UDlive, Taoglas, and EBV Elektronik - A Winning Formula

What do Taoglas, UDLive and EBV Elektronik all have in common? - a shared commitment to continuous innovation, unrivaled expertise, and a team of dedicated professionals ensuring you receive nothing but the very best solutions. Discover the winning formula behind our collaboration on an Environmental Monitoring solution.

At UDlive, we understand the importance of challenging our supply chains for the very best solutions and continuous innovation. As suppliers of battery-operated remote telemetry systems that must work in the challenging conditions of wastewater networks, we need all the help and expertise we can get. That's why we proudly collaborate with reputable companies like Taoglas and EBV Elektronik. We know we can rely on them to get the job done and swiftly deliver market-leading antenna solutions alongside the expertise to solve the engineering challenges our users present.

The quote “cheap is expensive” rings true when considering antenna solutions. An enormous amount of science and engineering is involved in antenna design, so if you decide to cut costs and choose an inferior solution, it will likely cost you more in the long run. Our estimates suggest that opting for a Taoglas fit-for-purpose wide-band antenna over a lower price antenna solution can increase longevity by as much as 80%; with associated staff, overheads and carbon cost.

Additionally, in response to the pressing issue of sewage spills into rivers and seas in England (with an alarming 825 spills per day¹), the Environment Agency is imposing penalties on companies that miss their targets. This means companies risk incurring significant fines if they don't provide near real-time information on the water quality upstream and downstream of storm overflows and sewage treatment works².

To mitigate potential signal degradation and ensure optimal functionality, it is crucial to utilise a fit-for-purpose wide-band antenna. This will not only help save costs in the long term but also support compliance with environmental regulations.

Optimising Water Quality

UDlive works with water companies to optimise ageing sewer networks by adding telemetry to the current system to monitor sewer levels reliably, flows, and blockages, which can cause overflow, posing a severe environmental and health threat. The monitors are fitted under heavy metal access lid covers or manholes. Minimal use of external antennas help customers deliver water monitoring more quickly and with less cost and disruption.

Antenna design is complex at the best of times, but the harsh environment of wastewater management presents especially unique challenges, such as being underground in a damp environment. Changes in environmental factors such as temperature, moisture content, and soil will affect the antenna performance through frequency shifting and more. However, even when faced with these complex engineering problems, Taoglas quickly provided us with the antenna support we needed.

Following a series of asphalt tests and tests using potted material to understand the impact it had on performance by its technical Engineering team, Taoglas provided us with the GSA.8845, an off-the-shelf standard product, and custom cabling. The GSA.8845 demonstrated 20% higher efficiency compared to a lower price antenna. This is the difference between a solution working and not working in areas with poorer cellular coverage. A silicone boot was also designed to ensure a reliable connection in a damp environment.

“It is always a pleasure to play our part in identifying and connecting the experts from our supplier base to work with our customers. We thrive on watching these collaborations create unique solutions for ever more challenging issues,” says Craig Barclay, Regional Sales Manager with EBV. “UDlive's firsthand experience of the RF challenges posed by their application, coupled with the local antenna expertise offered by Taoglas is a great example of this.”

At UDlive, we are forever pushing the boundaries of what's possible and continuously optimising our products to ensure our customers are provided with the best, dependable solutions. That's why we ensure our partners can offer the support and capability to design, characterise, and customise antennas in lab conditions to optimise our environments, whether in a sewer, embedded in a road surface, or hidden in a bollard. This means addressing IP rating, environmental resistance, cabling optimization, and positioning. We have the experts, along with the necessary tools, backing us up for the benefit of our customers.