On Tuesday of this week, Crossbow announced the release of ēKo™ Pro Series, a turnkey live data, wireless crop monitoring system enabling precision agriculture. The ēKo Pro Series follows Crossbow’s already popular sensor and navigation solutions for heavy agricultural equipment. See the video below for additional details.
ēKo™ represents the next generation in crop monitoring and precision agriculture techniques, employing a mesh network of wireless sensors and providing vital live data about crop health, vigor and growth progress via a simple internet browser. Among others, the ēKo Pro Series monitoring solution features the following innovations:
• Solar-powered, field-deployed wireless sensor nodes, which require no electrical power so that sensors can be placed where needed.
• Simple-to-use, web-based data viewing that allows remote access to live sensor data, critical trend charts and alarm settings - all of which are highly customizable.
• Leading-edge, reliable wireless mesh network technology that is self-configuring and self-healing, thus providing effortless setup and easy scalability, where additional wireless nodes and sensors can be added easily by non-technical users.
ēKo Pro Series drives increased profits and competitive advantage by enabling lower input costs, mitigating crop loss risks, increasing per-acre yields, and delivering higher quality crops with greater consistency.
“ēKo Pro Series enables growers to consistently improve yield and quality regardless of the variability in the terrain, soil or micro-climates,” said Robert Robinson, VP of Sales and Marketing at Crossbow. “Growers can now overcome the traditional trade off between higher yields vs. higher quality and can achieve a higher average price on larger harvests consistently by executing precision agriculture techniques with ēKo Pro Series data."
ēKo eliminates concerns about reliability and complexity in applying wireless technology to deficit irrigation and precision agriculture by delivering a more integrated solution including all the sensors, software application, sensor nodes, and network components that growers need to quickly and easily deploy a wireless monitoring system.
“ēKo takes crop monitoring using wireless technology to whole new levels in terms of reliability, flexibility, and ease,” said Alan Broad, Director of Environmental Products at Crossbow. “Its mesh based architecture with capabilities such as data re-routing, self-organizing/self-healing network, autodetection of new nodes delivers proven reliability, effortless deployment, and easy scalability. Moreover, the unique sensor interface provides the flexibility to add any sensor from third-party vendors in the future."
The ēKo Pro Series Starter Kit provides a quick, easy way to get started with wireless monitoring. It includes an ēKo Pro Series Network Gateway, 3 ēKo Pro Series wireless nodes, 6 soil moisture/ temperature sensors, 1 ambient temperature sensor, and built-in web-based monitoring application. Additional wireless nodes and sensors are simple to add. The new ēKo Pro Series will begin shipping in volume in April 2008. Pricing and advanced sales inquiries may be directed to sales@xbow.com. Crossbow previewed the ēKo Pro Series at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento, California on January 29-31 this week. To learn more about the use of ēKo for wireless crop monitoring, visit www.xbow.com/eKo.
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