Friday, March 7, 2014

Three Reasons to Use a Rackmount Recorder


Since mankind’s discovery of the ability to record history, from monks rewriting scrolls in caves and monasteries to the invention of the tape recorder, we have attempted to record and share our history and our presence on this Earth with the greatest detail. Detailed recording capabilities have never been so great until the dawn of digital recording. 



What are the reasons to use a rackmount recorder over any other type? A rose by any other name smells as sweet, right? To put it simply, rackmount recorders are a better type of digital recording rose. They are designed to meet industry standards, and are compatible with other types of electronic equipment, to be a part of the whole in a sense. They are the missing puzzle piece to complete any professional recording ensemble.

At the same time, this piece of equipment is also extremely easy to use, so that even beginners working on a small project would benefit from having one. If you’re only recording voice audio for example, say for an interview, this machine is easy and straightforward to use, with simple input and output features that will make it a snap.

The next reason is that, in the end, you get a great quality finish. The audio is recorded seamlessly, and comes out clean. And on top of that, performance is consistent. There’s nothing else you need from a digital recording device: quality, simplicity, and guaranteed service. Whether you are recording a simple dialogue audio, or using it as one piece of a set of studio recording equipment, a rackmount recorder is sure to deliver the best finished product, at an affordable price.



Even the most mundane recording is a form of art. It’s a time capsule, sealing in that moment: a moment of one life on Earth in this solar system in this galaxy in this universe. If your recording were all that’s left after humanity is gone, wouldn’t you want it to be the best sounding recording possible? That’s a fourth reason to use a rackmount recorder for you.

To find out more about the best rackmount recorders, click here!

Friday, February 7, 2014

How Does a Chip Scale Atomic Clock Work?


An automatic clock is an integral part to any electronics system. In fact, they are an important part of the equation for many different electronic and scientific endeavors. To better understand what a chip scale atomic clock is (also known as CSAC) we’ll start by describing different types of clocks and how they function.



A regular clock is used to keep track of time by counting a resonator’s “ticks”. For example, in a pendulum clock, the pendulum acts as the resonator, swinging once each second, and the gears of the clock count each swing to get an accurate measure of the passage of time.

A digital clock is more advanced, and instead of counting pendulum swings, it uses oscillations caused by power lines, or in some cases, a quartz crystal as the resonator.

An automatic clock is a clock that is radio-controlled, and synchronized via a radio transmitter to an atomic clock at a distant location. Some use a single transmitter, or they can use many, such as a GPS, or Global Positioning System.


An atomic clock is able to use the resonance frequencies of atoms for its resonator source. The main benefit to this is that the atoms resonate at a very consistent frequency, so it ends up being much more accurate than any other type of clock. The precision of the atomic clock is what makes many technological feats today possible. They keep the Internet working smoothly, and are essential to GPS functions. The marvel of the chip scale atomic clock is that the chip inside that powers it can do so with such efficiency that the clock can be smaller than ever, weighing only 35 grams, and use significantly less power. This means they will last much longer than any other type of clock before, which is crucial in many situations such as military drones that lose their GPS signal or get jammed. The CSAC allows communications to be synchronized quickly in emergency situations.


For more information on chip scale atomic clocks, visit www.AventasInc.com today!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Understanding PCIE Interfaces



PCI Express, also known as PCIE, or PCI-E, is essentially an expansion card format, which is capable of operating at very high speeds, that connects a computer to its attached peripherals.  PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect.



There are three interface types: SATA, SAS, and PCIE. SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, it is limited to 32 requests, and is generally less scalable than other interface, but is optimal for light workloads such as those found on desktop PCs and other embedded applications. SAS, or Serial Attached SCSI, is traditionally used for enterprise storage, can handle up to 256 requests, and is highly scalable.

Unlike the other two interfaces, PCIE is specifically designed to be an I/O, or input output interface between peripheral components inside a system, rather than a storage interface it is an expansion interface, and require a driver to function. They are also the fastest of the three, and are located closest to the CPU, which makes them even more ideal for I/O application acceleration or even as a caching solution.

PCIE’s are designed to replace the older model PCI, PCI-X and AGP. There are many improvements that have been made over the old models, including higher maximum system throughput, a lower I/O pin total count number, as well as smaller physically, and better at performance scaling. They also have more detailed detection of errors, and a better reporting mechanism called AER, or Advanced Error Reporting. Most of the more recent PCIE’s are able to support I/O virtualization hardware.

