As Alan Kay once said, “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”
We strongly believe in this idea, and put it into practice daily. That’s why we build a sophisticated stack of software and hardware technologies to create the best possible interactions. We need to iterate fast, and make platform improvements available as soon as possible. Each improvement requires work in all pieces of our software stack. Beacon firmware is no exception. However, it’s the most challenging part to distribute. Today, we make this process invisible by introducing Automatic Firmware Update.
Beacon Firmware is never final, there’s always something new ahead
In simple words, your firmware is an operating system for your beacon. It is responsible for the hardware and software management of the device. We believe that a beacon OS has to be intelligent. Estimote devices are packed with different sensors. Firmware consumes their data to better understand the context and environment your beacon is in. This allows for simplification of the deployment process and makes configuration management easier. This year we’ve already introduced seven major updates, delivering features like multi-packet support and new power modes.
We’ve improved beacon firmware to integrate it with new services. Beacon Health Check and Here & Now marketing platforms are the best examples. These new services empower beacon deployment, and enable the creation of completely new user experiences based on Estimote devices.
Hardware product compatibility is another important source of change and evolution. Let’s use Estimote Mirror video beacons as an example. Introduced only a month ago, they turn every screen into a smart and contextually aware display. They enable a completely new user experience delivered on top of beacons. To make the most out of that combination, your beacons might require some changes to their operating system so that the whole platform works flawlessly, and provides even more delightful experiences.
Beacon management was once challenging at scale
Challenges can appear when working with many devices already deployed in the field. It requires well-planned logistics, a set of tools, and trained people on hand. Imagine a shop with 500 devices delivering context and location of products. Each beacon is deployed in a different spot. It’s often hidden to make it blend into the surroundings, and lets users focus on the magical experience. To keep your beacons up to date, you need to visit every single device, and spend a while next to it every time we give you some fresh and exciting upgrades. It doesn’t sound like the optimal solution, does it?
We’ve solved configuration at scale by introducing Remote Fleet Management. This mechanism allows you to integrate the configuration capabilities into any of your apps. While in use, every single instance of the application can apply pending settings centralized in Estimote Cloud. Remote Fleet Management strongly improves the time of configuration, making your changes effective in a matter of minutes. No trained crew and dedicated hardware is required, resulting in killer savings in terms of both time and money. Likewise, it’s optimized for power and network usage, so your clients aren’t charged either!
Firmware update joins Remote Fleet Management
We always ship beacons with the latest firmware possible. Beacons are used for many years, though… up to 7 years! To keep them fresh, we’ve introduced an Over-The-Air firmware update mechanism. Sophisticated under the hood, yet it’s easy for users! Single devices can be wirelessly updated with a single command, and it takes less than a minute to perform.
Now we make this mechanism a part of Remote Fleet Management! Visiting every single device to perform an update is no longer a necessity. Firmware updates can be remotely requested from the cloud and automatically applied by your users.
Make firmware updates automatic
Every single firmware update is backward compatible and properly tested. That means you don’t need to worry it will break your current setup. In this circumstance, it’s the best approach to keep your beacons always up-to-date. We let you do this by introducing the Automatic Firmware Update. With a single setting in the Estimote Cloud you can now forget about firmware updates completely! Every new version we provide will be automatically uploaded to your beacons, making amazing new features available for your use immediately.
To make the firmware updates even more efficient at scale, we are introducing Incremental Firmware Updates. This feature is a transparent iteration over previous implementation of Over-The-Air firmware updates. Original implementations could fail from time to time due to unexpected interruptions with connection to the device. To complete firmware updates, we had to start over from the beginning of the process. Incremental Firmware Updates reconnects and continues the beacon’s firmware update from an interrupted point automatically and transparently for the user. This makes updates process much faster and more reliable.
Automatic Firmware Updates in practice
Using the Automatic Firmware Updates feature is extremely simple. All you need to do is enable it using the Estimote Cloud Dashboard or Estimote Cloud API.
Firmware updates are performed on the mobile devices with the help of our Bulk Updater. We recommend you start by using one of our Bulk Updater App Templates written in Swift and Objective-C. Provided as a source code, it will act as a basic tool showing correct implementation simultaneously.
If you are ready to integrate this feature within your own application, it’s as simple as the Bulk Updater initialisation using the code snippet below:
The Firmware Update works in both the foreground and background. It’s optimized to preserve battery, and minimize network usage.
Check it out today, and let us know what you think!
Marcin Klimek, Product Manager at Estimote