Digest - Thursday the 22nd of June 2016

Staff Bio

Michelle Farah

Born in Queensland to farming parents I grew up beside my parents working hard each day on a Passionfruit farm in the Redlands. After a variety of part time employment as a teenager, I worked for 7 years at Mount Castle Hats, which is Australia’s 3rd oldest company as their receptionist and then assistant to the accountant. During my years there I got married and worked until the birth of my first child.  For many years while I was a stay at home mum, I ran the office side of my husband’s Bricklaying company a task which many partners undertake and one that I was only able to resign from after 17 years when our marriage ended.  When my youngest started school I became a teacher’s aide, which enabled me to keep a close eye on my girls and three years of very enjoyable work.  

Before starting at NAS I worked for a Mobile Telecommunication Service Provider I was there from the inception and it grew to be a large Optus service provider.  I ran the accounts for many years and one day hope to write a book on the hilarious and sometimes bizarre customers that we encountered on a daily basis. When this company started to use offshore customer service centres, and my life as a single Mum began, it brought me to NAS.

NAS is a wonderful place to work and I count it a blessing that I am part of this team.  I enjoy the genuine friendly work environment and the customers are refreshingly normal.  Looking forward to many more years working here at NAS Australia.

Product Release

Kingray MHV25F

Kingray are the only manufacturer still producing television amplifiers in Australia and are proud to announce the release of the latest addition to the Edge Series of masthead amplifiers.  Local design and manufacturing allows Kingray to gather market feedback and develop products which suit Australia’s unique digital television environment. 

The MHV25F is designed for today’s digital television environment and specifically for areas where there is VHF transmission only.  The Band 1,2,4 and 5 filtering ensure only channels 6 to 12 are amplified, eliminating all unwanted frequencies including those in the LTE band.

The amplifier is designed to provide a very flat response across Band 3, the maximum output of 25dB with a 10dB gain control and 50dB of LTE rejection makes the MHV25F the ideal amplifier for VHF only installations.  The specification flyer can be downloaded here.

News Articles

NAS to advertise UEC VAST Products on Imparja, Gem & Go regional channels for Team Australia in Rio.

To ensure your customers don't miss Team Australia in Rio, NAS is running two advertisements on Imparja, Go and Gem.

The advertisements will run from the 22nd of June till the 3rd of August and will suggest that VAST viewers upgrade their existing reception systems to enable them to record their favourite programming on the DSR4639 1TB Vast Certified Dual Channel High Definition Satellite Recorder or watch and record on an Altech UEC 22" or 32" Integrated VAST TV. The 30 second advertisements can be viewed here:

https://vimeo.com/170569862
https://vimeo.com/170569863

The advertisements will direct interested parties to the following website: http://www.vastsat.com where we can direct inquiries through to the trade and retail channel who keep stock of the DSR4639-1TB and the VAST TV's.

Should you wish to have your business contact details listed on the site, all you need to do is stock the new Altech UEC DSR4639-1TB and or a VAST 22" and 32" TV.

Contact your NAS Australia Sales Rep for more information.

NAS now distribute SANUS wall mount products

"The team at NAS Australia are proud to announce that we have been selected by Sanus Australia to distribute their award winning brackets and associated products throughout Queensland and Northern NSW to the installation market.  The addition of Sanus to our ever increasing stable of quality brands demonstrates our commitment to becoming the diversified installer's One Stop Shop for quality TV, MATV, CCTV, Security, Access Control, Home Theatre, Home Automation, Enterprise Wifi and Data products." John Kimbell

“All of us at Sanus Australia are very excited about the launch of our new partnership with NAS Australia. Our goal was to expand the availability and convenience of access to the full assortment of our award winning products for the independent installers and integrators throughout Queensland. We believe we have found the best possible value added partner with the teams at NAS - and look forward to working together with them to help you achieve increased sales and enhanced customer satisfaction. Check out the new Sanus displays in-store as well as the attached introduction to see how our products will save you time and effort during installation while providing even greater safety and security for your customers!”  Rex Halverson

Sunshine Coast Branch Open Night

The Sunshine Coast team would like to thank their loyal customer base for their support this Financial Year.  In recognition of this support, we would like to invite all Sunny Coast customers to join us for an open night on Wednesday the 29th of June from 5pm.  Supplier representative displays, hands on product demonstrations, unbeatable evening only specials and lucky door prizes will be on offer.  Ample servings of complimentary pizza, nibbles and beverages will also be served.  An invitation can be downloaded here.

