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Engineering Celebrity Joe Grand's Use of Altium Designer for Rapid Electronics Design in TV Show
Technology Category
- Processors & Edge Intelligence - Microcontrollers & Printed Circuit Boards
- Sensors - Autonomous Driving Sensors
Applicable Industries
- Electronics
- Equipment & Machinery
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Time Sensitive Networking
- Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services
- Hardware Design & Engineering Services
- Testing & Certification
The Challenge
Joe Grand, a renowned computer engineer and founder of Grand Idea Studio, was approached by the Discovery Channel in 2008 to co-host and engineer a new show, Prototype This. The show involved a team of engineers creating unique and novel prototypes for each episode, requiring skills in mechanics, electronics, materials science, and software engineering. However, the production schedules and timelines of the TV show often trumped the more thoughtful engineering processes required to design and build complex products. Most episodes were allotted only two weeks from concept to finale, with much of the team’s time spent in front of cameras, traveling, or doing interviews. As a result, Joe typically had just a few days to complete the electronics portion of the project, going from hand-built breadboard to final-ready circuit board in a matter of days.
About The Customer
Joe Grand is a computer engineer who has been involved with computers and electronics since he was seven years old. He began building projects out of Popular Electronics magazine and hand-etched his first circuit board when he was 13. Joe went on to earn a degree in computer engineering before founding his own company, Grand Idea Studio, a product design, development, and licensing firm that specializes in creating consumer and household devices, and modules for electronics hobbyists. In 2008, he was approached by the Discovery Channel to co-host and engineer a new show, Prototype This, which involved creating unique and novel prototypes for each episode.
The Solution
To meet the demanding timelines of the TV show, Joe turned to Altium Designer, a professional design suite that he was already familiar with. Altium Designer is an easy-to-use tool that makes fast work of designing both simple and complex circuit boards. It was chosen for its speed, dependability, and fully unified, efficient system that ensures data is synchronized between design domains. This allowed Joe to switch back and forth between schematic and PCB views, knowing that changes made would be reflected in all levels of design. The integrated design features of Altium Designer helped Joe create his systems quickly and reliably, removing the potential for error and ensuring that the designs would work right off the bat.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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