EXFO will have a new CEO as of this weekend, as current COO Philippe Morin is set to take over from founder and CEO Germain Lamonde, who will continue to work with EXFO as executive chairman. Full story here.
Meanwhile, NI is getting a new CFO as of May 9, when industry veteran Karen Rapp joins the company. Rapp comes to NI after serving as SVP of corporate development at NXP Semiconductor and leading the integration for the NXP/Freescale merger. Rapp had previously worked at Freescale as CIO.
In other test news:
–Dell EMC is using Viavi Solutions‘ Xgig 1000 GE Analyzer for storage network test. Dell EMC cited test support for a broad range of speeds and protocols as well as new features such as mandatory forward error correction as influencing its choice of Viavi’s offering.
–Anritsu has started offering the ability to measure Wi-Fi devices under test in their actual operating state in manufacturing environments – including devices utilizing the 802.11ac standard. The move is accomplished via a new “network mode” option for Anritsu’s Wireless Connectivity Test Set MT8862A.
–Rohde & Schwarz launched a new offering for simplified precompliance testing for electromagnetic interference during development and prior to final electromagnetic compatibility testing. The R&S Elektra EMI testing is meant to be used with other R&S equipment and the company said it is designed to be simple enough that technicians and engineers who don’t frequently deal with EMI can configure automated test sequences and get conclusive measurements.
Rohde & Schwarz also recently introduced a multichannel power probe to deal with the complexity of power usage in wireless devices where products “operate at low standby current with very brief periods of activity when higher currents are needed” and an “unusually wide dynamic range is required to determine the true power consumption,” according to R&S. The probe can measure up to four currents and four voltages over a wide dynamic range, the company added.
–Airborne Wireless Network has requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to start air-to-ground and mid-air mesh network system testing. Airborne Wireless said its system has been lab tested and it is now seeking to move forward with using its test bed Boeing 757 for broadband data transmission between aircraft in flight and to a ground station. Eventually the company wants to move to larger-scale tests “over an island community” that involve 20 aircraft and transmission to users on the ground as well as on nearby ships and oil platforms.
–PacketZoom recently released data assessing the performance of 15 popular mobile shopping apps, looking at variability in the download time on the apps’ most frequently visited pages. PacketZoom found the fastest app page-loading times were in shopping apps from Sephora and Wal-Mart, while the slowest came from Zulily and Zappos.
