Using the EPCglobal Gen 2 standard in a new way, the Sensormatic iREAD platform improves the economics of in-store, item-level RFID (radio-frequency-identification) deployments, reducing reader requirements by up to 90% and capital costs by up to 60%. The platform eliminates the separate power, control and data-distributioninfrastructures that have until now been needed for in-store, item-level RFID. By consolidating these into one network, it offers substantial cost savings and improves the ease of installation in a shop-floor environment, which will broaden the appeal of RFID to retailers considering the use of the technology to enhance their operations. A typical medium-sized retail store that would normally require the installation of around 100 readers could be served by around 10 readers working with the Sensomatic iREAD platform.