DIPOL Weekly Review - TV and SAT TV, CCTV, WLAN

"Red Bull Stratos" - record-breaking advertising.

On 14 October, 2012, millions of viewers watched with bated breath the actions of the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, who after five years of thorough preparations jumped from a height of more than 39 km to finalize the Red Bull Stratos project. The sky jumper beat three records: the highest manned balloon flight, jump from the highest height, and the one most exciting people's imagination - the speed record during free fall. Reaching a speed of 1342.8 km/h, Baumgartner broke two barriers, the sound barrier and the limit of human potential.
The Red Bull itself can add a few more records. The most remarkable one is the "best ever" marketing campaign. Only the specially prepared Youtube channel was watched live by over 8 million people. There would be even more viewers, but the demand exceeded server capabilities of the world's largest service. This is an absolute record, leaving far behind all sporting events, not to mention U.S. presidential debates.

Next to this amazing human achievement, other extraordinary things involved in this project were the technologies of capturing, recording, and transmitting the coverage of the event. The whole happening was recorded using a system consisting of over thirty cameras. Those at the top had to work in conditions of low temperature and pressure, those on the ground - had to capture images of objects located a few dozen kilometers away.

The whole event was recorded using a system consisting of over thirty cameras. Most of them had been designed for space missions. Five cameras were placed on the spacesuit of the skydiver.

It might seem that the whole Stratos project has been a no-return investment of Red Bull, which will be forgotten in a few weeks. However, as mentioned at the beginning, the project is now considered to be the best advertising in history. The $ 20 million spent by Red Bull within 5 years of preparations for the jump is nothing in comparison with the money allocated by major corporations e.g. on the Olympic Games. What is also undeniable is the fact that the experience gained during the project will be used by the scientific community and armed forces. Conspiracy theorists may even suspect that the name "Stratos" - meaning "army" in Greek - shows the main purpose of this experiment. It is said that every moment pilots of reconnaissance aircraft operating at high altitudes could use the spacesuits developed for this project. In the case of an accident or shooting down the plane, the suit could save the life of the pilot.

The construction of a mechanical splice.

Mechanical splices ULTIMODE FAST-MS1 L5550 are used for permanent connections of optical fibers without the need of employing fusion splicers. Everything the installer has to do before application of the splice is to remove the protective layers (jacket and aramid fibers), strip the buffer, clean the core cladding and cleave the fiber with the two active layers.

The main components of Ultimode FAST-MS1 L5550 mechanical splice

The prepared ends of the fibers to be spliced should then be inserted to the both sides of the L5550 mechanical splice. The body of the splice contains V-groove device with holes slightly larger than the fibers. These holes are filled with optical gel compensating for cutting imperfections and imprecise positioning. After full insertion of the fibers, they have to be locked with the buckles. The versatile design of the mechanical splice allows for splicing optical fibers with buffer coating diameters of 0.25 mm (using the included reducer) and 0.9 mm.

Universal RF amplifiers for DVB-T.

The typical supplying voltage in antenna systems for analog television is 12 VDC. The users of basic antenna solutions for DVB-T should take into account the fact that many DVB-T tuners and STBs can optionally supply antenna preamplifiers with 5 VDC voltage. So, nowadays the good choice for antenna amplifiers in home antenna systems is to use the masthead TERRA series that can be powered with voltages between 4.5 VDC and 12 VDC.
The users of the TERRA amplifiers with the universal power supply can make use of the antenna power option built into DVB-T devices. Depending on the needs, they may choose an amplifier with a higher or lower gain and output level, with different number of outputs etc. The basic parameters of the TERRA AB series are given in the table below.

Recommendations for IR night vision systems.

An improper configuration or inappropriate parameter settings of cameras cooperating with external IR illuminators can be the reason of ineffective operation of such systems. In some situations, a typical example is frequent, cyclical switching of a camera between B/W and color mode.

Such problem can be solved by:

DAY -> NIGHT and NIGHT -> DAY settings define the light levels
at which the camera switches between the two modes.
DELAY parameter sets the delay of the switching operations.

The camera is equipped with two twilight sensors, built-in and external;
the latter is especially useful when the camera is placed in an additional housing

In color mode the voltage between pins 4 and 8 is about 3 V, in black and white mode ca 0 V

DVR IP cameras.

The video recording in IP video surveillance systems is based on servers and managing software or dedicated NAS. In the case of a network failure (LAN or Internet connection), the recording is not possible at all. Such a situation is unacceptable for important systems, which should allow continuous recording. The problem can be solved by the application of cameras with slots for SD cards. The examples are the following Sunell IP cameras: K1620, K1630, K1660, K1665, K1670, K1680, K1690, K1691, K1695. The cameras can record the video locally in H.264/ MJPEG compression on SD/ SDHC cards with capacity up to 32 GB.

The recording on the SD card can be triggered by :

Record Policy window of Sunell cameras

Aside from the capacity of the SD card, the fundamental impact on the maximum recording time have Record Quality settings.

How to share 3G connection via LAN/WLAN?

The popularity of Internet services provided by cellular operators is on the increase. The implementation of a home LAN with Internet access based on a 3G service is very simple and does not differ significantly from other network access solutions. The necessary device is a router cooperating with USB 3G modem. An example of such a device is TP-LINK TL-MR3420 3G/3.75G N2957. It allows wireless transmission speed up to 300 Mbps (802.11n) and LAN connectivity (Ethernet) up to 100 Mbps. Communication with the Internet via a 3G network is done through the USB interface, which has to be connected to the suitable 3G modem (the list of compatible devices is available at the manufacturer's site: TP-LINK).

3G wireless router TP-Link TL-MR3420 N2957

The device can also be used to create 3G backup link. If the main Internet connection is provided through a DSL connection and a temporary link failure occurs, the Failover function of the TP-Link wireless router can automatically switch it to the 3G network connected via an external USB modem. Such a solution is ideal for offices and businesses, where a loss of Internet connection would mean problems for normal business activity. After repairing the DSL failure, the device will automatically switch to the original state (access to the Internet via DSL line).

CCTV systems with limited access to DVRs. In many cases the surveillance staff should not have physical access to the DVRs. The DVRs are often located in places with higher security levels, such as server rooms. In such situations, it is necessary to provide the surveillance staff with the video necessary for their job... more

A video surveillance system with the DVR protected from physical access

Long-range HDMI splitter. HDMI Splitter-Extender Signal-HD 1x8 H3607 enables the user to connect up to 8 modern TV sets equipped with HDMI inputs to one source of high-definition signal. The amplified output HDMI signal can be transmitted via HDMI 1.3b cable over distance up to 15 m. The seven RJ45 outputs allow for signal transmission over distances up to 50 m... more

Application diagram

50-meter long USB connection. The maximum length of USB cable is 3 or 5 meters, depending on the version. For some applications, the distances may be too short. The USB RJ45 extension adapter M1680 allows for distances up to 50 m. The estimated data transfer rate over the maximum distance is 1 MB/s (8 Mbps)... more

The USB extension adapter is ideal for installations that require long, wired connections with webcams,
printers, pads, mouses, keyboards, USB flash drives etc. The device is compatible with USB 2.0