Helium Announces Partnership with Conserv to Save Art and Culture Collections Amid COVID-19 via Nationwide IoT Network

Helium, the company behind one of the world’s first peer-to-peer wireless networks, today announced it has teamed up with Conserv, the collections-focused environmental monitoring platform, to provide widespread coverage to art and cultural collections across the country. Through this partnership, they are providing wireless environmental monitoring to protect art and prevent damage to historical collections. 

Even before the pandemic, many of the world’s most prestigious museums, libraries and galleries used outdated technology to monitor their collections for temperature, humidity, vibration, and other harmful environmental factors through antiquated systems. These legacy systems required someone to physically collect data from each sensor, a process that is both time consuming and can put employees at risk during a pandemic. Other monitoring techniques had to rely on Wi-Fi connectivity, an undependable short-range with limited battery life. Now, through Helium and Conserv’s partnership, museums and galleries can have real-time environmental monitoring devices that are affordable, long-range, and last for years off a small battery. 

“Before the Helium Network, IoT devices like ours had no great way to connect to the Internet,” said Austin Senseman, Founder and CEO of Conserv. “We are delighted to partner with Helium to ensure that we are not just keeping historical art and artifacts safe and secure for future generations to come, but also protecting our community during this unprecedented time.” 

Two of the collections to first utilize the combination of Helium and Conserv will be the Alabama Department of Archives and History and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Both of these institutions possess some of the most important civil rights artifacts in our nation’s history, including collections on Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. These original documents, photographs, and artifacts define who we are as a nation, and both Helium and Conserv are dedicated to preserving these collections now and forever. Following this initial rollout, Helium and Conserv plan to expand this history-preserving technology to other museums and collections across the US and eventually the world.   

“Helium is honored to partner with Conserv to protect our community and artwork. It’s always been at the core of our vision to spark innovation to help make our world a better place,” said Amir Haleem, Helium’s CEO and co-founder. “These civil rights artifacts and collections are an important part of our history. We’re determined to continue our work with Conserv to ensure they remain undamaged.”

Conserv is currently utilizing Helium’s Network, which is powered by the Helium Hotspot. The Helium Hotspot is a hardware device that enables anyone to own and operate a wireless network for IoT devices. With Helium’s open-source blockchain technology, individuals are incentivized to deploy Hotspots, which simultaneously mine cryptocurrency and provide network coverage for hundreds of square miles. Helium’s supporters (individual consumers) have created networks across hundreds of cities and all fifty states in less than eight months. When connected with other nearby Hotspots, this acts as the backbone of the network, which is often referred to as The People’s Network.

To learn more about the partnership and order collection monitoring devices, please visit www.conserv.io. 

About Helium

Co-founded by Shawn Fanning and Amir Haleem in 2013, Helium is building the world’s first peer-to-peer wireless network to simplify connecting devices to the internet by rewarding anyone to become a network operator. CEO Amir Haleem comes from an extensive background in triple-A video games. Helium is backed by GV (formerly Google Ventures), Khosla Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Multicoin Capital, FirstMark, Marc Benioff, Shawn Fanning and other top VCs. The network is live in more than 1,000 cities throughout North America. More information can be found at helium.com.

About Conserv 

Conserv, a software and sensors business, is changing the art conservation market with a conservation-focused platform that brings together all of the jobs conservation professionals do into a single place. Conserv’s initial focus is on environmental monitoring, a non-optional conservation job, where they’ve developed the only wireless, conservation-focused monitoring system in the space. More information can be found at www.conserv.io

Contact Information

Riley Munks

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