MAIN TAKE-HOMES:
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Open Protocol is a bridge across manufacturers - a coding system that was developed so that every tag can be detected on every receiver.
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Open Protocol can be on your receiver while listening for encrypted tags!
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Your neighbour might be using Open Protocol tags; be a good neighbour and listen to their tags if you can.
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You can buy an Open Protocol receiver from ANY manufacturer now, but Innovasea is the only manufacturer charging an extra fee.
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Encrypted tags might be best in your area, but remember that you can listen for Open Protocol tags with any receiver if you want to.
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Open Protocol is the fastest growing protocol, and the future of telemetry will require compatibility.
Some more context...
Compatibility across acoustic telemetry equipment is at the core of tracking networks – tags and receivers that don’t ‘speak to each other’ defy the purpose of networks. Over recent years, Innovasea has moved towards the encryption of their coding schemes, thereby ensuring that their tags can only be detected by their receivers. This is problematic because it prevents tags from different manufacturers to be detected, and receivers from different manufacturers to detect Innovasea tags. Imagine if Apple decided that iPhone users could only call other iPhone users? You could no longer call your friend who owns a Samsung.
ETN, together with equipment manufacturers, has developed the Open Protocol (OP), which is available to all manufacturers who sign an MoU and License Agreement. The OP is available to all researchers across the globe – not only Europe. Despite having signed an MoU and License Agreement, Innovasea is continuing to make developments that go against equipment compatibility, making OP only available to members of ETN, charging very high fees for upgrading equipment to be compatible with OP, making no effort to improve compatibility and interoperability, and certainly not meeting the needs of the community. Now imagine that Apple decided that iPhone users could call Samsung users, but you have to pay an extra 300 Euros to upgrade your software…
These actions defy the purpose of the science we do, and severely compromise the outcomes of long-term research on migratory species. ETN’s perception is that this is unacceptable, and we strongly encourage researchers in this field to ensure that purchased equipment is compatible and interoperable regardless of the manufacturer, and to reach out to ETN if you have questions, or are uncertain about how to proceed.
