Liverpool facility is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University and enables businesses to explore and develop sensor technologies. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool’s £15m Sensor City has secured a number of new tenants who are keen to take advantage of its groundbreaking ‘internet of things’ technology.

The facility is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and enables businesses to explore and develop sensor technologies.

The internet of things, or the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, focuses on sensors in appliances, portable or medical devices and in manufacturing facilities that can store and send real-time information via the web.

5G partner

Open source engineer and design experts, DefProc Engineering, is the latest venture to join Sensor City’s community of innovative businesses. Established five years ago, DefProc Engineering supports individuals and businesses with products and services, including the development of ideas and the manufacturing of physical items for prototype.

The business already has connections in the sensor and IoT community as a partner of the 5G Liverpool testbed, which is being led by Sensor City.

DefProc also recently initiated ‘The Things Network’ community in Liverpool. The Things Network is a first-of-its-kind open, global and crowdsourced IoT data network.

Owned and operated by its users, the network enables people to connect small low powered devices to the internet without using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or mobile data.

It will use its new base at Sensor City to explore IoT capabilities even further, expand its team, use the space to run events and undertake the roll-out of 10 new gateways

Coaching tool

BiBCOM has also taken desk space at Sensor City to develop its new remote condition monitoring and coaching tool.

Originally based in Sheffield, the company’s innovative technology allows sports coaches to communicate directly with players during training sessions, even when on the pitch and working within a team.

Through the links with Sensor City, BiBCOM is now working with the sports science department at LJMU.

In addition to these new tenants, Sensor City has also recently seen a take-up in companies hot desking from the innovation centre to tap into the facilities and expertise on offer. These include Pin IoT, Thinnovation, and Digi-Hawk.  

Joanne Phoenix, business development manager at Sensor City said: “It’s a really busy and exciting time for us at the moment. We’re seeing more companies looking to introduce sensor and IoT technology into new and existing products and services.

“It’s great to know we’re attracting these companies to Liverpool city region as opposed to places such as London and Manchester – we’re truly moving up the ranks of what is considered a leading global hub for innovative technology.”