Goodbye 2016. You Weren’t ALL Bad

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Goodbye 2016. You Werent ALL Bad-Mark Mullins
www.flukenetworks.com 2006-2017 Fluke
Corporation
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Goodbye 2016. You Werent ALL Bad
All over the news and social media, 2016 has
gotten a pretty bum rap. With everything from
shootings, terrorist attacks and the weirdest
presidential election in history, to exploding
cell phones, scary clown threats and numerous
celebrity deaths, 2016 has been denoted as the
worst year ever. But for technology, 2016
wasnt ALL bad. In a single 2016 Internet minute,
150 million emails were sent, 2.78 million videos
were watched on YouTube and Google saw an average
of 2.4 million search queries. In fact, compared
to 2015, this past year saw a 100 increase for
Uber rides, 70 increase in Amazon sales and 186
increase in hours of music on Spotify. That is
what we call Big Data, and for our industry, that
spells opportunity in 2017 and beyond. And 2016
wasnt all bad for Fluke Networks either. From
new features and capabilities, to industry
accolades and even the success of this blog,
there are plenty of 2016 events that we are
thankful for. Lets take a look.
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Goodbye 2016. You Werent ALL Bad
Faster Testing, Fewer Delays
This year saw new asset tracking and management
capabilities added to Fluke Networks LinkWare
Livethat allows users to track the last location
of all testers on a Google Maps interface and see
if the testers are calibrated and running the
latest firmwareavoiding project delays and
expensive retesting. We even teamed up with
Brother to introduce LabelLink, a mobile app
that allows Brothers handheld PT-E550W labeler
to wirelessly download identifiers from LinkWare
Live so the information you need to label is
right at your fingertips. In 2016,
the OptiFiber Pro OTDR became the first to come
standard with SmartLoop technology for the
ability to test a duplex fiber link from one end
in one shotwith instant bi-directional averaged
results to boot. We even added an integrated
PortBright flashlight to our FI-500 fiber video
inspection probe to make it easier and faster to
locate ports in dense, low-light environments,
and the latest releases of Versiv improved patch
cord certification time by 33 and ensures the
ability to test to all the latest industry
standards.
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Goodbye 2016. You Werent ALL Bad
Award Winning Recognition
While the features and capabilities introduced
in 2016 are intended to help our customers win,
we cant help but be proud of our own. This past
September, three of our developments
received Gold Awards in the 2016 Innovators
Awards program from Cabling Installation
MaintenanceLinkWare Live with Asset Tracking,
OptiFiber Pro with SmartLoop and
LabelLink. It was a huge honor to be recognized
for our contribution to the industry, and we
followed it up just couple weeks later when
OptiFiber Pro with SmartLoop garnered a perfect
5.0 Diamond rating from Broadband Technology
Reviews 2016 Diamond Technology Review program.
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Goodbye 2016. You Werent ALL Bad
Valuable Expertise
Last but not least, 2016 saw more readers than
ever of this blog as we aspired to bring you a
wide range of news and expertise on everything
from standards and industry trends, to best
practices and tips for leveraging our tester
capabilities. Our most read blog of 2016 (and
one that has been around for a while) explained
the importance of encircled flux testing, while
Category 8 came in at 2 followed closely by one
of our Cabling 101 series blogs on crosstalk, a
look at certification vs. qualification and a
wide range of our Dumb Thing series blogs that
took a look at the common mistakes made by all
the smart people who install, test and certify
network cabling plants. This just goes to show
that our readers value the expertise we deliver
each week in this blog, and as we enter into
2017, you can expect to see plenty more. Happy
New Year from all of us at Fluke Networks!
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