A world of opportunity

They say: if you've got it, flaunt it. Not necessarily in the context of industrial networking, but why not? As I talk to more and more people about the magazine, and readers continue to register from all over the world more companies are understanding that: a) they are heavily involved with industrial networking; and b) once you get away from the realms of conventional IT, there are opportunities everywhere.

To support this view, Industrial Networking and Open Control is supporting a new exhibition, Industrial Networks - for Fieldbus & Open Systems, which will be held at the NEC in Birmingham, UK, on February 13 and 14 2002. Organised by Trident Exhibitions, it will be running alongside several other established and successful exhibitions and will itself be a part of MTEC. The other exhibitions have evolved around industrial components and specialisations, such as displays, image processing and machine building. But there has been no exhibition concentrating on what has become the crucial element in modern systems: integrating these components together on a network.

Just like this magazine, the exhibition is vendor-neutral. So any company supporting any protocol is welcome to participate. We hope this will be another step towards encouraging better interworking between systems - a basic principle which we support. There is nothing wrong with proprietary systems as long as their interfaces are open. From secrecy or uncertainty comes misunderstanding, and it's misunderstanding that leads to bad integration.

Another step forward we have take this month is to present the centre of the magazine, dedicated to Building Control and Energy Management, in the format of a supplement. Manufacturers throughout the networking world are involved in building control systems, and many have been setting up dedicated organisations to handle this market. The demands on these systems are every bit as rigorous as those placed on systems in manufacturing and process control, and in many more cases lives are at stake so high reliability and accuracy are an imperative. 'Intelligent Buildings' have been around for some time now as a concept, but the technology has only recently caught up with the theory.

It all seems straightforward on paper, but the building control sector of our industry is fighting a difficult battle against conflicting requirements. Networked building control systems might make perfect sense to us, but we are not the people that have to be convinced. Architects, developers and building contractors have to be convinced too, and even though it leads to safer buildings that are easier to manage and better to work in these initiatives need support and encouragement. It's a classic case of having to get all the users on your side.

Because it's such a key area, we'll be running regular supplements on building control, with future issues focusing on aspects such as energy control, which in a difficult economic climate is trying to reduce pollution and get into smaller, smarter buildings.

We're also looking briefly in this issue at networking without wires. This brings opportunities for manufacturers who need flexibility in a particular workplace (for instance on a car production line) or for organisations putting control systems around the world. Like buildings, this is something we'll be coming back to again and again.

Use feedback to let us know your views: It couldn't be easier.

Geoff Lock
Editor