ICONICS UK Ltd.

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ICONICS Interactive Video

ICONICS UK has created an interactive video that will allow you to view the solutions that are right for you by job title and industry. The solution videos include connectivity, web based visualisation, 3-D visualisation, alarming, reporting, redundancy SCADA and geographical SCADA, portals, OEE and lean manufacturing, historians, green operations, Microsoft technologies and many many more. Please watch the video and if you have any feedback please let us know by leaving your comments.

Earlier in September, ICONICS Inc hosted its North American Sales Channel Conference in Boston, MA. I was lucky enough to be invited, so excitedly made my way the Gillette Stadium, Patriot Place, MA.

This fantastic venue was chosen to host the event with nearly 100 attendees. The event was organised to not only update the sales channel on the latest products from ICONICS but also give partners a chance to share experiences and successful sales approaches. A surprise guest was also on hand to host a negotiation workshop. Andrew Wasynczuk, Former Chief Operating Officer of the New England Patriots and the Gillette Stadium, and now a Professor at Harvard Business School led an interesting hands on workshop entitled ‘Strategies of Influence’.

Among the product updates was the exciting news that ICONICS GENESIS64 is now certified for Microsoft Windows new operating system Windows 7. Windows 7 launches with a massive performance improvement as well several other new features including Multi Touch, DirectAccess, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Enterprise Search Scopes. Multi Touch mirrors the way we interact with objects in real life and couple with ICONICS GENESIS64 is a revolutionary way of interacting with you plant floor.

Along with certification on Windows 7, ICONICS also announced the release of Energy Analytics, the latest component of the BizViz Analytics family of products. This exciting new product will assist companies with energy conservation efforts by allowing companies to reduce energy consumption, aggregate and summarise energy usage by location and forecast energy costs over time.

All in all the conference was a huge success, with everyone agreeing that they had gained a lot from the event in both updated product knowledge and better sales knowledge.

Robyn Bradley, Marketing Supervisor

As Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, key members of the ICONICS organisation, CEO Russ Agrusa, UK Managing Director Clive Walton and UK Sales Director Andrew Mellor, recently attended the Microsoft World Partner Conference in New Orleans. This massive event focused on the upcoming launch of Windows 7, here is an account of the event from the UK team;

The weather in New Orleans was hot humid and coupled with 9000 other Microsoft partners, the week was extremely busy and chaotic.

Meetings were held with the Windows 7 launch team as ICONICS approaches the final certification to become logo certified Win7. ‘Win 7 is looking extremely quick, reliable and compatible which are qualities we search for in the manufacturing automation space’ says Clive Walton ‘there are good light up features including multi touch and multiple office locations’.

‘The launch of Bing has further enhanced the Microsoft product offering’ says Andrew Mellor ‘it has a better filtered searching, better image search and auto play video results’,

Another interesting feature of Windows 7 is the ability to protect your data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go. This feature allows you to lock an application or set of configuration files down, allowing access to only the people who should have access, this protection can even be extended to removable drives.

‘The Windows 7 Beta versions are proving to be very strong as an offering and will perhaps supersede Vista adoption.’ Says Clive Walton ‘We are eager to get moving with this product and are excited to be a part of the action alongside Microsoft’  

As Gold Certified Partners and early adopters, ICONICS are looking forward to being a part of the Windows 7  and Silverlight 3 Launch. This will involve regional events and marketing activities to demonstrate how ICONICS software utilises the light up features of both products. 

On a more personal note, the week held more excitement for Andrew Mellor, when his notebook was stolen, and then returned at the end of the week (probably when the thieves discovered it was of no use!)

The ICONICS team also met with some senior people inside Microsoft, including the very charming Alison Watson Corporate Vice President of the Worldwide Partner Group.

Microsoft donated the Sunday prior to the event as a day of giving, where many of the partners gave time and effort to help rebuild a school devastated by Katrina.

The week began with a shooting outside the UK hotel (which only added to chaotic feel!) and ended with exciting previews of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 previews… ‘all in a days work’ says Clive Walton. ‘The week was fantastic and we are looking forward to next year’ said Andrew Mellor.

Other exciting Microsoft/ ICONICS news includes the prospect of ICONICS UK signing to sell Microsoft products at greatly reduced ISV prices when purchased with ICONICS products. Try us for SQL, SharePoint, Office or any other Microsoft application.

ICONICS GENESIS32 has been chosen as the Graphical User Interface (GUI) in a new range of underwater tooling modules for underwater hydraulic specialists, Specialist ROV Tooling Services Ltd, based in Insch, Aberdeen.

http://www.specialistrov.co.uk/Intelligent_8_function_valve_pack

The tooling modules consist of some of the most compact intelligent hydraulic valve packs currently available today. Included in the range are an 8 function servo/proportional valve pack and a tooling valve pack containing eight bidirectional solenoid valves, a pressure controller, a pressure sensor, water alarm, oil compensator alarm and an external connection for specialist tools such as a torque tool for opening and closing manually controlled valves using a robot instead of a diver. The torque has to be accurately controlled to prevent the tool from damaging the valves.

Inside the valve packs are specially designed circuit boards rated for 5000m (500Bar) pressure with electronics for all of the above as well as four analogue inputs for additional sensors such as the torque sensor, a fast timer counter used to count pulses for a turns counter (>20khz) and two analogue outputs for additional servo valves for controlling flow etc. These systems are designed for some of the toughest environments in the world.

Our stand alone electronics have their own OPC server written to communicate via RS232 or multi-drop RS485 and even have a driver to allow direct control from Alan Bradley PLCs or SOFTPLC to allow integration with larger control systems such as ROV and Trencher controllers.

The ICONICS SCADA screens were kept deliberately simple. Data is sent to and from the OPC server. The left side has a full size strip chart using GENESIS32 TrendWorX Active X control. The right hand side contains the controls and pressure setting slider. All these use a touch screen to make the operation very simple. Three screens have been provided as standard, one for small torque tools, one for larger torque tools and a general purpose screen that accesses all the capabilities of the valve packs.

All the signals both up and down are recorded in a TrendWorX32 Access database as soon as the laptop or tablet starts up. A button on the screen allows the operator to review the recordings either using the inbuilt VCR software to play back directly on the SCADA screen or using the TrendWorX32 Reporting function. The TrendWorX32 Reports allow the user to output selected data to a spreadsheet which can be distributed to a client as part of any required documentation.

In addition, the Alarming function sits in the background and will pop up information in real time on the user interface if any parameters go outside the preset boundaries.

Chris Ward, Technical Manager of Specialist ROV Tooling Services Ltd, said “The system is simple and intuitive, masking the underlying power of the GENESIS software. The operator is prevented from accessing the main functions of the laptop and cannot change the screens beyond selecting the current operating mode. He cannot shut off the alarms or logging system to ensure no mistakes are made during operations.”

“Every application however is different and we teach our clients how to modify the system to make it work for them. We can integrate images of their tooling into the screens and even animate them so the operator can actually see what is happening. This is a very powerful package”

Specialist ROV Tooling Services Ltd chose GENESIS32 as the GUI for their new range of tooling based on their previous experience with the product and the excellent relationship that exists with ICONICS. “We chose GENESIS32 because the product is infinitely versatile and when we need technical advice, we talk directly to engineers that know the product, not an anonymous helpdesk with scripted replies. We can engineer our systems faster with GENESIS32 than any other toolset and in today’s market place, Time is Money”.

Cully Automation, leading integrators in the Irish Water and Wastewater industry, supply countywide telemetry project for an Irish Local Authority using ICONICS solutions, GENESIS32, AlarmWorX, AlarmWorX Multimedia and WebHMI.
This project uses six WebHMI servers, one in each regional office, to gather information from a network of PLC and low power radio nodes. The Local Authority will use this information to view the flow of water countywide, monitor and alarm of high flows, reservoir levels, water quality issues and will eventually control pumps and motorised valves throughout the county.
The Local Authority will benefit from thin client connectivity using WebHMI, and will be able to view all their graphical information displays, trends and alarms through a web browser. The addition of AlarmWorX Multimedia to this solution ensures that any triggered alarms can be distributed to the right people via a number of communication methods including phone and email.
Cully Automation chose to recommend GENESIS32 for this project based on their excellent and longstanding relationship with ICONICS UK and because they knew that the solution could handle the complex needs and requirements of their client.