Episode 216: ControlTalk NOW — Smart Buildings VideoCast|PodCast for Week Ending Feb 26, 2017

Episode 216: ControlTalk NOW — Smart Buildings VideoCast|PodCast for week ending Feb 26, 2017 features our Hollywood Moments video highlights from the 2016 ControlTrends Awards; CTN Interview with BuildingContext.me’s editor Therese Sullivan; Honeywell’s Larry Weber and Roger Rebennack at AHR Expo 2017; Siemens’ 2016 ControlTrends Awards celebration — BT300 wins VFD of the Year; Cyber Security: PC WORLD’s The 7 Security Threats to Technology; and Contemporary Controls wins the 2016 Small Manufacturer of the Year Award.

PC WORLD’s The 7 Security Threats to Technology That Scare Experts the Most. Ransomware’s Just the Beginning. This was twittered to us via cyber security guru, Fred Gordy, and was too interesting and too important not to pass on to the ControlTrends Community, especially those with smart thermostats. What happens if a bad actor turns off your heat in the middle of winter, then demands $1,000 to turn it back on? Or even holds a small city’s power for ransom? Those kinds of attacks to personal, corporate, and infrastructure technology were among the top concerns for security experts from the SANS Institute, who spoke Wednesday during the RSA conference in San Francisco. Read more!

Hollywood Moment on the Red Carpet at the 2016 ControlTrends Awards. As we begin our 2016 ControlTrends Awards Highlight Videos, we thought the best place to start was with the superstars of the Building Automation, HVAC, and Smart Building Controls Industry — walking the Red Carpet. One of the main reasons Ken and I created the ControlTrends Awards was to shine a spotlight on the great people in our industry and give them their well-deserved “Hollywood Moment.” And, what would a Hollywood Moment be without a Red Carpet interview?

Catching Up with Honeywell at 2017 AHR Expo. As we begin posting our ControlTrends coverage of the 2017 AHR show, we begin with Ken stopping by the Honeywell booth. Ken gets updates from Larry Weber on Honeywell’s new Light Commercial Buildings Controls Connect, Honeywell’s new Cloud-Based Light Commercial Control offering — giving contractors the opportunity to improve their service to their customers and grow their businesses with remote HVAC system monitoring and diagnostics. Roger Rebennack follows, bringing the ControlTrends Community up-to-speed on Honeywell’s WEB Security, with a deep-dive look at true integration in its most seamless form.

ControlTalk NOW interview with Therese Sullivan, technologist, marketing professional, and editor of BuildingContext.me who provides the most relevant and up-to-date news and analysis to commercial building system integrators, facilities managers, and real estate professionals — about innovations in building automation with emphasis on data analytics, mobile apps, cloud services, and wireless networking. Therese provides her take on the 2016 ControlTrends Awards; insights and comments on Women on the rise in the HVAC and Building Automation industry; and IoT updates from Silicon Valley.

Siemens’ BT300, The 2016 ControlTrends Awards Variable Frequency Drive of The Year. You are here: Home / ControlTrends Awards / 2016 ControlTrends Awards / Siemens’ BT300, The 2016 ControlTrends Awards Variable Frequency Drive of The Year. 2016 ControlTrends VFD of The Year from Eric Stromquist on Vimeo. Congratulations to Siemens for having their Variable Frequency Drive being selected by the global ControlTrends Community as the 2016 ControlTrends VFD of the Year. The BT300 was also the winner at the 2015 ControlTrends Awards as well! Click here to learn more about the Siemens BT300. Want to try a Siemens BT300 variable frequency drive? Reach out to your local CGNA Controls distributor.

Contemporary Controls is proud to announce our win as the ControlTrends Awards “Vendor of the Year – Small Manufacturer” Downers Grove, Illinois (January, 2017) – Contemporary Controls is proud to announce our win as the ControlTrends Awards “Vendor of the Year – Small Manufacturer” in addition to winning “Peripheral Product of the Year” and the “Best Technical Support Company – Small Manufacturer”. Thank you to all that participated in the ControlTrends Awards and voted for us. “The CTA Award for Vendor of the Year is a valued recognition of the quality of our products by the people who really matter – the system integrators who are depending on our products to get the job done,” said George Thomas, President of Contemporary Controls. “It is also a recognition of the efforts of our employees who design, produce and support these products.”

What is New? Catching Up with Distech at the 2017 AHR Expo. ControlTrends had a chance to catch up with Distech at the 2017 AHR Expo. In this video Ken checks out the cool building automation controls made by Distech and gets and update on how the Acuity Brands purchase of Distech and DG Logik will affect the Smart Buildings controls world. Distech Controls‘ EC-Net building management system (BMS) is a comprehensive Web-based platform powered by the Niagara Framework®. The open structure of EC-Net building management system (BMS) creates a common development and management environment for the integration of BACnet®, LONWORKS®, Modbus™, and other standards. More than a building management system, EC-Net system provides all the tools you need to gain intelligence into your buildings’ performance and arm you with the ability to rapidly react to any situation that may adversely affect energy costs, business performance, and ultimately, your bottom line.