The Gateway

Volume 3, Number 1           

Welcome to The Gateway, a monthly newsletter highlighting products, services, customers, and partners of The S4 Group, Inc. The purpose of this monthly newsletter is to provide information on Enterprise Management technology and the integration of non-It systems into enterprise environments.

N2 Router Debuts at NFM&T

Premiere of the N2 OPC Router

The NFM&T, National Facilities Management & Technology , show provided the perfect backdrop for The S4 Group to unveil and demonstrate its N2 Router product line. The show is a national event for facility professionals such as facility managers, maintenance directors, and engineering managers. The show offered an opportunity for participants to find the latest products, services, and technology that serve the facilities management industry.  During the three day event, The S4 Group successfully demonstrated the capability of the N2 Router to over 100 interested parties and received rave reviews on the  adaptability and uses of the technology.

Damon Tarquinio , Principal , Quantum Energy  Systems commented that  "with network and web-based building management systems becoming the norm, the need to integrate legacy systems into the enterprise can be met with the N2 router products ... in particular, the BACnet and XML N2 products provide an easy way to deploy a cost effective solution, extending the useful life of my customer's existing BMS."

The S4 Group demonstrated the N2 Router in the booth of one of its strategic partners, O&M Engineering. O&M provides graphical interface systems, information technology solutions, and enterprise portals that  meet the diverse needs of facility, maintenance, and business management professionals.

The show provided an opportunity for the S4 Group to showcase its systems as well as companies to become acquainted with the capability and applications for this technology 

The S4 Group Sponsors the Iconics Worldwide Customer Summit

OPC-N2 Router Demonstrated at ICONICS Worldwide Customer Summit

The S4 Group was a sponsor of the ICONICS  Summit because of the synergy which exists between the summit customers and The S4 Group family of products.  Russ Agrusa, President & CEO ICONICS and OPC Foundation Board of Directors, has this to say about the N2 Router :

"One of the most unique products showcased at the Customer Summit was S4 Group's OPC-N2 Router . This product provides an OPC interface for legacy Johnson Controls Metasys^® Building Automation Systems empowering the customer, or their integrator partner, to deliver best of breed solutions that match their business needs." 

The ICONICS 2005 Worldwide Customer Summit provided valuable insight to participants on how to increase manufacturing and automation productivity with .NET technology. The Summit focused on solutions designed to improve productivity while reducing integration and operating costs. Summit attendees had the opportunity to  gain extensive knowledge in bridging real-time manufacturing systems to business enterprise systems, and witness real-world examples of the latest technology for OPC, HMI/SCADA and Manufacturing Intelligence.

"The S4 Group created a solution for integrating legacy Johnson Controls Metasys^® systems with state of the art, best of breed, open systems."  Said John Demsey, Manager of Systems Integration for Tri-M Group, LLC of Kennett Square, PA. "The N2 Router does all the legwork necessary to seamlessly provide the integration to OPC or BACnet while retaining the customer's investment in legacy equipment."

The demonstration system highlighted the ability of the N2 Router to automatically discover all devices and points in a Metasys^® system, transparently capture data without interfering with the normal operation of the existing supervisory controller, and redirect it to a 3rd party application via its OPC interface. The demonstration showcased the ability to handle all known variations of the Metasys N2 protocol and the ability to merge multiple legacy N2 networks into one virtual N2 network. Summit attendees and other vendors were very supportive of  the solution.

This is exactly what we need for this job and many others

Application Specific Device Profiles Demonstrated

We recently visited a customer site and demonstrated the OPC-N2 Router to their mechanical contractor and BAS integration partner.  During an earlier test they liked what they saw but recommended that we add application specific device profiles to the N2 Router . It was a major enhancement but the results of this demonstration show that again, the customer is always right! During the test the OPC-N2 Router found all the devices on an existing Metasys^® system, correctly identified the devices and applications running in those devices, and made the data available to the OPC interface without interfering with the normal operation of the system. It even found and correctly identified several devices that we had never encountered before. The mechanical contractor's comments were "This is exactly what we need for this job and many others that I can think of!" Contact Steve if you are the manufacturer or developer of an OPC-based system and would like to arrange an interoperability test.

Testing is continuing on the BACnet-N2 Router . Initial results are favorable and arrangements are being made with several BACnet BAS manufacturers to test with their systems. We will update you with more details in a future issue of The Gateway. Contact Steve if you are the manufacturer of a BACnet system and would like to arrange an interoperability test.

We are scheduled to receive the initial runs of the 24 VAC powered embedded PC platform from Advantech within the next month. This is a custom modification for The S4 Group of a standard Advantech product for the HVAC market. We will be able to install systems at the initial customer sites soon after we receive these systems and complete our validation testing on them.

Bringing Open Systems to Legacy BAS Environments

Automatedbuildings.com Interview Steve Jones & Ken Sinclair

Bringing Open Systems to Legacy BAS Environments by making the data previously locked inside the Metasys^® system available to other BAS and IT systems via open interfaces.

Sinclair:  Why would a customer want to upgrade their legacy BAS system instead of doing a wholesale replacement with new technology?

Jones:  Companies have made huge investments in their building infrastructure and automation systems. In many cases the unitary controllers and application specific controllers aren’t broken so why force a customer to buy a complete new building automation environment? What is needed is to address a couple of very specific areas: 1) a facelift on the user interface and the addition of web interfaces, 2) enhanced analysis, trending, and reporting capabilities, 3) the introduction of truly open interfaces to facilitate the introduction of new technology and increase competition, and 4) much better integration with and utilization of the existing IT infrastructure and systems. Read the entire interview

The solutions being offered by the S4 Group fit very well into our strategic plan

MAAT Mechanical LLC Offers S4 Group Solutions

Nancy Jones, Editor of The Gateway, recently conducted an interview with Mario Mussatti of MAAT Mechanical LLC. Mr. Mussatti is MAAT’s National Sales Manager; Building Automation Group

NJ:    Mr. Mussatti, would you please provide some background on MAAT Mechanical and yourself for our readers?

MM:   MAAT Mech. was founded in 1970 in Milwaukee Wisconsin and has traditionally serviced the Residential, Commercial and Industrial HVAC industry. In the 1990’s MAAT began offering, installing, and supporting PC’s in the commercial marketplace. As for me I have held positions in sales and marketing at a variety of companies  involved in both manufacturing and distribution. Read the entire interview

Please send comments or submissions to:

The S4 Group, Inc.
Attn: Steve Jones
2555 Jefferson Ave.
Ogden, UT 84401

Phone: (801) 621-1970

E-mail:
sejones@thes4group.com

www.thes4group.com

About The Gateway

The Gateway will be distributed on a monthly basis. You can view previous issues, news items and press releases at S4 Group News.

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