MARKET FOCUS
28 Utilities Middle East / August 2019 http://www.utilities-me.com
Building a test system in today›s industry requires evaluation of
expanding test requirements and an architecture that can last
over time
W
ith the focus shifting to production
testing to enable timely defect elimi-
nation and prevent late stage equip-
ment failure, there are more bene-
fi ts for testing & measurement (T&M) instruments.
Key benefi ts driving the adoption of T&M
instruments in product R&D, production and
maintenance include high product quality, and
lower costs associated with product malfunc-
tions, repairs, replacements, product call backs
and repeat production.
The electronic Test and Measurement Instru-
ments industry in the GCC has blossomed and
continues to expand at a pace never witnessed
before. The GCC market for electrical Test and
Measurement Instruments (T&M) is projected to
grow over the coming years in parallel with global
growth, widely expected to reach $6.8bn by 2020.
With electronic gadgets shrinking in size, fea-
turing advanced wireless capabilities, and gain-
ing in complexity, testing has become a vital pro-
cess in electric power generation, transmission
and distribution.
A new market for test instruments is being cre-
ated by the separation of an instrument’s process-
ing/control and measurement modules. With the
accelerated performance of personal computers,
it also has proven viable to create PC-driven
instruments that interface through high-speed
and common platform-interface technologies.
To solve many of these limitations with cur-
rent hardware would require a proprietary inter-
face technology and a specialised workhorse of a
computer, mitigating the benefi ts of a PC-driven
computer.
The world is increasingly software oriented,
and the way people interact with devices is chang-
ing. Smartphones, set top boxes and even auto-
mobiles are now defi ned by their embedded soft-
ware. With this evolution, the industry is chal-
lenged to keep up with the pace of innovation and
the resulting complexities.
The industry today realises that building a
test system requires evaluation of expanding test
requirements and an architecture that can last
over time. It is important to choose a platform that
can harness the technology curve while enabling
abstraction and integration.
Devices under test (DUTs) are moving away
from single purpose, hardware centric entities
with limited capability to multipurpose, soft-
ware-centric entities with endless capability.
Making the switch from traditional instruments
with vendor defi ned functionality to a softwaredefi ned architecture, allows user defi ned mea-
surements and analysis in real time.
Communities of developers and integrators,
building on standard software platforms, are
using commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology
to extend the functionality of complex hardware
into applications previously impossible. The level
of productivity and collaboration delivered by
software centric ecosystems will have a profound
eff ect on test system design over the next three to
fi ve years.
The last 2-3 years have witnessed a growing
trend of T&M on rent which is gaining popular-
ity as a good choice for executing short term proj-
ects. Long term projects continue to attract new
T&M buys. At the same time, support of multiple
technologies like GSM, CDMA, WiMAX, WCDMA,EVERY
ISSUE!
UME
ANNUAL
REPORTS
2019
ELIMINATING
SYSTEM FAILURE