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The Farm With No Cell Signal That Became a Tech Test Bed · Rural-E

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: That data was incredibly important to be able to show them what was and was not working on the system.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: And being just being able to say, hey, look, at this explicit time, I know exactly what we were doing, to be able to pull the data from that, and this is and then hand that off to the to the manufacturer, the dealer, whoever it was that needed to be be able to look at that data and be able to make sense of it and be able to hopefully try to solve uh the problems.com engineering with us.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: And Michael, you and I have both worked with Nathan for uh quite some time.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've worked with him a little bit longer and we'll we'll quiz him a little bit here as we get him on, but I think I might have been one of his original customers with Meshcom.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna talk about data, and and I know that uh sometimes we get pretty involved with the data side of things, and and uh we've been working with Nate here uh for quite some time on some of our data collection for our eFarms program and then some of our other remote energy programs and stuff.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so welcome, Nate.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us here on Rule E today, and and uh welcome and and thanks for taking the time to hop on with us.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Robert, it's it's great to great to be with you today.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Very excited to talk with you guys.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: As you mentioned, you are actually probably one of our first, maybe second customers or something, one of our original customers for sure in the business.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so we've been working together for a really long time now, and uh it's kind of exciting to see where things have gone and how how things have progressed over the years uh working with you guys.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's been Nate's been a great partner of ours in many ways, and and uh and uh you've actually came up with this uh several times here, and I I wish you lived a little bit closer.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're based out of Colorado and and we're up here in north central Oregon and stuff.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: But Nate, why don't you just kind of give us an intro on how you um, you know, what what's your your history?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: How did you get to where you are today with Meshcom?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is a great question.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: We uh we started the company really uh wanting to help solve some of the challenges with uh getting data in areas that typically don't have great cellular coverage or or any kind of uh wireless coverage, uh and satellite being expensive and things like that.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: We we really wanted to kind of tackle this challenge in rural areas.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: And as it turns out, uh you know, where you guys operate is in uh pretty rural area, uh, and there's a lot of challenges with that.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so you guys have actually uh been kind of an amazing test bed for us as we've worked to perfect our technology and things like that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, a lot of a lot of challenges occur when you're trying to uh keep things operational in in a rural environment.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um you just can't depend on uh cellular signal to be everywhere you need it, you can't depend on uh satellite being cost effective.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's starting to change uh pretty significantly now with Starlink and things like that.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um but mesh crime engineering is really founded to kind of work with companies to kind of solve these these sorts of challenges.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: And and the thing is, is like the connectivity is only important because the data is important.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And uh what what we're what we do is really just facilitate businesses and organizations that that need to collect data off of various systems out there and just make that data available and uh and help them uh be able to make sense of that data and and get just really have ready ready access to it.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: More and more uh things are happening in rural areas over time.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Everything from uh precision agriculture applications, irrigation and things like that to construction to uh data center stuff to you name it, it's all kind of happening uh in rural areas, and every one of those applications is predicated on solid connectivity, and that's really what we're here to solve.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Nate, I know when when you and I first met, I remember I called, I was I was browsing the internet and I found this device that I think it was originally set up for like refrigerated cargo shipments, and it would track the temperature and send alerts out.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I had called them a manufacturer and I said, Hey, I'm wanting to put this on a tractor.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: We were working with some of the first electric tractors that hit the market, and they didn't, the manufacturer didn't really want to work with me.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, you really need to work with someone that's more of an integrator, and I'm like, Well, I think we can figure this out, you know, and they well, no, we we've got a guy.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you know how it is at the time.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, yeah, you've got a guy.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And they gave me your contact information, and I think I'd reached out to you, and you you were, you were working on another project with that, with their uh their units, their hardware on some tractors, and you and I kind of hit it off right off the bat, and you were super interested in what we were doing with the electric tractors.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we were trying to get some information out as far as how much energy they were using, how much energy they use kind of per task, as far as if you were plowing versus just, you know, pulling a wagon or a cart with a tractor type of thing.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember, you know, the first couple of calls we had, it seemed like we synced really well.