Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that uses a radio frequency to exchange data between devices. It is ubiquitous, with millions of Americans using it each day to pair their earphones to a smartphone, link a battery-powered mouse to their laptop, or measure how many steps they walked in a day, and now it is increasingly being deployed in largescale environments to control, monitor and automate building systems and processes.
Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi use radio signals for wireless communication, but while the two technologies have some similarities, Bluetooth is used primarily for sharing data over short distances using low power. On one recent Omni project at a food processing plant, Bluetooth was used widely throughout the facility to provide easy monitoring and control of instruments located in difficult-to-reach areas such as elevated pipe racks and on top of tanks. Another Omni client utilizes Bluetooth to connect to thirty-eight packaged HVAC units at its corporate headquarters, enabling the facilities director to check temperature, flow, maintenance status, trend logs, and alarms from their PC or mobile device. Bluetooth is also frequently used in advanced lighting systems, security, occupancy sensors, VFDs, electrical substations, and various other applications.
About Omni
Omni Instrumentation & Electrical Services, Inc., located in New Jersey and Maryland, is a premier instrumentation and electrical contractor, providing superior total care solutions since 1986. Services include instrument installation, tubing installation, instrument calibration, control loop testing, startup and commissioning, power and lighting, process control wiring, BMS wiring, telecommunications and data wiring, fire alarm wiring, security wiring, process network wiring, and control panel fabrication. Omni Instrumentation & Electrical Services, Inc., is certified in Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus, DeviceNet and ASI-Bus installation.