concurrency and low latency. Tuya and AWS: Building a benchmark for database implementation practice Tuya is a leading technology company focused on making our lives smarter. Tuya does this by offering a cloud platform that connects a range of devices via the IoT. By building interconnectivity standards, Tuya bridges the intelligent needs of brands, OEMs, developers, and retail chains across a broad range of smart devices and industries. Tuya's solutions enable partners and customers by improving the value of their products while making consumers' lives more convenient through the application of technology. As of September 30, 2023, the Tuya IoT Developer Platform has accumulated over 909,000 registered developers from over 200 countries and regions, covering industries including real estate, hospitality, residential, industry, agriculture, etc. The greater the breadth of business coverage, the more advanced technological support required. Tuya faces high-frequency reads and writes as well as enormous data storage challenges from billion-level online devices. Meanwhile, due to the commercial scenarios involving smart homes and smart industries, Tuya's operating response demands low latency in order to deliver a smoother user experience. Furthermore, Tuya's quick expansion and regular business changes have posed significant challenges to its operation and maintenance management. Tuya selected Amazon Aurora as core database engine for its unparalleled performance and availability at global scale. How does Tuya specifically leverage the Amazon Aurora database? Tuya currently manages billions of real-time online devices and can keep cloud message processing response times under 10 milliseconds. However, billions online devices provide a challenge. During holidays, there will be peak traffic volume, with tens of millions of devices going online and offline virtually simultaneously. Tuya used Amazon Aurora to construct a data storage solution to solve the main problem of rapid increase in short-term traffic, and to fully utilize resources. Aurora's design, which separates compute and storage and low-latency replication functionality, improves system throughput by enhancing the effect of read-write separation. Aurora provides up to 15 read replicas, setting the groundwork for Tuya's read flexibility development. At the same time, Tuya has integrated Aurora Serverless, which includes seconds-level elastic expansion and contraction, allowing Tuya to handle extremely heavy business traffic smoothly. Tuya's customers are located throughout more than 200 nations and regions, and they deal with widespread access to IoT data. Different countries and regions have different regulations on data compliance, such as GDPR and local PII. Tuya needs to adhere to each region's data security compliance regulations. As Tuya's primary business data storage provider, Amazon Aurora was among the first in the public cloud sector to enable physical encryption for database products, which significantly decreased the cost of Tuya's security compliance transformation and gave Tuya excellent basic security guarantees. In addition, Tuya is continuously testing out additional new innovation unique to Aurora, such as Enhanced Binlog, zero-ETL, and Limitless Database. Aurora's ongoing investment in innovative technologies provides more opportunities for Tuya to expand its business. Additionally, based on Tuya's comprehensive IoT developer platform architecture, both parties have collaborated to enhance Tuya IoT applications performance indicators like stability, low latency, scalability, and security in the real-world application of databases, revealing more potential and possibilities and enabling the IoT. Tuya and AWS: Continuously promoting the evolution of cloud experience Data-driven approaches will usher in a new era of innovation in tandem with the swift advancement of data applications. At this year's re:Invent conference, Peter DeSantis, Senior Vice President of AWS, reviewed the relational database's development history in great detail. In 2014, AWS created Aurora based on log architecture. In 2018, the release of Aurora Serverless allowed for seamless scaling of database resources through virtualization technology. This year, AWS announced the launch of the Amazon Aurora Limitless Database, which automatically scales to millions of write transactions per second well beyond current limits of a single PostgreSQL instance. It is apparent from Amazon Aurora's development history that AWS has always been dedicated to innovation. Customers and partners from a range of industries actively utilizes AWS to enable rapid innovation in a variety of ways, while also working together to enhance the cloud experience. Similar to how Tuya and AWS work together, Tuya's effective and user-friendly IoT developer platform and rich and varied IoT solutions have built a significant lighthouse, embracing the Amazon Aurora's innovation and accelerated the process of building a more secure and reliable IoT database use case. Amazon Aurora VP Yan Leshinsky said, "Amazon Aurora is the fastest growing service in the history of AWS and is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers. We innovate by working backwards from customers' needs, and we appreciate the feedback that Tuya has shared. We remain committed in developing new Aurora features and capabilities so all customers can accelerate their applications' capabilities and business growth by using Aurora." "Tuya has always committed to strengthening advanced and valuable innovations, while offering open and neutral ecosystem assistance for global partners. We provide our developers with enhanced operational and maintenance control, adaptable data storage options, superior product experience, and a global business layout by utilizing the Amazon Aurora database. We will continue to work with AWS to benefit the world in the future in areas including technology, ecosystems, and cloud computing, helping customers achieve commercial success." said Eva Na, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Cooperation, and CMO of Tuya Smart. Enhancing the partnership with AWS, Tuya delivered IoT best practice using Amazon Aurora database, giving the industry's growth additional impetus. Tuya will maintain its open and neutral stance going forward, collaborating with cloud service providers like AWS to offer global developers a more secure, reliable, and productive cloud environment, thereby advancing the innovation and development of the entire industry.

Read More

Spotlight

Events

Resources