The creation of "Internet Telemetry"

Loncel Technologies Limited is an Auckland, New Zealand based private company totally focussed on providing clients with state-of-the-art remote management systems to

improve operational efficiencies
reduce cost and duplication, and
facilitate better customer service.

In April 2000, when the company was founded, the present Directors had a vision of a future in which it would be possible to marry the rapidly evolving technologies of cellular communications with Internet-based access services to create new types of leading edge management tools. The initial focus was to be on industrial customers. In the early days cellular data did not exist and the dialup-only Internet was slow and not extensively used. This goal of a new management tool has now been achieved, and in fact has been even further enhanced as cellular data communications are today much cheaper and faster, and Internet services have improved in quality and acceptance to the point that they are considered an indispensable part of modern management practice. Internet Telemetry has now truly arrived.

Since 2001, Loncel has successfully brought a number of unique internet telemetry products to market and currently has several patents pending. These products have been very well accepted in New Zealand, Australia and SE Asia, and have proven themselves extremely reliable, allowing the company to guarantee its customers year's of trouble-free service.

The company designs in-house all of its monitoring hardware and all of the software to run its field products and manage its own secure 24x7 data warehouse/server facility. Most field units link back to this facility usually through a cellular connection, thus providing an Internet-based remote access service for the client company and also in many cases, for their own customers. By using its own server-side and field unit software, Loncel can ensure that the system is optimised for maximum performance, and by having absolute control of the embedded code, that no operations are exposed to future vagaries of third party suppliers.

Following the introduction in February 2001 of the still unique and highly capable Loncel Remote Monitoring Unit (RMU), it became apparent that in many applications with multi-site input requirements it was cost prohibitive to use numerous cellular units or extensive cabling to access this data. Hence the Loncel Short Range Radio (SRR) was developed as a means of linking sensors within a field of 2-3 km diameter to a central base station, which then only required a single cellular link to the Loncel servers.

Further development of this concept has led to the recent release of an exciting new product, the Loncel microPowerRadio™ (µPR) system. This miniature low cost radio system, with a field diameter up to 300m, in-built sensors and an incredible battery life of up to 10 years, has the potential to revolutionise sensor networks. In addition to eliminating cabling, it also does away with the requirement for expensive isolation barriers in intrinsically safe applications.

Many large industrial companies, both local and international, and more recently several large agricultural and horticultural operations use Loncel products to monitor stocks or control systems in a wide range of applications. Clients include companies operating in the areas of: food manufacturing (flour, grain), motor fuels, aviation fuels, cryogenic liquids, hospital oxygen supplies, CO2 production, industrial gas and LPG supplies, drainage control, horticulture, dairy farming and hotel beer supplies.

Loncel is one of the most experienced companies in New Zealand in the field of cellular remote monitoring having had systems operating since February 2001. Initially cellular communications were via SMS (text messaging), and although this is still viable in some circumstances, SMS has been largely superseded by true packet data communications such as GPRS or CDMA. The companies facilities are capable of handling data networks of any size, and are one of the few capable of managing large scale networks in real time.

To get the benefit of Loncel's experience at the best possible price, and to ensure that your operations are fully functional the moment they are installed, Loncel's products are supplied directly to customers as "fully engineered" systems - you deal directly with Loncel or Loncel-approved installers/service agents.

In summary, Loncel Remote Monitoring Systems are/have :

innovative, leading-edge products, using the latest technology
flexible design allowing standardisation in hardware for many different applications, products and types and sizes of vessels
wired, radio or combination sensor solutions using the same base station
cost-effective
world-wide application
easy to install, operate and manage
extremely low maintenance requirements
on-site and over-the-air (OTA) setup, calibration & set point adjustment capability
proven reliability, industry leading 3 year warranty available
robust security - all data traffic encrypted and authenticated, secure site
efficient compression regimes - maximum data traffic with minimum data cost
a global "total package" - seamlessly integrated site hardware + Internet interface.