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news
NBN work recommences
Work
has recommenced on the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN),
with NBN Co awarding a $1.1 billion contract to Silcar for the
construction of the fibre network in NSW, ACT and Queensland.
Silcar,
which is a 50/50 joint venture partnership between Siemens and Thiess
Services, has been awarded $380 million over the next two years, with
the option of a further two years at an additional value of $740
million.
Under the arrangement, Silcar will be responsible for
the construction of 40% of the total network, including nine of the 19
NBN second release sites previously announced by NBN Co – extensions to
existing works in Kiama, Townsville and Armidale and new sites in
Springfield Lakes, Toowoomba and inner northern Brisbane, Riverstone in
western Sydney, Coffs Harbour, and Gungahlin in the ACT.
NBN Co
said it had achieved an optimal balance between price reductions,
certainty of volume, location of premises, appropriate payment terms and
the benefits of initial exclusivity to defray overheads.
Discussions
have already commenced with a select group of construction companies
for all other regions in Australia. NBN Co expects negotiations to be
completed in August, selecting up to five contractors and placing one at
most in each capital city, stating that there was little benefit in two
or more construction companies competing in the same capital city.
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New switchboard manufacturing facility in Sydney
Australian
switchboard manufacturer K E Brown has opened a new manufacturing
facility in Sydney’s Western suburbs. The second of K E Brown’s
manufacturing facilities, the Smithfield facility specialises in
producing both custom-built and modular switchboards for light and
power, and motor control centres. It is equipped with modern CNC busbar
bending equipment, as well as electric cabling and switchgear assembly
areas.
K E Brown general manager Bob Day said the plant has been
designed and laid out to minimise waste in time and materials with
OH&S also a major contributor to the layout of equipment and work
stations.
He added that the time and cost of a person moving a
piece of copper through the production process has now been greatly
reduced.
As well as improving the movement of the material
through the plant, K E Brown created dedicated areas of the plant to
optimise the assembly of distribution boards, which are now being
designed by the same engineering team who designed the main switchboard.
In addition to streamlining the design and manufacture process, the
optimisation aims to maximise the facility’s sustainability.
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NBN fixed-wireless agreement signed
Rural
and regional communities falling into the fixed-wireless coverage area
of the National Broadband Network (NBN) may be among the first to
connect to the NBN, with NBN Co signing a 10-year agreement with
Ericsson for the design, construction and operation of the 4G network.
The
$1.1 billion contract will be initially delivered as a turnkey solution
for at least 12 months to enable a fast start to construction and
delivery. As a result, first services are expected to be available from
the middle of next year.
The fixed-wireless network service is
designed to offer peak speeds of 12Mb/s to retail service providers to
offer to people living in approximately 4% of premises not covered by
fibre. The company has stated that it will not know the typical speeds
of the fixed-wireless network until trials are complete, but expects a
minimum of 500kb/s and claims the design is 10 times faster than many
mobile networks today.
Design of the fixed-wireless network has
already started. The exact locations to be covered in the initial
rollout will be announced in the coming months following the completion
of detailed network planning and consultation with local communities. An
augmented approach will be taken to ensure that the existing 3G and
copper networks in rural locations are not affected. Of the 121 points
of interconnect, about 40-45 will be for the fixed-wireless network.
Several
new mobile towers will be constructed in remote areas where there are
currently none. These will form clusters to deliver wireless into an
area from towns where there is a fibre connection and where necessary,
microwave backhaul will be used to bring services back to the fibre
network.
In addition, the 4G fixed-wireless network will support
quality of service capability, allowing bandwidth to be prioritised
according to applications being used over the network.
Households
connecting via fixed-wireless will have an antenna, about the size of
an A4 piece of paper, mounted outdoors on an eave, with a cable fed
inside to a device similar to most ADSL modems in use today. It is
expected that these devices will be upgraded as the network evolves and
faster speeds are possible.
Complementing the fixed-wireless
service, NBN Co expects to launch its interim satellite solution in the
next six months. Once past the interim period, it will be able to
connect large numbers of premises in a short period of time.
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Australia drafts first cyber white paper
The
federal government has announced it will develop Australia’s first
Cyber White Paper to provide a comprehensive blueprint to help
Australians connect to the internet with confidence.
