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No. 42/2013 (Dec. 16, 2013)
A new definition of air mail.
On 1st December 2013, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of the world's biggest online store, Amazon, announced that his company will launch by 2015 a fully functioning system of shipment delivery using drones. This information has electrified tech-news forums and review sites. Although drones are nothing new - they are used mainly in armed forces and police - the construction of a fully automated, maintenance-free system is something completely revolutionary. So the interested are asking: is it possible at all?
A movie presenting the vision of amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos declared the introduction of the system in 2015. It's a very close future, even if we are talking only about the U.S. market. The first problem is the range of drones, which currently is about 16 km. This means that the packages could be sent to addressees within short distances from distribution centers of the Internet giant. The answer to this should be technological progress - increased battery capacity and reduction of energy consumption, plus the development of the sales network. The system would not cover the whole country, only the most populous areas. Avoiding traffic jams, a drone would provide the load in up to 30 minutes after the approval of the transaction by the customer.
And what about heavy shipments? It turns out that this issue raised by the majority of people hearing for the first time about the revolutionary approach to shipping of goods ... is practically no problem. Already now there are drones that can carry loads up to 11 kg. The data collected by Amazon shows that 86% of all shipments do not exceed this weight.
The hard part for Amazon starts where the bureaucracy begins. The flight plans will have to be approved by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). Like any institution, the FAA will be rather reluctant to give a permission, especially for new, not proven solutions. Independent observers argue that the schedule presented by Bezos is too optimistic and unrealistic. Additional problems for technicians , will be the ability to fly in bad weather conditions and the delivery of packages to places where the drones will not be able to land. Another aspect is the security of the transported goods. For sure, there will be people willing to intercept the packages. Therefore, the flights would have to take place at a minimum altitude of 100 meters. Additionally, the octocopters will be modified to withstand firearms. It seems comical, but in the U.S. it is a very real threat, unfortunately.
Is the vision of Jeff Bezos feasible and will the sky be filled with flying couriers? Perhaps these grandiloquent words are just clever marketing strategy designed to provide free advertising? We'll find it out in two years. Surely, men reminding themselves of birthdays of their wives at the last moment will wait with impatience ...
Amazon is a company with headquarters in Seattle, USA. Founded in 1995, it was a pioneer of online trading. At the beginning, the company was an online bookstore. Currently, the range of activities is very broad, from toys to electronics. Amazon employs over 97 000 people, and the annual income is estimated at 62 billion USD. The amazon.com website has over 600 million visits per year. Everyday it carries out thousands of transactions but on the record "Cyber Monday" on November 26, 2012, it were 27 million transactions, with an average of over 300 per second. Outside the U.S., the site has separate retail websites in a number of countries. Amazon owns several brands, including the popular Amazon Kindle e-book reader.
How to arrange fibers in installation boxes?
It may appear to be difficult for installers to change over from copper to fiber optic technology. The habits resulting from many years of experience with copper systems sometimes turn out to be a big problem in the case of optical networks. One of the fundamental skills that an FTTx installer must quickly develop is carefulness in laying fibers. This applies to routing the cables in wells, conduits, protective pipes etc. and terminating/joining them in distribution frames and boxes. The latter activity usually poses the most problems.Distribution frames and installation boxes for fiber optic systems are designed to simplify the work of the installer as much as possible, while maintaining good organization of the cables and fibers. Each of the distribution/termination boxes has three distinctive elements: a place for the incoming and pigtail fibers, an area for protecting splices, holders for adapters.
The arrangement of fibers in and splices L54041 box.
The figure on the left shows the tray with the incoming cable, splices, and pigtail.
The drawing on the right presents the lower part of the box (the tray has been pivoted)
with the cable fitting, adapters and connectors.
The figure on the left shows the tray with the incoming cable, splices, and pigtail.
The drawing on the right presents the lower part of the box (the tray has been pivoted)
with the cable fitting, adapters and connectors.
The diagrams above show an example of organizing fibers and installation components in the Ultimode TB-04B-2 L54041 box. The incoming cable enters the box through the cable fitting with the largest cross-sectional area. The fitting protects the cable against moving, by screwing down the carrier component - a tube, sheath or rod - to the body of the box. Fibers, passing under the tray, run through a dedicated hole. The tray keeps reserves of the fibers, and splices which are fixed to prevent rotation. The excess of the pigtail fibers is also stored on the tray, and their sections are led through a hole by the hinge of the tray to adapters inserted into the holders.
SMATV system based on a new line of MV-5XX multiswitches.
GKJ SYSTEM company installed a SMATV system for 182 apartments in two buildings located in Krakow.
Each building has been equipped with steel antenna mast E903830 attached to a ventilation stack with OMM-50L13 E8533 antenna wall bracket. The antenna set consists of DVB-T antenna ATX-91 A3710, FM antenna Dipol 1RUZ PM B A0221, 110 cm satellite dish A9658 (gain of 41.5 dB at 12.7 GHz) and QUATRO LNB Inverto BLACK Ultra 0.2 dB A98266.
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The signals from the antenna sets are carried to the system components located on the top floors of the buildings by Triset-113 PE E1017_100 cables (5-cable system). The components placed in installation boxes include TERRA SA-51 R70501 amplifiers used for amplification and equalization of four SAT IF signals (polarization-band pairs), compensation of coaxial cable attenuation, power supply for other system components (LNBs, multiswitches). DVB-T signals are amplified and distributed by universal multiband amplifier WWK-861 R89860. For a comprehensive protection of the SMATV system against lightning surges, the lines from antennas are connected via TV-Sat surge protectors SIGNAL R48602 and all the devices are carefully grounded.
The 5-cable bus runs through all floors of each building and the cables are marked with colors corresponding with the inputs of MV-5XX multiswitches. The die-cast housings of the multiswitches provide high screening efficiency by preventing the penetration of interfering signals to the units.
The individual stories have been equipped with taps of 5XX series and MV-5XX multiswitches. The unused outputs of the multiswitches have been closed with terminating resistors R66205.
The system uses "Self-Install" E80410 F plugs from Cabelcon, Denmark.
Remote monitoring of IP CCTV systems based on Signal NVRs - vMEye.
Free vMEye software supplied with Signal K2708 and K2716 NVRs, and Siginal K1810 camera allows for remote access to IP CCTV systems from smartphones. With this service, the users can watch what is happening in protected areas from anywhere in the world.
Preview window in the vMEye application
The vMEye application installed in a smartphone allows for:
- online viewing of the surveillance video
- capturing screenshots and saving them in the phone's memory
- recording the surveillance video
The vMEye software has been prepared for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones. After installing the application the user should specify server name, IP address, port number, username and password to access the server (NVR). The application is also available for download via "Downloads" links in the data sheets of the NVRs and IP camera.
Recording road traffic with ULTIAIR devices and IP CCTV cameras from Sunell.
Failing to yield the right of way and going over a red light at the crossroads are important reasons of collisions and accidents in large cities. It is often difficult to establish the fault of the driver who caused the collision, especially when there are no witnesses available. These problems can be solved with IP video surveillance systems using wireless transmission technology that allows to deploy camera points anywhere in the city. Video transmission systems based on professional ULTIAIR devices allow easy creation of wireless network backbones.ULTIAIR is a family of professional Access Points, designed for creating efficient wireless IP CCTV and ISP networks. The electronics and antenna have been put in outdoor housing of IP 66 class, which guarantees full protection against adverse weather conditions and corrosive environments. ULTIAIR devices operate in unlicensed 5 GHz band - no special permissions are required.
Video surveillance systems based on professional ULTIAIR access points and ACTi cameras allow any modification and extension in the future.
A video surveillance system with Sunell cameras and ULTIAIR APs at a large traffic circle
 | IP NVR Signal 2708 K2708 is an economical 8-channel IP network video recorder dedicated for small and medium size IP CCTV systems. The NVR can record video streams from IP cameras with resolution up to 2 MP (1920 x 1080). The maximum total bandwidth is 32 Mbps (CBR or VBR), sufficient for recording images from 1080p cameras at frame rates up to 25 fps. The NVR is supplied with free CMS software used for central configuration and management of IP CCTV systems based on Signal NVRs and IP cameras. | |
 | Manageable Switch TP-LINK TL-SL3452 N29964 is intended for use in LAN networks in small and medium-size companies. It supports considerable set of layer 2 management tools. Available management options include creation of virtual VLANs (802.1Q-based), QoS rules (according to 802.1P), access control lists (ACL). It has 48x 10/100 Mbps ports and 2x 10/100/1000 Mbps ports to provide fast and reliable connectivity in business networks. Two SFP slots with gigabit capability increase network flexibility. | |
 | Compact IP Camera Signal HD-200 Full HD (2MP) K1810 with 1/2.5 " APTINA CMOS sensor with resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD), which can operate in complete darkness (0 lx - IR ON, ICR mode). The camera has been equipped with 2.8-12 mm varifocal lens for easy adjustment of the field of view. | |
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A short presentation and implementation description of SIGNAL-450 modulator
The device converts an input SD or HD signal to DVB-T channel
The device converts an input SD or HD signal to DVB-T channel
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A multiswitch system with star topology
