Newbury Adds Location-Tracking Development Tools

Newbury Networks today announced an enterprise asset-tracking solution and a software development platform for emerging types of applications that incorporate location-based data from wireless networks.

Newbury’s Presence Platform integrates with WLAN infrastructure and includes a software development kit that allows users to define areas in a WLAN such as meeting rooms and offices and also allows users to set contextual guidelines for the type of content that can be accessed in these locations, according to Chuck Conley, vice president of marketing at Boston-based Newbury.

The platform works in conjunction with Active Asset, a new realtime tracking solution that uses Newbury’s Wi-Fi tags and WLAN management software to monitor the movements of items and people within an enterprise, Conley said.

Organizations that are deploying WLAN want to leverage their investments by adding customized services, Conley said. “Demand is strong for location and asset tracking, and pushing information to a device based on that information is becoming more of a need because wireless networks are becoming more ubiquitous,” he said.

Newbury’s core strength is the accuracy of its proprietary location-tracking algorithm, said Patrick Guerin, senior security analyst at Key Management Systems, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based security solution provider.

“They have the best calibration out there and that’s important if you need to track assets with a high level of granularity,” he said.

Newbury, which has a partnership with Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif., that allows its sensor software to run on Cisco’s Aironet 1100 and 1220 access points, expects to announce another significant deal with a major infrastructure player by mid-year, Conley said. Newbury also will be forging new alliances with other vendors to import its location technology to network ecosystems, he added.

Newbury plans to release the Presence Platform and Active Asset within the next two months. Active Asset will be priced starting at $12,995. Pricing for the Presence Platform wasn’t disclosed.