An Inverness firm is tackling the problem of connecting to the internet in some of the Highlands and Islands’ most remote spots with pioneering trailer-mounted technology.
The sophisticated electronic kit developed by External Reality is designed to provide companies working at sites beyond the range of cable or mobile phone connections with a portable satellite link.
With a number of the £10,000 Sinect TMS (trailer mounted satellite) units already ordered by a firm in the north, the company’s founder Richard Allan plans to market them across the UK and internationally.
Mr Allan and his technical team spent almost a year developing the system and have joined forces with local firm D.R. Alexander and Sons to source the trailers required to transport the units.
Mr Allan said: “The problem we were trying to solve during our nine-to-10 months of development work was how to get internet access out to wind farm sites, hydro-electric schemes, water treatment plants, power sub-stations and road construction projects where there’s no cable, landline or mobile phone access.
“Carried on board the Sinect is a dome housing a small dish which automatically aligns to a satellite to become a high-powered internet access point within just a couple of minutes. The unit, which has a list price of just under £10,000, can be plugged into any on-site power source but also carries its own batteries to make it completely free standing.”
He added: “In the past internet access to these sites would takes days or even weeks to set up with engineers having to come out to get things up and running.
“With the Sinect you don’t have any of that. There’s no need for an engineer because the system can be operated by anyone.”
Mr Allan believes his company is the first to offer a trailer-based satellite connection system. Four of the units have, he said, been ordered by a large company in Inverness, which plans to hire them out to sites across the north Highlands.
“We’ll see how it goes in Scotland and then it’s our intention to take it right across the UK and then after that perhaps internationally,” he added.
The first units produced by the company are mounted on rugged 6ft by 4ft domestic trailers manufacutred by Welsh company Ifor Williams.
Mr Allan added: “We picked Ifor Williams Trailers because of their reputation for being solid, robust and adaptable. Up here in the Highlands there’s not many farms where you don’t see one of their trailers in use and I know it’s the same right across the UK and the world.
“We initially asked the distributor for this area, D.R. Alexander and Son, to supply five P6e trailers for mounting the Sinect as they are designed for use in some very remote and rugged terrain.”
Mark Alexander, managing director of the family-run trailer business said he hoped the deal would be the start of a continuing relationship with the technology firm.
He said: “We’re delighted to have sold five trailers to External Reality Ltd who were looking for something capable of going on and off-road over rough terrain to some very remote sites.
“The Ifor Williams P6e is ideal for their needs. It’s basically a small domestic trailer measuring 6ft 6ins long by 4ft wide but is extremely ruggedly built.
“On the road they can be towed by a family car, off road they can even be towed by a quad bike. This has been a very nice order for us and, hopefully, just the start of our association with External Reality Ltd, which is based just a few minutes away from us in Inverness.”
Andy Reece-Jones, design engineering manager at Ifor Williams Trailers, said: “It never ceases to amaze me the ingenious uses people find for our trailers and this is a brilliant example of thinking outside the box. It’s also a testament to the rugged durability of our products.”
Mr Allan launched External Reality last year. He had previously worked in the information technology industry for 17 years, including seven with the Inverness-based Global Energy Group, as lead infrastructure engineer.
While with the firm he managed a radio tower project linking a number of its sites.
External Reality also provides business technology consultancy, contract services and hardware or software solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.
