RxNetworks

Fathom Hub

Fathom™ represents the next generation in Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) technology, utilizing Bluetooth to enhance asset tracking systems with 2m indoor location accuracy. The gateway to Fathom's innovative Real-Time Location System is the Fathom Hub, a precision-engineered directional Bluetooth radio receiver combined with the subscription-based Fathom Control software platform in the cloud.

Start a project →

The Product

The RxNetworks team had developed new technology for anonymous customer tracking in retail environments. Each Fathom Hub scans for BLE devices, and multiple hubs are stitched together in the cloud to form a virtual BLE radar mesh that can locate people and assets throughout a space.

The technology was ready. What they needed was an enclosure that would belong in a retail space and say something about what the device does, so they decided to enlist the help PDE’s 37 years of in mechanical and industrial design to help them.

The Challenge

Designing for a Retail Ceiling

A tracking device mounted in a retail environment sits in plain sight. It needs to look like it belongs there, but it also has the opportunity to communicate something about what it does.

The brief for the Fathom Hub came down to two things. First, the enclosure should feel at home in a modern retail space, which means considered materials, clean lines, and a form that does not look like off-the-shelf industrial hardware. Second, the design should visually reflect the omnidirectional nature of the device’s function, since the hub listens in all directions simultaneously.

The Solution

Texture, Shape, and a Lit Logo

The enclosure uses a hexagonal footprint. Six equal sides have a natural visual connection to omnidirectionality, and the shape stands apart from the rectangular housings that dominate the category without feeling arbitrary.

The top surface uses a textured finish while the side walls are polished. The contrast between the two gives the enclosure a refined quality and prevents the device from reading as a plain plastic box, even from the floor of a retail space.

The illuminated logo on the top face ties back to the hexagonal geometry of the enclosure itself. The two reference each other, and together they carry the idea of the internal components and the network the device forms. It is a small detail, but it gives the hub a finished, intentional quality that communicates the sophistication of the technology inside.

The Technologies Behind This Build

See the full range of services we offer →