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you were, I think you were just getting going with Meshcom at the time.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you recall that conversation or that period of time, anyways.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I very clearly recall that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in fact, that first call came uh our we were we were actually out at a um test farm, an agricultural research test farm in Virginia when we got the call from our uh from our supplier that you guys were uh interested in talking with us.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I actually called you that day and we had a very brief conversation and we followed up a a week later or something like that with some additional details.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: But um yeah, so that that really kind of kicked off a lot of really interesting things for us uh at that time.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: And and man, you know, this is one of those things where we we've kind of found a this niche in the market that is uh there's more than just communications in in your case, in fact, you're a perfect example of this.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um more than just having like a cellular connection to the tractor, you had to have some sort of way to actually read the data, be able to put sensors in, whatever, and be able to process that data in a meaningful fashion.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and that's what the gap that we actually really ended up filling uh for for the system uh for for you guys.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it wasn't an off-the-shelf thing you could just go by, you could just plug in and go get that data.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: We actually had to write code to to uh to collect that data and then make it presentable and make it so that you could actually run an an analysis on it and and make some sense of how the tractor was performing compared to uh a diesel tractor, for instance.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that was kind of the whole crux of the of the of the program.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: And it was super exciting for us.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that was that turned into one of the biggest projects uh that we well at that time was the biggest project that we had done as a business, um, and then led to some additional projects uh directly with the tractor manufacturer and things like that that that turned out to be very good for us as well, and a huge learning experience for us about how to build a platform that could operate in rural environments, be able to collect the kind of data, have the flexibility that that that the manufacturers that that uh that folks like you needed to have in order to get that data and then be able to present that in a in a in a way that that actually makes sense and be able to deal with the fact that you're gonna rock walk in and out of coverage all the time and you know from one minute to the next, you just don't know what's gonna happen with that tractor.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: And and and and that on our side, from a technical perspective, uh that means being able to to store the data locally and then push that data back over the air.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, as soon as we have a new connection and uh being able to handle all of those different scenarios that come along with that.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: And there are some pretty significant engineering challenges to make that work.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and for systems that do that well, it seems like it's almost magic.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: But uh but there's a massive amount of of effort that goes into make that a reality.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, I think the thing that I loved working uh with Robert and your team here on this is uh it's it's it's kind of it's multifaceted.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh first off, working with you guys is just fantastic, period.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then the feedback that we got around how things were working, what was working, what wasn't working, was just incredibly important for us as a business.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: And and even working with us uh when things didn't go so well sometimes.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: And and that that was just amazing to be able to have a partner like you guys to be able to test things, to be able to figure things out, get uh get it all up and running, and then actually see the full success and being able to pull the data and actually see the the actual results of of what we were doing and see the impact that that was gonna have.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: And and that was very amazing for us as a business.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I know you've you've commented several times when you've came here to our our little farm and we're you know up in the shop working on stuff, and you just you get all excited about not having any cell phone coverage.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And usually we're kind of questioned about it because it's it's hard to communicate sometimes unless we're hooked to Wi-Fi.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: But for you, it's like this island of being able to test the in and out of service.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and like you say, you know, I think you know, the original unit that we that we installed working together with you is actually a piece of hardware that was uh manufactured by a different company.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you guys have since uh designed and manufactured your own hardware now.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you want to talk about that a little bit.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of the follow-up to my comment, and I want to hear from you, Nate, but you know, originally the original tractor, we took that piece of hardware that was available, you sourced it, you programmed it for us, got it all set up, and we actually connected sensors uh to it to then sense what the tractor was doing to give us the the information that we were looking for.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: But you've you've really engineered through MeshCom a whole new system, I think, resulting from that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you could talk about that a little bit.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're you're bringing up a lot of uh lot of very interesting challenges we had to overcome at that point in time.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um those original tractors that we were working with had very little instrumentation on them.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: And we just we had to really kind of sit down and figure out and understand how the tractors were doing their work.