The smart solutions for better connectivity

And Bridgetek are keen to help do that in any way they can. That’s why the company has released three new products that all help different areas with connectivity and efficiency.

The first, PanL Room Manager, has a 7” display screen and is designed for booking and managing rooms for meetings. As meetings within offices become increasing more popular, and shared workspaces are being used a lot more within smaller businesses, meeting rooms are being used a lot more and need to be managed better.

The PanL Room Manager uses a touchscreen, and each meeting room is designed to have a PanL Room Manager display outside, on the wall for example, which are all connected through the PanL Hub which is connected to the internet. It also uses an RFID card reader, which grants certain people access. Each PanL Hub can control up to 16 displays, but if you have more meeting rooms than this multiple Hubs can be connected together. Gavin Moore, Customer Support Manager, Bridgetek explained: “It can connect to Exchange and Office 365 so we have covered the majority of offices, and this means it connects straight to your work calendar.

“We wanted to develop something to solve meeting room problems through seamless integration and flexibility.”

Sticking to the office and work based solutions, Bridgetek also have developed the PanL Desk Manager which is a device that has a much smaller display than the Room Manager, and includes an LED status bar which shows if the desk is available. Moore explained: “Looking at hot desk applications, this sort of thing was crucial but it only needed a 3.5” display.”

Designed for co-working spaces, or hot desking, these devices will all be managed through the desk viewer, which would normally be located at a reception area or entrance hall and are all touch screen devices.

Moore explained they have had a lot of feedback and suggestions around other locations where this solution could be useful, for example in a university – especially the library. The amount of times students wander around the library looking for a free desk to work at and cannot find one, or aren’t sure if a desk is taken as there are a few book lying around. With the desk viewer manager, you can walk in and identify where a desk is free through the uploaded floor maps and desk assignment locator, and go straight there.

Also airports would benefit hugely from this solution, as people often have laptops and need to work, but there isn’t always the space, and don’t know where to look for desk-like areas.

The PanL Desk Manager evokes smarter administrators and eliminates the manual booking. It also releases desks that are not in use to maximise the user to desk ratio. It also allows you to book anywhere, so you can make on the spot reservations right from the desk panel through QP codes or also can book in advance through an outlook or mobile app.

It enables you to quickly spot desks and these clear PanL LED indicators make sure you can see afar if it is free. Again these devices easily scale up the number of desks with wireless enabled displays powered by micro-USB.

The desk viewer’s features include one glance desk availability with status filtering, a web browser based interface, touch screen compatibility and the ability to search desks, floor and buildings.

Finally, in the latest solutions from Bridgetek is the PanL Smart Living, which is a home automation system, but not just like every other system out there on the market.

Moore explained: “Home automation has been around for ages, we all know that, but it hasn’t really caught on like expected. We think that is mainly down to compatibility.”

PanL Smart Living is designed as an all-encompassing platform to replace multiple standalone automation systems, which will enable greater comfort, convenience and safety as well as energy efficiency – an important topic currently – and of course cost savings, one of the most important features.

Moore stated: “This will transform today’s living spaces, homes, hotels and again offices.”

It works across the areas of display, hub, mood lighting and relay.  Moore said: “We are finally able to connect with multiple home automation features, there is finally a system that does it all!”

With a united framework you can avoid going through separate control systems, remotes, switches or mobile apps, making it so much easier for everyone. The superior lifelong solution provides flexibility to continuously expand which caters for existing and future technologies as the application need arises. The flexible connectivity enables a wide array of wired or wireless devices to be added or removed from the framework.

This solution is complimented with a variety of wired PanL RS485 protocol accessories to quickly set up robust smart controls. Mobility was a key feature too, as everything can be managed through a mobile app supported by both android and IOS devices from in or outside the building, and automated controls through the creation of personalised scenes and events, and the integration of sensors leads to the seamless automation that Bridgetek wanted to achieve.

Of course it is designed as a home automation system but Moore explained the company are in talks with a number of hotel projects, as the system allows you to control the lighting and heating and also control and communicate with the door and lock it! Moore added: “You can talk to whoever is there.”

Bridgetek is different from other home automation companies and prides itself on that, and is now going into full scale products. Moore added: “Desk Manager has a lot of potential, as there isn’t a lot out there that is similar.”