Building a Safe Return to Work Solution with the Presto Kit.

About Queensland DES

The Department of Energy and Science for Queensland, Australia is responsible for the protection and enhancement of the Queensland environment, sciences, and art. They provide the government with strategy for the inclusion of technology in support of the mission to further the life and culture throughout the region. Daniel Brough is the Lead of Science Information Services for the DES and is tasked with “accelerating science delivery innovation” for the organization.

Challenge

The Queensland DES started out using Presto for environmental monitoring, and quickly got their proof-of-concept up and running. Within an hour, his Presto Kit was online with data moving to outside storage, streaming analytics, and PowerBI. Then, in Dan’s own words, “with COVID-19 and the world getting tipped on its head, the project changed focus.  We had to think about monitoring work conditions to facilitate the safe return to work.” 

Dan couldn’t afford to spend months prototyping new technologies, he needed something that was ready to deploy at scale and already integrated to the cloud.

Solution

Fortunately for Dan and the DES team, the Presto Kit already had what they needed to create a Safe Workplaces proof-of-concept:

• Rigado Cascade-500W Gateways
  with secure management and LTE connectivity
• RS40 Occupancy Sensors
• Alert buttons
• Integration with Azure IoT Central for real-time status and dashboards
• Reporting using Analytics Exports and PowerBI

“Because I had a Presto Kit and occupancy sensors, I was able to rapidly pivot the focus of my PoC include looking how we could monitor the workplace.”

Dan built this simple occupancy and heat map dashboard using the tutorial found in the Rigado Presto Knowledge Base.

Results

The Flexibility of Presto Delivers Results

Dan was able to quickly pivot his project towards a Safe Workspaces focus. In addition to occupancy monitoring, he used the Flic Button with IoT Central rules and Power Automate in Office 365 to link up to a colleague’s PoC to share information on booking desks. This helped them plan for and monitor staff members within the workplace to ensure we have a safe workplace.

“The Presto Kit and the RS40 occupancy sensors allowed me to quickly understand what would be required to monitor the workplace from sensors, tech, cloud and the governance and information management aspects. From the PoC, I am now able to build a solid business case for expanding into a pilot and working this across multiple sites within the department.” 

– Dan Brough, Lead of Science Information Services for the Dept. of Environment and Science

Ready for Pilot

Dan has already presented his project to the Queensland DES executive team and is now moving forward on his pilot project, a key focus which is integrating with desk booking using the RS40 occupancy sensor. Dan summed up his experience with Rigado:

“Without the Presto Kit to quickly understand the capabilities of the platform, I wouldn’t of been able to achieve my initial objectives let alone rapidly pivot to a PoC on safe workplaces.”

If you want to learn more about the Presto Kit and accelerate your smart spaces project, check it out here!