SIA Member Profile: Rajant Corporation

Security Industry Association (SIA) member Rajant Corporation is a global industrial wireless network provider with successful deployments in more than 55 countries for customers in military, mining, ports, rail, oil and gas, petrochemical, safe cities and municipalities and agriculture. The company was established in 2001 and is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

SIA spoke with Alice DiSanto, associate vice president of marketing at Rajant Corporation, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.

SIA: Tell us the story of your company.

Alice DiSanto: The communication of data is mission-critical for security. Never was that more evident to our nation than on the heels of Sept. 11, 2001. Rajant Corporation’s inception came as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, there were several communications failures at the federal government level during and after the terrorist attacks. Conditions on the ground were equally strained and malfunctioning. Many first responders faced network issues that affected the communication process, taxed dedicated emergency service lines and caused struggles for citizens looking to contact loved ones by phone.

Though the immediate response after the attacks focused more on national security, two visionaries thought about a different approach to avoid such adversities in the future. Rajant’s co-founders – Robert Schena, chairman and CEO, and Paul Hellhake, president and chief technology officer – had been working on new wireless technology for last-mile communications and redirected their efforts to develop a solution. They understood that the travesty was driven by network failure in immense proportions, and the demand for anytime, anywhere access to networks went beyond the capabilities of WLAN. Determined to eradicate this issue, these men gathered together a handful of communication problem solvers to develop a wireless mesh technology that can minimize communication failures. In October 2001, Schena and Hellhake established Rajant Corporation, with a vision to open up the lines of seamless connectivity between devices and people. 

What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings/company unique?

AD: Security is at the heart of what we do and crosses all the markets we serve. When Rajant’s founders saw the weaknesses with mobile voice and data networks during the events of 9/11, they envisioned a truly mobile network that would provide anywhere and anytime voice, video and data communications. In 2002, Rajant rolled out our Kinetic Mesh® solution and began offering wireless networks that deliver highly reliable connectivity regardless of conditions. Our industrial wireless networks were built to military standards and can be deployed with ease in a short period of time, making them ideal for emergency incident response. Our technology provides robust security, grows stronger as network nodes are added and allows all wireless nodes to be in motion at all times, thus supporting the inclusion of autonomous equipment and robotics, which are used to relieve humans from many of the most dangerous security and safety tasks.

Rajant Kinetic Mesh networks are helping organizations increase productivity, improve safety and cut costs in a wide array of scenarios, involving manned and autonomous vehicles such as trucks, dozers, police cars, trains and buses, as well as unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Rajant solutions support many diverse applications, including monitoring and managing vehicle and equipment health, assets, video surveillance, vehicle speeds and locations, first responder communications, convoy communications and border crossings.

What’s something we might not know about your company – or What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?

AD: A recent “fun fact” is Rajant worked alongside Thames Valley Police in the United Kingdom to boost the already significant public safety and security arrangements at the 2018 weddings of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle and Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank in Windsor. Together, the entities were responsible for providing additional video surveillance coverage, which included deploying the Rajant wireless infrastructure for secure and stable CCTV.

Building on successes, like the UK royal weddings, Rajant’s newest products provide even more versatility to turn mobile assets into network infrastructure. Our core technology is more potent with higher bandwidth and redundancy, yet the packaging is being downsized and less ruggedized to enter new market segments and enable more security applications. Key features of our Kinetic Mesh, regardless of size or packaging, are multi-frequency, multi-transceiver transmissions; physical-layer data rates to 300 Mbps; military-grade security; no controller-node requirement; built-in redundancy with no single point of failure; and self- configuring, self-healing operations. Rajant solutions easily integrate with existing satellite, LTE, 3G/4G, fixed wireless and Wi-Fi networks.

What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?

AD: Two of the three products Rajant introduced in 2019 have a strong application to security. Our ES1 BreadCrumb is ideal for use with light-duty vehicles typically used by safe cities and corporate perimeter patrol. Our DX2 is Rajant’s pocket-sized BreadCrumb for lightweight, autonomous robots and drone swarms. The small footprint and very low payload weight make DX2 extremely mobile and adaptive for security department and law enforcement use.

Voice of customer input has shaped every evolution of our technology and pushed us to rethink what is possible. We actively contribute our IIoT enabling connectivity to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency projects and competitions. We were part of a partner solution set to finalist Team Tao in the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, whose mission is to map the ocean’s floor akin to what’s possible with Google Earth. Last summer, Rajant hosted its first-ever live video stream of a “man-machine” aircraft parachute jump, where radios were attached to skydivers and a set of drones to enable continuous connectivity to deliver audio and video and position information to teams on the ground and in the air in real time. Most recently, we have been experimenting with what we call “pony mesh,” where Rajant technology goes on horses to broadcast live video, audio and telemetry while they are running, racing or jumping. Imagine what we could do with more voice of customer feedback from the security industry.

What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?

AD: As mentioned, more voice of customer feedback from the security industry is of utmost importance. We don’t know what we don’t know about current and future security challenges, and the industry is just tapping into what they know of Rajant. What we do know is that we were born in the aftermath of the most significant security threat our nation has ever faced, and we’ve evolved to be the best industrial wireless option for mobility on the market. Everything is moving in an autonomous, mobile direction, and even if a particular industry does not see it, it is most undoubtedly imminent and immediate. Security needs to stay at the forefront of this shift.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).