Test & Measurement: Ixia will restate two quarters of results

The ability to test network and device features and functions is an important piece of technology development and deployment. RCR Wireless looks weekly at the test and measurement space to see what’s afoot.  

— Ixia continues to navigate the fallout from the resignation of its former CEO for falsified credentials, and the ensuing discovery that its financial processes were flawed.

The company’s audit committee concluded that the reported results from the first two quarters of 2013 should be restated due to premature recognition of some revenue, due to errors in how the company assessed and accounted for some sales transactions. The correction is expected to reduce total revenues for each quarter by $2 million and $4.5 million for the first and second quarters respectively, but “will not have any impact on the total revenue to be recognized over the life of the applicable arrangements,” the company said; the issue was one of correct timing on revenue recognition rather than incorrect information overall.

The company’s CFO resigned in March over the systemic errors, although he was cleared of intentional misconduct.

— Agilent Technologies made the first of its Reference Solutions available this week, in the form of an RF power amplifier manufacturing test solution with envelope tracking capability. The company’s reference solutions are a combination of hardware, software and measurement advice that are designed for quick evaluation of a test system for a specific application. The package of essential testing elements is also supposed to reduce the integration time for a test system into the overall test environment.

“Power amplifier manufacturers seldom have exactly the same test requirements, but they all want to quickly and easily bring their devices to production when developing a new test system,” said Mario Narduzzi, who is marketing manager for Agilent’s modular solutions division. “This Reference Solution for RF PA manufacturing test meets these needs by providing the essential components of a power amplifier test system with the right combination of hardware, software and measurement expertise, enabling fast integration into a test environment and dramatically reducing test system development time.”

Agilent also introduced a new real-time recording option for real-time spectrum analyzers (RTSAs). Its Option RTR is available for its PXA and MXA signal analyzers, enabling engineers to record, analyze and play back signal spectrum density data in oder to find and analyze signal anomalies.

— Anite has made its latest Nemo Outdoor release. The laptop-based drive test tool’s newest version includes more focus on quality of experience (QoE) measurements for end users, including support for simultaneous PESQ and POLQA measurements that are used to assess voice quality during calls. POLQA in particular focuses on voice quality in VoLTE calls.

— Spirent Communications has launched a new entry-level test system for GPS and GNSS to enable positioning testing. The Gss6300M “one box” solution can be controlled from a tablet or smartphone and is priced to appeal to “engineering teams looking to integrate positioning functionality to new classes of consumer electronic devices,” according to the company.