Bill's Blog on Industrial Ethernet

The 2006 Tridium Niagara Summit took place from April 30 - May 2 at the Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel, Florida (just north of Tampa). Two Contemporary Controls staff attended: R & D Manager Bennet Levine (in the lower photo) and Sales Manager Joe Stasiek. There were 415 attendees at the summit (compared with 320 in 2004), most of whom were system integrators and developers.

Monday afternoon, Mr. Levine addressed the Complimentary Technologies Session, speaking on networking equipment designed for the rigors of automation applications.

Keynote speeches included Strategies for Smart Services by Glen Allmendinger, Founder and President of Harbor Research; and "Co-opertition" - A Unique Blend of Cooperation and Competition by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School.

Contemporary Controls (one of over 30 exhibitors) unveiled its latest Industrial Ethernet product -- the BAS Remote I/O which offers six universal I/O points and two relay outputs. There was also much interest in the company's recently announced EtherNet/IP switches that feature IGMP Snooping.