Cork, Ireland--November 22, 2010--In the first ever technology acquisition of an Irish high-tech company by a Chinese corporation, the ZJF Group has acquired Cork-based Firecomms, a leading manufacturer of transceivers for consumer Plastic Optical Fiber (POF).

The deal guarantees €5 million investment in R&D, together with the expansion of Firecomms' engineering team from 18 to 30 people over the next 12 months. The deal also will facilitate the rapid expansion of Firecomms' operations in mainland China.

"For some time now, mainland China has been our largest market," said Firecomms CEO, Declan O'Mahoney. "As the ZJF Group is a major global player in this sector, today's announcement not only allows us to guarantee investment capital and job growth for the future, it also provides us with access to the world's largest marketplace for our technology."

Karlsruhe (Germany) November 18, 2010 - The MOST Cooperation - the standardization organization for the leading automotive multimedia network Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) - welcomes the conference presentations the program committee chose for the MOST Forum conference on 5 April 2011 in Frankfurt (Germany). "As knowledge partner, the MOST Cooperation is enthusiastic about the great response to the call for papers by academia and industry, resulting in the broad variety of MOST related topics to be presented," stated Henry Muyshondt, Technical Liaison of the MOST Cooperation and moderator at the MOST Forum 2011. "At this third international MOST Conference and Exhibition, our member companies will enjoy exclusive benefits for exhibiting their MOST highlights to the automotive multimedia community. We encourage all infotainment and networking experts to attend this upcoming conference on the leading automotive multimedia standard." Again, top professionals from the automotive electronics industry and academia are invited to exchange information and results of their recent work on this widely used infotainment networking technology.

The conference will begin with the keynote speech by Daimler, providing a summary of more than 10 years' experience in MOST development and giving insight into the ongoing MOST150 integration procedure. The first section will disclose solutions on MOST networking and system architecture. During lunch and networking break all attendees and speakers are welcome to visit the exhibition area to learn about available MOST solutions and realizations in latest vehicle models. The afternoon events will begin with a section on the MOST Physical Layer, giving an outlook on possible future technologies. After the afternoon conversation break, MOST testing and production aspects will be introduced and discussed. Subsequently, the conference program will be rounded up with speeches on the MOST road into the future.

VANCOUVER, BC – November 1, 2010 -- NYCE Networks, a leading provider of innovative Plastic Optical Fiber to Ethernet products, announced today that NYCE will be exhibiting at TelcoTV 2010 Conference & Expo, from November 9-11, 2010 at the Venetian Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The TelcoTV 2010 Conference & Expo is a major North American tradeshow for the telecommunications industry which focuses on the emerging video services market for telcos.

NYCE will exhibiting at Booth 160 to the immediate left of the Standards Pavilion at the show. NYCE will also be featured in the upcoming November 2010 issue of IPTV International Magazine. Attendees of the TelcoTV show will receive a free copy of this issue, please be sure to look for NYCE's ad on the inside front cover of the magazine. “We are very pleased to be exhibiting at the TelcoTV 2010 Conference & Expo.” says Bill Gill, VP Sales and Marketing for NYCE, “We will be featuring many of our innovative Flexible Fiber technology products, as well as North America's first UL Certified Plastic Optical Fiber Plenum cable and Media Converter Kit which are ideal for telcos looking to deploy leading customer premise equipment that can deliver video services.”

NYCE will be demonstrating several of their leading Plastic Optical Fiber products for residential and commercial networking including the NYCE EPM-2, a POF to Ethernet Media Converter Switch. More and more residential and commercial customers are being connected directly to last-mile Fiber Optic networks worldwide. This has created a great opportunity for Broadband Service Providers to deliver much faster Internet services and acquire new customers. Broadband Service Providers need reliable CPE products that will convert the Fiber connection into an Ethernet network within the customer premises. The EPM-2 is an ideal solution as it plugs into existing electrical outlets and uses Plastic Optical Fiber to create a high bandwidth network.

Plastic Optical Fiber is only millimeters thick, highly durable and flexible, easy to cut, and is much easier to install and conceal than traditional CAT-5 cabling. POF is also highly immune to cable electrical noise and provides a higher Quality of Service (QoS) than traditional CAT-5 electrical cable networks. This means that POF experiences minimal network congestion that is common from bandwidth-intensive applications like VOIP, IPTV, and online gaming. Many Broadband Service Providers service customer premises that have old communications cabling and face expensive upgrades to deploy traditional home networking products. The EPM-2 allows Broadband Service Providers to service premises with old cabling without having to make an investment in upgrading the premise's existing wiring.

TOKYO (Nikkei) - Sekisui Chemical Co. will enter the plastic optical fiber business in fiscal 2011, introducing a product 40% more heat-resistant than existing versions. Plastic optical fiber is more flexible and easier to handle than conventional products made of glass, but its susceptibility to heat has been a drawback.

