Monday, February 18, 2008

Cache & Packets

Biz folks finally warm up to better audio systems

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Maynard's Revolabs Inc. took a simple idea, a wireless microphone, and applied it to a problem we know too well -- poor audio in corporate group settings.

Now, executives say the company has passed through its lean times and is preparing for what CEO Martin Bodley hopes will be rapid deployment.

"There was a long adoption period, with people buying one or two systems to try out," he said. "But since the fall (2007), customers have started ordering 50 or more systems at a time."

It couldn't come too soon. Hopefully, the days of attending events that laud cutting-edge technology but use audio systems seemingly built by high school members of the audiovisual club, are over.

While panel discussions and audience participation are my personal pet peeves when it comes to poor audio, Bodley markets the system as a tool for broad collaboration applications. Conference calls, webcasting or teleconferencing could all benefit.

Each mike is about the size of a roll of quarters, and the system can handle up to 24 mikes in one room, without the units interfering with one another.

This week the company jumped into a new application, signing a partnership with Burlington's Nuance Communications Inc. The well-known interactive voice technology company will couple Revolabs' mikes with Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking medical-dictation software, used by doctors and medical personnel for the dictation of notes and medical records.

The deal gives Revolabs access to an estimated 50,000 clinicians using the Dragon medical dictation system in the United States.

The call for a functioning corporate public audio system has not been limited to North America. Revolabs spent much of 2007 building its international channels, and as a result opened a London office last fall and opened an office in Hong Kong last week.

As a result of its expansion, the company reports 10 consecutive months of increased revenue, though Bodley would not provide specific numbers.

Bodley said the audio tech company expects to continue expanding, and officials are hoping to "substantially more than double revenue in 2008."

Sensor Perceptions

Traditionally a player in Raman spectroscopy, a type of chemical sensor technology, Wilmington-based chemical sensor maker Ahura Scientific Inc. has introduced a new super-sensor gun based on a spectroscopy platform known as Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) sensing.

Translation: Ahura has created the first product line of handheld chemical sensors that use both of the most commonly used testing techniques. This combination allows for easier (read: quicker and more accurate) identification of substances that could do us all, including security personnel, serious harm.

Both Raman and FTIR are commonly accepted methods of identifying unknown solids and liquids. However, because different molecules react differently to each technique, they are not independently exclusive. Both chemical sensor systems have their strengths and weaknesses, and in applications where the substances being tested could be wide-ranging, such as in homeland security, you want to maximize your strengths.

As a rule of thumb, darker materials don't work as well with Raman, whereas FTIR is able to work effectively with dark colors.

The "a-ha" aspect of Ahura's new spectrometer is its inclusion in a 3-pound, handheld device that security personnel can use onsite, something that has not been seen in the industry before, according to Doug Kahn, Ahura's chairman and CEO.

As the folks at Ahura would surely point out, the device can also be used in a number of manufacturing environments, testing for quality control or contamination in perishable goods. But the company has already penetrated a number of local, state and federal security agencies with its Raman product and more than 1,000 units in the field, say officials, so there's no reason to think the company won't have similar success with its FTIR product.