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The cannabis industry is a huge industry with an estimated global value of 27.7 billion USD and growing daily.  With the industry expanding into other industries many cannabis businesses are turning to technology to help drive growth, increase safety and security, as well as streamline processes to increase productivity.  Although, many cannabis businesses are turning to technology some are struggling with availability due to location.  Many farmers who want to use harvesting technologies are struggling to access Wi-Fi allowing them to use the technologies available.  Harry Brelsford of the CannaTech Group sits down with Alex Wilson of Collabsion, Inc. to discuss Wi-Fi networking in remote locations.

Video Transcription

Harry Brelsford 

Welcome back to the Canna tech Podcast. I’m with Alex Wilson with a company name I can’t pronounce Alex, what’s your company name?

 

Alex Wilson 

It is collaboration, like collaborative vision.

 

Harry Brelsford 

All right? Well, I met you some time back and you’re doing some interesting things at the Grow level. So what’s what like to work for you? What, what do you do?

 

Alex Wilson 

So well, wireless consulting company, we designed wireless networks, for customers in a variety of different areas, it could be traditional Wi Fi, and a business like an indoor grow operation, office, warehouse, whatever. And the other side of our operations are wireless point to point. So the long haul networks, which for some of these grow operations is kind of a requirement because they’re out in the middle of nowhere. And maybe they don’t have network connectivity options there, no internet service. And so we can develop point to point links, that would allow them to get access to the internet, wherever.

 

Harry Brelsford 

No kidding. But sounds like something that we could use here in rural Texas, about I’m not the Texas Hill Country, and there’s some gaps, let me tell

 

Alex Wilson 

you, those are some of the areas that we do, you know, one of the areas that we do a lot of work with our wireless Internet service providers, who are providing Internet in rural America all over the place, you know, and those gaps, they’re filling that gap that their traditional big name companies, you your, your big telecoms and such, really aren’t interested in because to them, you know, it’s, they’re always looking at how many homes per mile, the reality is, you’re looking at how many miles per home, the exact opposite. And a lot of these grow industries that are there, many are very, very remote. And you know, they’re very reliant on what I would call broken technology. So satellite internet, which you know, is getting better with Starlink and other products, but there’s obviously challenges. They rely a lot on cellular, which is not known for high bandwidth, especially when you’re out in the middle of nowhere. And so, you know, the Grow industry is extremely reliant on technology, to monitor and to maintain that level of quality that is required to pass regulation. And with that in mind, they need good technology. And you know, 20 years ago, or even even a few years ago, you could get away with running down to Staples, or Office Depot or whoever, and you know, buying some crud off the shelf and throwing it in your business and calling it a day. Because nobody was regulating your war, nobody was really that concerned about it. And it has things have changed as it became legalized, and, and so forth. Now, all of a sudden, they have a whole different set of standards they have to follow. And, you know, running down the street and getting your buddy, you know, to do the work for you. And such doesn’t cut it. But some of these bigger operations, were discovering that it just wasn’t working. And they weren’t getting the signals. They were losing connectivity to the to the monitors and plants. And that became a major problem. So that’s kind of how we got we got roped into this not in a bad way. A couple of years ago, when a grow facility kind of reached out to us and said, How do we get better? In fact, it was kind of funny, they reached out in the public forum. And they were being very coy about it. Because obviously, you know, there’s a lot of controversy still. So we have a little sidebar conversation after we talked it through publicly for a little bit about their needs. And their needs are no different than any other agricultural industry that is doing hydroponic aquaponics, things like that. They all have same exact issues. Because they’re, they’re, you know, you’re putting a large number of plants into a very confined space. And when you open it up, and there’s nothing there when you first build, it’s wide open space, and somebody comes in looks at it and goes, Oh yeah, you just need one access point in here and you’ll be fine. Well, then all of a sudden the plants grow. And, you know, what we discovered was an anybody who’s been in the wireless industry knows that foliage is one of the enemies of wireless. And so we quickly discovered that as the plants grew denser and denser, the signal went completely out the door. And so we had to build that in in mind. The challenge was we couldn’t go in and do our normal methodology. Our normal method is we go into your facility. We do real life testing and test your construction. We test your, your load in your facility, whether it’s you know, a warehouse full of metal parts, or you know bags of potato chips or you know what Whatever crap is in this warehouse, you know, we’re testing the real live content. Well, we couldn’t do that because one, the facility didn’t exist. To back to the controversy, you can’t get into these facilities without, you know, a lot of security and a lot of other things going on. So we had to kind of fake it, to say the least. And we ended up actually setting up a testbed in the cornfield behind our office. And using the cornfield, as a hemp field, almost. Corn and hemp get close enough, you know, the thick, dense, very wet, you know, we didn’t go out there in the fall, when it was dry, we went out in the summer, when it was fully wet and loaded. And so we placed our access points out there, and we did our testing in the cornfield, and developed a model that I have to say, you know, it worked great. Everybody that’s implemented, that model has been extremely pleased. And they’re not getting any problems.

 

So anyhow, that’s kind of our story of how we got into the cannabis industry. And, you know, we’re still traditional wireless consulting in all industries. But this is becoming a niche that we’re, you know, we’ve got some expertise in and understanding, and you don’t have to be for it or against it. Or, you know, a user or not a user, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s just a technology. Just like anything else. I mean, you know, like I said, we work in all sorts of environments, and you know, we don’t always use their product. But you know, it’s a business. So,

 

Harry Brelsford 

yeah, yeah, no, I’m catching what you’re, you’re throwing, this is interesting to me and our audience, because we don’t spend enough time at the CRO level, right, we all kind of, for whatever reason, we get caught up at the retail level.

 

Alex Wilson 

That technology, you know, we see that actually, with a lot of other industries, it’s what is when you’re on the side, where the customer sees it, when you’re on that side, where, you know, and what drives it in a lot of times in the retail facilities, is the customers as well as the employees themselves because they want to have access to their devices. And, you know, but again, where are the cell phones, the retail, the retail facilities are typically in, in the town or in, you know, an urban area where they have good internet. And so they don’t really give it that much thought, or you know, that they really don’t have to, it just works. Unfortunately, when they go to build the growth facilities, they kind of forget about it, you know, technology is always the last thing they think about. And quite honestly, you know, with the schedules that a lot of these, I’m sure a lot of these facilities understand these problems. Supply chain has been a big issue for the last couple of years in the construction, you know, especially construction, but also technology, and it’s not getting any better. So this has been an area that we’ve had to spend a lot of time with our clients and explaining. If you want to build and you have a goal to have this thing operational in six months, that’s fantastic. Just understand it’s going to take two years to get your parts. Start, you know, maybe not two years, but we’ve had a lot of big customers who are purchasing from big names, you know, technology from companies like Cisco and Aruba and Meraki, and they’ll go to place their order today, they’ll get a four to six month eta. And then within a month or two, it suddenly is now a year. Yeah. And so that has to be planned for in this design. Because if you’re planning on going live in a year, and you’re not getting your product until it’s been a year, you’re gonna have some challenges. Yeah. And so we’ve had a lot of companies that it’s kind of funny, they throw a screaming hissy fit. It’s hilarious to watch it, you know, a senior executive, pound their fist on the desk and scream, I want it now. And I’m like, Fine. Go to go to Office Depot or home, you know, go down to the, you know, local, I can’t say RadioShack anymore, because they’re gone. Go to your local electronics store and buy a bunch off the shelf crap and prepare for it not to work by that’s all you’re gonna get right now. If you want good product, if you want good integration. It’s not going to happen overnight. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see the industry take the same direction that some other industries that are involved like the energy industry and others, are the Fed start to dig their fingers into it more and start to mandate what types of technology what levels of encryption and and what levels of security that’s going to drive that commercial product over that consumer product. You know when it comes to technology, and I’m working with, with a client right now in the energy sector that’s facing that. And, you know, they, their policies in the past have been very loosey goosey as to how they did things. And they bought one power plant that happens to, you know, glow in the dark. And that suddenly threw them into a whole different realm of regulation. But it applies to everything now, not just the nuclear power plant, but their entire operation. That kind of regulation is liable to hit the industry. Yeah, time. And so they should start preparing for that mindset of being more in line with proper technology.

 

Harry Brelsford 

Yeah. Cool. Well, I’ll tell you one final question. Will we see you at some of the industry shows am I going to see at mjbizcon Ns in under a month?

 

Alex Wilson 

I am looking to get involved more in the industry that I haven’t had a chance to because we’ve been so busy trying to get caught up on projects with clients that have just had, you know, they’re just finally getting their parts now. You know, they’re knocking on our door. Don, can we get this installed? We’ve been like waiting for a year now. So yeah, we’re trying to we’d love to get involved more. It’s an interesting industry.

 

Harry Brelsford 

Yeah. All right, Alex. Well, thanks for your time again, I leave the conversation richer. It with knowledge than I arrived. I appreciate you. All right. Stay in touch. Take care.

 

Alex Wilson 

Have a great day.