Matt MacBrien, Sterling's sales manager states, "This is a real honor.  It reflects our committment to be a top tier supplier for our strategic partners."

Owner Lisa Garst says, "This shows that we are living up to our mission of working with integrity and earning the trust of our suppliers and customers.  We want to be long term partners in their success.  We use our training, experience and expertise to provide innovative solutions and products – all backed by a knowledgeable, accessible, dedicated team."

About Sterling Engineering Solutions

Sterling is a Virginia based company serving the Mid Atlantic region providing instrumentation, controls and communications equipment such as industrial Ethernet, radios, sensors and controllers.  Sterling was founded in 1996 and is a Woman Owned Small Business.

About CalAmp

CalAmp develops and markets wireless communications solutions that deliver data connectivity services for critical networked communications and other applications. The Company's two business segments are Wireless DataCom, which serves governmental, enterprise and utility customers, and Satellite, which focuses on the North American Direct Broadcast Satellite market. For more information, please visit www.calamp.com.

Network administrators may encounter blind spots during the 4 phases of the network life cycle, including Installation, Operations, Maintenance and Troubleshooting.

1) After the installation phase: What is my topology and what are my device configurations?

The “big picture” of an industrial network contains important information that could help optimize the performance of the network. For example, reviewing how VLANs are set up, how switches are linked to one another, and how redundancy configurations are set up all contribute to optimizing bandwidth efficiency and network availability. Are any links missing? Are there links that are redundant? Furthermore, the network structure may be updated or expanded over time to meet certain demands, which will lead to configuration or topology changes.

Without industrial network management software, which displays the physical link status of a network, information about topology settings and device configuration is only accessible by manually looking at each individual device, one at a time. This labor-intensive task not only drags down the network administrators’ productivity, it also provides them no way to get the all-important “big picture” perspective that would empower them to truly optimize network performance.

Figure 1. Moxa’s MXview graphic interface allows users to easily and quickly identify the VLAN/IGMP settings.

2) In the Operations Phase: Are any unapproved devices connected to my network?

Network security is a core priority of industrial operations, especially considering the cost, scale, and significance of the mission-critical systems that are controlled by industrial networks. But how can network administrators know for sure that there are no unauthorized devices on the network? A network may seem to be operating normally—but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any unapproved devices lurking on the network. However, unless something abnormal occurs, network administrators have no way to detect the presence of rogue devices.

The only way for administrators to be confident about the integrity of their industrial networks is to give them a complete and up-to-date picture of the network, at all times. By reviewing this information, administrators will be able to immediately tell if a device is connected that does not belong there.

Figure 2. MXview performs automatic device and topology detection to graphically display the network layout, including redundant rings

3) In the Maintenance Phase: How can I identify malfunctioning devices and replace them in time?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, whether the patient is a person or an industrial network. However, the third network blind spot that occurs is the inability of network administrators to identify malfunctioning devices or cables until a serious and potentially costly problem occurs. If a device or a cable is only failing intermittently, or performing slightly below-spec, that won’t be immediately apparent. Network administrators must rely on testing and guesswork to find devices that need to be replaced.

In order to optimize network maintenance and performance, network administrators should be able to review each individual device’s performance history, including metrics such as total downtime. Armed with this knowledge, administrators can pro-actively attack network trouble spots, preventing minor issues from becoming full-blown problems. In addition, by gaining accurate traffic monitoring data, network administrators can learn about network behaviour and make informed decisions about whether to replace existing devices or expand the capability of the network.

Figure 3. MXview provides comprehensive report functionality, including device availability reports, which helps users optimize network health.

4) In the Troubleshooting Phase: Why did my network go down?

When a network interruption occurs, the very first step is to quickly pinpoint where the problem occurred, identify the scope of the issue, and the source of the disconnection error. Even if network redundancy allows the network to quickly recover from the network failure, it’s still important to find out “why,” in order to fix the underlying problem.

However, without industrial network management software, administrators need to guess at the source of the problem, and perhaps physically check each of the network nodes, in order to identify the cause of a network interruption. This is far from an ideal solution, especially when one considers how physically vast an industrial network could be and the substantial costs of ongoing downtime in a critical industrial network.

Network administrators need management software that not only will quickly and visually display the overall network, including any problem spots that may exist, but also will provide historical data analysis. Thus, when a disconnection occurs, they will be able to immediately identify the location of the problem.

Figure 4. One of MXview’s unique features is Event Playback, which records and replays network events to investigate what happened on the network over a specific time interval.

5) In the Troubleshooting Phase: What events are occurring on the network?

Many things happen at once in an industrial system, events occur on the industrial network all the time. But without network management tools, administrators must try and keep the network running without real-time updates about the latest events on the network, such as high traffic, blocked ports, or link disconnections. Without these updates, administrators must always play catch-up and try to follow up on issues well after their consequences are already felt.

