Testing of Faster, More Robust MoCA 2.0 Products Coming Soon
Calabasas, CA (August 17, 2010)…National Technical Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NTSC) (NTS), a leading provider of engineering services, announced today that the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA®) has extended its agreement with NTS to be the exclusive worldwide testing laboratory for MoCA product certifications for an additional 2 years.
National Technical Systems (NTS) Completes ZigBee Smart Energy Certification Testing for SimpleHomeNet Appliance
Rapidly Expanding Smart Grid Compliance Testing Market Is Key NTS Initiative
CALABASAS, Calif., June 4, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –National Technical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTSC) (NTS), a leading provider of engineering services, announced today that it recently completed ZigBee Smart Energy certification testing for a feature-rich, wireless electric load controller manufactured by SimpleHomeNet, a division of Compacta International. The tests were run at the NTS laboratory in Culver City, CA. Following completion of the certification tests, the ZigBee Alliance reviewed the test results submitted by NTS and the application submitted by SimpleHomeNet and certified the load controller.
NTS is the market leader in ZigBee smart energy certification testing and one of only three companies worldwidewith rights designated by the ZigBee Alliance to test wireless products for ZigBee Smart Energy certification. Completion of the certification tests for SimpleHomeNet is another example of NTS’ expanding leadership in the burgeoning testing market for ZigBee Smart Energy.
ZigBee Smart Energy is the market leading wireless home area network (HAN) standard with more than 40 million smart meters being installed around the world. Last year, it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as an initial interoperable standard for HAN devices. ZigBee has also been adopted by over 350 global manufacturers andthere is a large total potential market of 1.5 billion devices that could be installed in homes worldwide for energy management and demand response, according to a recently published report by ON World.
Smart energy device testing is a rapidly expanding global industry and a growing market for NTS,said NTS Chief Executive Office William McGinnis. The U.S. Department of Energy has allocated $30 billion as part of a national energy initiative backed by national utility companies, which is expected toencourage the development and certification of a broad range of smart energy products McGinnis said.
ZigBee Smart Energy certification demonstrates that a wireless product such as a load controller, or other wireless device, is compliant with the ZigBee Smart Energy standard that was created by energy experts and ZigBee Alliance members. ZigBee members include Ember, Freescale, Texas Instruments, Landis & Gyr, Itron, Cisco, General Electric, Honeywell, Intel, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Philips, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony and many other leading corporations around the world.
“This is already a large, rapidly growing market and an expanding list of companies is committed to the smart energy path, which we believe is a good opportunity for us,” McGinnis added. “We not only provide the test services, but we also design the test tools to simulate the functions of the appliances that allow our clients to do self-testing. We have a full solution for our clients with software testing and validation and multiple engineering services.”
Remotely controlled, wireless appliances such as thermostats, meters, load controllers, pool pumps, water heaters and display units designed for homeowners as part of a HAN are key components of a smart grid created to reduce energy usage, increase reliability and cut costs for consumers, said NTS Chief Technology Officer Osman Sakr. The NTS testing demonstrates that the appliances work together properly and can accurately show how much energy is being used, thereby allowing a consumer to manage energy efficiently.
Al Choperena, President and CEO of Compacta International, said the NTS testing and ZigBee Smart Energy certification of its load controller “is a key milestone in our ZigBee product roadmap and signals our strong commitment to the future of the smart grid. To date, our certification efforts have been on track thanks to our ongoing partnership with NTS.”
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CES — Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a leader in touch- and microcontroller-based solutions, today announced that Atmel’s RF4Control platform has received ZigBee® RF4CE certification using the new ATmega128RFA1 wireless AVR® microcontroller. Atmel can now offer its customers an immediate, low-cost, easy-to-implement solution for various remote control applications using the ATmega128RFA1.
The ZigBee RF4CE specification is a standardized specification for radio frequency (RF) remote controls promoted by the ZigBee Alliance. The specification enables flexible control from nearby rooms, enables unique two-way communications between the remote and device, and delivers improved remote battery life for a variety of consumer electronic (CE) devices such as HDTV, home theater equipment, set-top boxes and other audio equipment.
“We are pleased to be among the first to have our wireless platform ZigBee RF4CE certified,” said Magnus Pedersen, product marketing director of MCU wireless solutions at Atmel Corporation. “With this certification, Atmel’s recently launched ATmega128RFA1 can now offer customers more flexibility, reliability and freedom to operate their devices from greater distances. The two-way communication between the device and remote, and by removing the ‘line-of-site’ barrier, enables our consumers to enjoy an even richer experience.”
“The certification of Atmel’s RF4Control platform is another step towards spreading ZigBee’s reach in homes everywhere,” said Benno Ritter, vice president of marketing for the ZigBee Alliance. “ZigBee RF4CE will offer manufacturers a number of advanced remote control features while offering increased flexibility and ease of use.”