Together with Keio University's Yasuhiro Koike, the company developed a partially chlorinated polymer capable of withstanding temperatures up to 100 C, compared with a maximum of 70 C for plastic products already on the market. Optical fiber made with this polymer can be used for medical equipment, automotive applications and other places subject to high temperatures. Its ability to transmit light is comparable to that of other advanced plastic fibers, according to Sekisui Chemical.

Sales may begin this fiscal year on a trial basis. The optical fiber will be supplied to medical equipment manufacturers and systems integrators in Japan as well as telecommunications firms abroad.

Sekisui Chemical will make the fiber in-house initially, but may consider outsourcing production overseas depending on demand. Sales are targeted at 1 billion yen in the first year.

Karlsruhe (Germany) October 19, 2010 - The MOST Cooperation (the organization through which the leading automotive multimedia network Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) is standardized) is welcoming Bang & Olufsen, Molex, Nippon Seiki, Toyoda Gosei and TTTech on board as new member companies. "This inflow to the MOST community reflects the wide-ranging acceptance of MOST Technology," stated Harald Schoepp, member of the MOST Cooperation Steering Committee. "We consider it proof of the excellent design and standardization work of the MOST Cooperation. These latest registrations also add a broad variety of MOST solutions reaching from component manufacturers via Tier1 suppliers up to professional audio solutions." Regional acceptance stretches from Europe to North America and Asia.

Karlsruhe (Germany) - At SAE Convergence on October 19 to 20, 2010, the MOST Cooperation (the organization, through which the leading automotive multimedia network Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) is standardized) will demonstrate that MOST Technology is ready for extended multimedia and information applications in the vehicle. MOST150 now meets the requirements not only for the traditional areas of entertainment and information, but also for the new domains of mobile connectivity, connected services, and driver assistance thus completing the five major fields of in-car use cases. During this leading automotive exhibition in Detroit (Michigan, United States), a MOST demonstrator will be showing that MOST supports star, daisy- chain, tree and other topologies as well as different physical layers: plastic optical fibers (POF), COAX based electrical physical layer and unshielded twisted pair (UTP) of copper wires.

Today's MOST offers the technology and the audio/video capability for next generation automotive infotainment features and devices such as Head Units, Rear Seat Entertainment, amplifiers, TV-tuners and video displays. In addition, it is ready for new features like Internet access devices, iPods, cameras, video processing units, and many more. At present, the latest MOST150 Technology is ready for implementation, with various car makers already working on first series projects.

MOST Technology is about to exceed the limits of infotainment. In current and future vehicles, driver assistance functions are starting to complete and extend the feature set of traditional infotainment systems. Along with information features such as navigation systems, traffic information, and function warnings, the number of vehicles with driver assistance features like camera systems, distance controls, or lane departure warnings will be rapidly increasing. With MOST150, automotive network technology is prepared to take this essential step beyond infotainment: Recent studies prove that MOST is able to support safety-critical applications. Further optimizations for extended fail-safe operation are being specified within MOST Cooperation. MOST is the network of choice for driver assistance systems.

Homefibre has  extended its product portfolio with a POF indicator helping to identify the optical power of a link during installation. < /b>< /b> The OFT-420 POF Indicator is designed for POF – Plastic optical fiber network quick examination. It is designed to indicate the level of optical power during installation, maintenance and operation in POF networks. Red LEDs indicate the level of optical signal is too low for optical receiver (FAIL) and connection between transmitter and receiver is lost. Green LEDs signalize the level of optical signal is suitable for proper operation, connection between transmitter and receiver can be setup. Input interface is based on universal adaptor designed for 2.2 mm outer diameter POF cables.

This video shows the simple operating mode of the OFT-420-POF Indicator:

Installer and Dealer can get the power indicator as a promotion gift by purchasing one of the attached POF Network Kits.

Downloads, additional information and prices are available at http://www.homefibre24.at

Karlsruhe (Germany) September 27, 2010 - The MOST Cooperation is pleased to announce the latest achievements of MOST Technology, with fast-growing acceptance of this de-facto automotive network standard by key carmakers worldwide. The number of vehicle models relying on the MOST infotainment backbone has now hit the one hundred mark, with a total of 100 vehicle models on the road today. This fast implementation growth rate reflects the practical suitability and reliability of MOST. Only three years after the MOST Cooperation was founded in 1998, the first MOST car was introduced in 2001. The following year, 13 more models implemented the MOST infotainment backbone. In October 2007, the leading network technology had found its way into 50 car models, climbing to 68 models in March, 2009. Just one year later there are 50% more models on the road as MOST Technology spreads into the mass market.

Homefibre is a member of the European R&D project ALPHA and results of our work are shown at booth Nr.366 as well as in the FTTX Resource Center. You will also find there Homefibre's new POF measurement tools. All visitors will get a free version of their current experience white paper 2010. And you have the chance to win a raffle price: 1 POF Kit! If you wish to schedule a meeting please feel free to contact Josef Faller at his mobile phone +43 676 4302290. Looking forward to seeing you at ECOC. Downloads, additional information and prices are available at: http://www.homefibre24.at. For further enquiries, orders or additional questions contact our sales team on phone +43 4762 35391.