Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report
Melbourne, Jan 31, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Internet of Things (IoT) technology company, Xped Limited (
ASX:XPE) ("Xped" or "the Company") is pleased to provide this market update regarding recent progress and developments.
Highlights
- Vital Xense government grant
- Lenze iPark shipments begin
- Telink developments
- Smart buildings products progress
- Smart home products progress
- Investment in Marketplace Services Pty Ltd to grow Xerts
- Cost savings and Board restructure
- Areas of key focus
Vital Xense government grant
Vital Xense and its partners announced recently that they have won a grant from the Singapore Government worth over SG $2M. The grant is to fund research into optimizing the energy usage of data centres.
As part of this trial, a major data centre in Singapore will be fitted out with hundreds of sensors to monitor the temperature, humidity and air pressure.
This information will be gathered and analyzed to determine how to optimally control the chiller plant to maintain the data centre's service level agreement with its customers while minimizing energy usage.
Xped is expecting Vital Xense (a Singapore company 35% owned by Xped) to place an order for its Discover Bus range of wired and wireless sensors in the next few weeks.
Lenze iPark shipments begin
Xped is pleased to announce that after a trial batch was tested in the field - which resulted in approximately 16,000 downloads of the iPark App - production shipments commenced in December and to date there have been approximately 29,000 downloads of the iPark app.
In November, Lenze won a new customer and the iPark app was rebranded as iCarPark.
There was a delay putting this new app on the Apple App Store due to Apple requesting samples of the hardware for verification. Apple's verification went smoothly and authorisation to release the app to the App Store was granted on 15 December 2017.
Telink developments
Xped has developed a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) based infrared blaster based on the Telink 8267 chip.
The blaster also includes a chip from UEI, which is one of the market leaders in infrared technology.
The UEI chip comes with a database containing the control codes for most of the popular appliances available. The product is currently being integrated into the Xped app and can be used without an Xped IoT gateway.
Once this work has been completed, a preproduction run will be scheduled and samples will be made available for beta testing and for business development purposes.
The "BLE Tap" technology is now integrated into the Telink 8261 chip which operates as a standalone subsystem. This chip can be used by device manufacturers to facilitate the pairing of a device using a tap gesture with phones that do not have NFC.
This makes it possible for iPhones to tap on devices that incorporate this chip. Xped will be working closely with Telink to promote this technology to its existing client base.
Smart building products
The first order for these products is expected to come from Vital Xense for its data centre project. Manufacturing of Xped's smart buildings products is expected to commence on receipt of a purchase order.
These products based on patented ADRC technologies, are quick and easy to install and provide superior functionality as well as ultra-low power operation, enabling them to run on a coin cell battery for up to 10 years.
The range of smart building products can now be viewed on the company website (effective December 2017).
Smart home products
Xped is in the final stages completing the development of its first offering of products intended for the smart home market.
These products are targeted at home security, which independent research shows is the area of greatest demand by consumers. The range of devices includes: motion sensors, door/window sensors, panic button, light switches, LED RGBW lights, glass break sensors, indoor and outdoor sirens, and indoor and outdoor IP cameras.
The selected devices which come from a range of popular vendors, use Wi-Fi and Z-wave communication technologies and are controlled by an Xped developed IoT gateway.
The Xped app is able to control and monitor these devices as well as providing 'scenes', 'rules automation' and 'notification' functionality.
Scenes provide a convenient way to set a number of devices into a desired state. For example, a 'scene' called 'Watch TV' can be created by a user to turn on the TV, set the input to HDMI1, turn on the surround sound system and turn on the Apple TV - all with the touch of a single button.
Rules automation is a very powerful feature that allows things to be controlled based on events generated by sensors or based on the time of day or on a particular date and time. For example, a 'rule' can be created by a user to turn on a siren when a window breaks or to turn on a light at 6am Monday to Friday.
Notifications enable the user to receive a notification on their mobile phone when something happens in the home. Notifications are sent using the push notification feature of iOS and Android and will be received whether the Xped DeB app is running or not. For example, a user can enable a notification to be sent when the front door is opened.
This advanced system that works across multiple different IoT protocols and vendors, including Xped's own ADRC protocol was demonstrated to a major Asian telco (during January), who have subsequently invited Xped to install the system in the demonstration centre at its corporate headquarters.
Voice control of these products will be possible in Q3 after integration of the Amazon Alexa service has been completed.
Investment in Marketplace Services Pty Ltd to grow Xerts
Xped invested in Marketplace Services Pty Ltd (MPS) in December in the form of 25 million ordinary shares while providing a loan facility of $350,000 in the form of a convertible note repayable in 24 months.
This relationship allows Xped to focus on the commercialisation of its core ADRC technologies whilst Marketplace Services Pty Ltd undertakes business development of Xped's patented digital coupon technology known as Xerts for the Australian market.
Cost savings and Board restructure
Well-respected South Australian businessman, Mr Peter Hunt, was appointed as Xped's Non- Executive Chairperson in September last year as part of the Company's overall strategy to prioritise its development resources on opportunities with the highest likelihood of revenue return.
Following Mr Hunt's appointment, the Board commenced an organisational restructure spanning the entire business. As a result, the Board was reduced from five directors to three with Dr Wenjun Sheng and Martin Despain resigning from their roles as Directors and moving into retainer-based consultancy agreements to continue their business development efforts with Xped, with further remuneration being aligned to revenue-based performance.
Mr John Schultz also resigned from the Board allowing Mr Hunt to join the Board while keeping the Xped Board to three. Mr Schultz continues in his role as the Head of Projects for Xped.
His resignation from the Board has increased his capacity to manage internal engineering teams, which has seen development pace increase within Xped's hardware and devices team. Other cost savings included a review of professional services providers and consultants, as well as a review of human resources expenditure performed by TBH Consulting.
Areas of key focus
Key areas of focus for Xped currently are the commercialisation of its ADRC technology with telecommunication carriers, data centre operators and property developers being priority target markets.
During the quarter, Xped's 100% owned subsidiary, JCT Healthcare, continued to generate revenue and is in the delivery phase of several of the previously announced contract wins with these projects to be delivered this financial year.
JCT Healthcare continues to pursue further sales opportunities and continues to support channel partners and resellers in sales and project delivery activities.
Another priority for the company has been to transition JCT Healthcare to a stand-alone business. This has included moving all staff and other parts of the business into one location.
About XPED Ltd
XPED Ltd (ASX:XPE) is an Australian Internet of Things (“IoT”) technology business. Xped has developed revolutionary and patent-protected technology that allows any consumer, regardless of their technical capability, to connect, monitor and control devices and appliances found in our everyday environment. Xped provides technology solutions for Smart Home, Smart Building, and Healthcare.
At Xped, we’re Making Technology Easy Again(TM)
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