technology
Boston Startup EdgeBeam Uses TV Airwaves for Data and Precision Location Services
EdgeBeam Wireless, a Seaport-based startup backed by four major TV station owners, is developing a national network to transmit data and location information using existing television broadcast towers. The system employs the ATSC 3.0 standard to deliver timing signals that can locate positions to within inches, even when GPS is unavailable.
May 13, 12:26 PM·2m read1 source
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EdgeBeam Wireless, a startup based in Boston's Seaport district, is building a national data network and location tracking service that uses television broadcast signals. The company, backed by four of the largest national TV station owners, plans to provide precision location information that could be more accurate than GPS for applications in engineering, construction and other fields requiring exact positioning.
The service takes advantage of antenna towers that have broadcast television signals since the 1950s in places such as Needham and Newton. EdgeBeam's technology rides alongside TV programming transmitted under the ATSC 3.0 standard, avoiding the need to build a new network of transmitters.
One set of towers can cover an entire metropolitan area such as Boston. "One set of towers covers all of Boston and that gives us something that's different from everybody else," chief executive Conrad Clemson said in an interview from the company's Seaport office.
" The services require users to install compatible receivers. As a result, EdgeBeam is initially targeting large business customers rather than individual consumers. Early applications include car manufacturers sending software updates wirelessly to fleets of vehicles and advertising agencies distributing video to digital billboards along highways.
EdgeBeam transmits a precise timing signal known as the Broadcast Positioning System, or BPS, using the same signals that carry TV programming. The system can locate a position with an accuracy of inches even if GPS signals are unavailable, Clemson said.
