Optics

By attempting to tip-toe around Maryland's normal procurement procedures, the governor's chief adviser on information technology finds himself in an awkward position: there's the appearance of a conflict of interest, even though Francis J. Knott may have done nothing wrong.We have little doubt Mr. Knott wants to do the right thing for his longtime friend, Gov. William Donald Schaefer. Mr. Knott seeks to propel Maryland into the vanguard of high-tech telecommunications, linking schools together via a controversial $40 million fiber-optic line built by C&P Telephone Co. The trouble is that Mr. Knott and Mr. Schaefer want to handle this matter as though it were a private-sector deal: negotiate an agreement with C&P and then build the fiber-optic network.

Two weeks ago, the conventional wisdom was that televised presidential debates weren't going to matter much this year. Then a TV debate took place in Denver on Oct. 3, and we are still talking about Big Bird being threatened, moderator Jim Lehrer getting steamrolled, President Barack Obama under-performing and the polls flipping from “done deal” to “game on” overnight. Voters knew the debates mattered, even as the media and political wise men and women were telling them they didn't.

Anne Arundel County is starting its own fiber-optic information highway that will allow cable television subscribers to watch county government meetings live, transmit information among two dozen government buildings, even arraign suspects from police district stations instead of in court.The high-tech network, a small but similar version of one the state hopes to have in place in about three years, will tie 27 locations into a rapid communications network as it snakes about 75 miles of the latest digital technology through the county.

Political consultants often use the term "optics" to describe how consequential events are perceived by the general public. With regard to the present Middle East crisis, the president's optics are way off course. There was the Las Vegas fundraiser following the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. This was followed by a "Letterman" appearance while violent anti-American demonstrations were breaking out in Europe, Africa and Asia. Then, instead of a defense of U.S. values, pandering messages to the Muslim world in response to an amateurish anti-Muslim video that almost nobody (including the protesters)

This is a planet of data gluttons. The latest estimates show Internet traffic - everything from e-mail to photos to full-length Hollywood films - is doubling every 100 days or so. And the thought of this tidal wave of ones and zeroes makes people such as Jeff Ferry smile. Ferry heads the marketing department at Yafo Networks Inc., a closely watched start-up in Hanover that makes gear for optical communications networks. The use of light to transmit voice, video and data over hair-thin glass fibers has become the backbone of the Internet during the past decade.

The Maryland/Israel Development Center has launched an effort to lure fiber-optics companies to the state and promote business between companies here and in Israel. "What we want to do is show these Israeli fiber-optics companies what Maryland has to offer," said Barry Bogage, executive director of the Maryland/Israel Development Center. The center - an 8-year-old nonprofit organization that works to create jobs in Maryland and Israel by promoting trade, joint venture, investment and technology transfer - launched its effort to attract high-technology companies here during the summer, while working to bring the headquarters of Trellis Photonics Ltd. from Yokneam, Israel, to Columbia.

Trellis Photonics Ltd., a fiber-optics equipment maker, said yesterday Columbia will be the home of its U.S. manufacturing plant, which is expected to eventually employ 350 workers. The plant will also double as Trellis' new headquarters, company officials said. "This is a huge step forward for the company, moving really out of a development environment ... into what I call being a whole company," said Tim Cahall, chief executive officer of Trellis. Trellis, which moved its headquarters from Israel to Columbia in September, will receive an incentives package from Howard County and the state for building its plant.

The sharp downturn in the telecommunications industry hit Maryland again as Bookham Technology PLC, a British fiber-optics company, said yesterday that 45 workers will lose their jobs when it closes the North American headquarters it opened in Howard County last year. When the building, which also houses a manufacturing plant, opened in January 2001, it was expected to boost the region's "photonics corridor" and someday employ 1,000. But as of yesterday, the firm employed only about 45, all of whom will be laid off as the plant winds down to close at the end of September.

Bookham Technology PLC is a British fiber-optics company almost in American disguise: It is managed like a U.S. business, it is traded on the Nasdaq stock market and many of its customers are based in the United States. That isn't by chance, though. The company always planned to straddle the Atlantic. In February, Book- ham will begin to make its imprint in Maryland, as it opens its North American headquarters in Columbia. "It's not just a manufacturing facility, it's the start of our significant U.S. presence," said the company's president, Giorgio Anania.

