Orolia, Inc. (formerly Spectracom Corporation) was a global manufacturer of precision time and frequency instruments and network-centric equipment used in a wide range of industries. Spectracom was founded in Rochester, New York USA in 1972. Its first product was a

WWVB WWVB is a longwave time signal radio station near Fort Collins, Colorado, and is operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Most radio clock, radio-controlled clocks in North America use WWVB's transmissions to set th ...

Receiver-Comparator, an instrument used to calibrate oscillators with traceability to national standards. Other early products included WWVB frequency and time standards which offered

atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...

accuracy at a fraction of the cost. This led to widespread use of these products in vital communications networks, such as two-way police radio simulcast systems, and master clocks for accurate time stamping of data and events within emergency call centers (such as

9-1-1 911, sometimes written , is an emergency telephone number for Argentina, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Maldives, Palau, Panama, Iraq, the Philippines, Sint Maarten, the United States, and Uruguay, as well as ...

public safety answering points). When

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

signals became publicly available in the 1990s, Spectracom began offering its time and frequency products with embedded GPS receivers. These products are known by the registered trademarks Ageless and NetClock, the second being a popular brand of network time servers and

master clock A master clock is a precision clock that provides timing signals to synchronise slave clocks as part of a clock network. Networks of electric clocks connected by wires to a precision master pendulum clock began to be used in institutions lik ...

s. In 2005, Spectracom acquired the KSI line of bus-level timing products. These plug-in computer or instrument chassis cards provide precise timing within dedicated applications using GPS or

IRIG timecode Inter-range instrumentation group timecodes, commonly known as IRIG timecode, are standard formats for transferring timing information. Atomic frequency standards and GPS receivers designed for precision timing are often equipped with an IRIG ou ...

. In 2007, Spectracom was acquired by the Orolia Group and operated as part of its Timing, Test & Measurement group. The Spectracom brand has been applied to other Orolia acquisitions: Temex Sync, France (2007), Rapco Electronics, UK (2008), and Pendulum Instruments, Sweden (2009). In 2022, Orolia was acquired by

Safran Safran S.A. () is a French Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace, defence industry, defence and computer security, security corporation headquartered in Paris. It designs, develops and manufactures both commercial and military airc ...

and its facilities now operate in Safran's Navigation & Timing division.

WWVB changes affect early products

In 2012, the

NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

made changes to the WWVB broadcast signal, which was used for synchronization within, among others, early Spectracom devices.Spectracom informational item: https://spectracom.com/sites/default/files/document-files/Pending%20Changes%20in%20the%20WWVB%20Radio%20Signal%20Affects%20Precision%20Frequency%20and%20Timing%20Reference.pdf While the signal changes were compatible with more recent equipment using those broadcasts, Spectracom has provided a list of older equipment, unsupported since 2005, which will no longer function properly as a result of the WWVB change:

References

External links

* {{web archive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060202094014/http://www.spectracomcorp.com/, title=Official website (Spectracom) 1972 establishments in New York (state) 2007 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1972 American companies disestablished in 2007 Computer companies established in 1972 Computer companies disestablished in 2007 Defunct computer companies based in New York (state) Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct networking companies Instrument-making corporations Networking hardware companies Timekeeping