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: We had to talk with the manufacturers really closely uh so that we could develop a system that actually could pull the data that mattered uh and do it in such a way that gave us uh results that we could then share with you know government organizations that are very interested in how well the tractors are performing in the field and be able to provide valid feedback to them.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh one of the biggest concerns that I had is like it's one thing to be able to collect the data, but how do you know that it's actually measuring the right thing?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: How do you know that it's actually valid data?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that's actually a big challenge uh to do correctly on a tractor like this, especially when you've got a myriad of different kinds of problems that can happen on there.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: And how do you know the tractor's on?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: How do you know it's off?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: How do you know uh, you know, is it is it in in regen braking mode or is there something else going on?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're just getting noise in the system or something like that.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: And and so all of those things you have to be able to parse out of the data.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing that was fascinating about that was just watching how the data just kind of comes alive in the system and how it tells a real story about what's actually happening on the ground uh when you get it right.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that was absolutely uh one of the best uh best best things about doing this.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: And at that time, we we we started with one vendor, we actually switched to another hardware vendor a couple years later.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're still using them as could because we needed a little bit more flexibility with the platform than we could get originally.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: And uh but all of that is still going and and and just over the years, we've just been maturing and building and building and building and just getting things better and better.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're able to tackle all kinds of different challenges, everything from robotics to you know basic telematics uh solutions and things like that for for vehicles, but uh but we can do some very advanced things uh on the data analytics side for for systems out there, and and that's really cool to build to do.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and honestly, we we have a lot to be grateful for for you guys as a as a group here for for being uh such a great test ground for us and uh an opportunity for us to really just test some prototype some things that have never really been done in the industry the way that we're doing them.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I know you know from us originally it was with our eFarms program, and essentially we were working with uh some electric utilities and uh you know clean fuels programs and these types of things, and they're like, well, you know, they would give us the grant, but the data was a big part.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: They and this technology was new, and so it was up to us to try to figure out I couldn't just go get something off the shelf, as you mentioned, you know, and you know, we originally started with one one model of electric tractor, and then we brought a second uh model in that I think that's the one really you would work with the manufacturer a little more.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Then we actually brought a third different tractor model in that had its own telemetry and sophistication to it.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: But you've helped us with a variety of different vehicles, uh F-150 Lightning, the Can Am ATV four-wheeler, we've got these Polaris units, you know, kind of all these different vehicles that we have.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we're connected in different ways and to them with some of the information you're actually able to read from the computer, onboard computer on the unit, and read some of the data and such.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, collecting the data and the hardware, you know, connectivity aspect, but then there's the whole dashboard.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that was uh some big improvements that you've made also as we've been working together was how do we visually see the data?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think you and I and Michael, we look at the data as far as the numbers and you know, kind of the geek side of us comes out, you know, going through and looking at all this data, but how do we visually display it to others that aren't as familiar or make it so that it's easy to read?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or the other thing I'm thinking about is you helped us get it set up with some of the different alerts, if a battery was low and that type of thing, so we could be in front of a condition.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd I'd uh I I quite honestly, my my number one use of the data in addition to the reporting and the aspects of energy consumption and those types of things, we've worked with a couple of a couple of the different universities on total cost of ownership studies and such using data that you've helped us get from these vehicles.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh troubleshooting, boy, it's been extremely helpful on the troubleshooting side.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we've got these alerts set up again.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: So like if a battery hits a certain point, we can hit a set of threshold.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: I get a text on my phone that says, hey, battery levels at X.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I can then call the participant or whoever's using the piece of equipment, say, hey, listen, you're you're getting low, or this is going on, you know, you may you we need to make a correction here.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so that's been extremely helpful.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean the whole dashboard side of this to, you know, is more the visual display of of data.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, you guys have really made some some strides with that, with that side of the business too.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what's ironic about that, Robert, is when we first started the company, we had no intention of building any sort of cloud platform to support our products.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And as we started working with you, it became very apparent that that was not only a need, but it was actually a very necessary part of the system as a whole.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so as we started developing that and pulling that together to make it handle the kinds of situations and things that you were dealing with specifically out there, we really started to realize what a what a truly integrated cloud and sensor platform really looks like and how that actually operates and what it needs to be able to handle and deal with out in the field.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that requires a large amount of flexibility uh with the hardware that's actually connected to the end system, whether it's you know an F-150 Lightning or you know, a Polaris uh uh Ranger or whatever it is that we're that we're we're interacting with.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: And and so we need flexibility in how we report that data on the on that end, but then that has to go into a database and it has to become available for end users who are going to go and try to look at that data, make sense of that data, and be able to action things.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so we had two things, two kind of big problems that we needed to solve.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: And one is how do you get information that that you need to take action on without necessarily having to be in front of the dashboard to even know that it's occurring?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where that alert space came in.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, just being able, you know, hey, we got a low battery alert, we've got you know, some other situation on the system that that requires some immediate action on the part of a user in order to prevent some sort of uh you know dead battery situation or tractor uh not operating when they need it to operate or whatever.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so those those become very, very important.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: And nobody wants to stare at a dashboard and know that information.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: But then when you want to come back later and then actually do a deeper analysis of what's actually happening inside the system, that's where being able to track the data over time, look at trends and build correlate data across time and multiple kinds of data that that are coming into the system becomes super important at that point.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so we needed to be able to handle that.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then on top of that, sometimes the the raw data itself doesn't even tell the whole story.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to run a calculation or something like that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so now you need to take data from multiple sources and then create a uh a new table of data that that includes a calculation of some kind in order to actually be able to make sense of what you're trying to do.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And all of that was was tested and pioneered uh with your team.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: That that was uh things that we learned in the field uh working with you guys that we realized that man, these are these are just needs that that most most platforms just flat out don't even have on the roadmap, let alone the capability to support.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I remember when we were first talking, our conversations was really more on the hardware and getting the data.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, I mean, online, you know, I'm looking at all these, I'm gonna say generic dashboards where you can send your data to, and they've got these widgets already set up.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And as we I quickly learned that's not gonna work for us.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and you know, you and I kept talking and even several conversations around hey, you would tell me, hey, we're making some some pretty massive improvements with our dashboard, and it's gonna take in these considerations that you're talking about.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then I remember, you know, we've hopped on on a Zoom meeting or a Teams meeting several times, and you're like, okay, now look at this, and everything from uh mapping and showing the breadcrumbs, and we could put a date range where the vehicle's been, um, showing the power consumption, showing all kinds of different data, temperature, uh, uh, all these different factors that are in there.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And the data that we're talking about here is really the instrumentation data of our of our piece of equipment that you're helping us pull together and then visually show.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to mention sometimes when we're talking about data as part of our funding or project, we're also talking about the user experience and you know, kind of how things went for them.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, with with working with you, it's more the scientific data of the equipment, of all these, I don't know what you want to, how you would, you know, term that anyways, but uh, you know, kind of all the data points from the equipment into a system where you capture it, look at it all together.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we can pull records from specific times, uh, everything's time stamped as it goes in, it all gets aligned so we can look right down the line and see that you know, here was the energy consumption, here was the temperature, and and write through all these facts and everything.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's been quite impressive.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I just I wasn't able to do that with some sort of a generic uh system, and uh you helped us uh put all that together and stuff.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess that was really fun.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: If if I recall, one of the driving factors for that is one of those early systems had some challenges, and we needed to go back to the manufacturer and be able to provide some data.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: And our collection systems is actually what gave them the data to actually be able to help troubleshoot and solve uh the problems.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so, especially with that early tractor manufacturer we were working with very very first at the beginning, um that data was incredibly important to be able to show them what was and was not working on the system.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And being just being able to say, hey, look, at this explicit time, I know exactly what we were doing, to be able to pull the data from that, and this is and then hand that off to the to the uh manufacturer, the dealer, whoever it was that needed to be be able to look at that data and be able to make sense of it and be able to hopefully try to solve uh the problems.