That Time When RF Recording Saved HDTV in the United States

December 1999. I’m sitting in Alexandria, VA in the world’s premiere laboratory for High Definition TV (HDTV) testing. The team of Japanese engineers has just left. The Korean engineering team is scheduled to arrive the next day. And this stupid little set-top-box can’t receive any HDTV signals. The TV screen is full of errors. The box works perfectly when it’s … Read More

RF Field Tests and the Silver Screen (Episode 4): Share and Collaborate

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo dedicated years of their lives crafting the film that became the top box office movie of all time. Avengers: Endgame is more than a typical sequel. It ties 21 films together, including The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, and Thor. No one believes that the Russo brothers spent those years creating … Read More

RF Field Tests and the Silver Screen (Episode 3): OPTEMPO on the Range

When the camera stops rolling, the critical moments have been captured, and the stars are tucked into their trailers, a new team emerges on the scene. Their names may be embedded deep in the credits, but they play a key role in making the blockbuster film come to life. Every night, with a handful of memory cards, the data management … Read More

RF Field Tests and the Silver Screen (Episode 2): Capture Critical Moments

When Marvel Studios decided to create the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War, they took on Anthony and Joe Russo as returning directors and assembled a long line of A-list actors, including Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, and Gwyneth Paltrow, aka the Avengers’ surviving members and their allies. Much of the filming was done at … Read More

RF Field Tests and the Silver Screen (Episode One)

It’s Iron Man vs. Thanos, the final battle scene of Avengers: Endgame. 93 million ticket holders sit on the edge of their seats. Thousands of warriors span the screen as the two armies collide—explosions and carnage on all sides. With a snap of his fingers, Thanos declares: “I am inevitable”. But there’s one more plot twist that renders Thanos powerless … Read More

Technical Leadership Lessons from Edison

If Thomas Edison was working at a defense contractor today, he would probably be the world’s most effective principal engineer, teaching us valuable technical leadership lessons. Although he’s most widely known for the invention of the light bulb, Edison holds a total of 1,093 patents in the United States. To date, he is acclaimed as America’s most prolific inventor. That … Read More

Repeatability and Reproducibility: Whose Problem is it Anyway?

Perhaps it’s a cliché, but today’s systems are becoming more and more complex, and intermittent problems more and more frequent. Repeatability and reproducibility have become major issues. The good news is, repeatability and sanity can be restored. RF Recorders Bring Repeatability and Sanity Back to the Table Have you found yourself asking how your team can fix an issue that … Read More