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Humanitarian/
CommunityThe people who design, build and run observation in this industry: engineers, operators, researchers and the communities the systems serve.
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Observation where the need is greatest and the grid is thinnest
Deployable connectivity and sensing for displacement sites and crisis response, observing-network gap filling where stations are fewest, satellite backhaul where nothing else reaches, and evidence funders can audit. Needs: weather and water where stations are missing, connectivity at camps and field offices, off-grid power, hazard exposure and audit-ready evidence for funders.
Community
School connectivity observatory
A connected school as an observatory node: backhaul, Wi-Fi, a connectivity probe and an optional weather and air-quality station. Built with education ministries, UN country offices, school networks, and open to participation. Volunteers and local partners install, host and read stations alongside our crews; their data carries the same metadata and quality flags as every other source.
What must be measured
Humanitarian: what must be measured
Weather and water where stations are missing, connectivity at camps and field offices, off-grid power, hazard exposure and audit-ready evidence for funders. Each is measured by instruments sited to recognised practice, read by a base node that stamps, checks and signs every value.
How it works
From instrument to record, in one chain
An instrument reads; the base node checks the value, stamps time and place, signs it and sends it over the link the site has: cellular, LoRaWAN, private 5G or satellite. The edge verifies the signature before admitting it, and the core catalogues it with its metadata, quality flag and licence.
Trust
Every node proves what it is
A node joins only after its hardware root of trust answers an attestation challenge. Keys stay in secure hardware, software arrives signed, and every reading carries a signature, so its origin can be checked by anyone downstream without asking us.
Time and place
Every reading carries when and where
Readings are stamped against a disciplined clock, from satellite time or a PTP grandmaster, together with the station position and its siting record. When time or position is degraded, the record says so instead of hiding it, and every analyst downstream sees the same warning.
How it scales
One base unit, repeated
A programme starts with one base node and the instruments it reads. A station adds power and radio, a site adds a relay, a fleet repeats the proven site across many places, and a network federates fleets through edge and core. Capacity grows by adding units, never by replacing what works.
Updates
Updates in rings, with rollback
Software and configuration reach the fleet in rings: a canary site first, then a few, then all, each ring gated on health and data completeness. A failed gate stops the wave and returns each node to its last good release, without a site visit.
Operations
Every node watched, every incident closed
The operations console shows every node with its state, its plan and its evidence. Alerts arrive with their data and a runbook; acknowledging one opens a work order, and an incident closes only when the cause is recorded and the fix verified.
Failure and recovery
When a node fails, the fleet knows first
When a node goes silent or a sensor drifts, the node buffers its data, fails over to a second link where one exists, and the alert carries the evidence a responder needs. Nothing is lost and nothing is counted twice.
Evidence
Standards you can check
Metadata follows WIGOS and ISO 19115 practice, observations are served through OGC SensorThings and can be exchanged through WIS 2.0, and every release, calibration and admission is kept as a signed record that an auditor can verify independently, without asking us to explain it.
What you get
Deployable connectivity and sensing kits
A cell on wheels with satellite backhaul, mesh telemetry and environment nodes for incident bases and events. Delivered as rental and managed service, for emergency agencies, humanitarian logistics, event operators. Scale: Pre-positioned fleets. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.
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Plan a humanitarian deployment
Tell us the sites, the measurements and the people who will use them. We reply with a design and a scope for humanitarian. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.
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01Why a community
Observation is built by many hands.
Engineers, operators, researchers and residents each see a part of the system. The community puts the parts in one place.
01
Join
One account for every community, every platform and the NXS Observatory app.Create account →
02
Contribute
Methods, templates, field notes and data, reviewed in the open and credited to the people who made them.What is open →
03
Build together
Groups form around use cases, regions and technologies, proposed by members.Use cases →
02Code of conduct
One standard for every space we host.
- RespectDisagree with ideas, never with people. No harassment, in any form.
- EvidenceClaims carry their source. Measurements carry their method.
- CreditWork is credited to the people who did it, under the licence they chose.
- SafetyNo instructions that put people, sites or networks at risk.
- PrivacyNo one’s personal data is posted without their consent.
- AuthorityOfficial warnings and decisions stay with the bodies that hold them.
Bring us the site.
Survey, design, deployment and operation for humanitarian. The form names who receives your details.
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