As our industry continues to march toward the interconnectivity of various IP, analog and other types of devices, there is a universal need for testing devices that will ensure connectivity, power consumption and other metrics that will determine whether a device will function and how it will work.

About five months ago I was taking out the trash to the alley cans behind the bunker in Bucktown when I spied a telephone company truck with a big roll of cable mounted on the back. I walked over and took a quick glance at the cable, which indicated that the cable was 144-count singlemode fiber optics.

As innovations such as facial recognition, wide dynamic range, and multi-megapixel images continue to be developed by our industry’s IP camera manufacturers, the issue of the maximum length of UTP Cat5e/6 that can be installed to meet the EIA/TIA standard of 100 meters (328 feet) remains unchanged.

Unless you’ve been living under a connectivity rock for the past two years, you have noticed the explosive growth in the use of fiber optics for a wide variety of communication needs.