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the electric vehicle technology is brand new technology for most people in the in the industry out there.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Most people don't know how to go solve problems when you take it into the dealer.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we were actually able to help augment on some of that.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, directly with the manufacturer is what is what you're saying.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: We we used our data to and provided it back to the manufacturer to help them troubleshoot their piece of equipment, essentially.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I talked I've talked about several of the different electric pieces of equipment that we've worked with you on, which is a whole variety of different things.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And in everything that I've been able to come up with, you've been able to help with a solution on how we can collect data on it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's been extremely useful.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, you know, kind of the universal system that you guys have developed uh to take all sorts of different uh data inputs in.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: And even some of our vehicles, not all of our vehicles that we've worked with you are electric.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I know we've done some diesel, we had like a diesel Kubota, side by side, uh, and some other actually some of our remote uh battery solar units too.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: We've monitored some data from those units and stuff.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so the thing, you know, working with you, you know, you basically, I don't know how you internally break it down, but we provide some information to you, specifications, what we're trying to accomplish, and you kind of tell us what we can and can't do, or sometimes it's a budget constraint, like we can do that, but it's gonna cost quite a bit of money.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and is that is that really what you want and stuff.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, I say that because I know you know we're just one of your mini customers, and I don't know, you know, kind of what other types of equipment you may be working with.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you can and can't talk about there, you know, but I'm I'm guessing it's not just all electric.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: vehicles that you're working with.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what's amazing is is the the the platform that that that we have worked with you to develop is so flexible that we could put it in a many different environments.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: So we now have customers running operations in mines.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: We have customers that are developing construction robots, customers that are developing applications in my brain just went blank here, but um just just a variety of different applications.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: We never anticipated, particularly robotics and and other things, you know, precision GPS applications, those kinds of things.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: And at the core of it is having a communications platform that not only provides a communication pipe, but then also provides you the ability to do some edge processing that is that is specific to the application that is needed at the edge and then also be able to pull that data in and provide a management platform that can be run at scale for hundreds of devices.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is uh this has been an amazing journey.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so everything from AI cameras to uh to that are detecting specific types of chemicals being emitted into the air to to robotic systems uh our platform is able to support and it's been quite amazing to work with a variety of different uh customers out there and you know with with your business with Meshcom engineering where do you come in at are you usually working with the end customer are you usually working with the manufacturer I mean is there a is there kind of a sweet spot for for how you look at engaging with your customer or the type of customer you're you're you know going after generally speaking we're working with the the original manufacturer themselves.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: So typically not working with the end customer you know the person buying the vehicle or the solution but the but working with the the the company that's developing the solution in the first place.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where we tend to be okay yeah I just wasn't I wasn't quite sure I thought maybe we were a little bit of a unique uh situation where we kind of had a project versus we weren't designing the equipment we were just looking to collect data from the equipment and such and so didn't know kind of you know for folks that might be listening if they're interested or they have a project you know what you know what would that look like you know and and I think I want to go back a little bit because you said a couple of things and kind of earlier in the conversation we were talking about going in and out of cellular coverage and satellite.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: We've you know we've been working with telemetry and and sensors out in very remote places for a number of years and 10 years ago we we could really only put those in locations with a cellular signal.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: We we did a little bit of uh satellite based telemetry but it was so expensive at that time it limited us on where these sensors could go and where we could measure these things.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we've we've done a lot of work over the years with like soil moisture monitoring or flow monitoring and or water quality monitoring type projects and stuff.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And they're all almost all cellular based or if you have Wi-Fi where we're at we don't even have Wi-Fi.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so the the whole connectivity realm has evolved so much.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember when I was first thinking about these tractors I'm like man they're gonna be running you know in these in these areas that do not have any coverage whatso whatsoever.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was worried about even them bringing them into my place because I don't have cellular coverage here and I'm like is this even going to work?