“As the authorized ZigBee test lab, we are pleased to certify Atmel’s ATmega128RFA1 to develop products based on the RF4CE standard,” said Osman Sakr, chief technology officer of National Technical Systems Inc. “We look forward to testing more products and platforms to move towards interoperable RF products across multiple vendors based on this new standard.”
More Information
For more information about Atmel’s ZigBee RF4CE solutions, please click the following link: http://www.atmel.com/RF4CE.
For additional information on Atmel’s wireless microcontrollers, please click the following link: http://www.atmel.com/wireless.
ZigBee: Control your world
ZigBee is the global wireless language connecting dramatically different devices to work together and enhance everyday life. The ZigBee Alliance is a non-profit association of more than 300 member companies driving development of ZigBee wireless technology. The Alliance promotes worldwide adoption of ZigBee as the leading wirelessly networked, sensing and control standard for use in consumer electronic, energy, home, commercial and industrial areas. For more information, visit: http://www.ZigBee.org.
About NTS
National Technical Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of engineering and testing service to the defense, aerospace, telecommunications, automotive and high technology markets. Through a world-wide network of resources, NTS provides full life-cycle product integrity support, offering world class design engineering, compliance, testing, certification, quality registration and program management. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at http://www.ntscorp.com/ or call 800-794-0926.
About Atmel
Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of capacitive touch solutions, microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry’s broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.
National Technical Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NTSC) (NTS), a leading provider of engineering services, announced today that its NQA division has completed the acquisition of Unitek Technical Services, Inc., formerly a Business Unit of Bureau Veritas, in an all-cash transaction. Unitek is a leading provider of supply chain management services headquartered in Centreville, VA, close to Washington, DC. Further terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 1973, Unitek provides supplier management, development, source inspections and related technical services to corporations worldwide. Unitek's client list includes a distinguished list of tier one aerospace and defense suppliers to the federal government and commercial customers, said William C. McGinnis, CEO of National Technical Systems. Unitek is also certified to the internationally recognized Aerospace Quality Management standard AS 9100.
“Unitek enjoys great customer relationships and has an advanced customer and resource management software system,” McGinnis said. “Unitek's technically advanced, web-based system will allow our clients, suppliers and field resources the ability to access data in real time, which can provide a range of unique value-added services. These customer relationships and resources, along with Unitek's experienced and dedicated management team and staff, will allow us to further integrate and support our clients with an even broader range of services.”
Unitek's long term performance and track record with its clients speaks to the company's dedication to being responsive to client needs, and to its ability to provide high quality support resources on demand, added Derek Coppinger, NTS Senior Vice President responsible for acquisitions.
The acquisition of Unitek Technical Services helps fill a strategic piece of our overall business plan to provide engineering and technical support services to our extended client base, specifically in the aerospace & defense markets,” Coppinger said.
Unitek's current management and employees are expected to remain with the firm and continue to operate from its Centreville headquarters.
About Bureau Veritas
Bureau Veritas, headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, is a global company, founded in 1828, offering conformity assessment services in the areas of quality, health, safety, environment and social responsibility (QHSE). With over 2,000 professionals in over 50 offices across the United States, and operations in over 900 locations in 140 countries, Bureau Veritas develops solutions that contribute to risk prevention and performance improvement for commercial and governmental clients.
About National Technical Systems
National Technical Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of engineering and testing services to the defense, aerospace, telecommunications, automotive and high technology markets. Through a world-wide network of resources, NTS provides full life-cycle product integrity support, offering world class design engineering, compliance, testing, certification, quality registration and program management. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at www.ntscorp.com or call 800-270-2516.
via National Technical Systems Acquires Unitek Technical Services From Bureau Veritas.
National Technical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTSC) (NTS), was awarded contracts by General Atomics (GA) Electromagnetic Systems Division (EMS) of San Diego, Calif. for the performance of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC and environmental testing for the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) and the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).
NTS, under contract to GA EMS, supports environmental qualification testing at GA’s EMS manufacture and test facility at Tupelo, Miss. Some of the tests are being conducted at Joint Base McGuire-Dix – Lakehurst, N.J., where full-scale EMALS and AAG systems are installed and qualified by GA- EMS and the Navy. The EMALS and AAG customer is Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
NTS will provide environmental and EMC test engineering and evaluation for AAG and EMALS systems to be installed on CVN 78. Testing will be conducted at both the major assembly and component level. Additional testing will be conducted at NTS laboratories located in Santa Clarita and Fullerton, Calif., Boxborough, Mass. and Tinton Falls, N.J. NTS resources support the testing and evaluation program over the next two years.
