Coming off a record-breaking year when Commtest doubled the size of its Knoxville headquarters and placed more than 800 portable and vbOnline systems globally, Commtest announced this week that its Ascent 2009 Software is now available. Building on the success of its award-winning Ascent 2008 R2 Software, Commtest says the new software offers performance improvement and enhancements for its customers.

In addition to all of the functionality that won the Ascent Software a prestigious Plant Engineering Product of the Year Award in 2007, the new version of Ascent provides an extended Internationalization Engine with expanded language support and an enhanced universal plug-and-play driver for USB communications with instruments. Other improvements include attached file schedule entry (the ability to attach external documents), improved reporting options and enhanced database utilities that eliminate duplicate entries.

Commtest also announced this week that it has released new device firmware for the vbSeries vibration analyzers and new vbOnline. The vbSeries of products from Commtest delivers the core features and functions that maintenance professionals need in a vibration analyzer without the complexity and cost typically associated with vibration analysis equipment. Commtest’s products have opened the door for many small- and mid-sized companies to benefit from advanced maintenance practices that only large corporations could afford in the past.

Commtest’s complete line of innovative equipment includes vibration data collectors, portable vibration analyzers and permanently-installed online machinery surveillance systems - all sharing the user-friendly software interface, Ascent. The company also has a comprehensive services division that helps customers maximize their return, get started with the equipment in hours and provides a complete range of training services.

Commtest Instruments Ltd. is based in Christchurch, New Zealand and the company maintains a U.S. Headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee.