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.
The FCC has announced that it has currently halted issuing new and any Class 2 Permissive Change certifications that require a DFS evaluation for Master devices until further notice. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is currently investigating interference with UNII Master Devices and the FCC. Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS), a mechanism to allow unlicensed devices to share spectrum with existing radar systems is mandated in the 5250-5350 and 5470-5725 MHz UNII bands.
Elliott Laboratories continues to test Master devices and is currently awaiting on further updates from the FCC. For more information, please contact us via email at info@elliottlabs.com or at 408-245-7800.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a $7,000 forfeiture against Sennheiser Electronic Corporation for willful and repeated violation of Section 302(b) of the Communications Act of 1934; the apparent violation involves Sennheiser’s marketing of unauthorized radio frequency devices.
In July 2008, the Enforcement Bureau Spectrum Enforcement Division began an investigation into Sennheiser’s marketing of wireless microphones. In a letter of inquiry dated August 15, 2008, the Division instructed Sennheiser to provide specific information regarding the manufacture, marketing, and the certification status of the wireless microphone systems it sells. In its September 15, 2008, response to the letter of inquiry, Sennheiser indicates that, while preparing its response, it discovered that one of its wireless microphones did not have a valid certification.
Readers can view the FCC notice by clicking here.
National Technical Systems Inc (NTS) has begun ZigBee testing for RF4CE platforms. The new RF4CE test program will verify functionality and interoperability of the ZigBee RF4CE across multiple vendors, with product-level certification testing soon to follow. Testing of the specification will allow manufacturers to quickly and easily develop interoperable products based on the standard.
Culver City, CA (PRWEB) June 8, 2009 — National Technical Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:NTSC) (NTS), a leading provider of quality, conformance and certification testing, quality registration and managed services, announced today that it has kicked off its testing program for the ZigBee RF4CE specification.
The ZigBee RF4CE specification was designed for radio-frequency based remote controls, providing a low power solution that removes line-of-sight issues commonly associated with typical consumer remotes. NTS has been working with the ZigBee RF4CE Special Interest Group (SIG) for several months on a defined test standard that would allow for low-cost compliance verification of remote controls and “targets” (e.g., TVs, stereos, CD players, etc.). In addition, the standard allows for two-way communications (between remote and target, or even target to target) for a better consumer experience.
The RF4CE test program will verify functionality and interoperability of the ZigBee RF4CE platforms across multiple vendors, with product-level certification testing soon to follow. Testing of the specification will allow manufacturers to quickly and easily develop interoperable products based on the standard.
“NTS has been an authorized ZigBee test lab for many years, and we are pleased that we will be performing testing for the new consumer electronics standard for ZigBee members,” said Osman Sakr, NTS CTO. “ZigBee RF4CE will open up an entirely new market to the benefits of ZigBee technology, and we are looking forward to being part of the radio-frequency remote revolution.”
“Working with an experienced certification provider, like NTS, has allowed us to offer a meaningful, cost-effective certification program, so that ZigBee members can get ZigBee RF4CE products to market quickly,” said Bob Heile, Chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “We look forward to continuing to work with NTS on ZigBee public profile certifications.”
“NTS has been a great contributor in the timely completion of the ZigBee RF4CE certification program,” commented Victor Berrios, chairman of the ZigBee RF4CE compliance working group. “Their experience in testing and input to the working group was a valuable resource when working on the program.”
The ZigBee RF4CE specification is based on IEEE 802.15.4. MAC/PHY radio technology in the 2.4GHz unlicensed frequency band and enables worldwide operation, low power consumption and instantaneous response time. It allows omni-directional and reliable two-way wireless communication, frequency agility for enhanced co-existence with other 2.4GHz wireless technologies, simple security set-up and configuration. During the next quarter, the Alliance will develop a test program consistent with existing policies for specifications and public application profiles. Once complete, products using a public application profile based on the ZigBee RF4CE specification can be submitted to an authorized test house for certification.
via NTS Begins Testing for ZigBee RF4CE Specification
I’ve you’re a hardware or software developer, you obviously know that Microsoft Windows 7 is on the way – and it’s coming quickly! According to the latest rumors (backed up by the stability of the test builds being made available), Windows 7 should be released by the end of the year, but the question is are you (and your products) ready? Have you tested your hardware and/or software products under Windows 7?
With the dismal release that was Windows Vista, many users and corporations have held off on upgrading their Windows XP or earlier platforms to the latest version of Windows. There is a huge amount of pent-up demand for a fast, stable, secure operating system, and as soon as Windows 7 hits, a large number of computers will be upgrading. Don’t get caught unprepared, as many manufacturers did with Windows Vista.
Windows 7 is much more than just fancy window dressings. Windows 7 has made significant performance improvements on the underlying technology which is based on Windows Vista, including much of the same driver technologies. If you’ve submitted products for Windows certification, you’ve probably already discovered that Microsoft is requiring that new submissions include testing under Windows 7. So, if you haven’t already, make sure to get testing NOW!
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.
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.
