Q-Sync is a battery-powered, sensor-driven announcement system for queue management and crowd control. It speaks only when people are in range — the right message, in 50+ languages — so the queue keeps moving without staff yelling all day.
01 The problem
Every airport, station and venue runs its queues the same way: a person — or a PA on a loop — repeating the same line all day, blasted over everyone at once, in one language. The message that never stops is the one nobody hears.
The same line on repeat. Ears tune it out — and the people who actually need it miss it.
Blasted over the whole hall, even the empty zones. Draining for staff and travellers alike.
International crowds, a single language on the speaker. Most of the line is left guessing.
A staff member stuck yelling "have your ID ready" for an eight-hour shift. Expensive and exhausting.
It isn't that people don't listen. It's that there's nothing worth listening to.
02 How it works
Q-Sync drops a small sensor node at each zone of your queue. Each one watches its own patch of floor and plays the right announcement, in the right language, the moment someone walks into range — and stays silent when no one's there.
A sonar sensor with a range you set detects a person entering the zone — not too close, not too far.
Plays that zone's message — AI voice in 50+ languages, or your own recorded announcement and typed captions.
Different zone, different message. Up to 100+ zones per device, each with its own script.
No one in range, no announcement. No loop, no blanket noise, no fatigue.
03 Intelligent sensing
Every node covers one zone of the queue. As people move through, only the zones with someone in range speak — the rest stay quiet. Dial the sonar range per node so each one triggers at exactly the right distance: close enough to be useful, far enough to feel natural.
Sonar first — because you can set the trigger distance. Intelligent sensing, tuned to your space.
One device runs 100+ independent zones — each with its own message and language set.
Plays only when someone's actually there. No loop, no repeat, no fatigue.
Push an emergency message from the app; every device syncs over Wi-Fi and plays it within ~15 seconds.
04 The pitch
Q-Sync Investor Pitch — sensor-driven queue announcements that keep the line moving. Hardware shown is an AI-generated concept render.
05 Architecture
Built like infrastructure: intelligence in the cloud only where it must be, resilience on the ground where it counts.
Build each zone's messages in the app: type the captions, then either generate AI voice or record your own announcement right on the device. OpenAI TTS + translation is optional — the only thing that ever touches the internet — so Q-Sync also runs fully offline. Android ships first; iOS is on the roadmap.
A central server pushes new messages to every node four times a minute over a firewalled Wi-Fi backhaul — no internet needed to run. Nodes lock to NTP, so speakers in the same zone fire within 50 ms of each other — unison playback, no announcement echo. Push an emergency and every device plays it within ~15 seconds. Emergencies override every zone, instantly. Mesh backhaul is planned for off-grid sites like festivals.
Battery-powered, all-day runtime. A sonar sensor with adjustable range + speaker + OLED, triggering the right zone's announcement the moment someone approaches — 100+ zones per device.
Optional ADA-compliant dot-matrix / LED panels scrolling the same message as text, locked to the audio.
06 Accessibility, by design
Legacy PA is audio-only — it leaves out the deaf and hard of hearing, and anyone who doesn't speak the default language. Q-Sync treats captions and translation as first-class, not add-ons.
ESP32 SENSOR NODE · REV A
07 Working hardware, today
The battery-powered sensor-node firmware is operational right now — this isn't a concept deck.
Device images are AI-generated concept renders — final hardware will vary.
08 Where it wins
Queue management is a multi-billion-dollar problem hiding inside a $0 public-address market — and every one of these places still runs on someone shouting, or a PA nobody hears.
Security, boarding, customs — replace the agent shouting "IDs out" with the right prompt, in every traveller's language.
Platform and gateline queues that shift minute to minute — announced only where the crowd actually is.
Embarkation, tenders and muster for hundreds of multilingual guests — with zero PA spam.
Registration and session lines that guide themselves, so your staff don't have to.
Entry, wristband and bar queues — multilingual, on-brand, all day on battery.
Stadiums, theme parks, borders, clinics. If there's a line, Q-Sync runs it — that's why it's Q-Sync.
09 Roadmap
We've shipped through Phase 3 — the sensor & zone engine, and the Android control app. Phase 4, the caption-node platform, is in active development today. From here: production, pilots, iOS, and longer-range LoRa backhaul as the radio tech matures.
Harden the operational ESP32 sensor-node firmware. Shipped
Sonar range, 100+ zones, motion triggering & emergency priority — on-device. Shipped
Compose app: per-zone scripts, TTS, translation, audit trail. Shipped
Optional ADA caption panels + sync-protocol hardening. In active development
Manufacture sensor nodes + caption nodes at pilot scale.
Real queues, real hardware — airports, transit, cruise & festival pilots.
Bring the full control app to iPhone & iPad alongside Android.
Multi-site provisioning, monitoring & OTA firmware updates.
Long-range, low-power backhaul for sprawling sites, as the radio tech matures.
Self-healing mesh + off-grid satellite — announcements anywhere on earth. The vision
10 The ask
Caption nodes and the iOS app, on top of the sensor nodes and Android app already shipping.
Manufacture the first batch of battery-powered sensor nodes at pilot scale.
Put Q-Sync into real queues — airports, transit, cruise, festivals — and prove it.
11 Let's talk
We already have working hardware — and we'd love to show you a live demo. Tell us who you are and we'll be in touch.
Direct: [email protected]