Test and Measurement: Test companies make new IoT acquisitions

Two test-focused companies are expanding their “Internet of Things” portfolios with IoT acquisitions, although each has a different focus.

MTS is buying sensor production company PCB Group for $580 million. MTS plans to combine PCB into its own sensors business with an eye toward more complete test and development services for “Internet of Things” applications. In a conference call on the acquisition, Jeffrey Graves, president and CEO of MTS, said the acquisition will have a “truly unique impact.”

“It’s important to note that roughly 65% of [PCB Group’s] business is selling sensors into the new product development labs and research institutions that comprise what we would call the test markets,” Graves said, adding MTS is “literally in the same product development and research laboratories around the world, with MTS equipment and PCB sensors being used by our customers every day to develop the new cars, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, buildings and bridges that will be delivered into markets around the world each year. … MTS will now be in a position in the test markets to provide the equipment and data collection systems that are used to run the tests, the sensors to take the data from the test itself, and then to provide value-added services to ensure that the tests are more accurate and more efficient and more reliable each day over the 20- to 30-year life of the system.”

PCB Group’s 2015 revenues were approximately $180 million, according to MTS. PCB has manufacturing and research facilities in Michigan, Ohio, Utah, California and Washington; about 55% of its sales are in the U.S., with another 20% in Europe and 20% in Asia.

In a more traditional testing acquisition with an IoT focus, Spirent Communications acquired Testing Technologies, which provides automation software quality for automotive and IoT applications, with particular leadership in machine-to-machine communications. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Testing Technologies’ flagship platform is TTworkbench, and Spirent said the purchase “will enable Spirent to offer the most effective solution available to ensure the functionality and performance of next-generation automobile components and technologies” as well as being able to offer a combination of M2M automation and Internet Protocol stress-testing in its portfolio for the overall IoT market.

In other testing news:

–Teledyne LeCroy bought Frontline Test Equipment of Charlottesville, Virginia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed; Teledyne said the company is a leader in wireless protocol test tools and its portfolio expands Teledyne’s protocol testing portfolio to include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

–Keysight’s UXM wireless test set has been integrated into ETS-Lindgren’s over-the-air antenna measurement test solutions, combining Keysight’s hardware with ETS-Lindgren’s EMQuest software for both single-input/single-output and multiple-input/multiple-output OTA antenna testing. Keysight also has new low-frequency testing options for its E5061B LF-RF network analyzer; new PAM-4 test capabilities in an oscilloscope firmware update; and launched a new PXIe wide band digital receiver.

–Tektronix has a new test solution for the 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard, also known as WiGig, which utilizes unlicensed spectrum at 60 GHz to achieve high speeds over short distances. According to Tektronix, “the high frequencies involved – up to 65.80 GHz in some markets – have presented a number of test and measurement challenges, including the need for multiple instruments that must be calibrated together and difficult cross-domain debugging due to the frequencies involved.”

The new, single-box solution spans 60-65 GHz and is based on a combination of Tektronix’ 70GHz DPO70000SX Series ATI Oscilloscopes and SignalVu software, as well as the SV30 option for WiGig testing.

Tektronix also plans to highlight new solutions for ultra-high-definition 4K video monitoring and testing at the upcoming National Association of Broadcasters show; Tektronix announced a new end-to-end solution for monitoring the High Efficiency Video Coding compression standard it says is the industry’s first.

-App testing company Perfecto Mobile launched a new version of its cloud-based Continuous Quality Lab, expanding its app testing capabilities to include desktop Web browsers along with mobile Web and applications. According to Perfecto, there are more than 500 potential browser combinations across the five most popular mobile devices and various versions of their operating systems, making it a challenge to provide a consistent multichannel experience. The new CQL version means developers can do side-by-side testing of mobile and Web browsers to ensure continuity of experience across devices.

–Ixia, meanwhile, is touting its “production-ready” products for 25, 50 and 100 gigabit Ethernet deployments with a new high-density load module for validating next-generation networks. Ixia says the new Novuc 100GbE load module is designed to both meet the draft standard for 25 GbE as well as “evolve with the latest standards” for 25 GbE and 50 GbE from the 25G/50G Ethernet Consortium.

–GL Communications’ MAPS emulator for testing 2G, 3G and voice-over-IP networks now supports binary encoding for the H.248 protocol communications between the media gateway controller and media gateway.

-French graduate school Télécom ParisTech plans to use Anite’s Nemo tools for drive testing, scanning and handheld testers for students.

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