Last week, the Icron team attended the North American professional audio and video show, which showcased the latest technology in broadcast, post production, and media extension.  Our visit to InfoComm this year focused on reviewing the latest market trends and meeting our strategic customers in our private meeting space on the show floor.  Over the duration of the show, we gained valuable knowledge in two areas: The role of USB 3.0 in the broadcast and media extension markets and the continuous trend towards supporting extension over a network.

With regard to USB 3.0, the market continues to generate buzz and requests for a USB 3.0 extender.  The requests are limited to specific applications and the need for a customer to future proof the installation (i.e. provide USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 extension).  Considering the small amount of USB 3.0 devices currently available in the market (hard drives and high-end cameras), there is even a smaller number of end users who need extensions for these 3.0 devices.   However, since the announcement of the new USB 3.0 specification by the USB Implementers Forum, there are requests to have the technology even though the end user continues to extend only the keyboard, mouse, and flash drive.  In high-end video post production applications, the need to support more than flash drives is even further limited.

What is interesting about USB 3.0 is the ability for customers to be able to future proof their installations and have a USB extender that supports both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.  This is a great fit for Icron since our technology extends both USB 2.0 and 3.0 beyond the inherent distance limitations.  With this in mind, based on the feedback and trends, we are working towards implementing specific requirements for a new USB 3.0 extender as well as working with all our customers on adding such a solution to our existing product line.

We also saw a continuing trend for extension solutions over a network in the broadcast, post production, and media extension markets.  This trend is aligned perfectly with our customers whose needs are to extend video and/or USB over a network (point to point and point to multipoint).  This allows installers the ability to use existing cabling and allows more complex installations with switching and/or routing capabilities for multiple displays and/or work areas.

The valuable insight and feedback helps put Icron in a good position to develop pivotal products with our customers.  For the end user, it allows Icron to meet their needs by appropriately applying our technology to the next generation of USB extension solution products.

If you have thoughts on USB 3.0 and network extension (including KVM) feel free to send me an email.

Our visit to the International CES 2011 show was an ideal forum to showcase to the industry our technology and product roadmap while receiving feedback from our strategic customers on what they would like to see, and get compelling mention in the press.   Suffice to say, we are excited that we achieved all three.

While at the show, Icron held a press conference on January 7^th where we unveiled technology demos of our USB 3.0 extender cable, USB over DisplayPort, along with our KVM product line up.  In case you missed our press conference, here are just a few descriptors of the demos:

• In partnership with Intersil, we introduced our new 20 meter USB 3.0 Active Extension Cable which utilizes our LionsGate IC and leverages USB extension technology, the active cable extends USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity well beyond the USB 3.0 specification distance limitation of three meters.
• Advanced USB over DisplayPort technology, which delivers DisplayPort video and USB 2.0 capability over a standard DisplayPort cable.
• ExtremeLink™ 4500, the newest addition to our KVM product line. The ExtremeLink™ 4500 is one of our KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) extender products and allows a computer to be placed remotely from a workstation area, connected over an existing LAN or dedicated Cat 5 (up to 330 ft).

This abundant set of demonstrations received an enthusiastic article in the CES Daily which is published each day of the show. The article covers our KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) extenders which enable video, USB 2.0 and audio to be extended up to 500 meters (1640 feet) on Cat 5 cables or support connections on a Local Area Network (LAN).

As well, the review of our ExtremeLink™ 4500 in CRN reiterated the impressive performance of our KVM products.

The ability to extend KVM and USB over a dedicated Cat 5 cable was impressive enough. But over a LAN? Testers were truly dazzled when they connected the 4500 sender and receiver to their test LAN and it worked right out of the box, permitting input from the remote keyboard and mouse to be displayed on the remote monitor, and with almost no detectable delay.

Thank you for visiting us at CES 2011 and for helping us make it a successful show. Please feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts of the show. If you are interested in our KVM products or any of our other products, please contact us at any time.

As Icron is the leader in USB extension, we are always looking for new USB devices coming out in the market.  I ran across an interesting hard drive that is water proof and fire proof. Check it out!

ioSafe SoloPRO (Courtesy of everythingusb.com)

The USB 3.0 final spec was published in late 2008 but it’s taken some time for USB 3.0 to materialize in the market. With multiple USB xHCI Host Controllers and IP available from companies like NEC, TI, and Synopsis and the Taiwanese manufacturers, we’re starting to see USB 3.0 products appear in the market.  The recent announcements of USB 3.0 motherboard integration by companies like ASUS and Gigabyte will certainly help accelerate the demand for OEM’s to implement USB 3.0 into devices as well.

Advantages of using USB 3.0:

• Speed– USB 3.0 is roughly about 10 times the performance (max.) than USB 2.0This is achieved because USB 3.0 is essentially an overlay on top of the D+/D- USB 2.0 wires, adding 2 additional sets of wires that carry USB 3.0 data only. With each differential pair taking care of one half of the communications (either host to device or device to host), the system delivers full duplex communications as opposed to the half duplex communications of USB 2.0.  There are some efficiencies in this method that help reduce power requirements (e.g. removing the need for polling) although new connectors and cables are obviously required to support all the additional internal wires.
  

  Source: www.ptgrey.com

• Power – Additional powering capabilities, namely increased bus power support:  150 mA vs. 100mA for unconfigured, 900mA vs. 500mA for configured devices (configured/unconfigured referring to software drivers) for powering devices without an external power supply.

• Performance – Early performance of USB 3.0 products seems to be varied from as low as a 3X performance boost to up to the expected 10X.  Performance is derived from the performance of each individual component in the system, namely the specific host controller (they aren’t all created equal!), connector/cable (you need a 3.0 cable and connector to get 3.0 speeds) and the device itself (and its specific USB 3.0 PHY implementation).

The USB 3.0 devices we’re seeing in the market today are mostly external hard drives, web cameras, and flash drives, it will be interesting to see what other device types migrate to USB 3.0 as certainly not all will given the cost adder.

As USB Extension experts for over 12 years, Icron will develop USB 3.0 extenders in the future, we’d love to hear from you on what types of devices you think will move to USB 3.0 and if you have any need to go beyond the 3 meter (10 feet) range of USB 3.0.

To read more on USB 3.0 and it’s future for business, go to IT World Canada