Systems integration: equipment from many makers assembled and tested as one system. The loop, step by step: 1. Parts from many vendors on one bench. 2. The chain from source to console stands ready. 3. The integration rack powers up each part. 4. Each reading is stamped with time and place. 5. Interfaces are connected one at a time. 6. Relays carry the packets without reading them. 7. Signatures are checked before any model runs. 8. Each interface is tested against the design. 9. The edge releases confirmed results only. 10. One interface fails its timing test. 11. The fault is traced and the setting fixed. 12. Sensors check that the response worked. 13. The system passes its end-to-end test. 14. The console shows the evidence with the alert. 15. Record, proof and action are archived together. 16. Everything settles back to idle.

01 / 16

Parts from many vendors on one bench

Nexus Observatory

Design and integration

One accountable integrator, site to grid.

System design against the reference architecture, engineering packs a contractor can build from, multi-vendor integration on typed interfaces, and programme delivery across many sites with one plan, one schedule and one evidence record.

Plan with usReference architectureThe open protocol

At a glance

One accountable integrator, site to grid

Design and integration delivers system design against the reference architecture, engineering packs a contractor can build from, multi-vendor integration on typed interfaces and programme delivery with one plan, one schedule and one evidence record. Every site of a type is built the same way, by whichever contractor builds it.

Inkinga

Many suppliers, nobody accountable

Large observing programmes buy from many suppliers. Without one design and one interface contract, every boundary becomes a dispute and every site a one-off. Programmes slip at the interfaces, not in the components, and nobody can say where the delay comes from.

Key facts

Interfaces: OPC UA · IEC 61850 · DNP3 · MQTT · OGC SensorThings

Components

Pole-mounted edge gateway node
Overhead line sensor on a distribution span
Automatic weather station (AWS) to WMO siting practice
Distribution pole transformer and meter cabinet
Private LTE mast on a solar skid
“AI tower in a box”
Data hall row pair with cold-aisle containment
Operations console with a video wall

Interfaces

Amathuluzi: SDI-12 · RS-485 / Modbus RTU · 4–20 mA
Radio: Ethernet · LTE-M / NB-IoT · LoRaWAN
Time and position: GNSS 1PPS
Security: TPM 2.0
Publishing: MQTT

Where it works

Many suppliers, one interface contract

In the story below

The system, part by part
Assembly
Installation
Deployment
Connections
Operation
Failure and recovery
Scale and federation
What you get

Scenes · 17

Next steps

Plan a deployment Read the specification Talk to sales See Programme delivery

Inkinga
Many suppliers, nobody accountable
Large observing programmes buy from many suppliers. Without one design and one interface contract, every boundary becomes a dispute and every site a one-off. Programmes slip at the interfaces, not in the components, and nobody can say where the delay comes from.
What it does
One accountable integrator, site to grid
Design and integration delivers system design against the reference architecture, engineering packs a contractor can build from, multi-vendor integration on typed interfaces and programme delivery with one plan, one schedule and one evidence record. Every site of a type is built the same way, by whichever contractor builds it.
Ubunjiniyela
Design packs a contractor can build from
Drawings, bills of materials, cable schedules and configuration are delivered as one pack per site type, so the hundredth site is built like the first. Each pack is versioned, so a change is made once, reviewed once and applied to every site of that type.
See Engineering
The system
One station, part by part
Before anything is installed, the station is laid out as its parts: instrument, logger and edge compute, secure element, GNSS timing, radio, power, enclosure, wiring, earthing, mast and foundation.
Assembly
Built and tested before it ships
Each part is fitted to the pole and the enclosure, wired through surge protection to one earth, powered and bench-tested until it signs its first reading.
Deployment
Site after site, one design
The same station goes in at every site on the plan, each commissioned against the same checklist, until the field is covered.
Wiring
Signal, power and time, wired
Inside one site the instrument’s signal pair runs to the logger, solar charges the battery that feeds the load, GNSS time reaches the clock and the logger hands its records to the radio.
Multi-vendor integration
Many suppliers, one interface contract
Each interface is written as a typed contract: OPC UA or IEC 61850 into control systems, MQTT and SensorThings into the observing network. Suppliers are tested against the contract, not against each other. A supplier change is a test run against the contract, not a redesign.
Interfaces
OPC UA · IEC 61850 · DNP3 · MQTT · OGC SensorThings

See Multi-vendor integration
Connections
Backhaul, time and power
The relay carries every site to the edge over a point-to-point link, the grandmaster’s time reaches every clock, and each site keeps its power through the night.
Time and records
One clock, one record across suppliers
Every supplier’s equipment is timed from the same traceable source and writes into the same record, so faults that cross a boundary can be followed from end to end. Interface tests check timing as well as content, because a correct value at the wrong time is still a failure.
System design
Requirements to architecture
Requirements are traced to an architecture drawn against the standards, so every component has a reason, an interface and a test. Each decision is recorded with its reason, so a change later in the programme starts from the original intent.
See System design
Imingcele
Safe connection to operational systems
Where observation meets control, the boundary is designed first: zones, conduits, read-only defaults and a firewall whose rules are part of the design pack. No plant system takes commands from the observing network unless the design explicitly allows it and the owner signs that off.
Acceptance
Tested against the plan, signed off on evidence
Each site is accepted against written criteria with measured results; the programme is accepted when every site’s evidence is complete. Failures found at acceptance are fixed and retested, and the evidence of both is kept with the site record. Nothing is accepted without evidence.
See Acceptance
Installation
Built and wired to the pack
Crews build each site to its pack, with deviations recorded and approved, so the as-built record matches what is in the ground. Crews photograph and test as they go, so the record is built during installation, not reconstructed afterwards. Every deviation is approved and kept.
Programme delivery
Many sites, one plan and one schedule
Site types are repeated across the programme; crews, supply and acceptance are scheduled together, and progress is reported from the evidence record. Risks and dependencies are tracked across the programme, and every site’s status comes from its own evidence. Progress is never reported from opinion.
See Programme delivery
What you get
Programmes, integration and management
The reference architecture and interface contracts are open. National observing network programmes, systems integration and programme management are contracted. Pricing follows the programme’s scale and phases, with one point of accountability from design to acceptance; the documentation, models and records stay yours at the end.
Talk to sales
Next step
Share your requirements
Send us the programme’s requirements and constraints, and the sites you have in mind. We return an architecture, a site typology, the interface contracts and a delivery plan with its milestones. The plan scales from a pilot site to a national programme.
Plan a deployment Read the specification

See it from every side.

Each opens as a full-screen presentation: deeper pages on the same subject, explainers, stories, guided tours of the places, network scenes and the observatories that came before.

All presentations