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Reserve Your Seat TodayHow Remote Monitoring Simplifies Telecom Site Management
Remote site management in the telecom industry is complex. To be successful, managers must keep their communications equipment continuously operating. Any network downtime can be an extremely costly failure. At the same time, constantly staffing each site is cost-prohibitive. Sites are typically located far from one another, which creates a significant lag in personnel response times. Without workers onsite to prevent, diagnose, or repair problems, minor...
Andrew Erickson
January 28, 2020
The Benefits of Wireless Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
There's an old philosophical question about trees falling in the forest with no one around. Does it make a sound? Well, any engineer will tell you: yes, and no. It produces sound waves. But if nothing can pick them up, it doesn't matter. In order for the "sound" to happen, there needs to be a connection between the sound producer and the receiver. It's pretty much...
Andrew Erickson
January 23, 2020
How is SCADA Used for Water Systems?
Water systems take a lot of work to manage. Large and complex by nature, they are difficult to monitor continuously. Nevertheless, water systems are expected to function, on budget, at all times. Keeping the many filtration tanks, pumps, and pipes that make up a water system in operation requires active management and continual maintenance. Gaps in monitoring equipment activity can result in leaks that spring and...
Andrew Erickson
January 21, 2020
How SCADA Improves Railway Electrification
Recently, Indian Railways, the national railroad carrier of India, made a bold announcement: they would havecompletely electrified railroads by 2024 , and possibly earlier. With over a billion people, in a country largely dependent on railroads for transportation, this is a huge step in reducing carbon output. India isn't alone, of course. Many nations are switching to electrified railroads, or have always used them as their...
Andrew Erickson
January 16, 2020
A Comprehensive SNMP Configuration Guide for Effective Conversion
Companies with large physical footprints regularly contend with legacy equipment. Simply put, companies usually last longer than equipment. Every year, some new equipment is phased in and old equipment is phased out, on a rolling basis. In the era of modern communications technology, that means that older equipment may communicate using different protocols than newer equipment. Equipment from different manufacturers may also only communicate using a proprietary...
Andrew Erickson
January 14, 2020
Optimizing Remote Tank Monitoring Solutions for Industrial Reliability
The Permian Basin in the southwest United States contains a vast oilfield where we drill into rock laid down over 250 million years ago. As part of the Permian geologic period, it's a reality of Deep Time. And yet, in order to keep our economy running, we have to do more than imaginable to control the riches these and other rocks keep buried within. We must...
Andrew Erickson
January 9, 2020
RTU vs. PLC: Which is Best for a Larger Geography?
Remote terminal units (RTUs) and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are both modern technological devices that impart connection to and control over mechanical objects and equipment from a distance. While their functions are similar, when comparing an RTU vs. a PLC,we quickly discover they are distinct technologies intended for separate purposes: PLCs are built to be production tools used for automated manufacturing. RTUs are monitoring tools used...
Andrew Erickson
January 7, 2020
A Rugged Remote Terminal Unit for the Smart Grid Market
Throughout recent months, as fires ravaged thousands of acres of California, the Northern California company PG&E was forced to make a terrible call tocompletely shut down power in many areas . They did so in order to lessen the impact of the fires, and almost certainly save lives, but it was hard on customers and at times, even deadly. As an example, a man in Pollock...
Andrew Erickson
January 3, 2020
How to Manage an Effective Gas Well Monitoring System
For those in the oil or natural gas industry, you understand the moving parts of extraction. From an outside perspective, the process may appear simple but if you're in the industry, you know it's massively complex. Gas wells are responsible for the consistent extraction of different types of oil and natural gas to be separated and distributed. They are the backbone of the industry, operating in...
Andrew Erickson
December 19, 2019
How a Remote Facility Monitoring System Improves Maintenance Quality and Security
Firefighters know that the more surface area something has, the more readily it will burn. This principle holds true metaphorically across a range of disciplines, including remote facility management. Remote facilities have a lot of "surface area" exposed to accidents, degradation, and damage. They house important primary equipment, such as telco apparatus, drilling equipment, and servers. Secondary systems like HVAC , power generators, and battery banks are...
Andrew Erickson
December 17, 2019