Estimote and Fosbury are lucky to deal with a wide range of clients every day. These clients come with unique questions and challenges whose experiences can benefit anyone exploring beacons for their business. That's why we've partnered to address software and hardware FAQ's for beacons in this white paper. Our three main topics include: An iBeacon™ introduction Technical iBeacon™ Hardware FAQ Inspiring iBeacon™ Implementations FAQ Free of charge, this collection of research and case studies is available to you as a PDF. Visit fosbury.co/resources to get started!

1. iBeacon
The most frequently asked questions
™

2. One of the most important jobs a
business has, is listening to their
clients...
In turn, a clients goals, strengths,
weaknesses, and pain points help
define our products and the
businesses we build. That’s why this
white paper is 100% focused on
sharing the frequently asked
questions we received around
iBeacons, and our best practice
responses to them.
As a successful iBeacon campaign is
dependent on both software and
hardware, and so Fosbury is delighted
to co-publish this white paper with
Estimote, a leading manufacturer of
iBeacon hardware.
This iBeacon FAQ was answers
questions with a wide range of
complexity, from basic introductions
to the device, to how to leverage
mobile apps to increase in store
purchases. We will try to cover
everything we can here, but if you
don’t have your questions answered,
don’t worry. Estimote and Fosbury
will cohost a video webinar on August
6th to answer any remaining
questions live!
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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3. What are beacons?
Beacons are small devices that
broadcast a BluetoothSmart radio
signal. You could see them as the
next version of GPS. Instead of using
satellites to triangulate your position
in the world as GPS does, beacons
transmit a low energy signal from a
device with a radius of 50-100 meters
to provide unprecedented location
services that can accurately measure
positioning down to inches.
Almost all of the logic behind a
beacon deployment is through the
supporting application on the devices
(e.g. beacon aware apps on
smartphones). The only role of the
beacon is to notify the smartphone of
its existence at the physical location.
Beacons do not actively push out
notifications (other than the beacon
radio signal) nor does beacon actively
track nearby users. The application
on the supporting devices must
handle all the logic after seeing
nearby beacons.
The frequency of the beacon
transmission depends on the
configuration of the beacon and can
be altered using device specific
methods. Both the rate and the
transmit power have an effect on the
beacon battery life. Beacons come
with predefined settings and several
of them can be changed by the
developer.
Amongst others the rate and the
transmit power can be changed as
well as the Major and Minor values.
The Major and Minor values are
settings which can be used if you
want to connect to specific beacons
or if you want to work with more than
one beacon at the same time.
Typically, multiple beacon
deployment at a venue will share the
same UUID, and use the major and
minor pairs to segment and
distinguish subspaces within the
venue. You can for example set the
Major values of all the beacons in a
specific store to the same value and
use the Minor value to identify a
specific beacon within the store.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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4. Are beacons just for retail?
No, beacons are not just for retail, there are a lot of other situations where
applying the two key concepts of this technology (micro-location and
interaction/engagement/context) can prove to be very valuable.
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball has upgraded
their "At the Ballpark" iPhone App
with an iBeacon integration.
Each ballpark is equipped with a
dozen iBeacons. The technology is
used to automatically check you in
when you enter the stadium. Once
you're inside you'll be presented with
exclusive offers, seat upgrades and
general information. Pushing beacon
technology to the next level, Target
Field in Minneapolis, MN, will use
beacons to present media, content
and interactive features at this year’s
All-Star Game.
National Geographic Museum
The museum in downtown
Washington has installed beacons
throughout its “A New Age of
Exploration: National Geographic at
125 exhibit so it can deliver
information relevant to a visitor, as
well as track where visitors spend
their time. That way exhibit
designers can learn which displays
are most popular, and which ones
need to be tweaked to better appeal
to visitors.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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5. How is privacy managed for
beacons?
Consumers may not be pleased about
the fact of being monitored by
retailers at every step in the store and
have the right to know how their
location information is used.
Therefore, a person must choose to
install software on their phones that
enables ibeacon messaging.
