You might think playing hockey and making test equipment have very little in common. But the basic philosophy of the game is actually the same. The Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said: "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

So how does that relate to test instruments?

At LitePoint we want to be where the puck is going to be. Translated into plain English, this philosophy means that we want to offer test instruments and test solutions for new technologies, even before they go into mass production. Testing starts a long time before a new technology hits store shelves. Testing starts even before the first devices are going into mass production. So we need to have a test solution ready even before most people hear about a new technology.

The end-user relies on their wireless devices. Wireless devices are used in a lot of fun applications, but also in more critical applications. As wireless technologies moves into cars, medical applications etc. there’s a safety issue too. The consumers expect their devices to work, and if they don’t, the device maker’s reputation suffers. In more critical applications as medical devices, failure can have severe consequences. High quality device testing is essential for both the device makers and the end-users, and is a major part of ensuring the end-user experience and reliability lives up to the expected.

As a curious engineer it is very exciting to work with new technologies, and challenging at the same time. Most times "business as usual" just isn't good enough. We have to re-think and re-invent how we test, to meet tomorrow's standards and demands. We are not just putting building blocks together in a new way. We are creating new building blocks.

The chip and device makers are innovators. But we have to be innovators too, if we want to offer them a test solution in time. With increase in device complexity, the test complexity also increases. So we have to come up with faster, better and smarter ways to test. LitePoint doesn't build cell phones, WIFI routers or game consoles. We build products, which are smart enough to test them!

From an engineering standpoint, our work is not about playing where the puck is, but where the puck is going to be. That's fun, and that's why we are so excited about working with wireless device test instruments. Besides, it’s great to sit at a café, watching people be online with their devices and think: “Yep, it’s working. A LitePoint instrument tested that device!”