Welcome to ControlTalk NOW week ending April 26, 2015. The CGNA Synergy Meeting in Savannah and Fred Gordy’s expert insight into the world of Cyber Security highlight this week’s ControlTrends news. Coverage of 2014 ControlTrends Awards winners continues with Tridium’s Nino DiCosmo and Intelligent Building’s Tom Schirciff and Bob Murchison receiving their trophies; Contemporary Controls’ 40th anniversary recognizes U.K.’s George Turnbull’s career; and LONDON REAL’s Brian Rose interviews Marc Goodman, who reviews his best-selling book Future Crimes.

CGNA’s 2015 Synergy Industry Elite Pursuing Excellence Conference in Atlanta. Mike Sackett, Jim Hayman and the CGNA team mix 44 of the elite distributors with 57 preferred vendors, add a well-run conference featuring keynote speakers Joe Shaheen and David Beinhacker, shake well for 2 1/2 days with round table discussions and Vendoropoly, and you have an amazing one-of-a-kind event. Well done CGNA!

Nino DiCosmo Wins 2014 ControlTrends Executive of the Year — Large Manufacturer. The ControlTrends Community recognized Nino DiCosmo for his successful leadership of Tridium and Niagara Framework, the leading open framework for innovation, used by businesses the world over. From commercial buildings to data centers to industrial operations to smart cities, Tridium’s pioneering products and services are changing the way machines communicate with each other — and with you. Congratulations Nino, once again.

The Prestigious 2014 Petock Award Goes to Intelligent Buildings’ Tom Shircliff and Bob Murchison. Chicago, January 26, 2015, Intelligent Buildings, LLC, a smart real estate advisory services company was honored when its co-founders, Tom Shircliff and Rob Murchison received the prestigious “Petock Award” for passion and service to the industry. The award was presented to Shircliff and Murchison at the AHR conference during the Controls Trends Awards ceremony that is held each year to recognize industry achievements. The AHR conference saw record attendance of over 62,000 attendees from 140 countries and boasted 11 acres of exhibits.

Contemporary Controls Archives: Interview with George Turnbull, a Visionary in the Controls Industry. April 2015 — As many of you know, 2015 marks Contemporary Controls’ 40th year in business. Because of our anniversary, we’ve been reviewing our archives and are showcasing some of the exceptional interviews we have conducted with industry experts. This month, our focus in on an interview we did in this 2001 with George Turnbull, a visionary in the controls industry. George Turnbull is adept in the design and development of control systems, specifically process control. He joined the Eurotherm Group in 1966 as a research and development engineer before establishing Turnbull Control Systems (TCS) as a subsidiary of Eurotherm in 1974.

Fred Gordy is rapidly emerging as the specialized cyber security expert to assist the BMS, BAS, and FMS professionals in dealing with the growing threat facing these industries. Studies show that 2.2 million SCADA and BACnet controllers are vulnerable to malicious cyber hacking. Fred Gordy’s extensive background in IT, hands on experience with Building Controls Systems and unique relationship with the cybersecurity’s elite White Hats — fuel Fred’s passionate efforts to educate our industry and provide specialized guidance and recommended safeguards to protect your BAS, BMS, and FMS systems. Do not miss Fred’s bi-monthly contributions to ControlTrends.

LONDON REAL’s Brian Rose Interviews Marc Goodman – Future Crimes. Considering our hottest ControlTrends theme has been Cyber Security, we believe this eye and ear-opening interview needed re-purposed immediately — because it explains the need to change to our cognitive bias. We are not the customer, we are the product — watch this interview! Published April 26, 2015 by Brian Rose (Source: LONDON REAL). Marc Goodman is a thinker, writer and global strategist exploring what criminality and terrorism could look like in the close future.

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Welcome to ControlTalk NOW week ending April 19, 2015. Nino DiCosmo previews Tridium’s Open 4 Innovation; Functional Devices releases new product series; Contemporary Controls and SkyFoundry receive their trophies on center stage at the 2014 ControlTrends Awards; Stromquist Company streams Honeywell Radar Level training: CBRE Group, Inc. acquires Environmental Systems, Inc, and Johnson Controls’ Global WorkPlace Solutions (GWS) business (HUGE!); and Fred Gordy, technology evangelist for the McKenney’s Enterprise Intelligence Group posts another seminal piece on Cyber Threats and Cyber Security.

Building a Great Experience with Niagara 4! OPEN 4 INNOVATION. We’re just a week away from the Niagara Forum!Tridium has been hard at work on Niagara 4 and is excited to share their progress with the Niagara community, so they sat down with president Nino DiCosmo to give us a sneak peek at what’s to come ahead of the Forum. With nearly half a million instances across the globe, the Niagara Framework is harnessing the power of the Internet of Things for buildings, data centers, manufacturing, smart cities and more.

Functional Devices Announces Improvements to their Air Handling Unit Fan Safety Alarm Circuits. Choose either the six (RIBMNLB-6NO), four (RIBMNLB-4NO), or two (RIBMNLB-2NO) alarm circuits, which are simply devices that combine a common relay-logic function into a small, easy-to-install, and less expensive form. A master relay will open if any one of the normally-closed (N/C) inputs open. LED status of all inputs, the master relay, and power input is provided. Bypass of unused inputs is also provided. The RIBMNLB series is provided with mounting track for mounting in user-provided electrical enclosures.

