AHR 2017

Trade shows are a necessary evil. I’d bet I’ve been to 100 of them. Mind numbing duplication. Same tables with the same literature with the same toothy, smiling people asking “how’s the show going?” If you are a bit evil and fun loving, just for fun, recount everything you did that day including what you had for breakfast, what the taxi driver looked like, and then slowly list each of the aisles you’ve visited, how much your feet hurt, and what you plan to have for dinner.

Now, if you’ve been to a European show, they are a little bit different. You find snacks and something to drink in every booth. In the big ones, you can get little sandwiches, really good cookies and pastries, fruit, and sometimes waiter service at a real table. You’ll never leave hungry if you visit SPS Drives or Hannover Fair.

You’ll also usually see painted ladies at these European shows. I’ve accidentally run into some of these ladies, but for the life of me I can’t tell you what booth they were in or what product was being pushed. Odd that I can’t remember that, isn’t it? In the USA this “modeling” has largely been eliminated. Probably for the better they distracted those inclined from the messaging and scared off most of those who were more interested in the technology. Regardless of your opinion on the practice I find the cultural differences of doing business around the world fascinating.

Now to the Point!
I’m thinking about all this because RTA is doing a show next month (January 2017): AHR Expo – the Building Automation show. This is the show where people show off all sorts of new and improved building automation devices from lighting to air conditioning to fans and tools. It’s quite an eclectic show. There are even automotive folks there with vehicles for people who service HVAC systems. These vehicles are customized with all sorts of cool fold out tables, work benches, rotating shelving systems, and more. I always marvel at how innovative these guys are.

RTA will have our typical booth stocked with books, product literature, and some very cool surprise giveaways. We’ll show our BACnet products. One of the products we will be featuring is our new BACnet router. At last year’s show, a lot of folks stopped to ask if we have a router. Well, you ask and we deliver. We’ll be demonstrating what we think is going to be the best BACnet router on the planet. Our forte is ease of use – we’ve really got that down and this device is no exception. You’ll have to see it to believe it.

The other cool product that we’ll be showing at the show is our new Bluetooth Low Energy Coolant Monitor System. This is a product we’ve done in partnership with Transducers Direct. Transducers Direct has the really cool device that sends pressure data out over Bluetooth. Our product grabs that data and puts it on BACnet so that your building automation system can monitor how hard the compressors are working. Knowing that you have a coolant leak can save a lot of money over time.

We’ll be talking with customers about a number of very interesting IoT solutions that we are doing for customers. Unlike some other folks that want to do it all for you, we are plumbers. We’ll give you the plumbing to get your data from where it is today into the cloud. You can take it from there. If you’re any kind of an integrator, you don’t want to do the basic plumbing. You want to make the application work and that’s what our products are designed to do.

If you’re any kind of distributor or integrator in the Building Automation industry you’ll want to connect with me (John Rinaldi) or Monica Olson at the show. You can do that by clicking here and leaving a message for us. We’d be happy to discuss how you can get these products, or to talk about how we can help you move data around your building or factory.