G-Mesh
by Hotech Edge

The most advanced full wireless mesh network yet, specifically developed to monitor and control hotel buildings and operations, has just been launched. It heralds the imminent arrival of total on-line building control that will deliver substantial benefits for developers, hoteliers and guests alike. Created by Hotech Edge, which has quietly been developing advanced wire-free solutions for several years, the revolutionary G-Mesh is the first full wireless mesh network using the ZigBee wireless standard.

The system represents an immediate opportunity to improve guest services, automate aspects of building management and reduce operational and energy costs. G-Mesh networks will substantially reduce build- and fit-out costs and hold excellent potential for cutting carbon emissions through intelligent energy control.

G-Mesh has the power to cover every inch of a building in a wireless signal so that each appliance or device can be monitored and controlled from a PC or browser. In hotels, the effect is to deliver guestrooms that ‘prepare’ in advance for guests’ arrival and ‘hibernate’ when they leave, that alert staff to building maintenance issues before they become a crisis and increase hotel security. For some hotels, the technology can even generate new income streams and provide for guest billing options.

“We have been working on G-Mesh style networks for nearly a decade, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront with a commercial system specifically developed for the hospitality sector,” says Geoff Wales, ceo of Hotech Edge. “Usage of ZigBee enabled products has been likened to a hockey stick and we are now at the bottom of the steep curve upwards. I have no doubt that we are about to see a revolution in both new building and retrofit. Hotels automated with this sort of wireless mesh will soon be the norm.”

The installation of G-Mesh is straightforward, with the result that fit-out costs are a fraction of those of traditional building management systems, making full building automation economical for the first time. The system simply requires the placement of routers around the hotel to create the wireless network. These are coordinated through a single server and devices are brought onto the network by plug and play. Extremely low energy consumption enables appliances to operate and communicate for over three years, powered only by a single set of batteries. Hotech Edge provides centralised monitoring and support of hotels on G-Mesh systems anywhere in the world.

Hotech Edge has worked closely with the international hotel sector in the development of G-Mesh and its suite of products. The company’s door-locks and safes are already installed in some 30 leading brand and independent hotels, as well as in several major student halls of residence. Hotech Edge has a number of further ZigBee enabled appliances in the pipeline which have also been developed for the international hotel sector and will be ready to join the mesh network in the very near future. In addition, the company intends to work with other established ZigBee product manufacturers around the world and introduce their devices into the G-Mesh system.

Key Benefits and Technical Data

The G-Mesh system uses Ember’s EM250 ZigBee system-on-chip (ScC) and EmberZNet PRO software platform, which support the ZigBee PRO feature set. The added-value benefits of the latest ZigBee PRO installations include:

• Extending the power saving benefits of sleepy end devices
• Halving the number of data controllers and mesh routers
• Negligible network latency over several hops in the mesh
• Scaling to hundreds, and potentially thousands, of nodes