Some (common sense) advice for
retailers; to be successful,
beacons-based marketing needs to be
respectful of the consumer and must
improve the shopping experience –
not kill it. Retailers, be as
transparent as possible and clearly
explain how your beacons system
works and how it interacts with your
shoppers' smartphones; and share
what data is specifically monitored
and stored. Finally, do your best to
build a clear and smooth
Opt-in/Opt-out process.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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6. Do beacons only work with iOS?
The great news about beacon technology is that both Apple
(with iOS and OS X) and Google (with Android) support
Bluetooth Smart – this means very, very broad availability
(literally millions of devices are already beacon-enabled) and
no danger of launching services that only target a single OS.
What about Microsoft? Microsoft appears to have recently
added support for BluetoothSmart in Windows 8 and
Windows Phone 8; Nokia's recent Lumia WP8 phones are
confirmed to include BluetoothSmart hardware.
96%iOS
29%Android
iPhone 4S or later,
iPad 3 or later,
Any iPad mini,
iPod touch 5th generation or later.
Macs (equipped with at least OS X
10.9 Mavericks): mid-2011
MacBook Air, Mac mini, mid-2012
MacBook Pros.
Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, S5, S4
Mini
Samsung Galaxy Note 2/3
HTC One,
Google/LG Nexus 7 (2013 version),
Nexus 4, Nexus 5
HTC Butterfly (aka Droid DNA)
Moto G
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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7. Do beacons drain my battery?
We know what you are thinking: geo-location and Bluetooth
combined are batteries drainers. With beacons this is no
longer a problem. It used to be named Bluetooth Low Energy
before it was changed to BluetoothSmart and it really is very
battery friendly.
Do I need to be connected to the internet
to receive beacon notifications?
No, Users do not need an internet connection to receive a
notification from a beacon. But there might be content
'behind' the notification that will need an internet
connection.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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8. B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D
What is a UUID?
A beacon identifies itself using three customizable values:
Proximity UUID, Major and Minor; there is also an additional
Internal Identifier for your own reference. Therefore you
have three levels to identify a micro-location: only Proximity
UUID, Proximity UUID and Major, or Proximity UUID and
Major and Minor.
For example, Proximity UUID identifies your entire retail
company, Major identifies a specific store and Minor specify
individual shelves or different points inside each store.
Another example: Proximity UUID identifies your museum,
Major identifies a specific gallery within the museum and
Minor identifies an exhibit within that gallery.
EXAMPLE  ESTIMOTE UUID
How do I integrate beacons
into my app?
With a few simple lines of code,
you're good to go. Let Fosbury worry
about all the back-end stuff while
you create the best beacon experience
for your customers!
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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9. How far does a beacon signal reach?
The reach at which beacon signal will trigger a phone alert is
dependent on both hardware of the beacon - its antenna
design and power of the signal in particular - and, in some
cases, its settings. That’s because some vendors, including
Estimote, allow users to adjust broadcasting power, which
directly affects the range.
Most beacons technically have a range of about 70 meters
(230ft), although in real world conditions, after taking all
environmental effects (eg. wireless interference, signal
absorption) into consideration, you should expect about
40-50 meters reach. Some systems also allow control of how
close to a beacon the phone must be to recognize the signal.
This can be controlled from within the Fosbury iBeacon
platform to give you a high level of control to target
customers.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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10. Apple’s Core Location framework
uses 4 predefined ‘proximity
zones’ to determine how far a user
is from the beacon.
Additionally, a beacon broadcast
has the ability to approximate
when a user has entered, exited, or
lingered in region. Depending on a
customer's proximity to a beacon,
they are able to receive different
levels of interaction at each of
these three ranges.
The maximum range of a beacon
transmission will depend on the
location and placement,
obstructions in the environment
and where the device is being
stored (e.g. in a leather handbag or
with a thick case). However, the
What are the proximity
zones for an iBeacon?
Immediate
Within a few centimeters
Near
Within a couple of meters
Far
Greater than 10 meters away
Unknown
Out of range
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
size of the zone is always the same.
