Item-level RFID infrastructure provider TAGSYS today announced it has joined with RFID reader specialist Sirit to combine TAGSYS' RFID systems and software with Sirit's UHF reader technology. The partnership initially will produce a rebranded UHF fixed reader aimed at pharmaceutical and fashion apparel manufacturers, and then will expand to include the integration of TAGSYS software as well as additional products using a combination of both companies' technologies.
TAGSYS, known for providing high-frequency (HF) RFID products for item-level applications, looked to the Sirit partnership to reach new customers that use UHF rather than HF, said P.V. Subramanian, product marketing director for hardware at TAGSYS, in an interview.
The new product, called the RXU400 UHF fixed reader, will be based on Sirit's Infinity 510 reader platform and is slated for availability as early as next month.
"TAGSYS understands there are applications where HF works really well and where UHF works very well and we want to be able to satisfy the needs of customers in both areas," Subramanian said. "We don't want to be any part of a religious debate" over which frequency level is superior, he said.
The partnership will begin with a rebranding of Sirit's Infinity 510 reader under the TAGSYS name and will incorporate TAGSYS' e-connectware software at the interface level later this year. e-connectware, first rolled out by TAGSYS early in 2007, is used to manage and control RFID devices while optimizing the data collected by readers. The software also processes data directly on the device instead of communicating with a back-end server each time a tag is read.
One of the key reasons TAGSYS pursued a partnership with Sirit was its support for both U.S. and European UHF regulations, which can vary greatly, Subramanian said. The regulatory concern isn't a factor with HF, which has consistent regulations, regardless of country of origin or use, he added. Compatibility and competitive overlap between the two companies also played into the partnership decision, Subramanian said.
TAGSYS has engaged in various pilots or "mini" deployments during the past 12 to 18 months with customers located primarily in Europe, using a mix of UHF technology from several RFID vendors, but the company lacked what Subramanian called a "coherent product portfolio based around a reader."
TAGSYS will remain focused on item-level applications, despite the fact that UHF usually is associated with case and pallet scenarios. According to Subramanian, pharmaceutical manufacturers with item-level track-and-trace requirements are split more or less evenly between UHF and HF deployments. Fashion companies also are split, he said, but tend to gravitate toward UHF.
Historically, HF has been appropriate for item-level applications because of its near field range and high read rate accuracy. UHF, by contrast, has been capable of higher read rates with the trade-off of lower accuracy. However, Subramanian said, recent developments in near field UHF hardware such as antennas and tags have made it more suitable for item-level applications.
"The industry has evolved over the last four or five years to a point where there are enough products readily available from a variety of vendors to meet different application needs," Subramanian said. "Either technology can work, provided you build the system correctly."
After the release of the fixed reader, TAGSYS plans to market a UHF tunnel, a device that sits over a high-speed conveyor belt and can track both items and cases simultaneously, a product that Subramanian said is highly sought in both of the company's target verticals, pharmaceuticals and apparel.
The company is also considering building a "portal" reader system for the fashion industry that would be used to track the movement of items within a store and reconcile information with a back-end database, Subramanian said.
The RXU400 UHF fixed reader lists at $2,995 and can accommodate four separate antennas, enough for full coverage of a small room. The RFID tunnel system likely will fall within the range of $30,000 to $50,000, Subramanian said, depending on the size and speed of the conveyor system it works with.
Subramanian said the UHF products will be included in TAGSYS' Six Sigma Performance Program, which the company rolled out last year to provide formal quality-of-service performance guarantees in item-level RFID track-and-trace processes.