RTLS & RFID guides: selection, hospitals, cost and pilots.

How to use these locating guides

These guides are written for teams selecting and deploying location technology (RTLS, Passive RFID and hybrid stacks) without starting from a supplier catalogue. Read them in the order your programme is actually in: clarify the locating question and KPI, choose the radio layer, design density and install, run a production-load pilot, then select and recover with independence where needed.

Start here by situation. Comparing radios? Use UWB vs BLE and Passive RFID vs RTLS. Budgeting? Use the RTLS cost guide and Passive RFID install cost. Designing infrastructure? Use BLE AoA locator density, UWB anchor placement and the RF site survey checklist. Buying or rescuing? Use the supplier selection checklist, pilot success criteria, recover-failed-pilot, and the RTLS / RFID specialist guides. Industry context sits in the hospital, logistics and manufacturing locating guides.

Best-practice thread across every guide. Name the decision locating must support; match accuracy to that decision; survey and commission under live load; integrate events into systems of record; measure a baseline before any equipment arrives; and keep guidance work independent so density and architecture are challenged, not padded. Hybrid locating (Passive RFID at gates, BLE for broad visibility, UWB for precision or safety hotspots) is the pattern most large estates converge on.

What these pages are not. They are not product datasheets and not named-client case studies. Use them to frame questions for suppliers and integrators. Bring an independent specialist when you want those answers pressure-tested against your RF environment and operating model.

Locating programme sequence these guides support

A practical sequence: (1) frame the KPI and locating question with the industry- and role-oriented materials; (2) choose radio layers with UWB vs BLE and Passive RFID vs RTLS; (3) design density and survey with the infrastructure guides; (4) cost and pilot with the cost, pilot-criteria and supplier-checklist guides; (5) recover or assure with specialist and failed-pilot guides. Insights on accuracy and multipath explain why production numbers diverge from datasheets.

Keep everything EN independent and locating-led: the output of reading should be better questions and tighter gates, not a premature brand shortlist. When you want those gates pressure-tested on your floorplan, book an independent scoping call.

Keep guides close to the decisions you are making this month

If you are in discovery, prioritise industry locating guides plus pilot success criteria. If you are in design, prioritise density, anchor placement, site survey and install-cost guides. If you are in procurement, prioritise supplier checklist, cost guide and UWB vs BLE / RFID vs RTLS. If you are stuck, open the recovery and specialist guides before buying more hardware. That mapping keeps this library operational rather than encyclopaedic.

All guides assume British English usage on the site, independent guidance, and locating outcomes over radio brand loyalty. Update cycles may refine ranges as practice evolves. Treat figures as planning bands to validate on your floor, not as guarantees.

Related paths after the guides

When a guide answers the structural question, continue into Insights for accuracy and multipath depth, Comparisons for independent radio pairings, and Templates for TCO and pilot artefacts. Services pages cover survey, install, platform build and programme rescue when you want hands-on help still without a reseller pitch. The through-line is the same: locating outcomes first, radio brand second.

Field note

Use the guides as a living checklist beside your RFP and pilot plan. Revise density and radio choices when production-load evidence disagrees with the brochure.

New: RTLS specialist vs integrator, choosing the partner type before technology (SI, supplier PS, LaaS, independent guidance).