Get Started with Meridian Follow

From the Meridian Editor to Beacons hardware, there are many things to keep track of while you get your Meridian-powered app up off the ground. This article describes all of the steps you’ll need to get started with Meridian.

Meridian Subscriptions

Meridian subscriptions come in two types: proof of concept (POC) and paid.

If you don’t know what type of subscription you have, please contact your sales representative.

Meridian Account

If you’re reading this article, you already have an account in the Meridian Editor.

Once you have a Meridian Editor account, you have access to everything you’ll need to start deploying Beacons hardware, adding placemarks and routing to your maps, and preparing for the release of your Meridian-powered apps.

If you have a Meridian Editor account, you can create accounts for other users for your location.

Meridian Map

Before you can use Meridian’s location services, you’ll need at least one map for your location in the Meridian Editor. To do this, send us a map image file for each map you want in your Meridian-powered app. The Meridian Maps team will convert your map file into a format that works well in both the Meridian Editor and your Meridian-powered app.

Please send your map as a high resolution PNG, PDF, or JPEG image file to maps@meridianapps.com.

Only one map is granted for each Proof of Concept (POC) or Not for Resale (NFR) kit. If you need to order more map conversions (SKU = PS-MER-MAP), please contact your HPE Aruba sales manager.

Placemarks

Placemarks are points of interest on your map that your visitors might like to find.

Routing

Routing describes the legal pathways your visitors can take through your location. Once our Maps team has uploaded a map the Editor for you, you can begin adding routing lines to your map.

Beacons Hardware

BLE Beacons send Bluetooth signals with a unique identifier. They don’t connect to Wi-Fi networks.

The Meridian Editor and Meridian-powered apps use the Beacon Bluetooth signals to enable location and friend finding, directions, and push notifications.

Beacons have a maximum range of 25 meters (80 feet) in an unobstructed area.

Battery-Powered Beacons

Battery-powered Beacons (BT-20) can be placed throughout a venue. Beacon batteries have up to a 4 year battery life dependent on the indoor or outdoor environment they are placed at. 

Beacons can be deployed as either location or proximity, but any one beacon can not do both at the same time. 

Meridian Manager App

Meridian Manager app is used to manage BLE Beacons and Tags. It is available in iOS and Android versions. The app user guide can be found here.

Beacons Management

The Meridian Editor’s Beacons Management provides greater control over the Beacons deployed to your location.

With Beacons Management you can review your deployed Beacons, track Beacon battery levels, and edit Beacon values.

Remote Beacons Management is only supported on HPE Aruba Networking and wireless local area networks (WLAN). If you’re using a non-HPE Aruba Networking WLAN, you’ll need to use the Meridian Manager app to manually scan you deployed Beacons.

Controller

If you’re using HPE Aruba Networking hardware to manage your WLAN, a controller is a key piece of that. The controller is crucial for Beacons Management, because it reports the Beacon status it receives from a location’s access points (APs).

The controller also stages Beacon changesets to be pushed out to APs.

Beacons Management requires 7xxx controllers.

Access Point (AP)

The AP 215 and AP 225 running AOS 6.4.3.3 don’t natively support Beacons Management. However, when a USB Beacon is plugged into an AP, it enables that AP to monitor Beacons and report that Beacon status to its controller.

When an AP receives a Beacon changeset from a controller, it pushes that changeset down to the appropriate Beacon and then reports that it has been done.

Upcoming AP hardware will support Beacon monitoring natively.

Meridian-Powered Apps

Meridian-powered iOS and Android apps are what your visitors will use to navigate around your location, find placemarks of interest, be notified of events or location-specific information, and provide other features relevant to your location. These features are provided via the Meridian SDK, which is added to your new or existing app.

To learn more about the Meridian SDK, please go to the Meridian SDK Introduction.