It's always easy to spot a neophyte. He had a couple of good opportunities for word play here:
"Maybe it would help if the lasers also cleaned the windows of any building they zapped into."
The biggest threat to InfraRed LOS systems in office buildings, after inclement weather conditions, is window washing. Window washers - those guys who descend from the sky on scaffolds - mu$t be $cheduled not to coincide with bu$ine$$ hour$. Make sure you include a clause in your lease covering this point. Oh, and good luck.
"Will the lasers cook birds in mid-flight?"
Big Birds, but especially Pigeons. Not too much of a threat, error recovery being what it is. Unless one of your neighbors has a big coop on their roof, and you find that their foul find it more enticing to perch on your sills, or your transceiver, or fluttering in the vicinity of your favorite next gen window. Owl statues and other forms of decoys don't work, btw, at least not on urban pigeons. The culprits will get you on the roof, building ledges, parapets, too, if you're mounted in the wrong place. While this category of threat has a lower probability of being a serious problem, it nonetheless happens in certain situations. It's happened to me right on Broad Street, a block away from the NYSE. But it's rare. It could, however, affect your SLA numbers, if you are a service provider using I/R to deliver services and a client is intent on showing you the number of errored seconds and retransmissions they experience per unit of time ;)
If you're in NY, watch out for those ticker tape parades. An unraveled ream of computer printout paper (or toilet paper, in fact) wrapped around your rooftop transceiver could take hours, or days, to blow away or have removed.
And if you are fortunate enough to be situated in a more botanical setting, let’s not forget about that foliage that grows in the spring and summer, months after you’ve installed your system during the previous winter.
Would anyone like to discuss the effects of heat scintillation on rooftops, road surfaces and elsewhere during the hot summer months? LOS paths that align with the sun during certain periods of the day as the earth rotates? A bulding or other structure that is suddenly erected blocks away from your office without your prior knowledge? Scaffolding and draping that is put up on the side of your bulding because the landlord decided it was time for a facelift?
There's nothing like having been there. I'm a believer of I/R systems for certain applications in the right situations. But it's not as slam dunk for all situations as some would have you believe.
My advice to prospective users? Listen up now... y'all be careful out there.
FAC |