An ideal industrial network management software would give network administrators real-time alerts when anything out of the ordinary occurs on the network. These alerts would immediately inform network administrators when action needs to be taken, improving their response time and network awareness, and thus maximizing their effectiveness.

Figure 5. MXview sends real-time alerts about any network change, node/link failure or packet error via SMS, Email, audio alaerts, and pop-up messages.

MXView Industrial Network Management Software Shines a Spotlight on Network Blind Spots

Moxa’s MXview industrial network management software gives network administrators all the information and insights they need to achieve greater network performance and efficiency, and it does so in a package that intuitive and easy-to-use for non-IT experts.

Key Features:

• ●　Live topology visualization gives network administrators an at-a-glance view of the network, and makes it easy to locate the source of link disconnections.
• ●　VLAN visualization, front panel visualization, configuration management, and live link views give administrators the complete “big picture” about the network.
• ●　Automatically scans the network, identifying any new and potentially rogue devices that have been connected.
• ●　Generates device availability, traffic, and other reports to empower administrators to pro-actively maintain devices on the network.
• ●　Real-time notification about network events such as broken links and high traffic.

Don’t let network blind spots compromise your network’s performance and reliability. Get complete details about MXviewhere, and download without any time limits the fully functional 20-node free trial version here.

David will provide our Eastern Virginia customers with over 17 years of experience in Industrial Automation. He also holds a BS Degree in Physics from Virginia Military Institute (VMI). He is based out of Fredericksburg Virginia where he is the father of three beautiful kids! 

He joins our team of engineers and factory certified automation specialist. We work together to provide real solutions designed for your specific application.

Please Contact Dave Directly at 540-498-6678

At Sterling, we settle for nothing less than the best for our customers. That's why we have added an Outside Sales Represenative with over 25 years in the automation business. Richard McSwain is an Expert in PLC's, sensors and automation controls.

He joins our team of engineers and factory certified automation specialist. We work together to provide real solutions designed for your specific application.

Please Contact Richard Directly at 704-560-0082

Recently, Moxa went head to head with three comparable products in a performance test. Watch carefully at the network data gets cranked up.  See how the EDR-G903 performed here. 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

New Red Lion ProducTVity Station™ Transforms Consumer TVs into KPI Production Scoreboard and Andon System, Supporting Increased Profitability

Roanoke, Va. (November 14, 2011) — Sterling Engineering Solutions introduces the new ProducTVity Station™ (PTV), from Red Lion, the only ready-to-deploy solution for collecting, recording and displaying critical key performance indicators (KPIs) and machine status messages on any TV, monitor or projector equipped with a DVI/HDMI interface.

The ProducTVity Station is able to collect data from a wide range of automation components. Using a library of over 200 communications drivers, the ProducTVity Station can communicate to PLCs, motor drives, motion controllers, bar code scanners and more. Additionally, the PTV can be expanded with CS series I/O modules, allowing it to accept digital and analog inputs from a range of sensors.

An easy-to-use, fully-programmable graphical interface allows users to create high-definition visual management displays—without the limits imposed by traditional LED-based Lean manufacturing displays—visually combining KPIs along with andon messages. The ProducTVity Station’s 720p (1280 x 780 resolution) DVI output is compatible with both 720p and 1080p/i TVs with DVI or HDMI interfaces. A built-in data-logger can record key performance indicators, as well as andon events for later review, and can synchronize the log files with any FTP server and/or Microsoft’s SQL Server^® for further analysis.

“Lean manufacturing, six-sigma, total quality management, continuous improvement—all of these terms refer, in some form or another, to the efforts of companies as they strive to become more competitive in a global economy,” said Jesse Benefiel, Red Lion Product Manager. “While various strategies are implemented in order to improve productivity, they all have two things in common: the collection of KPIs and the communication of those KPIs to the people who can most affect improvement—the production floor personnel.”

The ProducTVity Station extends production monitoring to remote personnel by providing email and text alerts, and its built-in webserver allows productivity information to be monitored via any networked PC or smart-phone. If enabled, personnel can take partial or full control of the system remotely, allowing a maintenance person to effect changes without a site visit.

The ProducTVity Station ships complete with a 2GB CompactFlash card, as well as a DVI to HDMI cable (15´), and HDMI/DVI adapter. The device is programmed with Red Lion’s popular Crimson^® software.

For additional information on the PTV, please contact Lisa or Reid Garst at Sterling Engineering Solutions at 1-888-554-2021 or by e-mail at sales@sterlinges.com.

Sterling Engineering Solutions was founded in 1996 by a partnership of PPC Plant Services and Reid A. Garst. Based in Virginia, Sterling has earned a reputation as a knowledgeable, hardworking and honest company. Sterling is an established representative and distributor for more than a dozen well-known and highly respected industrial instrumentation and control manufacturers.

Sterling is a SWaM certified Woman-Owned, Small Business and is registered with eVA and CCR.