BRO (Breault Research Organization Inc.) is a well-known optical software development company in the United States. Its main product, ASAP optical design software, is well-known in the industry. Because ASAP optical software enjoys the most relaxed design freedom, it can obtain high, precise and accurate simulation results, so it was not allowed to enter China for sale until 2004. It was only used by the US military or European and American companies.
Since many of its foreign customers such as Philips, Osram, Samsung, etc. have set up branches in China and are also optimistic about the Chinese market, in 2005, Shanghai Kangshi Communication Technology Co., Ltd. officially represented ASAP optical software, bringing the world's advanced products to Chinese optical people. On April 30th, the editor of Optoelectronics News interviewed Dr. Kevin Garcia, CEO of the company, and Mr. Wayne Hall, Chief Operating Officer. They talked about how the ASAP software was born, how to ensure quality during the development process, which direction the software will be upgraded in the future, and how to view the Chinese market.
Dr. Kevin Garcia, CEO of BRO
BRO's COO Mr Wayne Hall
Introduction to Dr. Kevin Garcia
Dr. Kevin graduated from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Bradley University and later became a Master of Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. He graduated from the University of Arizona Optical Science Institute.
Dr. Kevin has more than 22 years of experience in optical engineering projects, from headlight design to zoom lens design, providing optical design, analysis and engineering services to a wide range of companies, small companies or international companies. , industrial and aviation related projects. Some international companies that have served such as Eastman Kodak, TRW, Xerox Corporation, etc.
Mr Wayne Hall
BRO's chief operating officer, responsible for BRO's global sales efforts.
The following is the interview content:
Strong R&D strength, meticulous professionalism, and excellent optical design software
Optoelectronic News Network: What are the biggest advantages of your company's products?
Kevin Garcia: ASAP is a world-renowned optical design software that provides design, analysis and application simulation tools in optical systems. Excellent simulation of various optical components and optomechanical systems. The software can be used in multiple markets and is feature-rich to meet the diverse needs of customers and special design needs. For example, it can simulate coherent and incoherent sources, including their vector and polarization properties, as well as complex optical and mechanical prototypes for use in image and opto-mechanical systems. It is important that these systems are created in the ASAP software, or directly from the CAD program, because each optical system contains lighting and imaging systems, and a complete analog system must be compatible with other software systems.
ASAP software has many excellent features, such as automatic optimization, and fast and accurate ray tracing algorithms allow engineers to efficiently design and analyze results. In the ASAP 2009 version, we were able to track and analyze nearly 1.4 billion rays in 15 minutes using parallel computing. This allows users to process inspection lighting systems and perform stray light analysis at unprecedented speeds.
ASAP has multiple user interfaces, engineers can choose their favorite interface according to their own preferences, we will not force users to use the interface they do not like. Users can choose an easy-to-use form interface or more... such as powerful macro language optical programs and more.
BRO is a well-known solution provider. ASAP software is a powerful product developed by BRO, and BRO also provides rich multimedia DVD introduction materials and provides technical support to the world. BRO follows the customer-centric principle, we listen to the customer's requirements and then integrate it into the product. For example, BRO has 10 dedicated software developers and 5 technical support engineers, and we are committed to providing technical support resources in China to support a growing customer base. We will not ignore the customer after selling the software, but cooperate with the customer to share the success.
Optoelectronic News Network: What is your research and development strength? With what is the development of such excellent software?
Kevin Garcia: ASAP has a long history and rich experience in the industrial field. Twenty years ago, we developed the first non-sequential ray tracing software and added new features. Our in-house R&D staff are top experts, and our customers' opinions are an important reference for us to upgrade our software. Our software development process is standardized and powerful, using the CMMI level 4 standard that is common to most software companies today. Industry optics experts and talented software designers have created the optical design software used by thousands of engineers around the world. A rigorous development process and a strong quality assurance system enable customers to believe that the results they simulate from the software are trustworthy.
When we developed this software, we took full advantage of the information given by BRO and customers. Deliver the tools your customers need and leverage our innovative capabilities. Try to predict what features customers need in the future.
Optoelectronics News Network: In the process of software development, how do you guarantee quality and ensure that customers make as few mistakes as possible?
Kevin Garcia: BRO has passed ISO 9001:2000 quality management certification, and internal management is strictly in accordance with standard quality management rules. The code developed in each line has been rigorously tested. ASAP has a clear written description before each function development. The programmer can clearly understand this function. Before development, the technical specifications have been written by optical experts. The programmer only needs to translate the expert's intention into executable. Code. We've developed a number of automated "degradation" testing tools to ensure that this feature is as described in the documentation, but also to prevent some unexpected results. As a large and complex software, ASAP has thousands of lines of code. We must test some unexpected things at any time, and retest the old and new code modules if necessary. Using QA's database, we track every bug that occurs until it is officially released. After the release, we will also follow up on software defects and customer requirements.
Focus on the technology trend with customers as the center
Optoelectronic News Network: How do you improve the optimization function of the software?