Honeywell Radar Level Control: Live Steam Training. Honeywell’s SmartLine® Guided Radar Level Meters use TDR (Time Delay Reflectometry) to measure distance, level, interface, volume and mass. Higher signal dynamics and a sharper pulse than conventional TDR devices ensure better performance.​

CBRE Group, Inc. Acquires Environmental Systems, Inc. Los Angeles, April 14, 2015 – CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG) today announced that it has acquired Environmental Systems, Inc. (ESI), a leading systems integrator and provider of energy management services in the United States. ESI develops innovative solutions that enable commercial property occupiers and owners to efficiently manage their building systems and remotely monitor and analyze energy usage in real time to identify and achieve potential savings.

2014 ControlTrends Awards Highlight: The Peripheral Product of the Year. Congratulations to George Thomas and the team at Contemporary Controls for winning the Peripheral Product of the Year Award at the 2014 ControlTrends Awards. Contemporary Controls is your ideal automation partner for applying ARCNET®, BACnet®, Controller Area Network, Ethernet, Modbus®, Niagara Framework®, and Sedona Framework technologies to your automation project. With over 35 years of experience in electronics design, development and manufacturing of networking and control products.

CBRE to purchase Johnson Controls’ Global WorkPlace Solutions Business for $1.475 Billion. MILWAUKEE – [March 31, 2015] – Johnson Controls, Inc. (NYSE: JCI) announced today it has reached a definitive agreement for the sale of its Global WorkPlace Solutions (GWS) business to CBRE Group, Inc., for $1.475 billion. The company announced its intentions to divest the GWS business in September 2014 as part of its strategy to invest in product businesses that are core to its multi-industrial portfolio and growth objectives. The agreement provides Johnson Controls with new channels for its offerings and when fully operational is expected to generate up to $500 million of annual incremental revenue for the Johnson Controls Building Efficiency business.

System Integrators, Decide What is Your Liability Appetite. Cyber threats are ever increasing and along with it the government and private sectors are scrambling to create definitions of responsibility, regulations, and compliance. The impact to your controls business could be devastating if you are not prepared and do not understand the implications. Ignorance is no longer a defense.

2014 ControlTrends Awards HighLight: Building Analytics Software of the Year. Congratulations to John Petze and the team at Skyfoundry for winning the 2014 ControlTrends Awards Building Analytics Software of the Year. SkyFoundry’s SkySpark® Analytics Software automatically analyzes building, energy and equipment data to identify issues, faults and opportunities for improved performance and operational savings. SkySpark helps facility owners and operators find what matters in the vast amount of data produced by today’s smart systems.

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Welcome to ControlTalk NOW for week ending April 12, 2015. Our special guest this week is Varun Nagaraj, President and CEO of Sierra Monitor Corporation, providers of FieldServer protocol gateways and Sentry IT fire and gas solutions. Firstly, a review of the upcoming conferences: Niagara’s Open 4 Innovation , CGNA Synergy Conference, and Haystack Connect 2015; See industry superstars on the Red Carpet and more 2014 ControlTrends Award Winners: Laura Kevitt, DG Logik, and EasyIO’s Gordon Chan; Mike Marston and Rob Allen review the FG32+; and don’t miss Tim Chamblee’s training on KMC’s CSC 3011.

FieldServer Helps Levi’s Stadium Meet Environmental Expectations and Achieve LEED Gold Certification. Sierra Monitor Corporation took great pride knowing that many of Levi’s Stadium’s enormous, yet intricate water systems were integrated to the BAS using their FieldServer protocol gateways (FieldServer Case Study — Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, CA).

Rob Allen’s 7 Minutes in Control: EasyIO’s Mike Marston. Rob Allen welcomes Mike Marston from EASYIO to the show and asks Mike some compelling questions. In addition to discussing the new Beast, the FG32 Plus, and new data base features and functions, Rob asks Mike the big one, When will EasyIO be sold ? Mike’s answer will surprise you.

Honeywell’s Laura Kevitt Wins 2014 ControlTrends PID Award! The ControlTrends Passion, Integrity, and Dedication (PID) Award is one of the most competitive and prestigious award categories. Standing in the company of an incredible cast of deserving industry stalwarts, Laura Kevitt prevailed and set yet another important milestone — becoming the first woman to win a ControlTrends Award. On behalf of the ControlTrends Community, we congratulate and thank Laura once again.

DGLogik Wins Big at the 2014 ControlTrends Awards! DGLogik wins the 2014 ControlTrends Awards 3rd Party Visualization Software of the Year! DGLogik’s DGLux5 visualization tool — took the honors again. DGLux5’s winning visualization product enables the unification of data systems and multiple data providers into a singular interface adding comprehensive functionalities along with its amazing data visualization tool. Congratulations again, to the team at DGLogik!

Tim’s Tech Tip: Setting Up a Kreuter “Stop Sign” VAV Controller. In this extensive training video, Stromquist & Company’s, Tim Chamblee teaches you step-by-step how to control a VAV box with the Kreuter pneumatic VAV controller. There are hundreds of thousands of the KMC CSC 3011 series of pneumatic VAV controllers. Thanks to Tim, we know how to set them up, calibrate, and troubleshoot these pneumatic VAV controllers.

EasyIO’s Gordon Chan Wins 2014 ControlTrends Executive of the Year Small Manufacturer. Congratulations to Gordon Chan. EasyIO’s chief won Executive of The Year Small Manufacturer. Gordon was awarded this honor by the world-wide ControlTrends voting community. EasyIO is a company that has been and continues to be on the move in building automation controls. The Easy IO Beast from the East won the Plant Controller of the Year and say building automation controls systems integrators around the world use these powerful controllers.

On The Red Carpet at the 2014 ControlTrends Awards. The superstars of the HVAC and Building Automation Controls Industry were out in full force at the 2014 ControlTrends Awards. It is impossible to do justice to all the great people in our industry. Hopefully, this video captures a little bit of the excitement of this year’s Event. A special Thanks to all our Sponsors, who make the ControlTrends Awards possible.

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