Bluetooth Beacons

Deploying a Bluetooth beacon in each space allows the facilities and maintenance teams on site to locate and view asset data quickly and easily using the native Twinview iOS and Android mobile apps.

Supported Beacon Types

Twinview will work with any beacon and supports iBeacons, Eddystone Beacons, and generic BLE Beacons.

The Beacon relationship is to the Room and not the asset. This means only one beacon per space is needed (depending on the space area), making deploying this technology on the building affordable compared to other solutions where the beacon is associated with each asset.

Because the beacon relationship is between the Room, it is also possible that your building may already have Bluetooth beacons installed in each space, especially if you are using the latest generation Cisco or Meraki Wi-Fi access points.

Step 1: Configuring the Beacons

We need to configure the beacons' UUIDs and their Major and Minor values. You should follow the manufacturer's instructions on how to set these values. This can be done as a desktop exercise on all your beacons before deploying them to the site.

Step 1.1: Setting the Beacon UUID.

All beacons on your project should be configured to have the exact same Beacon UUID. You should make the beacon non-descriptive. An example of a good UUID would be :

 

We highly recommend using an online UUID generator tool like https://www.uuidgenerator.net to generate the UUID.

Step 1.2 - Setting the Beacon's Major and Minor values.

The beacon's Major and Minor values make each beacon unique to its location, similar to an IP address. We recommend using the following methodology for assigning the Major and Minor Values.

Major Value = Floor Level (e.g. 1)

Minor Value = Room Number (e.g. 10)

*Try and keep a spacing of 10 between any Minor vales, this will allow for expandability future.

Once you have configured the beacons, we recommend producing a schedule as above to help you install them on-site.

Step 2: Enabling Beacons and assigning the Beacons to a Room/Space in Twinview

Firstly, we must tell Twinview our Beacon UUID for the project. This is the UUID we created in Step 1.1 above.

While in the project, click on the 'Project Settings' menu item on the main-left menu.

On the 'General Settings' tab is a field called 'Beacon UUID'. Add your beacon UUID and then click 'Save'.

Now, we need to associate each individual device with its corresponding room. To do this, open the Settings dialogue back up, click the 'Room / Spaces' tab, and then click the 'Beacons' button.

Here, you can start adding your beacons by clicking the 'Add' button in the top right.

You can now give the beacon a name, select the associated room and enter the Major and Minor values that you configured earlier. Once done, click 'Save'.

Step 3: Installing the Beacons on site

Once you have added all the beacons to Twinview, the next step is to install them in their corresponding rooms in the building. It's important to try to locate the beacons as close to the centre of the room as possible. Above ceiling tiles or hidden away in floor boxes make ideal locations.

Stage 3.1 - Fine Tuning

Although the integration and functionality should work straight away without much tweaking, there are some scenarios in which adjusting some of the beacons' settings will be required.

RF Transmission Power - This refers to the power level at which the signal will be transmitted. The larger the RF Power, the faster the battery will be consumed. Think of this as a sphere around the beacon; the stronger the RF value, the larger the sphere. For small rooms where having a larger value would not make a difference, you can reduce this value to save battery. You may want to increase the RF value for large rooms instead of adding an additional Beacon to the space.

You adjust the RF value in your beacon settings. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your specific beacons.

Polling Frequency - This is the frequency at which the Beacon checks for presence (in milliseconds). Many beacons have this value set to have a very high polling frequency by default. For the purpose of Twinview, we don't necessarily need a very high poll rate for base functionality, and the higher the poll rate, the faster the battery is consumed. A poll rate of 625 milliseconds (about half a second) is what we would recommend for most scenarios.

You adjust the polling frequency value in your beacons settings. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your specific beacons.

Step 4: Using the 'find assets near me' feature in the Twinview mobile application.

When on a list view in the mobile app, such as the Maintainable Asset list, just click the 'Near Me' button to filter the results to items in your space.