Tech Facts About Telecom Devices

TECHNOLOGICAL FACTS ABOUT TELECOM DEVICES

       Telecom is the short form of telecommunication. The term is often used in its plural form, telecommunications, because it involves many different technologies. Telecom is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, sounds and images via wire, radio, or optical system, among other electromagnetic systems.

       Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between two or more communication participants involves the use of technology. It is transmitted either electrically over physical media such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Suchlike kind of transmission paths are usually divided into communication channels, which afford the advantages of multiplexing.

       It’s noteworthy that there are several modern telecom devices in existence. Telecom devices are those equipment that are being used by end users through telecom network. Telecom network could be any such network as mobile, exchange, and dedicated networks, or point to point links. Common examples of telecom devices are: computers, fax machines, radio cum television sets, masts, transmitters, trackers, and cell phones.

       The essence of this piece was informed by the compelling need for the overall users of the aforementioned devices to acknowledge how best to handle them towards avoiding numerous dangers inherent in their respective uses and functionalities. It’s worth noting that the continued wrong use cum handling of these devices has caused an untold harm to the human body and the society at large, although their impact on societal wellbeing cannot be overemphasized.    

       Each of these devices comprises Electromagnetic Field (EMF) which emits electromagnetic rays/radiation (EMR) while they are in use. Many people worldwide are yet to realize that they are chronically exposed to something that can deteriorate their health, because EMR is invisible and odourless, and cannot be felt. Unless it is identified and remediated, it can lead to countless health complications as well as premature death.

       EMR exposure, which is reckoned to be the silent enemy endangering the lives of millions of individuals and professionals across the globe, is far worse than cigarette smoke. Keep in mind that all health issues would be affected to an extent by exposure to EMR, since it weakens the immune system, stresses the body and damages healthy cells. The higher the frequency of the radiation, the more damage it is likely to cause to the body.

        Common diseases caused by EMR are cancer, chronic fatigue, constant headache, migraine, asthma, heart problems, chest pain, insomnia, allergies, electrosensitivity (ES), high blood pressure, brain fag, leukemia, birth defects, miscarriages, and stress. Others include nausea, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, skin conditions like burning, rashes and pain, as well as tinnitus, erratic pulse and weak immune system. While the most acute exposures to harmful levels of EMR are immediately realized as burns, the health effects due to chronic or occupational exposure may not manifest for months, or even years.

        Safekeeping of the cell phones in one’s trousers’ pocket can harm the person’s reproductive organs owing to the EMR being emitted by the phone, and such experience can make the person sterile. Hence, people aren’t advised to keep any phone in their pockets. It is called handset, so keep it in your hand. The truth is that, EMR can penetrate through any part of the human skin, thus even when the gadget is in our hands, we should ensure that it is kept in a special pack or casing that can reduce the frequency of its radiation. If we are at home or in the office, we should endeavour to keep them away from our body. And for those who can engage in a chat for several hours, you really need to cut down the excesses, because you’re unknowingly endangering your health. Don’t overuse the phone at a time.

       The broadcasting/telephone masts mounted amidst residential settlements have caused tremendous harm to the affected residents, unknowingly to them. Wherever a mast is mounted, no one is expected to live anywhere around it. Dwellers are required to live at least a kilometer (1km) away from any mast in use. Even offices are not advised to be located near a mast. Those working at broadcasting stations should keep off from where the FM/TV transmitter is kept, unless when they want to make some changes on the machine. Similarly, don’t stay very close to your radio/TV set when they are in use. Aside your TV/phone screen that can damage your eyes’ retina, the EMR emitted by these gadgets is far more dangerous to health. The children must be guided in this regard.

        Computers such as laptops are not left out. They are called laptops, but that doesn’t imply you are meant to place them directly on your laps. Place a tangible material on your laps before putting a laptop on your body. The desktop shouldn’t also have direct contact with your body. Towards avoiding fire outbreak, endeavour to keep those devices away from flames or flammable zones like gas cookers, filling stations, and power lines, because EMR is highly inflammable.

        Though the aforesaid facts are inevitable, no one is asking you to start seeing telecom devices as your enemies; rather, you are only advised to apply reasonable caution while using them. Think about it!