It will be a
comprehensive review of how governments, businesses and individuals can
work together to realise the full benefits of cyberspace while at the
same time ensuring current and emerging risks can be managed.
The
paper will examine what Australians need to do to protect themselves
online, the role of government, industry and the public in protecting
interests, and priorities in the cyber environment.
It will also
cover a broad range of areas including consumer protection, cyber
safety, cyber crime, cyber security and cyber defence.
The paper
will be built on the government’s 2009 Cyber Security Strategy and the
establishment of the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC), CERT
Australia, the Cyber Safety Plan and the Digital Economy Strategy.
The
announcement comes shortly after the high-profile cyber-attacks on
three US defence contractors – Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications and
Northrop Grumman – which ironically occurred during or shortly preceding
Australia’s national Cyber Security Awareness Week. All three defence
contractors provide services to Australia.
The paper will be led by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2012.
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CIOs working towards greener IT
New
research from independent technology analyst Ovum suggests almost
three-quarters of chief information officers (CIOs) have deployed
environmentally sustainable IT within their organisations, with an
additional 8% intending to do so by the end of 2012.
The figures
were obtained by Ovum through a survey which canvassed around 500 CIOs
across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Australia. The increase to
73% in the second half of 2010 marked a 5% boost on the approximate 68%
of organisations using green IT in the first half of the year.
“The
growth in global green IT penetration reflects a change of attitude by
CIOs and other IT decision-makers,” said Ovum analyst Rhonda Ascierto.
“Previously, they considered green IT optional because they defined its
value primarily in terms of corporate image, rather than the bottom
line.
“It is now viewed as a core technology that delivers
business value by cutting costs and increasing efficiency. We believe
this change has occurred because of constrained IT budgets and a
sluggish global economy in the wake of the recession, which forced
organisations to scrutinise spending on all types of IT. Many CIOs have
for the first time had to calculate a financial return on investment of
green IT.”
In Australia, Ovum claimed green IT penetration is, in
part, being driven by anticipated carbon emissions-reduction
legislation, stating that CIOs seem to be preparing for the eventuality
of greater legislative pressure and plan to embrace green IT in the next
couple of years.
Ovum surveyed CIOs about five major categories
of green IT: data centre virtualisation, data centre power and cooling
technologies, desktop virtualisation, printing and paper usage
management, and power management tools for PCs and monitors.
Of
these different areas of green IT, Ovum reported that data centre
virtualisation has the greatest penetration; with 53% of the CIO
respondents in Australia saying they currently use it. According to
Ovum’s survey, this figure will grow to almost 80% of CIOs in Australia
during the next couple of years.
Ovum classified green IT by a reduction in resource consumption, typically electricity from fossil fuels.
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UNSW iCinema exports to China
One
of China’s leading mine safety research and development bodies, the
Shenyang Research Institute of China Coal Technology & Engineering
Group, has signed a $1 million deal to use the Advanced Visualisation
and Interaction Environment (AVIE) technology developed by the
University of New South Wales’ iCinema Centre in a new training
facility. In the past three years the Australian mining industry has
installed AVIE technology at four Australian sites as part of a $6.1
million commercialisation. These have been used to teach mine workers
how to survive life-threatening workplace hazards and have led to
worldwide interest, with China claiming the first completed installation
outside of Australia. AVIE technology also made its theatrical debut
last month during the Sydney Film Festival as part of the cinematic
artwork Scenario.
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Development of Uni TV wins global telecoms innovation award
The
Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) at the University of
Melbourne and project partner Ericsson received the
2011 Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award for remote
education innovation at a ceremony in London last month. The award
recognises collaboration between the IBES and Ericsson in
developing Uni TV, which involved the use of an IPTV platform to
deliver educational service in fields such as medicine, chemistry and
engineering by developing 3D content to assist learners in engaging with
complex subject matter.
"Uni TV enables educators, technologists
and vendors to work together to deliver educational services across a
number of programs,” said IBES research leader Ken Clarke. “As Australia
rolls out the NBN, Uni TV will provide the basis for other educational
services, such as professional development of doctors in remote
locations."
Ericsson broadband strategy manager Colin Goodwin
said: "The essential innovation with Uni TV was to take Ericsson’s
standard IPTV product and customise it for education use. While this
could have been done on today's broadband networks, the 3D and haptic
elements demonstrated with IBES require the very high speeds the NBN
will deliver."
