Link Labs
Kickstarting Billing with Intelligent Tracking

Utility companies need to know the whereabouts of their meters, tools, heavy equipment, and fleet to meet installation deadlines. The recurring hoarding and misplacement of assets across the indoor and outdoor area of a massive facility make it near-impossible to locate and activate them, resulting in revenue loss for every second of billing yielded.

Link Labs offers a seamless IoT indoor-outdoor asset tracking system through its AirFinder OnSite and AirFinder Everywhere systems. They use real-time location systems and radio frequency identification technologies to achieve meter-level location accuracy, reducing search time and helping with loss prevention, compliance regulation, inventory management, work-in-progress management, and other crucial day-to-day business processes.

“We hold about 30 patents in the space to get everything working to the levels of precision that we currently offer,” says Jennifer Halstead, CFO of Link Labs.

AirFinder is WiFi-independent, cloud-agnostic, and easy to install, circumventing the need for a complicated network set-up through an IT department. Clients can integrate AirFinder’s software into a pre-existing asset management system or use Link Labs’ proprietary platform and UI, which automatically provides document compliance, audit trails, and generates reports. All data is stored on the cloud with edge processing technology to lower costs. Post-installation, clients receive personalized customer support services to ensure their systems continue running error-free.

AirFinder is set up by attaching a Bluetooth asset tag running Link Labs’ firmware to a meter or equipment. The firmware ensures location precision and battery optimization, and clients can view their equipment’s location simply by accessing its management system. A location beacon is installed where coverage is required, and the tag pings its location only when moved or signaled. Clients can optionally set a heartbeat update rate for periodic pinging, which consequently reduces battery usage.

For outdoor locations, a SuperTag is installed onto a vehicle carrying the meters and assets and electronically reads it as indoor infrastructure. The truck, as a beacon, constantly tracks the Bluetooth tags for the loaded utilities. Once the vehicle moves to a utility facility, the system automatically detects the location change and converts the map into an indoor floor plan, requiring no extra work on the client’s part.

SuperTags currently come in three different sizes and lengths, with multiple patents for the working of the batteries. The smallest tag is rechargeable, and the others use replaceable batteries, one lasting up to three years and the other tag lasting three to seven years.
The robust meter tracking of Link Labs lets companies begin their utility billing immediately, curbing potential losses from delayed billing. Inventory accounts can be automated, mitigating the need for dedicated staff. Scalability is crucial for utility companies, but supply chain shortages can significantly slow down business. Instead of purchasing new meters and waiting for the supply chain backlog to recuperate, companies can locate older, forgotten meters and refurbish them.

One of the largest utility companies in Michigan is one of Link Labs’ many clients benefiting from its patented tech. Using meter and fleet tracking, they reported a considerable reduction in lost gas and electricity, which boosted their profits. Part of this stems from being able to quickly locate meters that were thought to be lost. They also detected meters being hoarded outside their facility, a problem remedied promptly by placing a location beacon in the affected area. Before working with Link Labs, the utility company reported an inventory variance of over 50 percent loss in meters, which has now reduced to two percent (the remaining percentage resulting from untagged assets).

Link Labs is an innovator in the utility asset tracking industry, from patenting the first FCC-certified LoRa devices in the U.S. to the first phase-ranging for indoor asset tracking solutions. Continuing down this road, the company has developed an innovative technology capable of centimeter-level location accuracy for indoor and outdoor tracking, which will revolutionize the asset tracking industry.