ZNV’s RMS and security solutions installed at 600,000 cell sites worldwide

Robert Zhu, Chairman and CEO of ZNV Technology, was born and grew up in China. He completed his postgraduate studies in Australia in engineering, before completing an MBA. He worked at ABB for 10 years, rising from product manager to General Manager and Head of Asia Operations before joining Tyco International’s security division ADT, the largest security company in the World, where Zhu was President of APAC for 5 years. ZNV was previously the power and environment monitoring and surveillance product line of  ZTE, and is still partially owned by ZTE. In April 2014 Zhu was head hunted to become Chairman and CEO of ZNV, running day to day operations.

TowerXchange: Please introduce ZNV Technology – what role does the company play in the telecom tower industry?

ZNV Technology is a spin off from ZTE so its roots are in the telecom industry. Our company’s main activities are still to provide monitoring and supervision equipment and software for telecom radio base stations. We monitor and supervise temperatures, smoke alarms, batteries, voltage, diesel levels, humidity, flood sensors, access control and many more. We can also have a video surveillance system linked with them when necessary.

ZNV has developed a platform to collect all this data and schedule predictive maintenance across hundreds of thousands of base stations. In China our software platform is the only one that can handle and process such large quantities of data.

TowerXchange: One of the first questions our readers have is “how proven is the solution?” Please tell us about the use cases for your installations in China and worldwide.

Our solution is proven in China and worldwide. Overall in China our equipment and software are installed on over 500,000 base stations – out of a total of over 1.3 million base stations built – we have nearly 40% market share.

We monitor in the coldest weather in the North and Eastern provinces of China and into Russia, also in humid tropical conditions in locations in Africa. Our solution is also proven at high altitude like in Tibet – installed at 5000m above sea level. Nearly all our installations are still covered by our maintenance crew. Many installations have been in operation for over 12 years and they are still covered and operating. Ours is a very reliable and proven system.

ZNV is dominant in China serving all three major carriers: China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. We also have commercial relationships with other important operators in 60 countries globally. In any country where ZTE have built telecom towers, they use our monitoring systems. In addition, we have secured deals in South Africa from MTN, Zimbabwe from Econet and South America from America Movil. ZNV has also done battery monitoring for MobiNil in Egypt, for example.

TowerXchange: TowerXchange has heard about markets where 30% or more of diesel has been stolen, 15% of batteries stolen. What can towercos and MNOs do to improve security at remote cell sites?

Our services include security monitoring, video surveillance, control door access and alarm systems. Video helps to identify burglars, and this triggers an alarm to alert a control team and minimise loss. This is a particularly big issue in Africa where the theft of diesel is common.

Our competitive advantage is that we have over 10 years of experience. We use a unique solution which marries environmental monitoring with security monitoring. We have installed deterrent devices such as chili powder dispenses, sprays and high pitch sirens in the room at volumes that are uncomfortable for human beings. This is a different approach to scaring burglars away. Usage is subject to legal liability issues which vary locally.

TowerXchange: One of the main objections towercos and MNOs have to widespread use of video surveillance technology is the bandwidth and storage requirements for data from thousands of cell sites – what can be done to overcome this limitation?

This is absolutely a challenge; no company wants security video to take up scarce bandwidth. In response to this we introduced a new range of cameras where we can compress the video data using international standard H.265, which is currently the most advanced video coding standard in the world. ZNV were the first company globally to release this kind of camera! HD images can be transmitted using one third of the bandwidth that the former mainstream H.264 requires. Compression technology also saves a lot of data storage requirements and cost. A standard H.264 HD camera typically requires 4-6MB bandwidth to transmit an HD image, while our new camera requires only 1.5MB. We have also developed a new algorithm to calculate and compress the data.

When our monitoring systems show the cell site is operating within norms, data is reduced to 100KB – only 5-10% of the original H.264 bandwidth required to transmit HD information!

TowerXchange: How can data from site monitoring and access control systems be integrated with maintenance workflows and job ticketing to reduce O&M costs?

Data is sent to monitoring and control centres in China where all the data is collected and presented on a video wall. Images and alarms are displayed. This allows operators to identify what is important and urgent. Platforms classify alarms and suggest remedial actions. For example a power failure can trigger seven or eight alarms. The operator would not want to see all alarms. They just want to see that site X has a power loss, but the battery is on. Or in another example, perhaps the air conditioning is not working properly in hot weather. Fuel level sensors can also be used to provide refueling alerts.

Requirements differ between Africa and China, for example power is more reliable in China and as a result batteries are rarely used. We offer a Battery Management System. When a battery has not been used for a long time, it can discharge. Based on our good data we can prolong the battery life by two to three times the original lifetime. This has been used successfully by China Telecom for several months.

TowerXchange: What data is needed for MNOs and towercos to optimise energy efficiency?

We have done a lot of work on air conditioning. Operators have recognised that the level of heat generated by telecom devices can require that the air conditioning be on all the time. But the temperature drops in evening, night and early morning, and devices may run with low traffic. This provides the opportunity to switch off air conditioning and save energy. We are able to use free cooling and ventilation. However, we have found that free cooling only works in a clean environment (messy cell sites scan can lead to a blocked filters requiring frequent service).

TowerXchange: Finally, please sum up how you would differentiate ZNV from competitive site security and monitoring solutions.

TowerXchange: Tell us about ZNV’s service capabilities.

ZNV have a large team of experts. Our service team consists of 300-400 of our own well trained service engineers, supported by over 600 subcontractors. In total there are 1,000 people who support the service of our network. We don’t just sell equipment, we also continue to support the systems. Service is currently 20% of our business but growing fast. Our service provides three benefits:

• Optimised response time targets, including a full operational uptime promise on all our monitoring systems

• Technical support to help move from ad hoc maintenance to predictive and preventative maintenance

• Value added services such as battery discharge monitoring. This new software was developed based on customer requirements gathered from service teams working closely with our customers

The key to our success is a large installed base. We have volume, experience and a well proven solution. Our company also has a good combination of power and environmental monitoring with advanced video surveillance and access control. As a result, ZNV is one of China’s leading security companies.

Our low cost equipment manufacturing makes us very competitive in the market. We developed an intelligent power meter, able to tell you how your power consumption can be reduced. In instances where two or three operators share a site they need to know who consumes how much power. Our services offer very accurate information.