There's a new royal-blue lab jacket that hangs with all the others on the rack at Corvis Corp., only this one was custom-ordered to fit the lofty build of the company's new president, James M. Bannantine. At 6 feet 5 inches tall, Bannantine still has the frame from when he coached and played volleyball years ago, and he is quick to offer jokes about the Corvis basketball team. But he is not at this Columbia fiber-optics company for a game; he is there to triumph over a challenge, and a new lab coat isn't the only thing he hopes to bring to the company.

Zayo Group announced Tuesday that it has acquired FiberGate Inc. and its network of fiber optic lines stretching from Northern Virginia to Baltimore. The $117 million purchase adds 399 new route miles and 130,000 fiber miles in the combined Washington, D.C./Baltimore metro areas to Zayo's network. FiberGate, based in Alexandria, Va., has been providing fiber optic services to the federal government, large enterprise and carrier customers for almost 17 years. "As a result of the acquisition, we will have one of the most comprehensive fiber networks in the D.C. area of any provider," said Dan Caruse, CEO of Colorado-based Zayo.

The world's largest unclassified event for spying, defense, homeland security and surveillance technology is coming to Baltimore later this month. SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, will be hosting the Defense, Security and Sensing conference at the Baltimore Convention Center from April 23 to April 27 . There will be courses, workshops, and many, many technology exhibits involving imaging, laser, optical and other kinds of cutting edge technology from dozens of companies.

Last week, Mitt Romney described Russia as America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe," prompting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to respond: "I think it's somewhat dated to be looking backwards instead of being realistic about where we agree, where we don't agree. " While Mr. Romney's basic sentiment is correct, Mrs. Clinton is also right in suggesting that Mr. Romney's characterization of Russia is both dated and diplomatically unproductive. Not to mention that it makes for awkward dealings later when you inevitably have to sit down across the table from someone like Vladimir Putin and ask him a favor.

Andrew A. "Andy" Dantzler, an optical engineer who was program area manager for civilian space at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, died Thursday of cardiac arrest at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The longtime Sykesville resident was 49. The son of a federal government worker and a counselor, Andrew A. Dantzler was born in Bethesda and raised in Rockville, where he graduated in 1980 from Robert E. Peary High School. After earning a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics in 1984 from the University of Maryland, College Park, he went to work as an optical engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

Leasing office space in this economy can be a challenge, especially in older buildings, but Taylor Fields is working on getting an edge: a super-fast fiber-optic broadband connection. "One of the first things [prospective tenants] ask is what kind of Internet service we have," said Fields, a Timonium-based commercial leasing agent for the James F. Knott Realty Corp. "They all want fast Internet. " As work begins on a fiber-optic broadband network that will connect every Maryland school, hospital, police station — and even more public buildings — businesses also want to get involved.

FiberLight LLC, a Georgia-based fiber-optic network provider, said Wednesday it will soon unveil a network that can connect commercial customers in downtown Baltimore and several southern suburbs to points in Washington and Northern Virginia. FiberLight operates 3,000 miles of fiber-optic networks across the country, but company officials said that the Baltimore-Washington region is its fastest-growing market. "It's a huge, growing market for us," said Judd Carothers, the company's executive vice president of network operations, engineering and construction.

Among racks of equipment in a small room at Ciena Corp. in Linthicum, stand tall, sleek machines that feed the Internet: They can take hair-thin beams of white light, split them into dozens of light streams jammed with information and hurl that information across the country at laser-fast speeds. It's the "next generation" of fiber-optics which dozens of companies are racing to produce. The stakes, for businesses and consumers, are huge. The companies that get to market first stand to gain the biggest chunk of what is expected to be a $57 billion industry in five years.

The C&P Telephone Company will hook up all state schools with fiber optics. It already has the State House wired.

Workers are mapping Baltimore's underground telecommunications network, an effort that could help the city lure a billion-dollar project offering ultra-high-speed Internet connections to residents and businesses. Baltimore is one 1,100 communities to apply for the Google Fiber pilot project. On its website, Google Fiber recommends that applicants have a conduit system in place to lay the fiber optic cables. Winners are expected to be announced later this year. City workers have begun a survey of the city's 3.9 million-foot-long underground conduit system "using state-of-the-art GIS mapping technology," according to a statement from the office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Two months ago, city officials and business leaders were giddy with the notion that Baltimore maybe — just maybe — could lure Google Inc. to build a next-generation fiber-optic network for blazing-fast Internet service. On Wednesday, a larger group of city boosters wrestled with a more sobering possibility: What if Google doesn't choose Baltimore? More than 1,100 communities across the United States are vying for Google's Fiber for Communities pilot project. And Google isn't expected to announce a winner until the end of the year.