“Pickberry Vineyards, a 30-acre, family-run business in the Sonoma Valley in northern California, is not the usual sort of customer for what multinational technology consulting firm Accenture has to offer. Pickberry was more than happy, though, to serve as a guinea pig for the innovative wireless viticulture system that Accenture associate partner Bill Westerman was developing at the company’s technology lab in nearby Palo Alto.”

But, you ask, “How does it work?”

“Instead it uses proprietary 900MHz wireless technology from Millennial Networks. It collects data from electronic sensors — measuring soil moisture, leaf moisture and air temperature —sends it over a Millennial mesh network at the vineyard and then via a cellular network to a server at the Accenture lab. There it’s turned into useful information that could eventually help the vineyard increase yields, cut costs, reduce dependence on chemicals and save on labor.”

More technical details in the article. Good read, highly recommended.