FTA TV

Regional Queensland TV about to change

"On June 30 regional Queensland TV viewers will watch the Sydney Roosters play the Canterbury Bulldogs on Win."

"The next night they will watch the Brisbane Broncos play Melbourne Storm on the station they had previously known as Southern Cross but will now know as Nine."

"For almost three decades Nine has shared a content deal with WIN Television to broadcast its programs into regional areas."

"Similarly Ten has been broadcast regionally by Southern Cross Austereo."

"But after content deal negotiations broke down between WIN and Nine, everything was on the table and from July 1 everything switches."  The complete article can be accessed here.

Pay TV

Optus hopes to change the landscape of sports broadcasting with launch of EPL channel

"OPTUS is on the verge of releasing its online English Premier League channel which the company hopes will shake up the Australian market and revolutionise the way people consume sport."

"Optus scooped up the broadcast rights to the EPL competition last November in a silent bidding war, dethroning Foxtel which had held the rights since the late 1990s."

"The surprise move by the telco led to widespread speculation about how, and at what price, the company would provide access to the content."

"Initially Optus said its customers would be charged $15 a month for access to the service but following strong consumer backlash the company recently announced customers who signed up before July 31 will get the first season free. Those with Optus broadband packages above $85 a month will also have free access to the Premier League."

"For everyone else, the cheapest price point to get access to the content is a $30 per month mobile plan on a 12-month contract. Customers will then need to pay an extra $5 a month to get a Yes TV mini set-top box device to allow them to use the service on the big screen."

"Non Optus customers who happen to have Apple TV can also get access to the app for $30 a month."

"For those in remote Australia with poor internet connection, Optus has a satellite solution which allows access to the channel without chewing up broadband data."  The complete article can be accessed here.

IoT

The Coming Wide-Spread Use of Drones in Agriculture

"Whether you call them UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), UAS (Unmanned Aerial System), Drones, or something less polite – people are more familiar than ever with them. We’ll call them drones, and we’re not talking about the remote-controlled toy kind – we’re talking about the flying robot kind. They have sensors (GPS and more), can be given a Flight Plan (instructions on where to go), and can follow that plan autonomously while carrying out other instructions – no human pilot required. Many high-end tractors are already in service with this kind of automation and we’ve even seen automated harvesting assistance. But flying drones are small and they don’t plant seeds or pull weeds, so what exactly do they have to do with agriculture?"

"There are certain things that drones are very good at, and there are things in agriculture that are important but troublesome to do or get. Some of these things overlap, and in those spaces is where a budding industry has arisen." The complete article can be accessed here.

Report: Garage Door Openers Are The Most Frequently-Used Smart Home Devices

"If you rely on an app to control your smart garage door, locks or security cameras, you're not alone."

"Survey results published on May 10 by the Chamberlain Group and Parks Associates found that the garage door opener is the most active and frequently-used smart home device (48 percent). Smart door locks (44 percent) and network security cameras (42 percent) came in second and third place, respectively."

"About 33 percent of respondents said that they were users of smart thermostats. Connected devices often have apps that allow users to control their technology via smartphone from afar, increasing their practicality and efficiency."

"A report published by Markets and Markets on May 10 also discovered that the smart home market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent between 2016 and 2022. This amounts to approximately $121 billion by 2022, and the Asia-Pacific region is projected to see the largest increase. Honeywell, Legrand and Johnson Controls are some of the companies leading the way."  The complete article can be accessed here.

