The
Gateway
A newsletter that highlights products,
services, customers, and partners of The S4 Group, Inc.
Ogden, UT July 28, 2008
The S4 Group
provides products and associated services for two markets. The S4 Open product
line addresses Building Automation integration to open environments. The
Obermeier Software SNMP OPC Gateway products address integration of Industrial
Automation and Process Control (generically non-IT) systems to, and
from, enterprise environments.
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Welcome to The Gateway
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Release 1.0 of the S4 Open: OPC N2 Router and S4
Open: N2 Switch
We are pleased to
announce release 1.0 of the S4 Open: N2 Switch and the S4 Open: OPC N2 Router
are now complete. We are ramping up the manufacturing process and are now
accepting orders. The S4 Open: BACnet N2 Router will follow shortly. We look
forward to discussing your integration projects with you in the near future.
The S4 Group
wishes to thank our partners, our field test sites, and customers who have
patiently worked with us throughout the development process and our field
testing of the S4 Open: OPC-N2 Router. We have learned a lot of valuable
information and received very important customer input during this process.
You'll see most of your suggestions and comments incorporated into the final
released products. |
Contact The S4 Group to place
your orders for the S4 Open: N2 Switch and the S4
Open: OPC-N2 Router. |
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Currently
Available S4 Open Products
The S4
Open: N2 Switch extends and enhances an existing Metasys®
environment. A typical application of the N2 Switch is to migrate multiple
legacy NCM, NCU, N30, Facilitator or Companion based Metasys®
installations utilizing current generation Metasys®
supervisory controllers. Read more
here.
The S4
Open: OPC-N2 Router provides all of the functionality of the N2 Switch
plus information in the Building Control Network is published to an upstream OPC
interface. All current OPC DA standards are supported so the customer is free
to choose the appropriate OPC client. Read more
here.
The S4
Open Console manages all systems and appliances within the S4 Open
family of products. The Open Console uses Microsoft®
Windows look and feel which is the defacto state of the art in user interface
technology. The capability allows you to either centrally manage all appliances
in your network or distribute the management’s responsibility within individual
organizations. Read more
here.
If you have a
project in mind please contact
us with a summary of the current Metasys®
configuration and describe the goals for the project. There are several
application scenarios on the S4 web site showing typical configurations that may
provide a starting point for discussions. We would be happy to provide a
quotation and help you architect a solution that preserves your investment in
Metasys® field gear and moves you
into an open environment.
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All Systems and Appliances within the S4
Open family of products will be managed by this single Management
Console.
(click thumbnail for larger image)
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Products to be released in fall of 2008
The S4 Open:
BACnet-N2 Router is in the final development test phase. With BACnet
integrated into the S4 Open Platform – traditionally hard wired N2 environments
can seamlessly introduce BACnet ready systems and hardware without wasting
existing physical infrastructure or investment. Read more
here. |
The S4 Open: N2 Switch automatically
discovers and configures all N2 devices on a network. |
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Field Testing the S4 Open:
OPC-N2 Router
Field testing
of the S4 Open: OPC N2 Router was conducted at Continental Electric of Skokie
IL, John Greenwell, president of their CEPORT,
LLC operation had the following to say after conducting the product
testing. The BAS market continues to espouse seamless
integration; however, the reality is that no integration project with a legacy
system is seamless. The S4 Open appliance promises to change that paradigm by
allowing the legacy system to remain online until the integrator chooses to take
it down. Installing the S4 Open:OPC-N2 Router allows customers the ability to
migrate to any BAS or SCADA system that maps OPC. We feel very strongly that
our customers deserve choices for products and services; we strive to earn their
business every day. Read the
entire article here. |
In our opinion the S4 Open: OPC-N2 Router is
one of the safest ways to migrate a Metasys system to open standards.
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Creating a product family that provides
standards-based open interfaces for legacy BAS, and other automation systems
We anticipate providing SNMP and
XML interfaces in the near future as well as interfaces to many other
manufacturer legacy building automation systems. I would like to invite you to
send us any questions about the products and how they can extend and enhance
your Johnson Controls Metasys®
building automation environment. If you haven't already done so, you might want
to download the
S4 Open Appliance white paper from our web site. It provides background
information on the products and discusses the concepts behind them. If you would
like more details about the S4 open appliances download the
S4 Open Appliance Quick Start Guide or browse our web site.
This rapid roll out of products
is facilitated by building the product family on the Obermeier Software
Automation.Net software framework. Each product becomes a building block for
every other product that we offer. This Lego®-like
building block strategy extends across the Obermeier Software SNMP OPC Gateway
line of products; significantly, increasing the availability of new protocols
and interfaces available to both product lines. Read more
here. |
Creating a product family that provides
standards-based open interfaces for legacy BAS, and other automation
systems.
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Test an Entire N2
Bus with One Click - In as Little as 80 Seconds!
A diagnostic
tool to test N2 Bus for wiring or other problems prior to installing any S4 Open
Appliance. You will be able to test your entire system with one click.
Read
more
here. |
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About The
Gateway
The Gateway will be distributed on a monthly basis,
or less frequently, as required to inform our customer base and partners
of important developments. You can view previous issues, news items and
press releases at S4 Group
News. Send any suggestions
for future articles to sejones@thes4group.com.
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Thank you for reading The Gateway. We look forward to bringing you more news
in the future. |
OPC-N2 Router Release
