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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to The Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: As always, my focus is on exploring the intersection of

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Speaker 1: technology and business by having conversations with the most forward

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Speaker 1: thinking leaders. Throughout my career, I've covered everything from massive

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Speaker 1: parallel processing to advanced robotics, but what truly inspires me

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Speaker 1: are the stories of innovation and transformation. We've arrived at

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Speaker 1: the end of another season of The Restless Ones. I

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Speaker 1: thought it would be a good idea to look back

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Speaker 1: on some of the guests and conversations we've had this

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Speaker 1: year with some truly interesting leaders and to reflect on

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Speaker 1: some common threads throughout these discussions, and clearly a pivotal

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Speaker 1: connection is well connectivity itself. We cover that topic a

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Speaker 1: lot on this show, not just because of our partner

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Speaker 1: T Mobile for Business, but because I really do believe

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Speaker 1: connectivity is one of the foundational pillars for modern technology,

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Speaker 1: along with processing, power and data storage. You need to

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Speaker 1: leverage all three to use technology effectively and efficiently, and

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Speaker 1: with the proliferation of cloud services, the Internet of Things,

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Speaker 1: and now an explosion of artificial intelligence implementations, connectivity plays

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Speaker 1: a critical role in operations, but not everyone is using

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Speaker 1: it the same way, and that's what I found really interesting.

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Speaker 1: For example, in our conversation with Sonya Kasner, the CEO

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Speaker 1: and founder of Panoai, we learned how her company is

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Speaker 1: making strategic use of cell tower locations in remote areas

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Speaker 1: by installing cameras to monitor for wildfires. By collating the

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Speaker 1: camera and communication systems with the cell tower, Panoai can

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Speaker 1: take advantage of both the connectivity provided by the tower

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Speaker 1: and the vantage point. Then Panoai software analyzes the incoming

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Speaker 1: images gathered from these towns and flags any that may

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Speaker 1: indicate a fire so that a human can review the

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Speaker 1: imagery and take a look at a live feed from

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Speaker 1: that camera. In crisis situations, information is critical and can

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Speaker 1: save lives and help responders mitigate fires early on. But

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Speaker 1: that's just a high level view. Sonia explained that on

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Speaker 1: a technical level, a lot of pieces have to be

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Speaker 1: in place to make this work.

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Speaker 2: Behind the scenes, the whole system is incredibly complicated. So

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Speaker 2: it starts with a piece of equipment that we design

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Speaker 2: a manufacturer called a pano station. This includes about forty components,

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Speaker 2: including two high definition security cameras. These are off the shelf,

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Speaker 2: top of the line, six megapixel security cameras designed for

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Speaker 2: ruggedized environments, and about forty other components. We assemble them

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Speaker 2: in our factory in San Francisco. The systems also include

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Speaker 2: an edge computer which has logic on how we control

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Speaker 2: the cameras. We also include networking equipment so we can

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Speaker 2: send the data up to the cloud over cellular broadband connectivity.

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Speaker 2: We have power management. Sometimes we need to include a

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Speaker 2: backup battery. Sometimes we need to include solar panels. Every

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Speaker 2: site is a little bit different, so it's a configured

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Speaker 2: order supply chain, which is not for the faint of heart.

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Speaker 2: And we mount these systems typically on existing structures like

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Speaker 2: cell towers, water tanks, government communications towers, sometimes even private

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Speaker 2: homes or chairlifts at a ski resort. We get really

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Speaker 2: creative on where to put these and we've actually found

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Speaker 2: five G to be a really great technology for us.

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Speaker 1: Then there was our conversation with Mike Onondrash of Avontour Sciences.

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Speaker 1: Avonteur is a biotechnology research and development company. Avonteur produces

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Speaker 1: materials needed for high end scientific and medical applications. The

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Speaker 1: company also carries out bleeding edge lab work to create

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Speaker 1: the building blocks that other companies use when they produce

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Speaker 1: pharmaceuticals like vaccines. Wireless connectivity gives a Vontour freedom to

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Speaker 1: adapt to new situations, which the company had to do

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Speaker 1: during the outbreak of COVID nineteen, and with high speed,

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Speaker 1: low latency connections of Ontour, researchers are able to share

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Speaker 1: work quickly to get results faster.

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Speaker 3: I think the largest opportunity when we think about our

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Speaker 3: customer is the lab. I think the evolution of how

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Speaker 3: quickly can we take advantage of the data coming from

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Speaker 3: equipment in the lab into laboratory information management systems LIMB

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Speaker 3: systems to do correlation analysis? How can you accelerate trials data?

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Speaker 3: How can you do compound analysis. We produce very high

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Speaker 3: specification products to very narrow tolerances, so how can we

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Speaker 3: do that quicker? How can you identify which of the

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Speaker 3: raw materials are commodity and which have direct influence to

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Speaker 3: the specification of the output. So I look at what

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Speaker 3: connectivity can do for that and the ability in real

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Speaker 3: time to make those adjustments that will have direct impact.

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Speaker 3: And then I think, secondly, it's your footprint. I think

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Speaker 3: you know having five G and these non teathered technologies

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Speaker 3: allow you to think pretty dynamically about what's the right

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Speaker 3: footprint for this capability, whether it's an office footprint, a

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Speaker 3: lab footprint, DC expansion, a pop up facility with a customer.

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Speaker 3: If suddenly you know, I'm call it byon bring my

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Speaker 3: own network, i just slap a five G spot up,

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Speaker 3: or I'm putting five G in every single one of

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Speaker 3: my devices laptops or mobile devices globally and it's inherently

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Speaker 3: part of my extended network.

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Speaker 1: We also met with sunder Sebastian Agora, CEO of Cleven.

