The Story so far
In 1971, Tim Hooper, then a senior lecturer at The University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), envisaged a communications training system which would allow students to set-up communications laboratory experiments without time consuming preparations and the need for a test bench of instruments.
The result of his inspiration and vision was TIMS: Telecommunication Instructional Modelling System, a flexible and versatile communications trainer that incorporated all of the instruments needed to quickly and easily carry out every communications laboratory experiment required in a university level course.
In 1986 Emona, together with Tim Hooper and in consultation with local universities, modernised the TIMS system. Today, Tim Hooper’s original TIMS concept has proven its success by serving tens of thousands of students in over 40 countries. It is now the most modern and advanced telecommunications training system available in the world.
The Company
The EMONA Group of companies was established by Alfred (Fred) Breznik in 1979.
Emona specialises in the marketing and sales of electronic and electrical test and measuring instrumentation, fault finding equipment, E/EPROM programmers, development and circuit simulation software, process control measuring instrumentation, power and electrical measuring instruments and technical education products.
Since 1987, EMONA has also been involved in R & D and manufacturing of TIMS, a telecommunications teaching system for use in universities and teaching institutions. This product has been well received and has proven its success by serving tens of thousands of students in 50 countries on every continent, including USA, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, England, Italy, Turkey and Mexico. Many of the most prestigious universities are among our satisfied customers. Emona has also been recognised in numerous industry and government awards. In 2007 Emona was awarded a prestigious Commonwealth Government “Secrets of Australian ICT Innovation Competition” award for our TIMS Telecommunications Training System.
EMONA has implemented, and has been certified for, a Quality Management System complying with the requirements of standard AS/NZS ISO 9001 for the supply, distribution, servicing and calibration of equipment such as TIMS.
The Product
Emona’s ongoing development program focuses on specialised areas of communications providing practical experience in the latest areas of telecommunications theory. In manufacturing standards, Emona is committed to a quality policy that ensures the reliability of TIMS in a demanding teaching environment. Stringent quality control procedures are enforced during assembly, calibration and burn-in testing.
Team of engineers at Emona, collaborating with telecommunications professors, are dedicated to providing the most educational and instructive learning experience for the student. Final testing guarantees TIMS’s performance according to specifications and years of exposure to many different laboratory conditions with negligible returns have confirmed the TIMS system is designed from the start to be ‘student-proof’ as well as ‘future-proof’.
As well, for students at vocational colleges and technical high schools, EMONA offers the ETT-101 Telecoms Experimenter. The ETT-101 is a low cost unit to cater to large student numbers who need to gain a ‘hands-on’ appreciation of telecoms theory at a simple, introductory level.
The Leaders
As the Sales and Marketing Director for Emona TIMS division, Alfred Breznik is responsible for supporting Emona’s worldwide network of business partners, and university and college users of Emona’s equipment. Alfred has been involved with Emona Instruments since the company’s founding in 1979, and currently holds the Emona Group position of Technical Director. In 1986 Alfred, together with university colleague Carlo Manfredini, established EMONA TIMS, collaborating with Carlo in early product design and development, prior to focusing on sales and marketing. Alfred holds a bachelor of electrical engineering degree from the University of New South Wales.
Carlo Manfredini, graduated from UNSW, Sydney in 1983 with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons) and worked in several design & manufacturing environments before establishing EMONA TIMS along with Alfred Breznik in 1986. Focusing predominantly on the design & development side of the business, Carlo also contributes to the Marketing side of the business, utilising his skills developed via his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree completed in 1999. In his spare time (what’s that?) he enjoys coaching children in Robotics tournaments such as First Lego League & Robocup Junior.
The Awards
The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, officially recognised Australia’s most innovative ICT companies at the Awards Ceremony on 13 March 2007 for the fifth Secrets of Australian ICT Innovation Competition. Pictured adjacent are two of the developers of net*TIMS Carlo Manfredini & Alfred Breznik, receiving their award from the Minister. (In the picture, from left: Carlo Manfredini, Alfred Breznik, Senator Helen Coonan)
