Developer of crosswalk warning lights poised for growth

The flashing lights embedded in a busy crosswalk at College Drive and Sierra Street near the University of Nevada, Reno, campus marks an important step for their Sparks-based developer.

Spot Devices Inc., which spent nearly three years developing the crosswalk warning system, needs as many installations of its system as possible to convince the often-conservative community of traffic engineers that its system works.

On the face of it, the Spot Devices system is the soul of simplicity: A pedestrian pushes the cross-walk button, activating a string of flashing yellow lights across the street, warning motorists to stop or slow.

But the system was anything but simple to develop, says Thomas Burnham, the company's co-founder and vice president of marketing.

"It has to be very durable, because we're putting something in the middle of a street," he says. "It takes a beating."

At the same time, the crosswalk warning system demands sophisticated technology.

Each of the LEDs that flash are tied to a sensor that generates the right level of brightness for conditions brightest on a sunny day, less bright in the middle of the night when there's little competing light from other sources.

The solar-powered batteries in each of the lighting units can store enough juice to power the crosswalk lights after 30 cloudy days.

But Burnham and the other five employees of Spot Devices think the company's biggest competitive advantage is this: The system is wireless, and each lighting unit at the crosswalk is controlled by transmitters installed on poles at the edge of the street.

This means, Burnham says, that municipal street departments can install the Spot Devices system without tearing up a street to put wiring in place.

The self-contained, solar-powered system can be used in rural locations without electrical service. And because the individual lighting units can be removed and replaced one at a time, Spot Devices contends its system offers a lower lifetime cost than competitive systems that are wired.

The Spot Devices team is learning, however, that the sales cycle for traffic control devices is devilishly long. Municipal street departments are locked into annual budget cycles. They may seek federal funding to help pay for innovative programs and that brings even more delays in purchase decisions.

The Sierra Street project in Reno, for instance, is partially funded by the Nevada Department of Transportation. NDOT wants to learn if the Spot Devices system will stand up to winter weather and snowplowing.

The long sales cycle means Burnham and his sales team spend a lot of time cold-calling and knocking on the doors of traffic engineers.

The engineers, in turn, want to see real-world applications of the technology, no matter how promising, before they'll put it to work protecting the lives of pedestrians. In-road warning lights are becoming more common in the West, and their use is spreading across the country.

NDOT and Spot Devices plan a two-year test of the system in Reno.

Challenging as the sales cycle may be, the industry environment holds some promise for the young company.

"So far, in-road lighting is a niche market where there aren't any dominant large companies, although Spot Devices has a handful of competitors," Burnham says.

Burnham, a one-time university teacher of marketing, founded the company in a Palo Alto garage in January 2004. The company's founders maxed out their credit cards and drew on home equity lines to show the technology would work.

"However, we found that with the high cost of technology development and the capital costs of tooling, this is not an industry where the poorly funded can excel," Burnham says.

The company moved to office and manufacturing space in the Haws Corp. building in Sparks late last year. Haws is part of an investment group funding Spot Devices.

"It's been pretty rapid growth since then," Burnham says. "Since receiving our investment, Spot Device has finally had the resources to develop products and support customers the way it should be done."

He keeps the company's plans pretty close to the vest except to say that it's looking at other applications for its technology in the pedestrian-safety and traffic-management industry.