Dear Santa,
It’s great to start a letter by recognizing that 2019 has again been a truly astonishing year. Not only the tide of RAIN business has been positive, but also the talent pool is headed in the right direction.
Take an example, Mr. Sipi Savolainen, a veteran of UPM, Smartrac, and Walki, made a 1-year detour to now find himself back in RAIN business at StoraEnso. We’ve also been fortunate to hire new talents to further expand our own team in Finland.
2019 Cleared Many Issues off the Slate
In my letter to you a year ago I called for the embracing of mistakes. Despite intensive mental training, I still find it difficult to embrace Brexit for any other aspect than the fact that apparently, it was what the majority of Britons want. In 2020 they are going to get it, and no Santa Claus is needed in the process.
I’ve also been pleased to note that through the year 2019 the tag flooding issue has been in discussions in RAIN meetings and beyond. This means awareness is increasing and technology vendors are better informed of how tag flooding can be dealt with.
2020 Prepares Vendors for a Global Harmonized Frequency Band
On the positive gains, the upper ETSI band is way clearer now – the globe will have a harmonized RAIN RFID frequency band. Germany remains a notable exception, but let’s not let that hold back the vast majority of deployment in other areas. The timeline for the adoption is still not clear due to the following reasons:
- The national regulatory bodies are not very transparent to outsiders on their progress
- The RAIN technology vendors, specifically reader and antenna manufacturers, don’t yet have all the needed products available
- The RAIN solution providers in Europe have not prepared themselves to endorse and take benefit of the new reader channels
With that said, would you kindly help turn the year 2020 into a preparatory period that clears the issues 2. And 3. off the table?
2020 – Tire Industry and Automotive to Find Common RFID Practices
After four years of work at the ISO TC31 WG 10, the ISO Tire RFID standard family already saw the publication of the first two sections, the ISO 20909 and ISO 20910. The two remaining ones are slightly late of schedule but should go public on H1/2020.
The publication of the ISO 20909 family marks an important milestone in the co-operation among tire manufacturers. What I would next hope to see is tire companies, automotive manufacturers, and related associations, such as VDA, to define common practices and thus enjoy maximal leverage of RAIN-enabled tires and other car parts.
