Microchip PoE Midspans Power Richnerstutz Innovative Real-Time People Monitoring Solution

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the way we live our everyday lives and conduct business. Limiting the number of people at a location and ensuring social distancing was one of the most common regulations at the onset, and even today. To help businesses ensure safe experiences for their visitors, the CountMe® solution developed by Richnerstutz – a leading Swiss-based IT innovator – was designed to monitor and regulate the inflow and outflow of visitors at a given property.  

This innovative solution requires the use of several sensors covering the desired zone completely to generate evaluations in real time and stop the inflow automatically in case of overfilling. The designers needed to adequately power a large number of sensors installed in multiple sites, including hard-to-reach locations. The fundamental requirement was to limit expenditures and ensure a fast turnaround time. 

When developing CountMe, Richnerstutz decided to leverage Power over Ethernet (PoE) to reduce installation costs and time.  The Richnerstutz team carefully chose PoE systems that provide guaranteed vendor compatibility. The team thoughtfully evaluated PoE midspans for high reliability to build a future-proof solution with customer satisfaction as the key. The ability to deliver high-quality PoE midspans in large volumes in a relatively short time, and under the stress of COVID-19, was crucial. 

Taking into consideration the complex technology requirements, Richnerstutz chose to partner with Microchip for PoE. The team hand-picked Microchip’s single-port PoE midspan PD-3501G to reliably power people flow sensors in the CountMe Pro solution, leaving the current infrastructure at the site location completely unaltered. With plug-and-play installation, the PD-3501G was easy to integrate, reliable and cost effective, and implemented leveraging the existing Ethernet infrastructure with no dependency on AC/DC wiring.  

Compatibility of Microchip midspans with the CountMe Pro system and Xovis PC2R sensor coupled with the simplicity of installation significantly reduced the cost and complexity of the technology upgrade, while accelerating time-to-market.  

The result? In 2020, thousands of CountMe Pro systems were installed around the globe, with trouble-free operation. Locations include retail stores, shopping centers, resorts, schools, libraries, museums, zoos, casinos, petrol stations and more. 

Learn more about our single and multi-port PoE midspan offerings. Microchip’s complete portfolio of PoE systems enables delivery of up to 90W of flexible, reliable Power over Ethernet networks to WLAN access points, network cameras, IP telephones, IP cameras and other IP-based devices.  

Learn more; download the case study here.