Stay Connected When Networks are Tested

When attending sporting events and concerts, you want to capture the moment in real time and share it with your network. Maybe it’s for bragging rights after catching a legendary touchdown, but nonetheless, staying connected in high-density environments can be a challenge for both attendees and venues.

BUDDY, a connectivity and behavioral intelligence platform, focuses on helping venues and event operators maintain connectivity and gain deeper audience insights in challenging, high-traffic environments. By providing operators with insights into audience movement, engagement and behavior, the platform can help improve fan experiences while giving venues more data to inform operations and revenue opportunities.

BUDDY’s patent-pending technology creates a resilient connectivity layer that routes across cellular, Wi-Fi and device-to-device connections to keep people and data connected. BUDDY’s live pilot program demonstrated the platform’s ability to maintain connectivity and capture data across three challenging conditions: extreme network density, network overload and locations with no cellular coverage. At a 25,000-person New Year’s Eve event, BUDDY supported 9000 concurrent nodes and achieved 91% in-event engagement, while reaching the Top 20 in the iOS App Store for Social Networking.

The platform helps venues turn connectivity gaps into actionable intelligence, giving event organizers a better understanding of attendee behavior to make more informed operational decisions. Resilient connectivity can also play a role in crowd safety. The Lost Angels Fund, established by BUDDY, offers aid to families impacted by crowd-related event tragedies while supporting safety training programs and awareness campaigns across the live music sector.

Following the success of its live pilots, BUDDY joined CTA and re-engaged with CES as it moves from validation to scale. BUDDY CEO and Co-Founder Claire Wright shared:

“Our leadership team has longstanding experience with the exceptional support CTA provides startups and entrepreneurs, particularly through its Entrepreneur Council. CTA gives BUDDY an important platform to connect with the wider technology ecosystem, contribute to industry conversations and build the relationships that will support our next stage of growth.”

Protecting the Connected Home

Staying connected is only part of the equation. As homes and businesses rely on more wireless technology, protecting those connections from interference and outside threats is becoming just as important.

Telecom Design, an IoT technology company, is bringing greater peace of mind to the connected home with AI-enabled sensors and anti-jamming technology designed to detect threats and help keep security systems operating. The company develops end-to-end connected solutions for the smart home security market, specializing in IoT innovation, wireless communications, sensors, machine learning, cloud-based services and more.

Telecom Design’s AJV4 Jamming Alarm is designed to help protect wireless security systems from signal jamming, a threat that can disrupt alarm communications and other wireless networks.

The device detects jamming activity and transmits alerts to monitoring stations, helping security providers identify potential interference and respond more quickly. With broad-spectrum detection, the AJV4 is designed to identify jamming across multiple wireless frequencies, including cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and alarm communication bands.

As technologies like BUDDY work to maintain connections in challenging environments, Telecom Design demonstrates another side of resilience: protecting the wireless systems we increasingly rely on.

Solving Complex Problems with Quantum

Beyond keeping networks connected and protected, organizations are also facing increasingly complex challenges that require new ways of processing information and making decisions. Quantum computing is opening another path forward.

D-Wave Quantum is a pioneer in quantum computing and the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers. Through its Leap™ quantum cloud service and enterprise solutions, D-Wave is helping organizations apply quantum technology to real-world business challenges.

Last month, the company announced a collaboration with Nasdaq Verafin, a provider of financial crime management technology, to explore how quantum computing could strengthen fraud detection and anti-money laundering efforts. The initiative will develop a proof of concept exploring the use of D-Wave’s quantum technology to analyze hundreds of account data points, including activity, transaction patterns and counterparty networks, to explore approaches beyond conventional systems.

The collaboration brings quantum computing into another complex enterprise application: helping financial institutions combat financial crime. D-Wave has also applied quantum technology to other complex optimization challenges, including scheduling, logistics, manufacturing and network performance.

From maintaining communications in crowded environments to protecting wireless systems and tackling complex enterprise challenges, BUDDY, Telecom Design and D-Wave are taking different approaches to a shared goal: building technology that helps people and organizations stay connected, protected and prepared for what comes next.