Adroit Technologies, developers of advanced supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) systems and Spectrum Communications, a leader in South Africa’s telecommunications and tele-control industries, celebrate over 12 years of supplying local and international customers with reliable, user friendly, and cost effective scada and telemetry systems for all facets of industry.
Adroit has become the product of choice for many users in mainstream as well as lesser-known industrial sectors and is a pioneer in applications that are not only new to scada but also to PC control in general.
As a systems house, Spectrum's expertise in the design, installation and commissioning of major projects in the telemetry, telecommunications and scada industries made them ideal partners and systems integrators for Adroit.
Adroit's advanced scada systems have provided features that complement telemetry product offerings and are unique to the supervisory control and data acquisition market. Such features include vector-based graphics with unrestricted zooming and panning, time-stamped protocol support (time-stamped values arriving out of sequence are inserted in correct sequence in history files) and server-redundancy based on the cluster server principle.
Spectrum's telemetry is a sophisticated combination of instrumentation, embedded software, radio-frequency propagation and up to ten related technologies blended into a multimedium communication system capable of intelligent control.
Adroit has been the scada of choice in Spectrum's telemetry applications, as it feels that Adroit is South Africa's leading provider of contemporary support to the telemetry industry's new emerging functions or trends.
Adroit's telemetry protocols have been designed to be especially efficient in radio-based WAN networks, allowing even exception-based tasks to be executed over great distances. Via the scada package's native drivers and inherent OPC client, it can communicate with most telemetry-based protocols on the market, including DNP3, UCA2, IEC 61850, Profibus and more, making it one of the most versatile on the market today.
The relationship began in 1990, with Adroit supplying Spectrum its well-known, original DOS-based software - Turbolink scada. Together, Spectrum and Adroit installed many Turbolink systems throughout South Africa, with initial concentration in the mining industry.
Through the technological progression of Adroit Technologies products to the Adroit product itself, the relationship between Adroit and Spectrum continued to flourish, as the companies were able to provide customers with cutting-edge technology.
Proudly South African, both Adroit Technologies and Spectrum Communications produce products that are wholly South African. Adroit was an early adopter of the 'Proudly South African' logo, which it notably displayed on all their exhibition material. Profiled as an SMME, Adroit has been the recipient of the IDC SPII funding and received the Top Technology Company Award 2000. Spectrum Communications was a recipient of the SPII award for tele-FLEX development (2001) and nominated as one of South Africa's top 300 companies (2002). Both companies have a policy of establishing long-term partnerships with their clients.
History of Adroit
Adroit Technologies was formed in 1993 as a joint venture between D Le Roux and Associates and AZON Controls, a subsidiary of AECI. Adroit is an acronym for advanced, distributed, realtime, object-oriented, intelligent toolkit. The company's charter was to locally develop a Windows NT-based scada system capable of competing in the international arena. Both companies brought considerable software development, process and control experience into the joint venture.
Adroit was first released as version 3.0 in 1993. Subsequent development and enhancements resulted in the release of Adroit 3.5 in 1994, followed by 3.51, 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2. Version 5.0 of Adroit is imminent and release is expected in November 2002.
The company employs 48 permanent salaried staff, and concerns itself mainly with R&D, production, marketing, sales and support of software products for automation, scada, MIS and MES solutions. In addition Adroit Technologies consults in and develops specialised software, including drivers.
The product is steeped in Microsoft technologies and as a Microsoft certified solution provider (MCSP), Adroit Technologies enjoys a very close working relationship with Microsoft, both locally and internationally. In fact some of the Adroit software developers are employed by Microsoft in Redmond, enhancing the relationship even further. Whilst the main product of the company is the Adroit scada package, Adroit Technologies provides both sales and support for the OPUS data portal.
History of Spectrum Communications
Since its establishment in 1973, Spectrum has rapidly grown to become a leader in South Africa's telecommunications and tele-control industries. Spectrum now has offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, George, Port Elizabeth and East London. Engineering expertise, customer support and products are available from all centres.
Spectrum has over 20 years of experience to its credit in the design and manufacture of state-of-the-art tele-control equipment, delivering to diverse industries in the local and overseas markets. As a major importer and distributor of high-tech radio communications equipment, Spectrum has achieved an extensive product distribution base, presently supplying equipment continent-wide to the following:
End-users
Spectrum's success can be directly attributed to its investment in people. The majority of Spectrum's staff have university or Technikon qualifications. This dedicated and professional team has enabled Spectrum to achieve and maintain an unprecedented growth rate. Electrical, water and wastewater, irrigation and water boards and electrical reticulation authorities employ Spectrum telemetry to bring about a better level of service to their customers and an increased quality of life to all South Africans.
Mining Industry Spectrum supplies communications and scada to opencast, shaft and marine mining. Systems include voice and data communications, vehicle location and monitoring, security and tele-control. This provides a more efficient utilisation of human resources, plant and power.
Shipping industry
Spectrum's industrial scada and instrumentation expertise is used on board ships to provide visual instrumentation displays for operational data and alarms. Preventative and programmed maintenance can be integrated and prioritised.
Turnkey contracting
Spectrum's strength lies in its ability to engineer turnkey radio communications and telemetry systems to specific client requirements. Such contracts involve bringing together equipment, technology and expertise from different disciplines. These include RF technology, voice and data communications, instrumentation, power and civil works.
Scada and telemetry
With Adroit pioneering local scada development and Spectrum at the leading edge in the field of telemetry in Africa, this powerful partnership was inevitable.
Spectrum's locally developed tele-RANGER and tele-FLEX system has shown exceptional performance and adaptability, resulting in the capture of a major market share. tele-FLEX and tele-RANGER find applications in most forms of business from high-end scada type applications to simplistic monitoring and control.
Over their 12-year relationship, Spectrum and Adroit have undertaken numerous successful scada telemetry projects, which can be seen both locally and internationally.
The future of scada and telemetry
Spectrum and Adroit believe that the industry will continue to see a shift away from proprietary type telemetry systems in certain markets. Meters, instrumentation, protection devices, loggers and other components are becoming more intelligent. The change for telemetry manufacturers will be to provide a means of gathering, manipulating and distributing process control related data using multiple communication media and protocols. Intelligent devices will not shrink the telemetry market, but will grow it by translating into a more customer friendly environment, where more information is available at less cost. The boundaries between PLC, scada, RTU, PC and other components are likely to blend even further.
PLCs are likely to become smaller, faster, cheaper and more functional. More intelligent PLCs and advanced RTUs like the tele-Flex will take over more automated control functions from scada systems, which will concentrate on monitoring, database and non-automated control functions.
For more information contact Paul Geng, Adroit, 011 781 3513, [email protected], www.adroit.co.za
Kevin Clack, national sales manager, Spectrum Communications, 021 551 5800, [email protected]
| Tel: | +27 11 658 8100 |
| Fax: | +27 11 658 8101 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.adroit.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Adroit Technologies |
| Tel: | +27 21 001 5500 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.spectrumcom.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Spectrum Communications |
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