Actility and Abeeway on track to connect runners thanks to LoRa technology

Paris, 23 September 2016: On Sunday, thousands of runners will take part in the famous Paris-Versailles race, a 16 km long trail starting at the Eiffel Tower and finishing at the Versailles Palace. Among them, a group of pioneer connected athletes will be tracked and their vital signs monitored along the way thanks to LoRaWAN technology. 

Actility, the industry leader in Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) and Abeeway, specialist in geolocalisation have joined forces to connect the race using innovative trackers, advanced mobile LoRa gateways, and prototype LoRa-connected sports watches.

A team of 15 Actility runners will carry an Abeeway tracker with them which is able to detect where each runner is at each given moment on the course, which runs along the banks of the Seine in Paris and then through dense suburbs to Versailles. The progress of the race can be followed on this website: https://iot.abeeway.com/paris-versailles/ created by Abeeway. The coverage and LoRa network are provided by Actility. The LoRaWAN low power wide area network, technology makes tracking runners possible by allowing the tracker, which is no bigger than a car key, to pass data to the gateway over a long distance while still consuming very low power.

“LoRaWAN technology is nowadays used for a large number of services in the city, optimizing day-to-day functioning of companies, governments and citizens”, said Olivier Hersent, founder and CTO of Actility. “Tracking of objects is one of the most used services in industries and public spaces such as airports and ports. But of course, it also comes in handy for more entertaining activities like sporting events”!

“The Abeeway micro-tracker is an ideal product for tracking applications that require low consumption and unlimited messaging. The application allows us to follow the whereabouts of these trackers with great precision throughout the whole Paris-Versailles race. We are delighted to collaborate with our partner Actility on this project”, added Florian Sforza, CEO of Abeeway.

To follow Actility’s results, please go to https://iot.abeeway.com/paris-versailles/ this Sunday 25 September from 10h00.