How is G7 changing the game?
Every major gas detection company creates portable gas detection solutions in much the same way — a collection of sensors that detect gas levels and display the readings on an LCD. If a hazardous environment is detected, the body-worn device emits an alarm sound and flashes its lights to call out to nearby coworkers.
Gas detection has not dramatically improved the status quo compared to systems launched half a decade ago, or longer. The current push in the industry is for a long-lasting battery life so the device can last for two-years and then be disposed of when both the battery and sensors run out. Convenient? Sure. Revolutionary? No. But what's worse is that each these detectors will try in vain to call for help when no one nearby. This means that you can have a man down and no one knows any better in order to deliver help.
We're here to solve this problem and we've innovated in the gas detection industry before. Blackline Safety has developed G7, the world's first turnkey, work-anywhere wirelessly connected safety system with expandable gas detection. We’re not one-upping the other guys with more minor improvements — we offer a whole new suite that gives your workers complete safety awareness, in any situation, for an instant response.
We've already started to touch on the ground-breaking capability of G7 but let's look more closely at five ways it’s changing up the portable gas detection game.
1. Real-time connectivity and alerting
We offer two models of G7, one that incorporates 2G/3G cellular communications and the other with Iridium satellite communications. Together, G7 delivers true work-anywhere wireless communications that doesn't rely on expensive Wi-Fi networks or a separate device with Bluetooth wireless communications.
The second that gas levels reach a hazardous concentration, the employee-worn G7 alerts the user using bright alarm lights and a loud audible alarm. G7 instantly communicates alerts to our Blackline Live monitoring portal and the live monitoring team. Blackline offers 24/7 Safety Operation Center live monitoring while some customers have a control room or dedicated team members who can own this responsibility.
If an H2S leak occurs, G7 ensures that your teams have the complete picture. You can confidently send in a prepared response team with the proper safety gear, to the right location. By mapping the employee's location on a map, your team can make the difference by saving precious minutes in emergency response time. And by geo-referencing every on-site gas reading, our G7 heat-map gas reading reports help you identify minor leaks before they become future problems.
2. Automatic and full compliance reporting
With traditional portable gas detection, collecting logs and proving compliance is a manual and tedious process. We don’t use SD cards, Ethernet cords or IR ports. G7 communicates all calibration logs and bump tests automatically and wirelessly to your user account, where you can easily review usage, exposure, and maintenance activity for each device. Bumps and calibrations are effortlessly handled and reported by the device, while efficiently using valuable calibration gas.
Compliance reports also highlight your employee's use of equipment, helping you to ensure that employees not only use monitoring devices but that they use equipment correctly and conscientiously. G7 reports deliver green-yellow-red insights that highlights when everything is in compliance, when something is approaching out of compliance and when an item needs your immediate attention.
3. Over-the-air wireless device configuration and firmware updates
When you log into the Blackline Live portal, you have complete control over how to configure every device. Create G7 configuration profiles to customize device behaviors for each employee role and scenario. Device configurations ensure that no G7 is mis-configured — create separate profiles as needed, such as for operators, instrumentation techs and heavy-duty mechanics. Even if a device is powered off, it will automatically download the a new configuration upon connection to the Blackline Safety Network.
Configure all G7 safety settings including man down detection, fall detection, high and low-gas alert levels, time-weighted average (TWA) and short-term exposure limits (STEL). When you save the changes, the Blackline Safety network automatically updates all devices associated with that profile.. Similarly, Blackline Live features Alert Profiles that configures the response to each alert according to your business' custom emergency response protocol.
At Blackline Safety, we continuously improve our solutions. When we deploy G7 product improvements through firmware updates, these occur wirelessly, seamlessly and automatically over-the-air. If a device happens to be off, when it connects to the Blackline Safety Network, it downloads new firmware and manages the update. We want to make your job easier and ensure safety for your workers around the clock.
4. Portable gas detection with interchangeable sensor cartridges
G7 devices feature easily removable and replaceable portable gas detection cartridges — no need to take equipment out of the field, causing downtime and potentially interrupting employee monitoring programs either. Choose between a Standard Cartridge, Single-gas Cartridge or Quad-gas Cartridge and select the gas sensors that meet your requirements. Our current line of gases include H2S (hydrogen sulfide), LEL (lower explosive limit of combustible gases), CO (carbon monoxide), CO2 (carbon dioxide), O2 (oxygen) and NH3 (ammonia). If your teams' need shift in the future, rest assured that you can repurpose G7 equipment with new cartridges easily and cost-effectively.
With G7, never pay to replace gas sensors again. When a sensor reaches the end of its life, we will send you a new, pre-calibrated cartridge automatically as part of your service program. Your portable gas detection fleet never has to experience any downtime while saving you time and money.
5. Future expansion
G7 offers many new features and capabilities, but a key G7 innovation is its cartridge-based interface. in this article, we spoke a lot about our portable gas detection cartridges. Our Standard Cartridge is a great example of how G7 is designed to support other applications, including plant evacuation management and lone working scenarios. We have other cartridges in our roadmap and we work tirelessly to deliver maximum value to our customers. We're driven by customer feedback — let us know what challenges that we can help you solve through G7 expansion. 
Subscribe to our blog to be notified of future blog articles — next up, we will cover our 24/7 Safety Operations Center and Alarm Receiving Centre live monitoring partners.
About Kirk Johnson
Kirk Johnson is the Product Manager at Blackline Safety where he sets the Blackline product roadmap, making sure we're using the latest technology to provide the highest level of safety for end users.