Powering Real-Time Connectivity for Personal and Workforce Safety
Becklar, through its subsidiary Freeus, provides advanced personal emergency response systems (mPERS) that deliver critical, real-time protection for individuals in both personal health and workforce safety settings. Originally focused on senior care, Becklar has expanded the use of its flagship mPERS devices to include field workers, government agencies, and industrial personnel—anyone who may require immediate assistance in unpredictable environments. Today, the Becklar platform supports over 1.3 million devices and nearly one million active subscribers.
From Legacy Systems to Scalable, Real-Time Infrastructure
When Becklar first launched its mPERS platform, it relied on a legacy backend system that struggled to handle growing demand. “That platform started to break down around 250,000 devices,” said Spencer Ferrin, Director of Software Engineering at Becklar. “We needed a scalable, modern solution that could support future growth and deliver seamless connectivity no matter where the user was located.”
The Becklar team built a new IoT platform centered on MQTT and HiveMQ, giving them the flexibility to connect more devices, enable two-way communication, and deliver life-saving alerts with speed and precision. “We set out to build a platform that could support real-time device communication, process location data and alarms instantly, and allow us to expand into new use cases without having to re-architect,” Ferrin explained.
Modern Architecture for Seamless Data Flow
Becklar selected HiveMQ as the core MQTT platform due to its reliability, high availability, and proven support for large-scale deployments. Today, their system runs on seven cluster nodes hosted in AWS using EC2, supported by an unlimited HiveMQ license that provides the flexibility to scale as needed.
HiveMQ enables Becklar’s mPERS devices to send location updates, battery status, and emergency alerts in near real time, ensuring help is dispatched quickly—even when users are away from home. “Two-thirds of our calls happen when subscribers are not at home,” said Ferrin. “Reliable, low-latency connectivity is mission-critical for us.”
Becklar integrates HiveMQ with Confluent Kafka to support their event-driven architecture. Data from devices flows through HiveMQ to Kafka, then on to various backend services including Snowflake and Sigma for analytics and reporting. This streamlined, cloud-based system has enabled Becklar to grow their active user base to over 975,000 subscribers, with 253,000 devices actively connected at any given time.
High Performance That Scales With Growth
With HiveMQ at the heart of their infrastructure, Becklar now supports:
1.3 million total mPERS devices
975,000 active subscribers
300,000 alarms processed per month
Over 15 million total device locations recorded during calls
Over 5 million defined “home” locations for the user base
Ferrin noted that customer satisfaction has increased as the company has scaled, thanks in large part to HiveMQ’s stability. “We’ve talked to other broker vendors—but HiveMQ continues to offer the best fit for our needs, especially when it comes to security, reliability, and ease of integration. The system just works.”
Unlocking New Markets and Enhancing Customer Outcomes
Since adopting HiveMQ, Becklar has expanded into new markets including state agencies, remote field workers, and senior living centers. Their mPERS devices are now trusted in use cases ranging from elder care to Department of Human Services field visits and large-scale manufacturing safety.
With HiveMQ, Becklar can offer more than reactive protection—they can deliver real-time visibility and proactive support. Their monitoring team handles millions of calls and is equipped to respond quickly thanks to reliable, real-time data flow. As Ferrin summarized: “HiveMQ enabled us to build a scalable platform that grew fourfold and unlocked entirely new markets. We wouldn’t have gotten there without it.”