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do we need to find another another location to test these out and um you know I just af after you and I started working together and and you're able to switch back and forth between cellular Wi-Fi satellite technology it was just kind of almost like a miracle for us that have been out there trying to get this stuff in place for years because we we were really we didn't have a lot of options a lot of times you know and I I don't know if you could talk about that a little bit you know as far as your the how things have evolved over the years just being able to connect and and such.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah that's that's actually been a really interesting journey and one of the premises that we had originally in the business was that we wanted to combine the satellite and cellular technology in such a way that would seamlessly operate for for our customers.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: In some ways I I think we're still trying to get there uh the the satellite technology has advanced a lot you know with things like Starlink and Amazon Leon things like that out there but it's still not where I want to see it uh for these kinds of applications.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so we our platform today integrates uh cellular and Wi-Fi very well and can bounce in between them and then when it drops out of coverage stores data and then as soon as it gets back into coverage it offloads that data uh very seamlessly to the point where most users don't even realize that it's happening behind the scenes.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh but now with direct to device satellite capabilities through Starlink and other providers out there now that that that uh that barrier for for being able to get live real time data in remote areas is starting to drop dramatically and and that's something that we're on the forefront of of of implementing it in our in our technology offering for our for our customers.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh that's that's just been a fascinating journey.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: A lot a lot of it's just around timing of technology being able to take advantage of of advancements that are happening out there.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I expect to see that happen at an even more accelerated pace over the next five years.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's really cool to see the the change in the industry in this.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: So what's what's next?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know I mean it seems like this this data world has really grown I mean I think you know just so fast as far as the connectivity and all these things we've been talking about and all this information coming in.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I I think sometimes we get flooded with data you know you hear a lot about that in the news you know as far as you know different varieties of information news you get and all that and but what do you what do you see next you know kind of in your world of this data engineering world you talk you mentioned a little a little bit about AI and we hear a lot about AI um out there and I think we're all we're all using AI in different ways but you know kind of what's what do you see you know in the next couple of years Nate in your in your line of business around the data and and you know what what's down the road what's over the horizon.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well AI is amazing.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: You can do so many things with it and and I think we're just scratching the surface of what can happen.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: Everything from being able to run small models uh that are that that can operate at the edge uh like where you operate on so some some things where you know it would take some fairly sophisticated programming to do in the past putting a small AI model on there is actually makes a lot of sense uh especially when you don't want to deal with the latency of sending some information up to the cloud and then coming back and then getting you know being able to take uh make real-time decisions AI is gonna revolutionize a lot of things it's already changing a lot in the communications industry today.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: What a lot of people don't realize is uh that the cell particularly cellular the cellular industry has been optimized for download speeds, not necessarily up upload speeds, but when you have AI involved uh it's a lot more symmetrical and sometimes even more on the upload side because AI is communicating out and now you have all kinds of systems that are communicating and it's not necessarily human initiating the communication between these systems it's AI initiating those communications.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so the the somewhat sporadic but also low latency requirements for these sorts of of uh systems to be able to operate effectively is changing the way the communications infrastructure has to operate and where it has to be able to operate as well.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is uh we're we're seeing some changes a lot of it's very subtle and behind the scenes um but it is massively impacting our industry right now today what are what are some of the things this technology is solving?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I think at the end of the day we're trying to solve a problem or we're trying to identify an issue but what are you what are some of the things you're seeing either that you're working with or maybe things in your type of industry you know what are some of the things you see out there that this data collection data processing is is solving?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well at the end of the day you just can't make good decisions if you don't have good data.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: And and so and and and on top of that just because you have the data doesn't mean you can action it if you can't get that information out to the right place.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: So there's two things that I see happening kind of simultaneously one communications is becoming more ubiquitous no matter where you're at the advance of of things like Starlink and Amazon Leo are really at the forefront of driving that capability across the world.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: As the communication barriers drop for systems out there, the ability to communicate the the right kinds of data from everything from farming applications, environmental monitoring to construction, forestry, you name it, all of those industries are going to be impacted and are currently being impacted by the ability to operate and be able to make more intelligent decisions at the edge in these industries.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that includes things like data centers moving into rural environments which is happening all across the world today.