Case study: shining at DEMO technology trade show

Infra-Com

Summary:
In January 1999, DDC was retained by Infra-Com, Ltd. in Tel Aviv to popularize Red Beamer, the company’s groundbreaking omni-directional Infrared platform technology. They needed to establish themselves in the market place virtually overnight as a viable alternative to the prevailing RF-based wireless devices. In addition, IR technology had the reputation for being a platform that showed promise but never really made it—partly because of the impracticality of requiring line-of-site for functionality. Differentiating Infra-Com from RF and from standard IR meant that we had many stratetic bull's eyes to hit with only a few weeks of lead time.

Strategy and Results:
Within a day of signing the contract, DDC arranged for the company to be included in the itinerary of DEMO’s executive director Chris Shipley, who was visiting Israel in a last-minute scouting mission before her February gala conference. Chris not only invited Infra-Com to unveil Red Beamer at DEMO, but subsequently wrote a strong letter of endorsement for their Ir-Gate technology. In one month, DDC placed stories for Infra-Com on CNN International, in The Wall Street Journal, ZDNN, PC Magazine, InfoWorld, PC World, Computerworld Canada, PC Week, Windows, Reuters, Popular Science, and Interactive Week.

In January 2002, Infra-Com hired us again to introduce their new IRGT801A chipset version, which creates secure, wireless “roomnets.” The advantages over the popular Bluetooth technology were spelled out in a bylined article we placed in Wireless Systems Design Magazine for the company’s CEO. At the Wireless Systems Design Conference 2002 we introduced Infra-Com to potential OEM partners, technology reporters and the analyst community. Along with many technical articles running in trade publications, a notable review (below) ran in the New York Times Circuits section:

April 18, 2002

SIGNALS

Look, Ma, No Tangle of Wires, Just Beams of Infrared Light

By AARON DONOVAN

Behind the typical stereo or computer is a rat's nest of wires connecting the speakers to the CD player, or the monitor, mouse and printer to the C.P.U. Infra-Com, an Israeli optical communications company, is developing a system to replace that rat's nest with infrared light signals.

Those beams of invisible light can be bounced off ceilings, walls, furniture and even people. "Every surface is a mirror for infrared," said Tamir Shaanan, Infra-Com's chief executive.

The system, called IrGT801A, transmits wireless signals up to 24 feet. There is no central unit: an infrared transceiver in each of the hardware devices in the network connects them to one another. A mockup shows a laptop's PCMCIA card with a photosensor surrounded by four infrared light-emitting diodes.

Unlike Bluetooth and other wireless technologies based on radio frequencies, the system cannot interfere with or be affected by communications from other appliances, Mr. Shaanan said. Because infrared light does not travel through walls as radio waves do, a wireless optical system in one room does not interfere with one in another room.

Infra-Com plans to sell the rights to produce the technology to manufacturers in the United States and Europe next year. It expects the manufacturing cost for a typical transceiver to be about $2.50, which Mr. Shaanan said was less than half that of a transceiver that uses radio waves.