Galileo is already working!

On December 15, 2016, Galileo started offering Early Operational Capability. The European global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is the alternative to the US GPS (Global Positioning System), Russian GLONASS, and Chinese Bei Dou systems. What distinguishes the system from its competitors is a much more accurate geolocation: 1 meter for users of basic (low-precision) services, free and open to everyone, and 1 cm for commercial users. Moreover, the system offers a much stronger signal than GPS, which translates into stability in areas with difficult reception conditions, such as tunnels, areas shadowed by high-rise buildings, mountain ranges etc.
The aim of the European Galileo program is to build independent indigenous satellite navigation system with the satellite and ground-based infrastructure. The ground infrastructure (Ground Control System - GCS) is to control and maintain the satellites, as well as manage the whole system (Galileo Mission System - GMS).

The system is to be fully operational in 2020. By this time, the project will be completed with the planned satellite and ground infrastructure. Ultimately, the system will consist of 30 satellites, 24 operational and 6 active spares preventing any interruption in services. The satellites are arranged in three orbital planes with inclination of 56° with respect to the equatorial plane and ascending nodes separated by 120° longitude. Their orbital altitude is 23 222 km. Currently the system has 18 Galileo satellites.

On November 17, 2016, 14:06 CET, Ariane 5 ES rocket launched from French Guiana
four more satellites of the European Galileo navigation constellation.
Their names are: Antonianna, Lisa, Kimberley and Tijmen.

The first services will allow for use of Galileo signals to determine position and time in compliant devices, such as smartphones and car navigation equipment. Navigation devices for cars, working with Galileo, should appear in 2017. Since April 2018 all new vehicles sold in Europe are to be adapted to the use of Galileo. Currently, chipsets and smartphones capable of using Galileo platform can be found at www.usegalileo.eu. Common Galileo services are to be free and open to everyone and can be combined with GPS, allowing for more precise GNSS positioning. This will be very helpful when navigating in areas where satellite signals are currently weak, e.g. in cities, where they are shadowed by tall buildings. An important service of Galileo is to be search and rescue function that will increase the accuracy of locating relay distress signals from emergency beacons and will significantly reduce the time needed to provide help to victims of accidents or people lost in the mountains or at sea.

The Galileo system will bring many benefits, especially now, in the era of the development of new technologies based on accurate positioning and navigating, e.g. autonomous cars or intelligent city services. It will also increase the stability and precision of synchronization of data transmission in many sectors of the economy and industry, such as banking, telecommunications, and energy distribution.

Digital HDMI - COFDM (DVB-T) modulators and IP encoders - support for HDCP.

HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. This protocol is designed to protect copyrights for multimedia files, providing encoding of high-definition content, e.g. Blu-Ray, and protecting the content from being copied at every stage of the transmission. Producers participating in the program pay annual and variable fees, depending on the number of devices manufactured.

Digital modulators with HDMI inputs convert the HDMI signal(s) to the form of DVB-T COFDM channels or IP streams. Thanks to full support of HDCP protocol, the modulators offered by DIPOL can distribute any high quality content provided via HDMI input(s). The source signal(s) may come from multimedia players, DVRs, Blu-ray players, PCs, STBs etc. The output RF signal in the form of DVB-T multiplex(es) can be distributed via typical RF coaxial cables used in antenna systems and be received by multiple DVB-T televisions connected to the distribution network. The signal in IP standard ( R86433 ) in the form of three independently configured multimedia streams can be distributed in Ethernet or wireless networks.

Modulators not implementing this protocol, despite the compatibility of connectors, may completely block the transmission of the source content or limit the parameters of the output signal(s) to a lower resolution and quality.

Simple home wireless network.

The 802.11n standard allows for transmission speeds up to 600 Mbps, which are perfect for transmitting audio, video and other digital data. The exchange of music or video e.g. between a laptop and a PC connected wirelessly can take much less time than sending the same files using "Fast Ethernet" (100 Mbps) cable connection. What's important, 802.11n devices are back compatible with the older 802.11b and 802.11g equipment.

A reliable multimedia home-networking platform with 802.11n TP-LINK devices

List of equipment that can be used in such installations:

LAN in two buildings - distance of 200 m.

The best way to create one LAN network in two buildings located at a distance of 200 meters is the application of fiber optic cable. The use of twisted pair cable over such a distance would not comply with applicable standards and would result in a significant reduction of the throughput of the LAN.

In a situation where the buildings are already equipped with switches without SFP slots, the best and universal solution is the use of optical media converters. In each building the suitable media converter is connected to one of the ports of the switch and changes the electrical signals into optical form and vice versa. Choosing a media converter, the user should consider the following parameters:

An implementation of optical lonk over 200 meters
Optical media converters

How to use additional streams during preview of surveillance video via a web browser?

NVRs and IP cameras from Hikvision can generate several data streams with different parameters selected by users. The control of the parameters allows for optimum adjustment of the streams to the recording and transmission capacity of the system and network components. Typically, Hikvision IP devices generate two streams, the primary/main with higher quality, and the secondary with lower parameters. The secondary/auxiliary streams are usually used for the preview of video in split screen mode and via mobile devices. Often, due to the limitation of the available network bandwidth, the auxiliary streams are also used for preview via Internet browsers.

List of cameras displaying images from different streams (in a browser window).
The images from cameras 1...4 are provided via main streams, the rest comes from auxiliary streams.

To switch the stream from a single camera the user must select the camera by moving cursor on its name. After that it will be possible to choose the other kind of stream. All streams can be changed to one type by clicking on the stream type icon under the image area.
These settings are not saved permanently. To set the required stream permanently, the user should choose the stream type in configuration / local settings menu.

Operation modes in Sunell IP cameras.

Sunell IP cameras can be fully configured which allows for optimum adjustment to various lighting conditions. The cameras have four operation modes: Auto, Day Mode, Night Mode, Timing. In automatic mode, the camera software controls the switching between color and black & white video capturing modes and the "OFF/ON" switching of the infrared illuminator, based on the signal from the light sensor. However, the user can set the switching thresholds and the time delay between the switching operations. Proper configuration of the switching thresholds eliminates situations e.g. when the camera stays too long in the color mode. The color mode in low-light environments generates a lot of noise that carries no information but significantly increases the bit rate. The automatic switching can be adjusted in the range of 0-100. The lower the value, the higher the level of lighting at which the camera switches to black and white mode. Day Mode (color) and Night Mode (B&W) allow the user to ignore the light sensor and set the required mode arbitrarily. In Timing mode, the user can determine exactly at what hours the camera should switch from color to black-and-white mode and vice versa.

DayNight configuration window of Sunell K1676 camera

Alarm systems - installation of PIR sensors. Motion detectors are the key elements of alarm systems. The effectiveness of a system and its resistance to false alarms strongly depend on the deployment of the sensors. There are two popular kinds of motion detectors: passive infrared detectors (PIR) and dual infrared sensors (PIR + MW)... >>>more

Coverage diagrams and mounting recommendations
of the BOSCH ISC-BPR2-W12 G3240 motion sensor

New year, new challenges, new opportunities