Interview
Bluetooth: why it’s thriving, not just surviving
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Bluetooth SIG. CIE editor, Amy Wallington talks to Martin Woolley, developer relations manager, EMEA, Bluetooth SIG about how it has become such a defining piece of technology
I
n 1998, five companies, focused on wire replacement for mobile voice and data, came together to form Bluetooth SIG.
Now, 20 years later, this number has grown to over 33,000 member companies dedicated to making and improving a wireless connection solution that is flexible, reliable, and secure. Martin Woolley thinks that Bluetooth SIG has defined the wireless market. He says: “I think in some ways it has almost defined one aspect of wireless because I think it’s fair to say this was the first wireless technology that came to the public’s attention that enabled all sorts of new things. In the very beginning it was really just about being a cable replacement technology; having two devices that would talk to each other by throwing the cable away and I think that’s where it all started. Audio is still the biggest market for us.
“People tend not to realise that there
are actually three Bluetooth technologies. Cable replacement is the original flavour of Bluetooth technology and it’s designed to handle devices that are connected for a long time, having a steady stream of data so that’s why it’s really good for audio and if you’ve got wireless headphones you’re most certainly using Bluetooth.” As already mentioned, the main part of the first Bluetooth technology was cable replacements and creating wireless mice for computers was a big market. Woolley reflects: “I don’t think anyone else was doing that and it helped to define a new segment largely for consumer electronic products.”
In 2010, the second phase of Bluetooth
was released called Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). “This was designed for very different applications so instead of a steady stream
of data it’s all about small amounts of data and being really optimised and using hardly any power at all,” explains Woolley. “One example where BLE is used is indoor navigation systems. Commonly used in exhibitions and museums for example, when you walk into a room the Bluetooth beacons transmits its unique ID to your app which then tells you what room you’re in and what is in there. Also things like activity trackers use BLE and it’s obviously in every smart phone on the planet. So that’s a whole set of products that could be made and problems that could be solved that we couldn’t do before because there wasn’t any technology around like BLE. That’s another major intermediate in how Bluetooth has established itself and grown.” The key difference between the original first phase of Bluetooth and BLE is that the original is simply a cable replacement technology, having two devices connecting and talking without the cable. BLE does this as well but it also has the ability to broadcast, which is one device talking to potentially thousands. The Bluetooth beacons allow a device to broadcast to any other device that is in range. Step three in Bluetooth’s journey so far is Bluetooth Mesh which was released last
12 June 2018 Components in Electronics
year (2017). “We have gone from the point to point cable replacement technology in the first phase to the optimised, very efficient BLE that can also broadcast, to today where we can create networks of many thousands of devices; 32,767 is the maximum number to be precise,” says Woolley.
This technology is designed to be more
efficient, making better environments and saving money within commercial buildings. Woolley explains: “Many governments around the world already have legislations in place to force buildings to be energy efficient when designed and built. They define really challenging targets that you can’t meet without deploying a technology like Bluetooth Mesh.”
It has been particularly popular in the lighting market. Woolley comments: “Commercial buildings are really complex; they are full of different types of systems such as lighting, air conditioning, heating, etc. The Bluetooth Mesh Network solution lets you create buildings that are really clever and can self optimise. It allows sensors to communicate with each other so it knows when to dim the lights or have them brighter, or how to control the heating and air conditioning, and this means saving money and energy.
www.cieonline.co.uk
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