Parks: Many Smart-Home Products Used Daily

"Consumer intentions to buy smart-home products jumped in less than two years, and many people who own a smart-home product use them daily, Parks Associates found."

"Purchase intentions among U.S. broadband households more than doubled between the first quarter of 2014 and the last quarter of 2015, rising from 21 percent in early 2014 to almost 50 percent at the end of 2015, company research found."

"Safety and security are the main drivers for consumer interest,” said Parks president Stuart Sikes.  The complete article can be accessed here.

Defining the Battlegrounds of the Internet of Things

"The Internet of Things—a huge network of sensors and smart devices, combined with advanced analytics and cloud services to make sense of all the data—promises to augment and disrupt products and services across industries. Expectations grow more spectacular every day: Forecasters predict up to 20 billion1 Internet of Things devices within a few years, generating 5 trillion2 gigabytes of data every year and creating more than $300 billion in opportunities for tech vendors, telcos and device makers by 2020."  The complete article can be accessed here.

Home Automation System Market Worth $78.27 Billion by 2022

"PUNE, India — The global home automation system market is forecast to grow from $32.11 billion in 2015 to $78.27 billion by 2022, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.46 percent between 2016 and 2022, according to a new report published by MarketsandMarkets."

"The growth of the home automation system market is attributed to factors including the significantly growing Internet of Things (IoT) market, the cost reduction measures enabled by home automation systems, the large number of manufacturers expanding their product portfolios, and the increasing importance of home monitoring from remote locations."

"The home automation system market has been classified on the basis of products into HVAC control, lighting control, security and access control, and entertainment and other controls. The lighting control market is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period."

"Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR for home automation systems between 2016 and 2022. The APAC region is witnessing growth in the number of new residential projects and strengthening of building infrastructure at a significant rate."  The complete article can be accessed here.

Increasing use of Home Automation Technology Through IoT Can Significantly Reduce Carbon Footprint

"Our increasing use of home automation technology through the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential for substantial energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, according to a new study released today by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM. The study The Energy Savings Potential of Home Automation Technology finds widespread adoption of home automation products such as temperature, circuit and lighting control, if used for energy savings purposes, could collectively avoid up to 100 million tons of CO2 emissions and reduce total residential primary energy consumption by as much as 10 percent – that savings is more than consumer electronics’ share of residential primary energy consumption (8.4 percent) according to a separate CTA study." The complete article can be accessed here.

Lennar Community Goes Standard with Z-Wave-based Controls

"Homebuilder Lennar offers as standard amenities equipment from Schlage, Ring, UTC, Nortek and Leviton, plus solar panels in new 144-home community in Orlando."

"In yet another signal that U.S. homebuilders are catching on to the value of technology in new homes, Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), the second-largest homebuilder in the U.S., recently debuted a high-tech community in Orlando with standard amenities such as rooftop solar, home automation and wall-to-wall connectivity as standard features."

"The community, named Innovation at Storey Park, is a gated enclave of 144 new homes with prices starting from the $270,000 range. It features Lennar’s “Everything’s Included” standard amenities policy, which has quite a bit of technology."

"The homes come standard with home automation that includes locks, lights and a wireless alarm system." The complete article can be accessed here.

How hackers are making your smart home safer

"If there's something smart in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call?"

"From PCs and phones and connected cars, we've learnt one immutable fact: if you can remotely access something, sooner or later somebody will try to hack it. One of our favourite examples involves the Satis smart toilets in Japan, whose Bluetooth connections could be hijacked in order to harass and soak their occupants."

"We laughed, but then we thought: what if that were our toilet, and we were the ones getting soaked?"

"Say hello to the downside of smart home technology."

"But it turns out that some of the people with the power to attack your intelligent, connected abode are the very people standing at the gateway, finding the exploits before those with bad intentions ever breach the fortress walls – they're the hackers protecting your smart home."

"One common criticism of smart home technology is that security isn't always taken seriously enough by manufacturers, who either use insecure platforms or don't implement security properly."

