To find out we asked Honeywell’s Roger Rebennack. Roger, sometimes known as “the most exciting man in the controls industry” gives us one of the main reasons the Honeywell WEBS AX platform is becoming the one of the most popular open system building automation controls front ends. Here is a hint “RAPID EYE“

With the advent of Tridium, Honeywell WEBS AX, open protocals like BACNET and LON building owners have choices that were not available before.
In this excerpt from an interview with Honeywell’s Roger Rebennack, see how Honeywell has taken building automation controls to a whole new level. Honeywell has opened up their Access and Security products so

integrating into the building automation control system front end is easy. Instead of having a seperate computer and/or software program controlling each building control system, the new Honeywell WEBS AX solution allows all the building control systems, HVAC, lighting, access and security to communicate via one software package giving the building owner true “single seat”control.”
To learn more about open systems and “single seat control”, contact a control pro at Stromquist & Company if you are located in Georgia or Florida. You can also contact one of our affiliates at Controls Group North America if you are in another part of the country.
You might also want to check out the interview with Roger on Stromquist Radio, and stay tuned for more excerpts from his interview on Control Talk.
Are you a systems integrator? If so we want to hear from you in our comments section. Tell our world wide viewers at Controltrends about your experiences with open systems and controls integration. You never know who will find you on Controltrends.

Control Trends has added a new feature called Control Talk. Control Talk is a new way to bring our viewers the chance to see and hear from the best minds in the HVAC, DDC, and Industrial Controls Market. Think of it as a cross between Stromquist Radio and Stromquist TV.

In episode 1 I interview Vern Peterson of MOV training.

Vern is such a great instructor that we bring him to Atlanta twice a year to teach the Tridium AX certification course and we still have people on the waiting list. Vern travels the country teaching and you can click here to view classes he has scheduled.
Vern is a fascinating individual and he is very gracious in sharing his knowledge about controls and open systems on the first episode of Control Talk.

In that this is the first attempt at using the video interview format the quality is not quite as good as it will be on future episodes of Control Talk. We learned on this one and the next ones will be better.

Stay tuned for more interviews on Control Talk. Episode 2 will be an interview with Angie Jarvis from Functional Devices ( the inventors of the RIB relay).

Stromquist & Company would like to take a few minutes to show you how you can create and customize your own Sedona function blocks for the EasyIO controller using the Tridium Niagara platform. This Stromquist & Company tutorial will get you up and running in no time. With even just a basic understanding of programming, we’ll get you started with your own custom design.  Stay up to date with the latest on EasyIO tips and tricks.  Subscribe now to www.ControlTrends.com

In part one of Mike Marston’s presentation at Stromquist & Company you got to see some interesting excerpts from Mike’s Easy IO Sedona presentation. In part two Mike goes into more detail about Easy IO products including the Easy IO 30P- SF sedona framework controller, the Easy IO 30P- BN BACnet controller, the Easy IO 30P-ME modbus controller, the Easy IO AX Supervisor, the Easy IO J6, and Easy IO J2

As you can see Easy IO offers some great solutions including open systems drivers for legacy DDC systems like Trane, Honeywell,Johnson and others. So if you are needing to connect to or control a legacy system Easy IO is a good option for both the controllers, and drivers.

We have Mike coming back to Atlanta on November 17th to do a free training at Stromquist Atlanta. Mike will be doing a training session in our Orlando Florida office on November 18th. to reserve a space in either of these classes please contact Edna at 404.794.3440. We will broadcasting the Atlanta training session live via the internet. To be part of the live broadcast please sign up for controltrends “join our mailing list”  and we will email you log in information.

To see Mike’s live Sedona Easy IO Atlanta Training session done at Stromquist & Company in Atlanta on November 17, 2010 click here.

