What motivated your company to participate in the Global Tech Awards?

We had been watching the nominations during the previous years and, the technological industry being so new and effervescent, we believe it’s really important to recognize every contributor’s impact on the world we live in today. Technology makes our day-to-day simpler, more efficient and safer, and our company strives to do exactly that for industrial environments. We wanted to share our knowledge and our solutions.

Could you share an overview of the project or innovation your company submitted?

In the heart of even the most remote open-pit or underground mines, Ambra creates and deploys a robust and reliable private LTE/5G network tailored to each mine’s needs, intricately woven to ensure seamless communication. Within this network, discreet yet powerful Ambra beacons are strategically positioned, emitting unique identifiers locally and, empowered by the network, connected devices gather the information to relay crucial data to our iPS core. Complementing this infrastructure is a cutting-edge tracking controller seamlessly integrated into the network, mapping each beacon's identifier to its precise spatial coordinates in real time. Beyond tracking, this solution boasts integration capabilities, allowing the integration of data from other systems, integration with third-party technologies (VOD, other location equipment vendor, etc), auto-creation of unsurveyed or drawn maps, high accuracy positioning in real-time and review travel history. Intercepting the beacon identifier transmitted via the radio frequency network by the communication device and leveraging the tracking data repository to match the received identifier with its corresponding spatial coordinates, the data culminates at the control center where it is analyzed and aggregated to be visualized on an accurate 3D interface in real-time, facilitating near-instantaneous critical decision-making. With this innovative patented solution, pinpointing the exact location of all connected communication devices within the remote environment becomes seamless and efficient, making mines not only optimally performant but most of all, ensuring the safety of their workers.

How has your team worked together to bring this innovation to life?

Over the course of several years, many people on our team were solicited on this. First, our clients played the first important part in this because they were the ones who brought their challenges to light, and that’s when we realized that we could answer those needs. We looked at what solutions existed on the market and what was missing. We then gathered our Research and Development team, our Software Engineering team, and other relevant minds within our company to brainstorm on creating a solution tailored to difficult, challenging, industrial environments, whether underground or above-ground, no matter how much personnel or equipment they needed to connect. The first draft was tested in-house by various employees, we asked our marketing team to recommend visual enhancements and ways to make the user experience more attractive and seamless and after a few iterations, we were ready to test the near-final version in a live facility, thanks to the collaboration of a trusted client. It was a blessing to have the feedback of people on the field, which was very positive, and gave us the confidence to send our baby out there, knowing that many enterprises would benefit from it.

What impact do you anticipate your innovation will have on the tech industry or society at large?

We specialize in creating and deploying telecommunication solutions for environments that are notoriously challenging, not only operationally, but also dangerous for the human beings working within them, not to mention the less-than-ideal conditions due to dirt, heat and weather. The number of accidents and injuries in such environments is painfully high and surprising, even for people who have been in such industries for a long time. People can now work from the comfort of a seat in a heated room remote-controlling equipment at the surface rather than spending their day underground without natural light, in the heat and mud, breathing dust and humidity. But also, for those who work in these conditions, because even though it is rough, such jobs do have a certain appeal, we facilitate their day-to-day by being able to locate all equipment and making troubleshooting and maintenance significantly easier for them and, most importantly, ensuring their safety at all times by being able to locate each and everyone in real-time in case of an emergency.

Are there any specific challenges you faced during the development process, and how did you overcome them?

There were definitely many challenges that we had to overcome to achieve our vision for this project. First off, labour being a challenge for most industries nowadays, and even more so underground, we had to design a solution so failproof and user-friendly that it could be deployed and maintained by anyone on the field. Another difficulty caused by our clients’ terrain which mostly consists in underground mines is the fact that we had to adapt the radiofrequency (RF) propagation, which is very different in a tunnel than in an above-ground open space environment. We had to find the right RF frequencies and components that could provide the optimal speed and distance. And last but not least, we aren’t a mining company – we are a telecom engineering firm. This means that we needed access to an underground environment in which we could test our product and make sure it complied with all of the security, efficiency and reliability requirements that we had set. This could have been a very difficult task, but we are fortunate enough to work with great clients such as AgnicoEagle, who participated in the testing and supported us throughout the development of our solution.

How does your company foster a culture of innovation?

First off, everyone has access to everyone. Conversation isn’t determined by hierarchy and degrees, which gives each employee the legitimacy to share ideas and constructive criticism. Everyone at Ambra contributes closely or indirectly to our solutions. Also, we value client relationships. We engage the conversation with all of our clients in order to monitor the quality of our solutions but also to be able to act upon any challenge they might encounter and create a solution tailored to their specific needs, which might turn out to be many other business’s needs as well. There is no problem for which we haven’t found a solution, and until the world has no technological issue to be resolved, we will keep putting our expertise to good use and think outside the box.

What advice would you give to other companies striving to make an impact in the tech space?

Don’t try to create something revolutionary. Start by listening to your clients, your employees, and your world and ask yourself what they really need. Can you provide for them? If the answer is yes, that’s the revolutionary thing you can do.

What are your company’s future goals, and how do you plan to drive advancements in your industry?

Our goal is to keep finding solutions to the industry’s problems. And we will do it by any means possible. If something is missing, we will find it. If something doesn’t exist, we’ll create it. If we need more brains, we’ll hire. If we need to team up, we’ll find partners. Our motivation is to do better for industries to be better.

Are there any emerging technologies or trends your company is particularly excited about?

Obviously, our company has been, and will always be, focused on making our customers’ operations safer and more efficient. Hence, we can say that our vision and projects are driven by the 4.0 industry which we follow closely and contribute to as much as we can. We are very fortunate to be at the forefront of the new “highway” that will enable so many future use cases and new data collection thanks to the emerging technologies, and that’s more than enough to keep us motivated! We always keep an eye out for new innovations and make sure to contribute to a safer and smarter world every day.