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know the the just the opportunities for um you know being able to process more data at the edge is just so important to be able to to take uh fast action on things that that need to be able to to be able to that we need to be able to react to quicker in our environment.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so I see a lot of of uh interesting challenges ahead with all of this but also some some really cool things that we can solve in a in many different industries because of this this technology and the ubiquitous uh nature of how the communications is starting to evolve today.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah no that's that's super interesting and stuff Michael I don't know if yeah so I've got to ask Nate you're talking about us working kind of at the edge in this space and that's really we're trying to provide the solutions when you've worked with us how are you seeing data become more distributed?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've been reading about distributed uh compute nodes with data centers and are you seeing any of that in your work?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely yeah that that is happening more and more and actually the systems that we developed for you guys is actually a great example of that you know to pull the data and to do the basic analysis of the data on the on the systems that we connected with you guys we were doing a lot of processing of that data right at the edge on the compute platform we were putting on those tractors itself before we ever sent anything to the cloud.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then in the cloud this way we could do the more deep analysis with things across systems and across uh you know start comparing things and that kind of stuff.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: And more and more systems are starting to operate that way.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know think about agriculture irrigation systems like that.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when when the irrigation system itself has enough information to make decisions about how it actually operates at the edge that changes the dynamic for for you know when is it turning on?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Is it too windy to you know is it is it the right time for the system to even operate right now.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: And and all that stuff can be can be managed at the edge much more effectively.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah no that's that's super interesting and and with our work in irrigation for example is one example you know the uh we've been in pretty significant drought for several years and in this most recent year we're in right now in 2026 here it's been quite significant drought uh water you know it's number one natural resource concerned locally you know because we just we we really didn't get much snowfall really the whole west coast of the U.S.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know you guys in Colorado have had some pretty major challenges you know the western U.S.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: in general and so water is just you know very precious and and we've got a lot of curtailment and cutbacks and and quite frankly just not there in a lot of a lot of situations a lot of our reservoirs are drying up uh groundwater is an issue and so just you know I think the other thing we're living in is the energy space you know so kind of this water energy nexus but we we've been out working efficiency programs trying to help people upgrade their systems but this this management of the system I think in my mind is one of the next things that's going to produce the you know the biggest fruit you might say as far as looking at the data.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think one of the there's like a few challenges out there and one of them is it seems like everybody's system speaks its own language.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so you've got you've got a flow meter and you've got a variable frequency drive and you've got soil moisture sensors out there then you've got your weather weather station feed and none of it talks to each other.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so it sounds like sounds like kind of what you're talking about Nate is you know not too far down the road is being able to help with situations like that where you could pull information in from a variety of these different sources and then look at and and model what the best scenario is and then allow the irrigator or user whatever type of system it might be to make the best decision possible.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Is that is that what you see coming along and with what you're looking on as one example.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah that that is absolutely happening.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: I've got friends of mine who are running businesses who you know for instance say they've they'll they're taking satellite image imagery of fields and pinpointing where the fields need more water and less water and things like that so that so that the irrigation system can be programmed to provide the water where it needs it and not the water where it doesn't need it.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and so all of that just helps us be a little you know better stewards of the resources that we do have.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's extremely important in our in our current environments going forward.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I really like how you frame data as well because you're almost acting as a translator and you're trying to tell tell the story like we can collect all the data we want but if we can't understand what it actually means which is what your platform and your dashboards have allowed us to do, that's where it actually becomes actionable.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah that's yeah you hit the nail on the head there it's just still important to be able to to be able to understand what the data is telling you and actually be able to do something about what that data is saying to you.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: And not just you know months down the road but like immediately take action in instead of waiting yeah we overwatered that field last month we should probably cut back.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well why not just know that now and deal with it in the in the in the moment rather than you know two months later when it doesn't matter anymore.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and I know I know in working with you too you know in the way your system's set up is you've helped us quite a bit process data you know beyond the dashboard and and also oftentimes if we're working with universities or other uh data analytic companies engineering type firms we can actually download that data from your system and let them run it through their their software and I'm I'm guessing like the whole AI world is really making making that much easier to sort and sift and and analyze data also I'd have to think.