Michael Derby, Director of ACB EU, gave the opening keynote at the successful “De-Mystifying EMC” event in the UK recently. Michael spoke about how EMC is an “Extreme Sport.” Those involved with the industry know that EMC testing does, indeed, involve some extreme circumstances, situations, equipment and er, characters. As Michael related in his Keynote: “Most EMC engineers have at least one story which involves the words “The equipment I destroyed that day was worth a fortune!”. And EMC engineers who have been around a while will have a story or two which contain the words “And that’s when I nearly killed my customer”.
Fortunately, most EMC tests are routine, and the the best kind of EMC test is a really boring one, because the unit passed the test, everyone went home happy and life went on, wrapping up the day’s event with a shaken martini, a la James Bond.
Michael continued with some anecdotal notes about EMC life, comparing/contrasting with Iron Man and continued: “I was thinking back to the name, “Demystifying EMC”, and how EMC compliance continues to be more relevant and important than ever. We have some cool and exciting topics on the agenda, but you will notice that we can never get far away from the fundamentals of EMC. Electronics and physics. If we undermine the foundations, the whole pretty tower of connected technology comes tumbling down.”
EMC is at the pinion on technology working well and doing the things we need to have done.
The events of the day were summarized by Michael’s closing remarks:
- EMC test and measurement is a complicated topic. It requires attention to detail and continuous education.
- Accurate and reliable measurements are essential; and having the correct test equipment is critical.
- The whole topic is becoming more important than ever; as demonstrated by the products we use, the exciting agenda, and the high numbers of attendance.
- I think I’m right in saying that we finally agreed that EMC engineers are basically James Bond.
Congratulations, Michael and Rohde & Schwarz on another fantastic event.
