How HiberHilo handles hills and trees. 

HiberHilo is made up of a few key parts. Sensors plug directly into your wells or pipelines, and gather data from your asset. Then, they transmit that data via a LoRaWAN signal to a centrally-located gateway. This gateway beams the well or pipeline data up to satellites, which then send data directly to your online dashboard.

 

In an ideal world, there would be a direct line of sight between the sensor and the gateway. But, that isn’t always the case. Hills can completely block the signal. And heavy tree canopies can weaken it. 

 

Luckily though, we’ve installed HiberHilo in some of the most remote and rugged places on the planet. Including places like Appalachia in the eastern United States, where there are hills as far as the eye can see, but HiberHilo’s regular data collection is helping our customer meet new regulatory requirements. And Papua New Guinea in the southwestern Pacific, where trees and jungle block the line of sight, but HiberHilo’s lightweight and easy installation means the crew doesn’t have to go out and visit the wells individually. 

 

In every case, we’ve used clever planning to figure out how to adapt the HiberHilo setup to the local environment. And, in every case, HiberHilo is still out there, quietly collecting data and delivering insights to teams.

 

Read on to learn more about how we approach hilly areas and canopy-covered forests. 

It all starts with careful planning. 

Whenever we start with a new customer, one of the most important things we consider is the terrain of the installation. 

 

Our team of specialists looks at everything while they’re planning the installation for you. And we mean everything. We use software to calculate the ideal location of a gateway based on topography, access, and other environmental factors. We also consider what power sources are available, and where the safest location for the gateway will be. In some cases, we may even go onsite to evaluate the access. 

 

Ultimately, we work with you as a customer to figure out what is best for our solution to operate in your terrain. Our calculations might show that you need multiple gateways or sensors in different locations. Or that we need to adjust the strength of the signal. It’s a completely open and transparent process, and you’ll see exactly how the tests and evaluations were done. 

 

 

Clever installations make a difference. 

We wrote in another article about how poles and towers are an  effective way to keep the HiberHilo gateway safe. But, they’re also an effective way to extend the signal of the gateway. 

 

In areas where there are forests or jungles, we might mount the gateway on a pole or tower that soars above the canopy layer. This can reduce the overall number of gateways needed in a field, and overcome some of the signal blockages caused by trees. 

 

In areas where there are hills, we’ll generally try to find a way to mount the gateway at the highest possible location. In mountainous areas, for example, we might mount one gateway on top of a hill, and connect all of the wells or pipelines in an underlying valley. 
 

It’s a collaborative process. 

Ultimately, tough terrain requires thoughtful installation plans. And we’ll work with you every step of the way to design a HiberHilo setup that gets all the data you need, all the time.