AGIP Selects S3 ID Personnel Safety Solution Based on Ubisense for the World's Largest Geographic Deployment of a Real-time Personnel Location and Mustering System in Kazakhstan

CAMBRIDGE, England, August 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Ubisense, a market leader in location-based smart technology, today announces that S3 ID, its partner in the oil and gas industry, has entered into an agreement with AGIP to deploy an integrated personnel security system at its facility in Kazakhstan. The solution, which uses unique technology from Ubisense, will play an important role in creating and maintaining the safety and security of personnel at the facility.

In all cases of a major incident in a hazardous environment, it is crucial for the emergency response service to know exactly who was present on the facility at the time of the incident and exactly who is accounted for after the incident, usually at muster points, so that any persons unaccounted for may be searched for and rescued. The system being selected by AGIP will enable this information to be available instantaneously at multiple locations on and off site, ensuring enhanced personnel safety and security.

S3 ID, working with the unique Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) solutions from Ubisense, works with organisations that have personnel working in hazardous environments to provide real-time personnel location awareness, mustering and access control of safety and security solutions. Whilst the primary function of the technology is to enhance safety, it can also be used for access control and security purposes, managing personnel logistics and automatically recording time and attendance on-site.

By using the UWB tags from Ubisense, the system can also provide a more accurate, contactless monitoring solution. Users will wear a small battery powered tag that, when read by sensors, can provide precise three-dimensional location information to an accuracy of better than half a metre at ranges of up to 200m. As the tag reading is contactless, reading is performed automatically, which is crucial in rapid mustering scenarios.

Richard Green, CEO of Ubisense, said: "We are delighted to be working with S3 ID on this critically important project for AGIP in Kazakhstan. The ability of our UWB solutions to provide accurate, precise and three-dimensional location information is increasingly important to a number of manufacturing industries and also for the people working in those more hazardous environments."

Doug Woodbridge, Sales and Marketing VP S3 ID, commented: "Selection by AGIP is recognition of the unique position of S3 ID in the provision of location-aware safety and mustering systems to the oil and gas industry."

The S3 ID system is commonly used to know where personnel are, for example to control the maximum "Personnel on Board" in a specified environment. However, tags can also be used for rapid electronic mustering, access control and security purposes. Tags can even be used to control permits to work and electronically validate "permissions" allowing only authorised personnel to use specific control systems by automatically granting (or denying) them access subject to permissions allocated on the central database. Even time and attendance at a given location can be recorded if required. Beyond these more common uses, knowing the location and disposition of all personnel in a crisis can also enable pro-active management of the situation (crisis management).

About S3ID

S3 ID is an international company providing world-class, cutting-edge "location awareness" solutions and is the manufacturer of the acclaimed S3 range of products spanning everything from personnel and asset tracking, personnel on board or on site (POB/POS), mustering, access control, safety and security to travel logistics management, shift rotation planning and bed management.

About Ubisense

Ubisense is a market leader of location-based smart technology which enables companies to optimise their business processes. By keeping track of key assets, Ubisense solutions bring clarity to complex operations in industries while also improving quality and reliability. Ubisense uses a unique combination of advanced industry knowledge and an experienced team to deliver effective and superior solutions that offer unprecedented visibility, control and accuracy, delivering time and cost savings. Ubisense solutions are easy to implement and flexible to a particular businesses needs, no matter which area of the globe they operate in.

Ubisense offers two location-oriented products; RTLS (Real-time Location Solutions) and Geospatial Systems, and operates in a number of industries ranging from manufacturing and utilities to telecommunications and is used by a number of blue chip customers across the world, such as BMW, Airbus, Aston Martin, Caterpillar and Deutsche Telekom.