"That opens the door for tools such as EZ-Wave, which can penetrate Z-Wave home networks. Z-Wave is a low-power wireless connection for smart home devices such as smart bulbs, and EZ-Wave can destroy those bulbs by turning them on and off at high speed until they fail."

"The tool's creators, Joseph Hall and Ben Ramsey, note that it's also possible to disable door or window alarms, and turn off thermostats in freezing weather to cause burst pipes."

"Their tool isn't designed for such acts – they point out that EZ-Wave itself is just a scanning tool – but the tool does include everything you might need to exploit Z-Wave devices that don't use encryption."

"Z-Wave does include encryption that makes tools such as EZ-Wave ineffective – unfortunately some manufacturers didn't bother to use it."

"As Ramsey and Hall told the SchmooCon security conference in January 2016: "Support encryption already! Make it the default; let me decide if I don't want my stuff secure.""

"Z-Wave Alliance Executive Director Mitchell Klein said in a statement that while the company offered AES encryption across all products, "many vendors have chosen to implement security only on access devices and gateways and hubs, and not on the other devices for the home"."

"Going forward, Z-Wave said it will make such security measures mandatory on everything." The complete article can be accessed here.

Technology

Alphabet execs want to beam high speed wireless internet into the home

"GOOGLE’S parent company Alphabet is working on a way to beam high speed internet into people’s homes without having to use underground cables."

"While Google has been laying fibre optic cable for four years, new technology could make it possible to deliver super high speed wireless internet from “point to point”."

"According to a report by the Wall Street Journal Alphabet execs discussed the potential of such technology at the company’s annual shareholder meeting this week."

"They believe advancements in computer chips and more accurate targeting of wireless signals have paved the way for the development of a powerful wireless device that can deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second — the same speeds the company provides via fibre-optic cables."  The complete article can be accessed here.

Security

Cyber Security For Video Surveillance Study

"This study provides the foundations for video surveillance professionals to understand the importance of cybersecurity, what is being done to enhance cybersecurity and what providers are viewed as the best and worst at cybersecurity."

"The key trends revealed in the study:

• Overall, cyber security is generally not very important for customer's decision making process.
• The 4 segments showing highest cybersecurity concern were government, banking, education and healthcare
• Steps taken to secure systems were generally basic. While various techniques were mentioned, changing default password was the most common.
• Western video surveillance manufacturers were viewed as the strongest in cyber security.
• Chinese, and specifically Hikvision, was selected as the weakest in cyber security."

The complete article can be accessed here.

WHS

As everyone has a responsibility for health and safety at work, I though these recent WHS articles will serve as a timely reminder to think safe and be be safe.

Ladder platform brackets

"The purpose of this safety alert is to highlight the risks associated with attaching ladder platform brackets onto ladders.

"A worker was seriously injured when he fell approximately 4.5 metres from a plank supported by a ladder platform bracket on an aluminium extension ladder."

"The worker lost his balance and fell off the plank supported by the ladder platform bracket."  The complete article can be accessed here.

Overhead power lines – look up and live

"Contact with powerlines can cause death or serious injury through electric shock, explosion and fire. Plant and equipment can also be damaged. Even going too close to powerlines can lead to electricity arcing over from a powerline to a person or their equipment, causing severe burns."

"Powerlines and power poles are difficult to see and on hot days the lines can sag up to 4m, which increases the risk of contact. The best way to control the risk of an electrical line strike is to avoid working underneath or near powerlines wherever possible."

"Farmers, workers, supervisors and their family members should know exactly where powerlines are located and understand the risks of contacting or coming too close to them. Clearly mark poles and arrange for your electricity provider to install safety warning flags on powerlines near common traffic areas."

"When you must operate harvesting plant or move irrigation equipment or other equipment near powerlines, make sure you are aware of your surroundings and 'look up and live'. To avoid entering an exclusion zone unintentionally, mark the safe distance from the powerline (the exclusion zone) on the ground. If you need to work near this boundary, use a competent observer on the ground who can communicate with you quickly if you are about to breach the zone."  The complete article can be downloaded here.