LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., November 8, 2007 - Nice Shoes is an elite player in the New York commercial post-production market, with four advanced boutique facilities included in its corporate family: Guava (VFX, design and 3D), Freestyle Collective (3D animation and broadcast design), Nice Spots (Web-based sharing, archiving and collaboration application), and Nice Shoes (color correction, online edit and VFX). When these multiple divisions expanded into new offices on either side of Manhattan‘s Park Avenue South, they needed a cost-effective, reliable means of networking their data. Microwave was not an option in this RF-heavy urban environment, and local fiber loops were not cost-effective. Instead, the company chose the advanced Canobeam DT-130 Free Space Optics Transceiver, from Canon U.S.A. Inc., which provides secure, wireless 1.25 Gigabit per second (Gbps) data-transmission for Gigabit Ethernet networking.
“With the Canobeam DT-130, these two geographically split facilities might as well be in the same building on adjacent floors,” stated Blake Cornell, engineer, Freestyle Collective. “In our business, it‘s imperative that data transfers are moving at top speed, and the Canobeam makes that happen.”
Working off of a massive online video management and storage system where uncompressed HD files are frequently shuttled back and forth, Nice Shoes quickly realized the Canon Canobeam DT-130‘s wireless Free Space Optics (FSO) data transmission solution would be the ideal way to link its facilities together. “Once we made the move across the street, the slower T1s proved to be inadequate,” said Cornell. “The Canobeam has paid for itself within a few short months. The local loop was a monthly expenditure, but the Canobeam‘s speed allowed us to cut that cost out entirely.”
One of four models in Canon‘s Canobeam product line, all of which leverage Canon‘s decades of experience as a world leader in optical technologies, the Canobeam DT-130 provides transmission speeds of up to 1.25 Gbps for supporting Gigabit Ethernet networks. All Canobeams employ a class 1M laser, which is safe to the naked eye and transmits high-speed data via infrared light. Because they operate using a line-of-sight beam of light, Canobeams are virtually immune from signal interception and provide secure data transmission. All Canobeams are protocol-independent (like fiber), can be set-up quickly, and since they do not use radio waves, do not require radio frequency allocations, permits or licenses.
In addition, the Canon Canobeam DT-130 (and sister models DT-150, DT-120, and DT-110) features Canon‘s exclusive Auto Tracking function. This function automatically adjusts the Canobeam light beam to compensate for vibrations in the installation base due to vibrations caused by wind, traffic or other environmental factors, thereby maintaining an optimum FSO connection. The DT-130 delivers a transmission distance of up to one kilometer and also incorporates a 3R Function (Re-shaping, Re-timing, and Re-generating), which allows the data signal to be relayed without loss of strength or quality.
“Canon‘s series of Canobeam FSO data transceivers are providing reliable and secure high-bandwidth wireless networking solutions for a wide range of users,” noted Gordon Tubbs, director, Broadcast and Communications Division, Canon U.S.A. “From hospitals networking confidential health data among different buildings, to urban transit systems relaying security video, to race tracks and golf courses providing wireless Internet access for journalists, Canobeam offers a cost-effective way to bridge gaps in high-bandwidth data networks.”
In the case of Nice Shoes, after a site survey, equipment spec and installation design by Systems Support Solutions, an FSO integration and equipment-distribution company in Orono Minn., Nice Shoes set up matching Canobeam DT-130 transceivers shooting through closed office windows across Park Avenue South in Manhattan. The company quickly discovered the system consistently met its strict criteria for cost-effectiveness, reliability and performance.
The Canon Canobeam DT-130 FSO data transceiver is one of four models in the Canobeam product line. For applications in which HD video needs to be transmitted as an HD-SDI signal with embedded audio, Canon‘s newest Canobeam, the model DT-150 HD, is used. The Canobeam DT-150 HD provides bi-directional, uncompressed 1.5 Gbps transmission of embedded digital video, audio and camera-control signals on a single HD-SDI or SD-SDI stream with no delay, at a range of up to one kilometer. It‘s designed for the television industry and is ideal for situations where transmitting video via
microwave link or fiber-optic cables is impractical or impossible, such as at many sporting events, outdoor concerts and awards shows.
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranking third overall in the U.S. in 2006’, with global revenues of $34.9 billion, is listed as one of Fortune‘s Most Admired Companies in America and is on the 2007 BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/pressroom.
All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.
Specifications and availability are subject to change without notice.
’IFI Patent Intelligence, January 11, 2007.
# # #