PCIE interfaces are becoming more and more popular, acceleration of performance in servers and workstations are making them high in demand. Manufacturers of PCIE interfaces are making innovative changes and working to improve them in order to meet serviceability and storage requirements for their customers and consumers.


To learn more about PCIE Interfaces, click here!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

How to Evaluate Video Format Converter Options


For those who are not familiar with what a video format converter is, it allows you to convert a video from one format to another. Have you ever tried to open an email with a video, or watch one online and gotten a message that says you can’t watch that format? That’s when a video format converter would come in handy.



There are many schools of thought on what video converters are best. The truth is that it depends on your needs, first and foremost. The first thing to look for is what types the video or videos you have are, and what type you want to change them to. Most converters have a wide range of types that they can accept, but can often be more restrictive in the types that they will output as. There are also converters that are specific to mobile device videos if you need that.

There are quite a few free online video converters, some that even have added features such as file merging, batch conversion, and cropping frames. For the most part the free converters are simple, easy to use, but are limited on options and can take a while to upload.

If you search, you can find sites that have side-by-side comparisons of conversion software with price listings, as well as comparisons for various online free converters. The best of these sites also list every type of video input and output possibilities, as well as extra features and options.

If you need more than video conversion, there are also sites that can do the same conversion format to format for images, audio, documents, and eBooks. The key it to know what you have, and what your end goal is as far as conversion to a certain format and anything extra you might need. Pick the converter that works on all the levels you need!

For more information about video format converters, visit www.AventasInc.com today!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

How Do RF Direction Finders Work?


To understand how RF direction finders work, it helps to understand how radio works. At its most basic fundamental element, electricity has to do with currents. AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) currents that flow back and forth, measured in cycles per second, or more commonly known as Hz. Radio waves are measured in kHz, MHz and GHz. What radio is essentially is when the back and forth goes so fast that it jumps off the wire. The lower the frequency of the current, the longer the radio wave is, and inversely, the higher the frequency the shorter the wave. When the radio waves leave the wire, certain antennas can mold how they leave. Similarly, receiving antennas are custom made to receive certain frequencies and interpret them.



An RF direction finder is made to receive radio transmissions and determine the direction of the transmitter from data received by the antennae. These can be modified to many different radio frequency bandwidths and is applicable in land, sea and air situations. This can be incorporated for homeland security, aeronautical and marine navigation, the military, RF tagging systems such as animal tracking, and as beacon homing devices for search and rescue operations, and other emergency services. Some of the older RF direction finders date back to WWII, and were used primarily to locate enemies.

RF direction finding works in two processes: 1) Receiving and characterizing the signal, by determining the signal strength (closer is going to be stronger), the direction the signal came from, and the time of arrival. 2) Processing the data, and based on the information received, calculate the location of the signal

There do exist radio direction finding (RDF) networks, which as you can imagine, make signal finding much easier and more accurate than having just one finder. There are many benefits to having system-level locating abilities and centralized processing, and having all of the networks processing together from multiple receiving sites. An example of this is the Coast Guard Rescue network (the upgraded National Response and Distress System), which monitors the emergency channels for the marines, and locates distress calls so that response teams can locate the distress site.


Thursday, October 3, 2013

What is Telemetry?


Telemetry. Sound like Greek to you? As it happens, it is! Telemetry is a word derived from the Greek tele (remote) and metron (measure). It is the technology and science of transmission and measurement of data, automatically, by radio, by wire, or by other means of remote sources. For a word you may have never heard before, it’s actually got a whole boatload of uses, and dates back as far as the 1800’s!

One of the first recorded uses of telemetry goes back to 1845, and was a circuit between the Palace of the Tsar and the army headquarters. A few years later, engineers in France built weather sensors from Mont Blanc that sent real-time information to Paris. Modern-day uses cover a pretty wide range of industries. They are used to track animals in the wild that have been tagged with radio transmitters attached to them, and even to send data transmitted to weather stations from weather balloons.

The most “glamorous” use for telemetry may be the communication from Earth to outer space! Communicating with space probes, satellites, or even in spaceflight is made possible by telemetry technology. There are other more down-to-earth examples, such as motor racing; it is used to monitor data collected from a test race to be able to tune the car for maximum performance. Formula One racing has taken telemetry to the level that they can have advanced enough information to estimate lap time potentiality of a certain car, so that the driver has a goal to meet.

If you want to get even more “down to earth”, telemetry is essential to the oil and gas industry, for being able to transmit information for drilling mechanics real-time as a hole is being dug for optimization of the drilling.

Telemetry is all around us!
Hopefully you’ve learned a few cool new facts to impress your friends, family and love interests.