What is a beacon?

Check out our great infographic for a quick overview.

A beacon is a small, electronic device based on Bluetooth Low Energy® which broadcasts radio signals called advertising packets.

These signals can be received by any device which is in range and equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 e.g. smartphones such as Apple iPhone™ 5S or Samsung™ Galaxy S5. Devices do no need to 'pair' with beacons to be able to receive advertising packets.

When a mobile device receives an advertising packet, the distance and relative location from the Beacon can be calculated without the need for other systems such as GPS. This ability creates many opportunities to use Beacons, for example, content can be loaded from the Internet to smartphone with a proprietary app, when it gets close to a given beacon.

Google has provided other uses for beacons without the need of an app through the Physical Web or Nearby Notifications.

Our basic Beacon model is equipped with two CR2477 coin battery which, thanks to the beacon's low power consumption, can run for up to 48 months on default settings (interval of 625ms).  

The maximum range of the broadcast signal depends on the transmission power setting, as well as the environment devices are in as the signal can be diffracted or absorbed.

By default, transmission power is set to -12 dBm, and the default advertising interval is 350ms or 625ms depending on the beacon model.  These two values and other parameters, can be set by the user.

Users can set different parameters for their beacons, such as the Advertising interval and Tx Power, among others. It is also possible to update firmware over the air or restore beacons to their default settings.  

Key features

• Broadcast advertising packets based on Bluetooth LE® (4.0)
• Compatibility with all Bluetooth 4.0 devices
• Compatibility with both Apple iBeacon™ standard and Google Eddystone™ standard
• Configurable parameters protected by password:
       * Proximity UUID, Major and Minor values
       * Device name
       * Transmission power level
       * Advertising interval
• Over-the-air firmware upgrade
• Low power consumption
• Up to 48 months of each battery operation life at default settings (Basic Beacon model)
• Weather-proof hardware casing allowing for outdoor usage

Come and visit our store to learn more about our different products.