Nuremberg, Germany - June 2022
NXP, a major semiconductor company, asked us to provide our superior technical support to ensure their success at a major electronics show in Germany. We had previously provided similar services for them at CES. The project included constructing the wired and wireless network, demo networking support, video and audio conferencing, and general client support to the onsite staff and executives. So off to Nuremberg we went.
Nuremberg is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. It was heavily damaged in WW2 and was substantially rebuilt in the 1950's. Between 1945 and 1946, German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity were brought before an international tribunal in the Nuremberg trials.
Embedded World, now in its 20th year focuses on the embedded electronics industry. Exhibitors demonstrate solutions for electronic systems safety and security, distributed intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), e-mobility, and energy efficiency . Held at the The Nuremberg Exhibition Center, known as the NürnbergMesse or Messe for short, the venue has 16 halls and around 180,000 m² (almost 2 million square feet) of gross exhibition space and 100,000 m² (over 1 million square feet) of outdoor space.
For this project we had to terminate all cables installed by the booth contractor and provision them with network connectivity. Connectivity was provided by our new lightweight, air shippable, NOC6 that combines a network switch, firewall, Wi-Fi controller, and power management. This kit weights only 46 pounds so it is light enough to be checked luggage on most airlines. The NOC fits into a larger padded SKB case to protect the sensitive electronics.
Once the network was completed, we provided onsite client, executive, and demo support for the run of the show. This was especially important as some of the demonstrations involved pre-release versions that had very specific network requirements.
One of the client requirements was to support video and audio conferencing during the show. The client had three onsite meeting rooms in the main booth and off site meeting space in another hall. We provided Polycom conference phones which ran an embedded Teams app allowing direct joining of teams meetings or dial in capability. Where video was necessary we added a laptop with a high quality webcam linked to a wall mounted display.
This ultra portable NOC provided connectivity to the remote meeting rooms. It includes a firewall, Wi-Fi controller, Wi-Fi access point, network switch, cellular backup, and power management. This NOC is also light enough to be checked luggage on most airlines.
The show went great and all indications are that they want us back at the next show in Germany in addition to the CES booth we have provided technical services for a number of years. All that was left was to pack everything back into the Pelican cases and send all the gear back to the US. We are already laying the groundwork to keep some equipment in the EU to provide greater local capability.
Time to fly back to the USA. Until next time....