Sally Capp, the agent general for Victoria in
London accepted the award on behalf of IBES from Global Telecoms
Business editor Alan Burkitt-Gray. The awards are given annually to
recognise innovation in the telecommunications industry.
Uni TV
will be rolled out to a number of sites in the near future and is
currently seeking second round funding through the Victorian
government's Collaborative Internet Innovation Fund.
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ICT students step into virtual realm
University
of Queensland information and communication technology students have
developed virtual interior design technology, which allows users to
project life-size 2D outlines of furniture on the floor, before viewing
them in 3D via use of an iPad. Bachelor of multimedia design student
Stephanie Zylstra said that via use of an iPod Touch, an iPad and an
infrared glove, users were able to arrange virtual furniture in a
physical space to preview how a room might look without the
inconvenience of having to arrange each item.
This project went
on display at a recent UQ Interactive Design Exhibit, which also
featured works from other ICT students. Four students developed a
physical interface to the popular Smartphone game Angry Birds, which
required game participants to use a giant, 1.5m slingshot to control the
game, which was projected on the wall. Engineering student Harmeet
Sanghera said the team was able to construct the interactive exhibit
using items readily available at electronics and hardware shops for a
small budget. “When the user pulls back on the slingshot, they activate
the pressure switch which turns on the infrared (IR) light emitting
diode (LED), which is then tracked via a webcam with an IR pass filter,”
Sanghera said.
Another student group, Team Globemasters, has
been invited by software developer SAP to submit their Interactive Globe
design for inclusion in the Demo Jam event at SAP TechEd 2011. Demo Jam
sessions will be held at Las Vegas, Bangalore and Madrid later this
year. Master of interaction design student David Harper said that the
Interactive Globe project was essentially a giant trackball with a globe
projected onto its surface. “When users spin the globe, the projection
updates to track the movement, and when it stops on a specific country,
the system displays information about that country around the edges,”
Harper said.
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new products
iWireless storage device
The
G-CONNECT is a wireless storage device designed for on-the-go access to
content through the iPad and iPhone. Designed by technology
manufacturers G-Technology, is can be used to access content which is
not already loaded on a mobile device, such as movies, music, books,
photos, and documents. It can wirelessly stream high definition content
to up to three devices or standard definition content to up to five
devices simultaneously. The user can load content either wirelessly or
through a USB 2.0 port from a computer to their G-CONNECT. iPad and
iPhone apps are available for quick access, and content is secured via
password protection.
Enterprise mobile device
Technology
manufacturer Honeywell has released a mobile device, the Dolphin 6000
Scanphone, which automates the data collection process and provides
real-time access to necessary business data.
In addition to its
basic mobile phone functionality, the Dolphin 6000 offers features
geared towards vertical enterprise, including field service, field
sales, and retail and logistics operations.
An integrated
scanner provides fast and accurate bar code scanning, simplifying data
entry tasks, while Honeywell’s Remote MasterMind for Mobility device
management software lets users manage, update and remotely diagnose all
Dolphin 6000 devices within a network from one centralised location,
lowering development and maintenance costs.
It also sports an
integrated megapixel camera and features multiple wireless options,
including GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Utilising the Microsoft Windows
Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system, it is designed for easy
integration with enterprise-grade software applications.
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calendar
The
NSW Innovation Forum will be held on Thursday 7 July. Hosted by the
Australian Information Industry Association, the forum will address the
role ICT innovation will play in the long-term success of NSW and
Australia, and will also announce the winners of the NSW state iAwards.
The event will take place at the MLC Centre, 19 Martin Place, Sydney. To
register, click here.
Broadband World Forum announces its 2011 line-up
This
year’s Broadband World Forum will take place on 27-29 September 2011 at
CNIT La Défense, Paris. It has been expanded include the transport and
energy sectors, will feature two new forums – the Connected Transport
Summit and the Smart Energy Summit – in addition to the Executive
Leadership Summit.
This year’s event will host over 40 speakers.
There
will be four streams and an exhibition including 200 companies. In
addition, the Broadband InfoVision Awards 2011 will be presented at the
conference.
For more information on Broadband World Forum 2011 or to view the full event program and register for the event, visit the website.
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