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Speaker 1: Agur's company is working on what has traditionally been a

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Speaker 1: challenging and time consuming issue for delivery companies, getting a

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Speaker 1: payload down that last mile of delivery. The company has

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Speaker 1: developed autonomous robot carriers that can store and deliver packages

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Speaker 1: for customers. Recently, Cleven completed a one year trial with

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Speaker 1: da HL Express Estonia, demonstrating that the autonomous vehicles can

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Speaker 1: reduce the workload of delivery companies by automating the last

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Speaker 1: mile component. The vehicles maintain connections with Clevin, allowing for

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Speaker 1: real time monitoring and fleet management and even operations, all

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Speaker 1: made possible by powerful and fast wireless connectivity.

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Speaker 4: Connectivity is crucial for our services. We definitely need a

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Speaker 4: wide network coverage, especially in the US. We've been really

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Speaker 4: lucky to have a partnership now in place with T Mobile,

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Speaker 4: and this partnership enables us to expand rapidly in the States.

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Speaker 4: So the big question always is to we have the

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Speaker 4: necessary latency to offer our services in a safe way,

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Speaker 4: and the results so far are great. Our latency today

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Speaker 4: is around one hundred milliseconds, which is actually faster than

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Speaker 4: any person who takes decisions in the real car. So

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Speaker 4: I would say that our solution is actually as safe

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Speaker 4: or even safer than any normal person driving on the roads.

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Speaker 4: And by establishing those connectivity partnerships, we are partnering with

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Speaker 4: the best in class wireless providers and they are crucial

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Speaker 4: to enable us to scale our mission to deliver the

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Speaker 4: most reliable, safe, efficient autonomous delivery platform.

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Speaker 1: And we had a couple of great conversations with leaders

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Speaker 1: in retail who talked about connectivities part in creating a

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Speaker 1: true omni channel experience for customers. It's amazing how quickly

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Speaker 1: we've become used to interacting with retail on our own terms.

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Speaker 1: We might start a transaction in one context, such as

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Speaker 1: on a smartphone and complete it in person at a

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Speaker 1: retail location. The experience, if done right, is seamless. It

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Speaker 1: can actually convince you that it's all pretty simple, but

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Speaker 1: it takes a lot of work with interconnected systems to

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Speaker 1: provide that kind of service. So Monte Gobolet of Lows

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Speaker 1: explain to us how connectivity powers this experience both for

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Speaker 1: staff and customers by making sure those connections are as

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Speaker 1: close to them as is possible.

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Speaker 5: We have really created a mini are a micro data

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Speaker 5: center in each of these stores, so that way we

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Speaker 5: are closest to the customer wherever the customer is. So

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Speaker 5: if you are online, you're connecting to the cloud. If

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Speaker 5: you walk into the store, you're connecting to a server

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Speaker 5: which is in the store itself. And then if you

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Speaker 5: are sitting at one of our store support centers, which

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Speaker 5: is like a headquarter, and you're let's say a merchandising analyst,

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Speaker 5: you're connecting to our data center. So we are trying

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Speaker 5: to connect you to the closest location, and then everything

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Speaker 5: you mentioned comes into picture in a big way. For example,

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Speaker 5: if you're in a store and you are an associate

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Speaker 5: or a customer, you're connected to the WI FI, you're

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Speaker 5: connected to the server which is very close, and what

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Speaker 5: we are doing is with our caching st strategy and APIs,

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Speaker 5: we are making sure that the data is staged closest

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Speaker 5: to where you are.

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Speaker 1: And then Rob Mills of Tractor Supply Company told us

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Speaker 1: about how connectivity has created incredible business opportunities in the

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Speaker 1: form of those powerful omni channel experiences in places you

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Speaker 1: might not expect, like rural communities.

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Speaker 6: When you think about tractor Supply mission and to really

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Speaker 6: focusing on that to end customer experience from an omni

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Speaker 6: channel perspective, the advances and wireless and broadback technologies has

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Speaker 6: been a huge enabler for us. And what this has done,

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Speaker 6: It's opened up customer access to our digital channels, especially

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Speaker 6: in rural America. It's allowed us the ability to move

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Speaker 6: data much more efficiently between our stores, our cloud, our

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Speaker 6: data centers to be able to make more of those

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Speaker 6: real time insights and decisions. I think back five years ago,

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Speaker 6: it is far more difficult to move data through these connections,

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Speaker 6: and when we think about where we're at today, it

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Speaker 6: is very robust, especially when you think about images, video,

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Speaker 6: deep product content, and even customer data. To really drive

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Speaker 6: a level of personalization when you're in this store. The

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Speaker 6: advancement of connectivity, especially in rural America, has been significant

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Speaker 6: over the past couple of years.

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Speaker 1: Time and again, our guests talked about how high speed

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Speaker 1: connectivity plays a crucial role in achieving business results in

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Speaker 1: line with the company's mission, and we know this will

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Speaker 1: become an even larger piece of the puzzle as we

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Speaker 1: find new ways to leverage maturing technologies like the Internet

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Speaker 1: of Things and bleeding edge technologies like the new implementations

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Speaker 1: of artificial intelligence. We've seen leaders like our guests push

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Speaker 1: companies to adopt a nimble approach, and that's made possible

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Speaker 1: through high speed, low latency data communication systems. I'm excited

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Speaker 1: to see what develops over the next few years. Already,

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Speaker 1: we've seen incredible transformation across multiple industries, sometimes by necessity,

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Speaker 1: but always made possible by the incredible leaders who are

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Speaker 1: not content to maintain a status quo. They're far too

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Speaker 1: restless for that. Thanks again for joining us on this

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Speaker 1: season of the Restless Ones. We look forward to bringing

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Speaker 1: you more great conversations with incredible leaders very soon. Until then,

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland,