ControlTalk Now for the Week Ending August 24, 2014. This week’s Podcast of ControlTalk NOW is sponsored by International Systems of America (ISA). ISA takes great pride in their extensive product and service offerings for fire, energy, security and communication systems. This week’s CTN themes are water, which is becoming our most important utility (Watergy), Social Media in a networked economy, the use of Data, and as always, the New of the Week.

Siemens Releases New QXA2601 and QXA2602 Condensation Monitors — Great for Chilled Beams/Chilled Ceilings! Siemens releases two new products for use on surfaces where condensation must be avoided. Both the QXA2601 and QXA2602 are designed to prevent condensation from forming in chilled beam and chilled ceiling applications. Both devices operate identically via a SPDT relay that changes state when humidity level near the surface of the chilled water piping approaches 92%. The unit will automatically reset when the humidity level drops to approximately 87%.

ControlTrends Award Highlight: The 2013 HVAC Executive of the Year. This magic moment in HVAC history captured Honeywell’s Tom Rosback receiving the coveted 2013 ControlTrends Awards Executive of the Year, voted by the ControlTrends Community for his executive leadership as Honewyell’s Vice President, General Manager, Commercial Control Systems overseeing marketing, sales, engineering, and operations of a complex multi-brand, multi-channel global business. Congratulations again to Tom Rosback and Honeywell!

Chiller on the Fritz — Call the Champions of Chill — The Mobile Air Force. Marvel Comics has nothing on the marvelous folks at Mobile Air Force, the champions of chill, as they fight for truth, justice, and mobile air conditioning! There’s nothing like a little comic animation to convey a lot of information about superhero-like fast emergency service. Mobile Air, Inc. is a specialty HVAC company dealing exclusively in portable air conditioning, heating, filtration, and dehumidification systems, for both temporary and long term solutions.

Sensors, Sensors Everywhere: In the Near Future, Structures and Systems Will Look After Themselves. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) began in the early 1800′s with railroad wheel-tappers, which used the sound of a hammer striking the train wheel to evaluate if damage was present. The IoT sensor proliferation that continues to increase the number of application instances will soon deliver this significant SHM concept, which is similar, yet different, than our Fault Detection and Diagnostics — nearer and nearer to our workstations (cautious optimism). Science and Technology from Los Alamos.

Intelligent Buildings’ Tom Shircliff at IBCON 2014: The Technology is Here, Let’s Get Started! Intelligent Buildings is a well-known and leading-edge consultancy company in the smart building business. Veteran Tom Shircliff elegantly brings to light that the technology, all of the smart technology pieces needed for New Buildings, for Building Retrofits, for Building Analytics, and for Building Systems Cyber Security are here, but the challenge is how to scale this available technology into starting points — where building owners can get under-whelmed and start faster, with less risks, and all the while, make enlightened decisions quicker through Intelligent Building’s organizational alignment approach and the creation of a common language that all the stakeholders can understand.

Live Event: Johnson Controls VFD Training. The Stromquist & Company christened their Atlanta facility’s state-of-the-art training center with a live training event streamed to internet viewers, who were able to participate directly in the training session and address their questions to the instructor, Johnson Controls’ Wayne Christy, a bona fide VFD expert. Wayne reviewed the Johnson Controls VSD product platform, many of the standard VFD applications, and highlighted the tremendous energy savings opportunities — available using Johnson Controls VFDs. Look for many more live training events from the Stromquist & Company in the near future.

Honeywell’s New WebVision Software Updates: Honeywell is happy to announce the availability of release 1.1.5 for WebVision. This software release has fixed a number of issues reported from the field, as well as updates to support the following browsers: Internet Explorer 10 and 11, Chrome v35 and Firefox ESR 24.0. A WebVision Recovery tool is also available, which helps in recovering an unusable WebVision, due to IP addressing. Note: The new software will not work in old IE 8 or IE 9 browsers. Please refer to “Download the New Distribution File” section for upgrade procedure.

Contemporary Controls’ Versatile BASremote BACnet/IP Controller/Gateway is Even More Flexible! BASremoteAugust 2014 — The BASremote has evolved over the years from its original intent as a BACnet/IP remote I/O device. We were one of the first to add a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) option ― allowing the device to operate without the need for control panel power. Next, we added Modbus RTU to BACnet/IP gateway functionality which greatly expanded the point handling capability of the unit.

Grant, the Youngest HVAC Reporter to Date, Takes Us Inside International Systems of America. Julio Rodriguez, National Sales Manager of International Systems of America, is interviewed by a Grant, a big fan of ISA, that Julio discovered on YouTube while researching social media. See why ISA is a company with great solutions and a big heart. ISA SOLUTIONS — ARE WORK IN ACTION. With over 80 employees, ISA takes great pride in their extensive product and service offerings for fire, energy, security and communication systems. ISA’s solutions make a real difference for their customers, again and again —- helping to solve critical issues and keep vital systems in operation. ISA is always there, with focus and dedication, to deliver your solution!