Apr 8 2015
Champion ONE’s recently redesigned uTune Director earned high praise from judges at the 2015 Lightwave Innovation Awards. The stand-alone device for tuning DWDM optics was hailed as a solid product with “technical features and performance that provide clear and substantial benefits” to customers in the telecom industry.
"Externally tuning and locking XFP and SFP+ transceivers is really an accomplishment, and it seems that that is not all the uTune Director is capable of," said Lightwave Publisher Tim Hermes. "Our judges were definitely impressed by its solution of costly sparing fixed-channel transceivers in DWDM networks, among other features. I have no doubt this is a high-powered, viable solution for service and dark-fiber providers.”
First introduced in 2009 for use with XFP transceivers only, the uTune Director was redesigned in late 2014 to tune and lock SFP+ transceivers to specific ITU channels as well. Its intuitive interface allows both SFP+ and XFP optics to be tuned and locked in less than one minute without the use of a switch. By sparing tunable transceivers instead of pre-locked fixed-channel optics, an operator of a 20-channel DWDM network could save $100,000 or more in sparing costs annually.
“Throughout our history, we at Champion ONE have prided ourselves on being at the leading edge of technology, and sharing these improvements and their cost savings with our customers,” said John Jutila, CEO of Champion ONE. “We are thrilled to have Lightwave recognize our most recent achievement and are eager to continue helping our global customers unlock additional value, not only through our engineering and design capabilities but also through new service and support innovation as well.”