Wayne Hall: In the ASAP2008 release, we have enhanced the software optimization features. Since 1993, ASAP software has been optimized, and in this regard, ASAP has extensive optimization experience in non-sequential ray tracing. In ASAP2008, we created an "optimization platform" that provides customers with the latest optimization algorithms and a friendly user interface. There is currently no absolutely perfect optimization algorithm in the world that can solve all the problems in all optical applications, which is why we created this extension platform. We are convinced that among the many optical design software, only we can do this. The increasing perfection of our software comes from customer needs.
Optoelectronic News Network: In the process of software development, how do you achieve "user friendly"?
Kevin Garcia: The so-called "user-friendly" is to provide different things to different users, BRO has deeply integrated this concept into the design of ASAP. Different interfaces are provided according to different needs. We understand that a user-friendly interface may be unfriendly to another user. We have not given the user a unique choice. In addition, "user friendly" or "availability" also depends on whether the customer's problem can be solved.
Some engineers like to use the script code interface we provide. For some engineers, they don't want to be limited by the GUI interface. The GUI interface often gives the process. It seems to reflect the user-friendly principle, but it limits its development. flexibility.
Some engineers like the data table and the "builder" or tabular interface. We have provided this method. Many lens light paths are designed in this way, and engineers can easily operate on this interface. ASAP supports this approach through a powerful scripting environment.
The third way to provide a user-friendly approach is the ubiquitous GUI interface that many peers have adopted. In this way ASAP also showed strong capabilities.
BRO realizes that software must be compatible with other engineering software. So BRO is preparing to develop a new product by the end of this year, combining ASAP's computing power, CAD capabilities and SolidWorks interface. I believe that the emergence of this product will greatly help engineers.
The interface and technical details are equally important. We listen to our customers' voices humbly and then create innovative, fast, accurate and reliable features. This will take "user-friendly" to a new level, giving engineers the design they like and giving them the features they want. In general, we still have a long way to go in terms of “user friendlyâ€. BRO believes that partial compliance with customer expectations is imperfect and still needs improvement.
Optoelectronics News: According to the market demand, what improvements will this software make in the future?
Wayne Hall: In addition to carefully listening to the customer's requirements mentioned above, we follow up the needs of each customer to see if they are the common needs of the customers. If so, we will give priority to development. For the customer's needs, we have an implementation rule to determine which features should be prioritized. In addition, BRO has the best engineers to determine what features our next generation products should have. When designing, we need to consider future improvements, not just the current application.
Over the past year and a half, we have released a series of powerful and usable tools for users to use; and ASAP2009, released in April 2009, will be the most versatile product in ASAP history. The reason why there are so many functions is mainly because we use a special system to obtain the needs of our customers, and combine our professional capabilities and resources to turn these requirements into products.
Optimistic about the Chinese market
Optoelectronics News: What is the current market situation for ASAP optical software in the world and in China? How to treat the Chinese market?
Wayne Hall: Like a peer, as a private company, it is difficult to answer this question comprehensively. In non-sequence ray tracing software, ASAP has the longest time to market. Many engineers buy and use our software, and we believe that our software has a higher market share than other competitors. There are no exact statistics for specific figures, and we also want to know the specific data.
China is an emerging city. We are working hard to find out the needs of users in this country. We set up an organization in China to better serve the city's often relying on local agents and other BRO resources to support a growing number of customers. Looking back, many of BRO's customers in China are large multinational companies, and they are already our customers abroad. It is difficult for us to know the market share, but we want to let Chinese customers know that we regard the Chinese market as a very important part of our global market. We will continue to invest more resources in China to strengthen our after-sales service capabilities.
We know that different countries need to adopt different business expansion methods according to local needs. These are no good or bad points, they are just different. BRO seeks to understand this particular need to create unique products. BRO believes that China's economy will continue to grow and R&D investment will continue to increase. This change may take time, but we have enough patience. China's potential and our patience will give us a bright future in China.
Optoelectronics News: Your software is used in many fields: lighting, backlighting, projection, etc. Which is your focus, and which area is your company more optimistic about now?
Wayne Hall: Our products are not designed for a single application. This philosophy allows us to cope with the growing applications and markets and be recognized by the market. Look for inspiration for development in the needs of your customers. It is unrealistic to say that our products are used in all industrial fields. The development and function of our products are mainly oriented to the areas where our customers are more concentrated. Recently, the optimization functions and conformal radiometry we developed are mainly for the development of the city. The tools, workflows and personalities that focus on different working environments. Function. At the end of this year we will release new products based on the CAD environment.
Currently in the growing field of optics, there are biomedical, solar and solid-state lighting designs, the latter two are "green" environment-friendly industries. We will not miss this opportunity and try to stay ahead and expand our product line. We believe that ASAP will be in a very favorable market position in the near future to meet various challenges and meet the needs of the market.
For the recent economic downturn, manufacturers will increase their R&D investment to make their future more competitive, and BRO will be their good partner in the field of optics.
(Interview: Zeng Cong Yang Qiuni)
LED Flood Lights,Rechargeble Work Light,Rechargeble LED Flood Light
Hongzhun Lighting Factory , http://www.gdflashlights.com