SERS Now Flags Environmental Hazards—
2 Seconds Before They Turn Into Violations
With a full-stack IoT alert system developed in VE’s offshore R&D lab
With a full-stack IoT alert system developed in VE’s offshore R&D lab
SERS supports over 200 clients across Australia - each running construction projects where excessive PM10/PM2.5 dust, sound vibration, or weather condition can trigger regulatory violations and immediate stop-work orders.
What SERS needed for their clients was a real-time IoT platform that could connect all their sensors planted in remote areas, trigger live alerts, and generate location-based reports the moment a violation threshold was crossed. Not later. Not overnight. As it happened.
SERS needed deep, device-level control over their sensors that came with no APIs, no real documentation, and no vendor support. The only way to build that kind of system was to decode the firmware itself, test hardware behavior in controlled conditions, and create custom command libraries. In short, it required a full-blown R&D lab.
Setting up that kind of infrastructure in Australia would’ve meant building a local lab and hiring specialized firmware engineers. It would have cost well over half a million dollars and taken months to ramp up.
Instead of spending half a million on a physical lab, SERS hired two VE developers: Anupam Kumar, an IoT specialist, and Vishal Agarwal, a full-stack web developer, to build the entire IoT system. What started as simple staffing quickly turned strategic.
SERS soon discovered the team could go deeper than software. They ran lab-grade protocol tests, reverse-engineered undocumented sensor commands, and simulated hardware under real-world edge conditions—operating at a level few offshore teams ever reach.. SERS decided to lean in.
SERS began shipping their high-value sensors, like the $35,000 TSI DustTrak DRX units, directly to VE’s engineers. With full hardware access, testing autonomy, and a direct feedback loop from field conditions in Australia, VE became SERS’s remote R&D lab.
SERS had invested in some of the best sensors money could buy:
TSI DustTrak DRX 8533 and 8530 sensors worth over $35,000
Weather stations capable of tracking wind, humidity, temperature, and pressure
Svantek vibration and noise sensors with proprietary protocols
But every device lived in its own world. The AQI devices uploaded to a vendor site SERS couldn’t control. The weather units relied on third-party loggers. The vibration and noise sensors came with their own isolated IoT platform. Nothing worked together. And worse, the client couldn’t correlate data between sensors - meaning they couldn’t tell if a dust surge was caused by nearby wind or construction activity.
SERS shipped two AQI sensors, TSI DustTrak DRX 8533 and 8530, for integration and testing. The units had no APIs, and no protocol docs, and were capped at ~65,000 readings with storage-only default modes. Anupam reverse-engineered them and unlocked the cloud-streaming capability.
Anupam developed a custom Python application designed to run on Raspberry Pi. The app controls the sensor inputs, maintains 4G modem connectivity, and runs on solar-powered batteries. Even during power outages, data is cached locally and synced via FTP once back online.
DustTrak and Sewantec sensors relied on undocumented binary commands. Using Wireshark and live traces, Anupam manually decoded over 200 of them. This unlocked functions like memory wiping, alarm tuning, and real-time logging.
DustTrak’s built-in memory maxed out at 65,000 readings. To fix that, he created a “source mode” that streamed fresh data every two seconds. It gave SERS live insight without interruption.
There was no central dashboard. Every sensor type, dust, weather, vibration, had its own interface. Teams had to jump between portals to understand what was happening.
Thresholds were breached without warning. There were no real-time alerts for dust spikes, memory limits, or sensor failures.
Compliance reports had to be compiled manually - exported from different systems, formatted by hand, and submitted under tight deadlines.
There was no easy way to analyze historical trends. Without filters by day, hour, or month, spotting patterns or proving compliance meant hours of digging.
Vishal built the cloud platform that brought all sensor feeds—dust, weather, noise—into a single, centralized system. Teams could now view live data across all project sites, without juggling vendor portals or disconnected dashboards.
The system flagged memory limits, sensor failures, and threshold breaches as they happened—not hours later. For the first time, site teams could act before a compliance issue turned into a stop-work order.
Teams could filter historical readings by hour, day, or month to track trends or investigate incidents. Regulatory reports were auto-generated in the required formats—no spreadsheets, no last-minute scrambling.
SERS’ clients now act in real time – not after the fact. With live environmental data and instant alerts, they can adjust operations before small spikes become costly shutdowns. Every decision is backed by data, not guesswork.
By helping clients act before pollutants leave the site boundary, SERS isn’t just preventing violations; they’re actively helping reduce PM₁₀ exposure across construction zones and surrounding communities.
IoT projects were long seen as off-limits to remote teams. This one proved otherwise. With no on-site presence, VE delivered a fully integrated, real-time platform that gave SERS complete control, visibility, and compliance - entirely from offshore.
All sensors—DustTrak 8533/8530, weather stations, and vibration units—now unified in one platform with live data and zero on-site setup.
VE’s firmware decoding and custom control stack enabled live data streaming every 2 seconds—so SERS could act before violations, not after.
Offline caching and auto-sync ensured no gaps—even in the most remote sites. Every log captured. Every reading accounted for.
The system self-configures and goes live in under 2 minutes—no IT team, no manual installs, just plug, power, and stream.
“We are currently working with Virtual Employee to develop an IoT platform for our environmental monitoring services. We primarily work with Anupam and Vishal from VE. I have found both to be extremely helpful and knowledgeable with all aspects of this project. We’re now 80% through Phase One. I look forward to working with them through to project completion.”
Richard Southam
Regional Manager, SERS, Australia