The EMALS system consists of a high-voltage transformer rectifier manufactured by Neeltran, high power inverters manufactured by GA EMS, a large motor generator, to store energy, manufactured by Kato, and a rectifier manufactured by L-3 Pulse Power Division. Four linear induction motors manufactured by GA EMS will accelerate the launch aircraft from a dead stop to about 150 knots in 3 seconds or less.
Visit this website for more info.
NTS is pleased to announce the approval of our Calgary, Alberta, Canada laboratory as a Verizon Independent Testing Laboratory (ITL). This certification program approval allows NTS Calgary to perform NEBS testing for Verizon’s telecommunications equipment vendors.
Telecommunications equipment suppliers to Verizon must have their products tested to ensure compliance with the NEBS (Network Equipment Building System) specifications. NEBS is the generic requirement for the spatial environmental, EMI/EMC, and product safety of telecom equipment being deployed in the central office. These requirements are mandated by Telecommunications Operating Companies, providing them confidence that all telecom equipment has a high degree of reliability and will work under extreme environments while maintaining service for their customers.
The “XM Ready” certification type approval testing program was implemented by XM to verify XM capable products conformance to the XM specification and to verify proper functionality of these devices. Under this program, different vendors can submit their XM products for certification testing once they have ran their own self testing to insure that their products are ready for submission. Once vendors have established a certain level of confidence, they can then submit their products to the test house for the actual certification testing.
Upon completion of testing, reports are generated and submitted to the vendors as well as to the XM personnel. The actual XM TA “XM Ready” certification will be issued by XM if the certification testing was a success. If the testing was a failure, vendors are expected to resolve the product’s issues and re-submit for testing (with a new firmware upgrade, for example) with fixes to the reported issues.
XM certification is yet another example of the “Trust, but Verify” mantra of certification programs.
During many discussions that President Ronald Regan had with the Soviet Union regarding nuclear disarmament, he outlined his position very clearly with the phrase “Doveryai, No Proveryai – Trust, But Verify.” This important concept is the very basis of certification programs. Certification programs aren’t about lack of trust on the part of the standard group/alliance; rather, it’s an acknowledgment that even well-respected companies, that have developed many products based on the same specification over many years, may still have times in which their products don’t meet the standard.
As with any technology developed by a group and products developed by individual manufacturers interpreting that specification, it is highly probable that, left to themselves, individual products may not interoperate nor necessarily meet the spirit of the specification due to nuances in interpretation of the specification. If you don’t make sure, via certification, that your product is interoperable, you negate one of the very reasons that standards and alliance groups are formed in the first place – interoperability. One of consumers’ biggest gripes (about everything from wireless technologies to kid’s building blocks) is a lack of interoperability.
Although interoperability is certainly the most important reason for certifications, it isn’t the only reason. Certification programs are also valuable marketing tools to help manufacturers sell more products by proving interoperability to customers. Customers want to know that they can just pick up a box off a store shelf with a specific logo on it and know that it’ll work with other products they own using the same logo. Plus it provides name recognition for the standard/alliance. Products that “just work” lead consumers to come back and purchase other products that “just work” from the same standard over and over again. Even soccer moms know what common standards like USB are.
With the growing market place of competing products, technologies, and standards, now more ever, it is important to make sure that you get your products certified before they’re released.
MoCA (Multimedia Over Coax Alliance) is a standard that utilizes existing coaxial cable at homes for creating a home network for sharing digital multimedia contents among different location inside the home. The MoCA Alliance has established the MoCA certification testing program to insure the proper functionality of MoCA devices and verify their conformance with the MoCA specification.
There are three parts to MoCA certification testing:
In addition to the certification testing, the MoCA certification test house is also capable of providing the pre-cert (self test) testing. This works well for those vendors that are short on staff and resources, or those that aren’t familiar with the necessary self-test validation. The test house provides other MoCA related services (debugging, spot checking, etc.) to address any testing needs prior to the vendor submitting for certification to assist the vendors in getting their products to the market faster.
Many of you who are trying to get your ZigBee product (Platform, Smart Energy, MSP or other) ready for certification might be confused with all the documents to read – the specifications, the appendices, errata, etc. All you want is to run the tests and make sure the behavior is what it’s expected to be before you go to get your product certified. In ZigBee, like in many other standards, the easiest way to do that is to emulate the Golden Unit (GU) behavior. They are, after all, the reference and they are what the tests run against so why not just do as they do?
Unfortunately, the GU’s might be a little hard to obtain. The manufacturers rarely give them out, and when they do, it’s usually at a pretty hefty price. Fear not! The Alliance has made available, through authorized test labs, the logs for those GUs. What does this mean to you? Well, now you can get these logs and just compare them to what you are observing on your own devices. Since the tests for ZigBee are conducted over the air, if you ensure that the behaviors are similar, your chances of success in certification will be pretty high. From there on, all that will be left to do is correct a few small glitches, if any, once you start your official certification testing.
