CEntrance QA Lab Tests for Real-World Conditions

On Friday, CEntrance announced a 1:2 split in the number of PCs at its Software Quality Assurance Lab. The quantity of test PCs prior to the split was four and increased to exactly eight following an even 1:2 split.

The number of machines has doubled following several strong quarters of software testing activity. CEntrance released a number of new software products-specifically, ASIO, WDM, and MIDI drivers for USB and FireWire-and needed an industrial-strength software QA Lab. The company's continued commitment to customer satisfaction resulted in a need to update the test facility with new machines ranging in speed from 600MHz to 3GHz.

The test PCs feature CPU technology from industry-leading vendors, such as Intel and AMD. Each machine has a unique combination of motherboard, CPU, and peripheral controllers that include graphics, sound, USB, FireWire, and Ethernet. This much variety, while normally a support nightmare for a typical IT department, allows CEntrance test engineers to find hardware/software-compatibility problems quickly.

"Our customers entrust our software with their music, so we can't afford to have bugs," noted Michael Goodman, Managing Director of CEntrance. "We now have a modern reference lab with a real-world mixture of hardware and software tools. The resulting "handpicked" setup closely approximates most computer audio systems in use today and lets us find and correct problems before the product reaches the customer.

The new and improved Software QA Lab will continue to expand as the testing needs increase at CEntrance.

CEntrance designs professional audio and consumer electronics products used in homes, radio stations, recording studios, concert venues, and virtually anywhere else music is made or heard. By paying special attention to product definition, design, and user interface, CEntrance develops products that customers come to rely on—and love. The company is headquartered in Chicago with offices in California, Wisconsin, and Russia.