Therefore, if you reduce your
beacon’s range to only a couple of
meters, triggering any interactions
based on the ‘Far’ zone will be
impossible.
How precise should the
indoor location be?
It very much depends on your
intended use and the immediate
surroundings, but you could detect
the presence of beacons as far
away as 50-70 meters or as little as
10 inches, so it could be very
accurate. It’s super important to
consider your specific use case. For
example: if you’re placing beacons
in a museum, you probably don’t
want users to be pinged with
notifications until they’re really
close to a particular painting,
sculpture, or an installation. In a
restaurant, however, you’d most
likely prefer to reach all your
customers in the room.
9

11. This depends on a number of factors
and can vary greatly, from a couple of
months to more than two years. The
most important thing is power
source. Some beacons are plugged
directly into the socket, others use
USB and majority of devices are
powered by batteries of all shapes
and sizes. In case of Estimote,
current beacons use 1000mAh
capacity Panasonic® CR2477 battery.
Additionally, settings for
broadcasting power (signal power)
and advertising interval (signal
frequency) play a huge role in finding
the right balance between
performance and energy efficiency.
One last thing to keep in mind is that
some manufacturers may offer
additional battery-saving features.
Quite recently Estimote became the
first iBeacon vendor to provide power
modes - smart algorithms optimizing
energy consumption based on how
the beacons are actually used.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
How long does the battery
last?
This depends on a number of factors
and can vary greatly, from a couple of
months to more than two years.
How do I install the beacons
in the venue?
Beacons are generally very small.
Therefore, it’s really easy to install
them discretely. However, it’s
extremely important to place them
properly. Keep in mind that they
emit 2.4 GHz radio waves, which are
easily absorbed by water particles and
therefore by human bodies as well.
So it’s wise to put them in higher
positions, to avoid signal blocking.
You can also try installing them on
the ceiling - some users report that it
works really well for them.
In case of Estimote, each beacon has
an adhesive nanomaterial back
surface. You can just stick the beacon
to any flat surface like a glass
window, a wooden door or a painted
wall. You can unplug it anytime and it
won't leave any residue or markings
on the surface. If the material
becomes less sticky, just clean it
under warm water and it's ready to
use again.
10

12. Will beacons work for indoor navigation?
Technically, the beacons were designed with providing apps
and mobile devices with contextual information. However,
you can also take advantage of this technology to buid indoor
navigation solutions. To do that, though, you need to be
aware of a few important aspects of iBeacon standard and
Bluetooth technology in general.
Calculating proximity to a beacon is based solely on the radio
waves it’s broadcasting. It means encountering factors like
multipath propagation, wave diffraction, absorption or
interference, which makes such measurements extremely
difficult. For that reason, instead of trying to provide exact
distance, iBeacon standard uses a value called RSSI (received
signal strength indicator), which allows to estimate the
proximity based on signal power. For calibration purposes,
there’s also included a metric called Measured Power - but
it’s nothing more than just RSSI measured 1 meter away from
the Beacon. Even calibrated, RSSI might fluctuate heavily,
due to the factors mentioned above.
The nearer you are to a beacon the more accurate the
reported distance, likewise the farther away the beacon to a
mobile device, the less accurate. This is due to the emitted
signal being strongest or most pronounced at close proximity
and weakest at the edge of the signal. However, there are
numerous ways for increasing signal’s reliability. They vary
from very simple and straightforward ones, like increasing
the broadcasting power and advertising interval of a beacon,
to implementing complex and sophisticated noise reduction
algorithms and iterating a lot with proper beacon placement
and the right quantity of installed devices.
iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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13. iBeacon The most frequently asked questions Estimote and Fosbury
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How can I do, what these
big brands are doing?
You can build your own beacon hardware, or
buy from a great vendor like Estimote.
Next you need to write your own software, or
use a plug and play software tool like Fosbury.
contact@estimote.com
hello@fosbury.co
Call us at (512) 270-1512