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The early darkening of the sky brings with it the first rumours of the coming winter and, as long shadows creep on padded paws over the Randpark Golf Course and the day sheds its golden skin, a chill descends on the groomed slopes like a spectral army. Somewhere, the lonely croak of a bullfrog heralds the arrival of nightfall and, before long, other voices join in the sombre nocturnal choir.

Among the voices are those of the CENTURION staff frantically working at setting the scene for this evening’s grand finale, a demonstration of the awesome power of our brand new wireless solution. Meanwhile, the club’s Azalea Hall is a hive of activity as final preparations are made for a launch event unlike any other. In just a few short moments, CENTURION national branch manager Johan Lessing will be transporting the audience to the world of tomorrow.

We won’t be needing the keys to the DeLorean tonight, though, for as the audience will soon discover, the future is right now.

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“Are you ready to go?” Lessing wants to know, and the response is a unanimous – and emphatic – yes.

“But, before we transport you to the world of tomorrow, we first need to take a journey to the past”, explains Lessing – our shepherd on this journey through time and space – before launching into a brief overview of CENTURION’s maiden voyage into the vast and, at the time, uncharted waters of GSM-based monitoring and control, the unexpectedly successful G-SWITCH-22.

Lessing traces the genesis of CENTURION’s GSM technology, plotting its trajectory from humble, uncertain beginnings, to being a gateway to a wireless future; a powerful and versatile solution that forms the backbone of the wonder that the audience will be witnessing tonight.

The G-SWITCH’s successor, the G-ULTRA – launched to massive acclaim at last year’s inaugural Access Automation Expo and the subject of the next chapter of the presentation – ushered in a new era in mobile-based access automation, combining advanced functionality and diagnostics with a sleek, modern design befitting such a futuristic solution.

Next up is the evening’s first big revelation: the unveiling of CENTURION’s brand new mobile app, G-REMOTE.

With the G-ULTRA, we addressed many of the issues faced by our trade clients, such as ease of installation and setup, as well as access to intelligent diagnostics. We felt, however, that we owed it to our end-user client-base to provide them with a convenient means of monitoring and controlling systems that have been connected to their G-ULTRA devices. It is this realisation that informed the decision to create the G-REMOTE mobile app, an intuitive command centre for users to monitor and activate their CENTURION GSM devices using their smartphones.

It was time for us to bring GSM control into the 21st century, and the old activation philosophy of missed calls and SMSs simply seemed too primitive for such a polished product. G-REMOTE allows for virtually instantaneous output activations via fully customisable in-app buttons, as well as lightning-speed notifications pushed to multiple users at a fraction of the cost of older communication methodologies.

Lessing proceeds to demonstrate both of these impressive features, and the audience is visibly amazed. A single tap to the screen of the presenter’s mobile phone screen breathes instant life into the three V-Series gate motors mounted on a tri-gate to his right.

To emphasise the anachronistic nature of complicated and convoluted SMS command strings – which, in the past, were commonly used to configure GSM devices – Lessing compares this outmoded technology to “cathode ray tube TVs and dial-up modems”, before elaborating on the ease with which G-REMOTE can perform output activations.

“With our intelligent and intuitive mobile app, you can activate outputs with a single tap. Personalise your experience by choosing from a range of custom icons to denote the functionality of a given output”.

The time has finally come to reveal to the audience the real star of tonight’s show, the piece de resistance, the apotheosis of CENTURION’s wireless universe.

The WiZo-Link is, to all intents and purposes, a wireless wire: an unbelievably powerful solution that uses robust mesh network technology to create an always-connected, ultra-secure wireless environment that can be used to remotely monitor and control virtually anything.

Wireless bidirectional communication

Each WiZo-Link device, or node, to use the nomenclature typically associated with systems of this nature, has been imbued with flexible dual-role functionality, acting as both receiver and transmitter. What this essentially means, is that you can activate a device, and receive near-instantaneous feedback that the command has been received and executed.

Mesh network technology

Wireless technology, for the most part, is somewhat unreliable. It’s prone to interference caused by environmental changes, susceptible to noise, and it can be jammed.

This may be true of traditional, point-to-point communication protocols, but mesh networks are different. Mesh networks are robust, they are adaptable, they are secure, and they are fully scalable in terms of size and range, with each new node added to the system acting as a repeater and strengthening the network.

Send-and-acknowledge

In a traditional transmitter-receiver relationship, there’s no signal persistence. In other words, if there’s something obstructing the signal transmission, the transmitter would fire once and then quite simply give up.

The WiZo is a die-hard device, and it doesn’t take “no” for an answer. When a WiZo is given a command to communicate with another device in the network, it’ll keep on knocking until someone opens the door. In other words, the device will relentlessly keep on transmitting its signal until the obstruction has been cleared and it receives acknowledgement that the signal has been received and the command carried out.

The convergence of these three powerful technologies – the G-ULTRA, the G-REMOTE and the WiZo-Link – creates a reliable and robust wireless ecosystem that can be grown to almost any size, and what it can be used for is limited only by the user’s imagination. CENTURION’s solution isn’t dependent on range, it’s immune to interference and jamming, and it intelligently adapts to changes in the environment.

It is at this point that Lessing leads the spellbound audience out onto the balcony overlooking the golf course, now completely shrouded in darkness. Resembling a villain in a bond movie, he unlocks a clandestine-looking briefcase to reveal a kill switch, which he hands to a member of the audience.

“Rohan, will you do the honours?”

There is an awed hush as Rohan slowly places the palm of his hand on the auspicious switch, and the very air has become pregnant with anticipation. As he pushes down, one can almost hear Doc Brown – played by character actor Christopher Lloyd in the Back to the Future movie franchise – exclaim his iconic catch phrase of “Great Scott!” in sheer wonder and disbelief at what has just happened.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” intones Lessing, “I give you the full potential of the WiZo network”.

To find out more about our versatile and powerful wireless solution, visit its official web page.

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