Event Recap: Tait attends ITNAC 2016

Otago University played host to the 2016 International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (ITNAC), where leaders in academia and industry discussed the future of communications technology. As a proud patron of the event, Tait sent a handful of representatives to learn from and contribute to the discussion. Our Head of Research and Technology, Dr Clive Horn, delivered a well received presentation on the Future Evolution of Critical Communications.

The conference was well attended by guests both local and international, who appreciated the high standard of discussion, set in the historic Otago University. Presentations we focused on communication methods and technologies, particularly optimization of transmission and systems. The range of topics included network optimization, deployment and performance analysis, wireless communication and spectrum management, software defined networks, as well as smart grids related communication aspects.

Dr Clive Horn presented an engaging industry talk on behalf of Tait, exploring where communications are going, touching on the emerging IoT (Internet Of Things). Several post-graduate students expressed interest in working at Tait, which is very encouraging for the future of the industry.

Dr Clive Horn delivers his presentation.

Dr Horn found a number of other talks particularly interesting, including Professor Winston Seah’s keynote speech Making Sense out of IoT Nonsense. Professor Seah discussed how the internet has transformed from its original form that connects computers utilized by humans to one that connects objects, sensors, and any foreseeable device in everyday life, giving rise to the “Internet of Things”.

Another Tait attendee, Niall McAndrew, shared Dr Horn’s interest in the IoT discussion. He noted the IoT content was mainly focused around short range in home devices, optimizing their power consumption, as well as novel methods of generating power. One particular example of this was a sensor attached to a building used for monitoring how the building withstood an earthquake. The device was able to generate its power from the shaking of the earthquake, and use that to sample and transmit an acceleration value for that particular part of the building.

McAndrew found a talk by Lahiru Ariyasinghe from the University of Otago particularly interesting. He presented a paper, VPAP: VBR Pattern Aware Playback Buffering for Video Streaming, which essentially tries to smooth out the bandwidth consumption of downloading a video file, given that they have a variable bandwidth.

Tait attendee Les Humphris had the opportunity to demonstrate some Tait technology to the conference goers, and graciously lent his smile to our promotional material for the event.

Our attendees were happy to contribute to the conference, and appreciated the quality of the informative presentations.


If you’re interested in a career in the Critical Communications industry, check out our Career Opportunities page for information on vacancies and tertiary study opportunities.

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