Question:

What are the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) for AMX products?

Answer:

Below you will find the MTBF data for each of the AMX products that have been tested.  

• Netlinx Masters 100,000 Hours
• NX Masters 100,000 Hours
• Touch Panels 60,000 Hours
• Matrix Switchers 90,000 Hours
• Keypads 100,000 Hours
• Enova DVX 100,000 Hours
• Enova DGX 170,000 Hours
• PS-POE-AF-TC 147,000 Hours
• AC-RK 100,000 Hours
• Epica Systems 90,000 Hours
• HDMI/DVI Input: 718,000 hrs (81.9 yrs)
• HDMI/DVI Output: 380,000 hrs (43.3 yrs)
• DXLink Fiber Input: 202,679 hrs (23.1 yrs)
• DXLink Fiber Output: 217,940 hrs (24.88 yrs)
• DXLink Twisted Pair Input: 616,000 hrs (70.3 yrs)
• DXLink Twisted Pair Output: 695,000 hrs (79.3 yrs)
• AIE: 736,000 hrs (84.0 yrs)
• FG1055-11 Epica DGX 144 Enclosure MTBF 69,000 hours (7.8 yrs)
• FG1010-410-01 DGX SC Fiber DVI Rx MTBF 92,000 hours (10.5 yrs)
• FG1010-210-01 DGX SC Fiber DVI Tx MTBF 92,000 hours (10.5 yrs)
• FG1055-440 Epica DGX 144 SC Fiber In MTBF 135,000 hours (15.4 yrs)
• FG1055-450 Epica DGX 144 SC Fiber Out MTBF 101,000 hours (11.5 yrs)

For all other products there has been no formal calculation of AMX product MTBF in the traditional sense calculating each component MTBF from the manufacturer and coming up with a predicted MTBF.  Engineering is looking into that for upcoming products.  

It is available, however, on the Autopatch products and can be found on the AMX website under the details for each of those products.  

From historical data (versus predicted data) from a recent engineering presentation, the MTBF is an indication of the average amount of time that will pass between random failures.  It is generally defined as the number of hours under observation (our use) divided by the number of failures.  If the product is in-use or powered-on all the time, then the MTBF is equivalent to the number of hours in a year (8,760) divided by the annual failure rate (AFR).  As a whole, AMX products are currently at about a 2% AFR.  This calculates to about 438,000 Hrs MTBF assuming the above equation.