This article was originally published by RFID Update.
August 13, 2007—Free Copy of ODIN technologies’ Benchmark Report for Participants
Sirit Inc. (“Sirit”) (TSX: SI), a leading provider of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) solutions will host an open Webinar to review the ODIN European RFID Reader BenchmarkTM in which the Company’s INfinity 510 worldwide Gen 2 certified reader took top marks over six other leading European readers available on the market.
The Webinar, scheduled for August 16, 2007 at 12 p.m. (ET), 6 p.m. Central Europe time, will feature guest speaker, Patrick J. Sweeney II, President and CEO of ODIN technologies who will discuss the Benchmark methodologies and results. Participants of the Webinar will be supplied a free copy of the Benchmark valued at approximately US $1,500. Registration for the event can be found through Sirit’s Web site, www.sirit.com.
Seven readers were tested in the European RFID Reader BenchmarkTM. These included the Alien ALR8800, the Caen A948EU, the Feig ID ISC.LRU2000, the Impinj URP1000-ETSI (also known as the Speedway), the Intermec IF61, the Motorola XR480EU, and the Sirit IN510. The six scientific test categories were power output, occupied channel power, receive sensitivity, interference rejection, tag acquisition speed, and read distance. In addition, ODIN examined some use-case scenarios that included conveyor testing, shrink wrapper testing, adjacent dock door portals with Listen Before Talk, as well as adjacent dock door portals with the proposed ETSI EN 302-208 channel scheme.
Top Performer
Sirit’s INfinity 510 was the top performer in three test categories, while placing second in three others. The IN510 also successfully passed all of the use-case tests. The Benchmark report stated, “The reader is configurable for both ETSI bands and anticipates the proposed change to ETSI EN 302-208. It has excellent frequency control and allows port-by-port RF power control. The Web interface is user-friendly and allows for fine grain parameter control. The reader startup tool (RST) is very user-friendly and has a wizard to configure the reader for different use-cases. The IN510 shines in the area of large population tag reads. The algorithms used are proprietary and give the reader a huge speed advantage.”
“The INfinity 510 continues to dominate the market — ranking first overall in this industry leading test and has set an impressive standard by which other readers are measured,” stated Tony Sabetti, Vice President RF Solutions, Sirit Inc. “Our engineering team continues to push the boundaries of RF design to ensure that the INfinity 510 and our entire RFID product line addresses a wide variety of tomorrow’s business challenges — today.”
European Roll-outs
The European market for RFID continues to flourish as more large-scale implementations move from the pilot stage into full roll-outs, led by Airbus, Marks and Spencer, and Metro Group. Metro, one of the largest retailers in Europe, recently announced plans to expand their RFID implementation to 180 retail stores. “The INfinity 510’s reliable performance and ease of installation, combined with Sirit’s outstanding technical and sales support all factored into the decision to award this contract,” commented Dr. Gerd Wolfram, Managing Director of MGI METRO Group Information Technology GmbH. “As we move into the deployment phase of RFID, it becomes increasingly important to select partners that deliver both product and services that allow METRO to meet our business objectives — as we have found with Sirit.”
Reader Performance is a Key
According to ODIN, the purpose of this report is to provide an objective, trusted opinion to help guide purchasing decisions. Reader performance is a key ingredient in a successful RFID implementation. ODIN technologies lists 4 reasons why readers play such an important role:
- Accuracy in data collection is essential — An RFID solution is only as accurate as the data gathered at the network edge. If the reader fails to capture tag data, no amount of middleware, integration elegance or process efficiency can retrieve it.
- The reader is the most complex system component — Success is achieved by balancing hundreds of variables managed by the reader.
- Reader maintenance is expensive — Long-term solution cost will be driven by reader maintenance.
- Deployment decisions are expensive to reverse — A reader implementation is a business decision that affects budgets, processes and systems.
“The European RFID Reader Benchmark should serve as a document to which end users with new and emerging applications requirements can turn to find objective, scientific information about RFID technology,” stated Patrick Sweeney.
Sign up for the Webinar at www.sirit.com to receive your free copy of ODIN’s European RFID Benchmark Test report.