                  

Fred Doc Nwaozor

Follow: @mediambassador        

       

Between Analog and Digital Broadcasting

BETWEEN ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL BROADCASTING

       The campaign regarding global migration from analogue to digital broadcasting commenced on June 17, 2006. Nigeria signed regional and international agreement to conclude the digital migration by June 17, 2012. In a bid to meet up the deadline, in 2008, the Federal Government (FG) set up a Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC). The following year, the committee submitted its report but the FG failed to implement it, causing Nigeria to miss the June 2012 deadline. The migration deadline was shifted to June 17, 2015. Though the ‘Digi-team’ inaugurated by the FG alongside the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) made a frantic effort to fulfill the mandate, the efforts again didn’t yield any result owing to paucity of funds.

        Now, Nigeria is targeting June 17, 2017 as the new deadline for the long-awaited transition. Having missed the switchover deadline twice, Nigerians are sceptical about the country’s chances of meeting the new date. It has become obvious that for Nigeria to actualize the feat, there’s need to comprehend the inevitable attributes of digital broadcasting, and the dangers inherent in the ongoing analogue pattern.

        Analogue mode of transmission is an unreliable system, though it has worked well enough for over half a century. Analogue TV transmits programming in a continuous signal. The signal varies in amplitude, depending on the information contained in the audio or picture. It is transmitted on a particular radio frequency from the TV station’s transmitting antenna over the air, to the viewer’s TV set. Each TV station is assigned a particular frequency that corresponds to its channel number. So, when a viewer tunes his/her TV to a given channel, s/he has actually chosen to receive transmissions on that certain frequency.

        It’s noteworthy that TV frequencies are calibrated in megahertz (MHz). There are two major transmission frequency bands, namely: Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF). VHF channels 2 to 6 operate in the frequency range between 54 and 88MHz. VHF channels 7 to 13 operate in the frequency range between 174 and 216MHz. And UHF channels 14 to 83 operate in the frequency range between 470 and 890MHz.

       The aforementioned analog signal is far from perfect. It does not usually reproduce the exact original programming. It can easily deteriorate over long distances. It can equally suffer interference from other sources, thereby producing ghost images, static, and ‘snow’. Hence, analog transmissions typically produce a lower-quality visual output than the original. The picture is not quite as sharp – the background is sometimes grainy, and the sound suffers from noise and reduced frequency response.

        A situation where the viewer tries to receive signal from a distant station, is even more unbearable. The farther the station, the worse the picture, likewise the sound. The results are also poor if the viewer is located in a big city with lots of buildings that bounce the signal around. Among all, analogue transmission is inefficient; each VHF or UHF channel takes up a lot of valuable bandwidths.

       Unlike analogue transmission that is prone to fading, digital technology reproduces a reliable crystal-clear picture without any form of interference. Digital tech equally enables TV stations to broadcast multiple channels with different programming. It can fit four or more channels into a single analogue channel; hence, it can accommodate as many wavebands as possible within the existing spectrum. It makes the work easier, improves the professionalism, viewers’ delight, and creates more job opportunities, as well as uplifts income for both the broadcasters and the government. Above all, it would enable more prospective broadcasting firms in Nigeria to be licensed by the NBC.

         To this end, Nigeria needs to hasten up towards meeting the June 2017 deadline. It’s no longer about setting up a team; rather, it is about bracing up to the reality, which is to apply a pragmatic approach instead of the continued indulgence in theory. Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB), to be utilized by Nigeria, adopts time-domain synchronous Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technology, with a pseudo-random signal frame to serve as the Guard Interval (GI) of the OFDM block and the training symbol. Its content is viable and reliable, thus worthy of emulation.

       The Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) has a very vital role to play. First, they must acknowledge what they stand to gain. Broadcasting involves generation, transmission and distribution, and it is the duty of the various broadcasting stations to provide the required equipment for the first two phases such as digital transmitter and computers. The government is to provide the instruments for the distribution phase such as ITS and pinnacle. So, BON must conscientize their members to do the needful.

        Towards sustaining the feat, if actualized, the FG needs to create stiff regulations. The NBC would be expected to be more proactive, and endeavour to create the needed awareness. The broadcasting firms need to deploy standard maintenance and anti-hacking softwares, as well as engage reliable tech experts in their daily activities, either as consultants or employees. The overall project is capital-intensive, so there is need for adequate collaboration both on the part of the government and the broadcasting stations. Think about it!

Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor

  Follow: @mediambassador        

                   

Incessant Building Collapse: Whither Nigeria's Tech?

INCESSANT BUILDING COLLAPSE: WHITHER NIGERIA’S TECH?

        Building collapse has obviously been a thing of tremendous worry in the contemporary Nigerian society, over the last decade. The aberration, which have claimed hundreds of innocent souls, maimed thousands as well as rendered scores of families homeless, has caused a colossal harm to not just the engineering-technology sector but Nigeria at large.

        Statistics indicate that within the aforementioned period, over thirty buildings situated across the country have collapsed unannounced. In March 2006, the top nine floors of a 21-storey building belonging to the Bank of Industry, located on the famous Broad Street – Lagos Island in Lagos State, caved in, killing two and injuring twenty-three others. In August 2010, a 4-storey uncompleted building at Ikoli Street in Garki, Abuja brings the Federal Capital Territory’s name into the list, thus claimed not fewer than twenty-one lives and endangered nine. Just to mention but a few. Though building collapse is not peculiar to Nigeria, its recent alarming rate calls for an urgent attention.

        First, we need to comprehend the rudimentary factors that constitute the societal menace. Building collapse is mainly attributed to substandard products, quackery, mediocrity, cheating, and/or soil texture cum topography, coupled with other environmental factors. The dangers inherent in the use of substandard building materials cannot be overemphasized. These materials such as brick blocks, cement, sand, and rods, are not in any way meant to be used in constructing a boys’ quarter let alone deploying their services in storey building constructions.

        Regarding blocks, it’s either the cements used in the moulding weren’t good enough, or that the sand utilized was nothing to write home about. There are specified sands meant for moulding, but most block industries don’t bother going for them, probably owing to the cost of conveying it to the moulding site. This aspect of cheating is very common. Since people, especially those residing in cities are often in a hurry, they are invariably left with no option than to patronize commercial blocks.

        Another one is quackery and mediocrity. It’s worth noting, perhaps shocking, that most of those who claim to be structural engineers, architects, or what have you, never attended any engineering or architectural class even for a day, let alone becoming professionals. They are just mere quacks parading themselves as chartered technologists. Pathetically, some of them who had the privilege to pass through a higher institution didn’t obtain the required training or expertise, thereby constituting structural defects when contracted to handle a building project.

        A sound and qualified contractor is expected to thoroughly inspect the site for the proposed building, adequately advise the prospective landlord, tactically implement the project, complete it within a stipulated period, as well as know what to do while converting a mere bungalow to a storey building. When any of these professional functions is missing, it becomes a burden to the building in question.

       Away from substandard products and quackery, soil texture or topography, as the case may be, has equally been a thing of great concern while discussing building collapse. Houses are usually built on swampy sites in reverie areas like Lagos and Port-Harcourt, without carrying out the required preliminary design, thus leading to collapse in the nearest future. Such land is not strong – they are sandy or loose, and contractors build on them using templates that are meant for better compacted lands. Sometimes the contractor would know what to do but rather than doing the needful, he would be only interested in his money or what he stands to gain as long as the contract lasts; this aspect of cheating or insincerity is currently on the rampage.

        The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) must take a drastic and severe step towards ensuring that substandard materials are no longer smuggled into the country. They should also, properly regulate the locally made ones.  On the other hand, relevant professional bodies, including the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), should employ a stiff measure toward addressing the crisis. When any building is under construction, they should endeavour to ascertain the contractor handling the project to ensure his credibility. And, if a building falls, they must ascertain the root causes of the collapse, and not hesitate to issue the apt sanction to the affected contractor if found guilty. They should also go beyond sanctioning; any culpable individual ought to be arraigned, so that, he will face the wrath of the law.

        Intending landlords are equally advised to consult aptly whenever they intend to erect a building. Don’t just jump to any so-called contractor you find on your way; and if you succeed in contracting any, endeavour to confirm his/her authenticity by visiting/consulting the relevant quarters. Qualified structural contractors, on their part, should feel free to consult their colleagues for any professional assistance whenever the need arises. And, they ought to always be research-oriented.

        Every structural professional must note that foundations and pillars remain basic factors that determine the validity or wellbeing of any building, thus should be taken very seriously. Think about it!      

Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor

  Follow: @mediambassador