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

mHealth - health services in the cloud.

In August of this year, Verizon received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct "Converged Health Management" project. The solution is to monitor vital parameters of the human body by biometric devices connected via 4G LTE wireless network delivering the data to the company’s HIPAA-ready cloud (compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). This way, clinicians could have access to up-to-date patient data in order to manage patients in their homes or anywhere. Other companies from around the world are planning or trying to obtain similar permits from local governments. The continuous development of technologies for mobile data transmission has become an inspiration for new uses of cellular phones and infrastructure.

mHealth (mobile health) is a combination of a database in the cloud, M2M technology and advanced biometric systems, implemented in small devices, sometimes imperceptible to the patient. These data on the health status of the patient are collected periodically and sent via mobile network to a general database accessible for physicians. Of course, such a database cannot be monitored by the physicians on a regular basis. They are aided by appropriate applications that automatically trigger alarms in the case of anomalies or specific events.

Blood pressure monitor coupled with a mobile phone
(Source: www.chinapost.com.tw)

In the U.S., where Verizon plans to roll out its services, medical care is generally based on commercial principles. The turnover is about $1.8 trillion a year, of which only 49% is financed by federal or state governments, while 51% of the funds comes from insurance companies or directly from patients. mHealth system can save a lot of money.
The situation is quite different in other countries. mHealth is a hope for less developed countries, a leap in the progress of civilization where access to healthcare is very limited. Focusing on Africa, the access to a doctor for most people it is often almost impossible, while the access to a mobile phone is relatively easy. In Nigeria alone, 87% of the population has access to a GSM network. The dynamics of the development of mobile telephony in Africa is incomparable to any other continent. The opportunities of mHealth systems are perceived by governments. Also in Asia some countries subsidize emerging systems in the hope of reducing the costs of public health care.

Global monitoring of the health of billions of people can bring not only individual and state benefits, but also may help in tracing the spread of diseases, in control of epidemics, in development of modern unprecedented methods to combat viruses. This is the future. Initially, the assistance will be offered to patients with heart diseases and diabetes.

The Newsletter has been in existence for fifteen years.

The first issue of the DIPOL Weekly Review edited by engineers from our Technical Department came out exactly 15 years ago. Currently, the Newsletter reaches more than 10,000 subscribers via email, and a lot of people read it directly on our website. It is also often printed and placed on school and classroom newsletters in technical colleges. One can read it in Czech, English, German, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Slovak. The authors seek to provide the most interesting news from the electronics and telecommunication industry, gathered on global trade fairs and exhibitions, found in specialized magazines and on thematic websites.

For example, the July 9, 2001 issue reported:
Our website statistics shows a rapid increase of the number of www.google.com search engine users. Not surprisingly, it is sufficient to use it once to appreciate the speed and efficiency of this tool.

Our engineers pay attention to the demands of the readers in the designing process of CCTV, SMATV, wireless, and fiber optic systems, as well as in the field of installation and operation of the equipment. They show the latest solutions and provide a lot of information based on their own experience.

We are also on Facebook (profile mainly for Polish users).

How to improve mobile broadband signal?

An investor in Romania struggled with the problem of a weak signal from the energy meter mounted on a power pole (the measurements are sent to the utility company via GSM network (GPRS)). The mountainous area around the place did not allow for stable transmission of the data with the use of the antenna supplied with the modem.

20-element GSM antenna
ATK 20/850-960MHz with 10m cable
A7027

The problem has been solved by application of directional ATK 20/850-960MHz A7027 antenna connected to the GSM modem and directed towards the BTS of the GSM operator. It should be noted that in the case of mountainous areas the direction of an antenna towards the base station is not always the best solution. Better results can sometimes be obtained by using reflections from large objects.

Fiber optic cables ideal for in-building applications.

Due to physical properties, each type of optical fiber has a specific minimum bending radius, below which the optical attenuation dramatically increases, reducing the possible range of transmission.

Optical cables for applications in existing shafts and tubing (as opposed to fiber optic cable trays installed in new buildings) should additionally protect the optical fibers against mechanical damage at the installation stage, while still ensuring high flexibility.

DIPOL has introduced optical cables with rectangular cross-section of the jacket plus built-in FRP reinforcing rods that naturally limit the bending capability in one plane to a safe bending radius range. This also prevents twisting and looping the cable, which usually results in microcracks. The single-mode version uses G.657A fibers with minimum bending radius reduced to 40 mm.