Stromquist & Company is thrilled to offer the Easy IO open DDC solutions to our customers in Georgia and Florida.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Sedona framework, Sedona is the next level of “open” in the building automation controls world and offers a whole new way to engineer building automation controls systems.Sedona is an open source development framework that allows you to integrate, control,develop and manage pervasive devices at the lowest level. To get a feel for the power of Sedona and Easy IO, check out this video with excerpts from an EASY IO presentation that Mike Marston from Easy IO did at Stromquist & Company two weeks ago. I will be posting a more detailed Easy IO presentation soon. We are bringing Mike back to Atlanta on November 17 and to Orlando on November 18 for training on the Easy IO product offering. To attend the free Easy IO  class please contact Edna at 404.794.3440 to reserve your spot.  To view the class live and remotely please sign up at controltrends and we will send you log in information.

To see Mike’s Sedona Easy IO training session that he did at Stromquist & Company in Atlanta on November 17, 2010 click here.

Do you have mad skills when it comes to programming EASY I/O controllers? Tell the Controltrends community who you are in comments. Controltrends viewers are all over the world so by leaving a comment with a link to your website or company Facebook page they can find you more easily.

Johnson Controls

Eric interviews Chris Eichmann who is the director of product and systems sales North America for Johnson controls. In this interview Eric and Chris discuss everything from Johnson Controls AX DDC product offering to how the Johnson Branch, Johnson distributors and independent controls contractors can co exist in the marketplace.

Click to play

With energy costs constantly rising and the desire to conserve energy, the need for “green” or sustainable buildings is critical. Due to changes in technology not only is it possible, it is expected on new construction projects and has gotten much easier and affordable to retrofit existing buildings. At the heart of theses changes is the adoption of open communication protocols such as Lon and BacNet by controls manufacturers and open framework and  software by companies like Tridium. This combination is leading a change in what is possible for building owners.

So what do you need to know to take advantage of this new technology?As a building owner the first thing you need to be aware of is how the controls industry has changed with the advent of open control protocols and how to leverage your options. For many years every control manufacturer had its own communication protocol. Honeywell systems spoke C Bus, Johnson Controls spoke N2 and so on. What that meant to you as a building owner was that whoever won on bid day was who would be controlling your building for a very long time. If you were not happy with your control system, the cost to change the system was so high that it was too expensive to change. This has changed with the Tridium and Honeywell AX systems that allow different manufacturers’ controls to talk on the same network. So if your system is open you have options that a closed or propriety system does not allow. The key is you must make sure to ask for a truly “open system.” To make sure you know what to ask for listen to theses interviews with Scott Cochrane and Brian Turner, who are two of the leading experts on open systems.

The second thing, which is great news for  building owners, is in the past you would have a different system and different software for your access security and your lighting controls. Now these systems have adopted open protocols that allow you to integrate all these different building functions into one software front-end, giving you “single seat building control.”  In addition to all the savings on hardware and software, you can create energy saving control strategies that were not possible in the past. Imagine, your key card access is now integrated with your HVAC and lighting systems in such a way that when someone enters the building the system is smart enough to know who the person is and turns on only the lights that lead to their office and in their office. When that person reaches their office the temperature is set for their preference. The system will also keep track of how long they are in the building and can even produce a monthly bill for off hours usage. For more on how integrating these systems can save energy be sure to check the interviews with Roger Rebennack Part One and Part Two.

With new open system technology the building automation system becomes the hub around which new energy savings strategies revolve. If you are in Georgia or Florida and would like more information on how to save energy in your building(s) contact  Stromquist & Company. All others can contact one of our affiliates at Controls Group North America.

Stromquist & Company is committed to saving our customers energy. Our part is to provide great control solutions from companies like  Tridium, Honeywell and Johnson Controls. Did you know how much money you could save ??? Check this video out and see

Stromquist & Company works with the tridium niagara open framework bring building owners intergration solutions through our contractor partners. It has gone from just open HVAC control systems to intergrating lighting and access controls. Check out this video to get a feel for where the controls industry is heading it is amazing.