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know it absolutely is you how quickly you can get analysis done uh with with an AI powered platform is is drastically changing.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: In fact we're actually looking at exactly how we could start to integrate that into our own platform at at an even greater level than what we have currently so that people can quickly get answers to the kinds of questions that they might have about the about the data to the system.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: And that all comes to having having the you know collecting the right kind of data but then also having the right metadata about that data in there so that the AI can actually know what to do with the data.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's that's a whole nother set of things that you have to do with the data beyond just collect it because otherwise it's just mean meaningless numbers.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: Michael any other any other questions you're thinking about for Nate while we got him on here.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: I guess just yeah how do you see the work that you do supporting future innovation in rural communities?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know you don't just work in rural but that's like a lot of the spectacles that we're we're focused on.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know the Meshcom was kind of founded our mission was really to help solve some very complex human environmental challenges that I think we face in our world today.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: At the end of the day you can't solve them without having solid communications in there and that's what our mission is is to to be able to enable that that ability to collect the data take action on it and do something do something about it.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's really what our mission is yeah yeah Nate is there anything anything else that we haven't asked or information that'd be good to share with folks you know it's just been awesome working with you guys and it's what about seven eight years now that we've been working together on on on stuff various projects out there.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: Every new project we talk with you guys about is always an interesting challenge.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: Stretches our company in in new ways.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just very excited about where all this leads and uh not just with what you guys are doing but um you know I I there's a lot of negative things that are kind of happening in this world but I think there's also a lot of really positive things in this world as well.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: And there are a lot of really good people out there trying to solve uh sincerely solve uh some of the big challenges that we have in our world today and that gives me a lot of encouragement out there and just grateful to be working with guys like you that are that are on the forefront of that.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah we've we've been told on numerous occasions we're a little bit challenging to work with and you take that as a as a positive thing and I don't know that everybody else does.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's very positive.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I I just kind of laughing when you said that and I you know I hope we can continue working together in the future too and I you know you're based in Colorado we're up here in Oregon and and we hope to continue to identify maybe different projects that we can bring in and you know so far ours has been more of the EV electric vehicle type of units and quite frankly there wasn't much data out there originally and and I think one of our first reports with Oregon State University the total cost ownership was one of the first documented university studies that were put together and Nate you were part of that you and I worked together and and uh you know kind of had a sift through you know several challenges of getting the data what do we want to analyze those types of things but those reports have have been very valuable and we've continued over the years in and just kind of finishing up a different report with Washington State University around total cost of ownership of the Polaris side by side compared you know electric versus diesel and they're getting ready to uh push that that information out and I remember you know talking with each of those different universities they're like well yeah you've got a data system and it you know we haven't had the best of luck and that and we I think knocked it out of the park in both of those examples working together with you at MESHCOM and you know I think I think you know kind of for both of us for our our organization and for MESCOM you know we'd we'd like to work together and so if there's folks out that are listening you know encourage you to reach out to Nate and if if you're up in the Pacific Northwest you know reach out to us and we'd love to talk to you about your project and and uh and we can put together our team with Nate and on data collection and stuff whether it's irrigation or uh innovative technology or what have you and stuff.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: But uh Nate you've been a you've been a great partner for us too over the years and helped us do some things that uh I don't think we otherwise would have been able to do uh with some of the other just more generic type systems that are that are out there.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah we appreciate appreciate your assistance.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well likewise this is this has been an amazing journey and we got to test a lot of really cool stuff.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it was awesome.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and hopefully more on the way.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: So but with that being said I think we'll wrap up here for today.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: So Nate thanks for thanks for joining us and uh it's great to have you on.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think maybe uh you know down the road if you get into another project or we're working together on something it'd be great to bring you back in and and maybe even to show some examples of what that data looks like and stuff.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: And what we'll do is we'll include some links in the podcast here in the description be able to connect to Nate and maybe we can work in some of the dashboards and so folks can see what we're talking about there and everything.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: But anyways Nate yeah thanks for hopping on with us uh great having you as always and we'll look forward to talking to you here soon.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds great.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you Robert