Cables with reduced bending radius are lightweight, highly compact and very robust, both in the case of longitudinal tension and crushing.

Digital headend in a hotel in Zakopane, Poland.

The owner of one of the hotels in Zakopane decided to equip his facility with a TV system distributing signals to 53 televisions. The whole system is based on a headend, so that each hotel guest has access to a wide range of channels that can be received by the room's television without any additional STB. The programming includes twenty DVB-T channels, five satellite channels and four private channels used by the hotel for information and advertising purposes. All the channels are distributed in the form of DVB-T multiplexes. The installation and configuration tasks were undertaken by Apollo company from Zakopane.

The hotel system consists of TERRA MMH-3000 headend, a set of double DVB-T modulators mdx420 R82518 and two channel amplifiers Alcad ZG-401 that boost the signals from the modulators. The headend and other components have been placed in a Signal RACK cabinet.

The base unit UC-380 R81700 has been equipped with DVB-T modulator TRX-360 R81709 multiplexing up to 6 transport streams, connected to three DVB-S/S2 receivers with MPEG2 TS output. This configuration is suitable for receiving up to 8 channels from 3 transponders. In this case it is 5 channels. The private information and commercial channels are injected into the system by the double DVB-T modulators mdx420 R82518. The signals may come from cameras, multimedia players, computers, DVD players etc.

How to choose a camera with day/night function?

Day/night cameras can provide very good images both in day and night conditions. Without visible light, the scene is illuminated by IR illuminators and the camera switches into B/W mode characterized by increased sensitivity. Cameras, in contrast to the human eye, "see" the infrared radiation, and can effectively use it to render clear images. With sufficient illumination in the visible range, the IR illuminator is switched off, but natural light also contains IR spectrum. It causes problems with white balance - the image does not reflect the actual colors, e.g. black areas are often seen as dark blue, etc. Such behavior of a camera is often treated by installers as a failure. Therefore, in color mode the infrared part of the spectrum must be filtered out.

Taking into account the handling of the IR part of the spectrum in day/night cameras, there are two categories:

Sunell IRC59/21AKDN - high quality camera with mechanical IR cut filter

Compact camera n-cam 250 M11249, without mechanical IR filter

There is a group of cameras with permanently embedded IR filters. In comparison with the cameras without IR filters, it eliminates the need for additional electronic image processing, but also makes it impossible to use IR illuminators. The sensitivity of the cameras is generally increased, but they always require sufficient level of lighting in the visible range.

Integration of analog and IP CCTV systems.

Due to falling prices of DVRs for analog security cameras, it is rather uneconomical to buy special video servers to integrate the cameras with IP CCTV network. The 4-, 8-, and 16-channel ULTIMAX DVRs can simultaneously record the video (as well as audio) channels and operate as digital video servers (DVS). They can be managed by commercial software or can cooperate with NUUO NVRs with the use of RTSP protocol. The cheapest hybrid video surveillance system can be managed by free VMS software handling a Ultimax DVR as another device in IP network.

ULTIMAX M72304 DVR providing digitized video to NUUO NVR Titan NT-8040(R) K4804

ULTIMAX DVRs can be used as standalone main units of small CCTV systems, or elements of larger systems. With great versatility and flexibility including very specific options, the DVRs are used around the world to protect banks, banking systems (ATMs), telecommunications infrastructure, transport infrastructure, factories, warehouses, public and commercial buildings, various companies.

How to choose a mount for your TV? The location of the television determines the comfort of the user(s), including possible influence on the health and safety. The selection of a suitable mount must be based on the required load capacity, screen size, and mounting standard... more

The effects of improper selection of TV mount:
a reduced range of adjustment or incomplete coverage of the hardware by the flat panel

Powering cameras through twisted-pair cables (cont.) (...) twisted pair cables are used not only for video transmission, but also to transmit power. The small diameter of twisted pair cables (0.5 mm), resulting in large voltage drops with increase of the length of the cable, severely limits the possibilities of this simple and inexpensive solution... more

Application of the 40 VDC M1830 power supply and 12 VDC M1831 stabilizer
for powering cameras through twisted pair cables over long distances

Fiber-optic SMATV system. The advantage of optical fibers is the ability to transmit signals over much greater distances than in the case of coaxial cables. Fiber-optic systems are insensible to voltage and lightning surges. In contrast to copper medium, the fibers are insulators and are indifferent to the effects of exposure to radio waves, even of high intensity... more

A hybrid SMATV system with optical and copper cabling