CitectFacilities V7.0 Takes Control Design to a New Level in Building Industry.Clustering capabilities and online changes provide easier monitoring and more efficient changes.

The launch of CitectFacilities V7.0 offers new agile control from smart apartments to the largest multi-building campuses. The V7.0 release also adds Konnex EIB to its long list of drivers, introduces advanced clustering, and allows managers to control their sites from anywhere using its embedded Web client.

“CitectFacilties is known for its reliability through redundancy at all levels of operation and its open connectivity to multiple systems,” said Stephen Flannigan, Global Director of CitectFacilities. “In this release, Citect introduces support for multiple server clusters to help property owners and facility managers optimize the reliability and cost effectiveness of their building systems.”

The new software architecture in V7.0 permits a variety of new control designs. Users can choose centralized or localized control, according to their needs. The local distribution of the servers to each building means alarming and trending continue regardless of the reliability of networking or a central control room. If a network failure occurs within the system, historical tag data is passed from the local systems to the central server to maintain the data integrity. This topology also allows a single central server to act as a redundant system for a number of systems in each building, which leads to greater savings without jeopardizing reliability.

Furthermore, V7.0 offers a free Web client in each server license. This Web client allows the monitoring of facilities systems to be located on any PC within the business or in a central monitoring room. The Web client can be called from the combined alarm list through “ad-hoc clustering” to permit the operator to locate the exact graphics page within the local facilities system. The new dynamic-point licensing means client licenses need only be valid for the number of points used. Single building companies only pay only for the points in that building while multi-campus companies benefit from attractive point-size license packages.

Operational Clustering
This release allows a client station to view alarms, trends, reports and graphics from multiple server groups across an entire facility, such as a multi-site campus of a hospital, university, exhibition center, sports facilities, and more.

V7.0 also permits users to combine projects from existing systems into a single project (using the same graphics and code) to achieve a common look and feel. All tags, alarms, trends, reports, accumulators, and devices are selectable to the cluster on which they will be run. Any changes are replicated across all systems, allowing the multi-site system to be administered as a single site.

Ad-hoc Clustering
Another option is to view the alarms, trends and reports from multiple groups of servers without combining all the projects together into a single large project. This is the simplest form of clustering to implement; it requires the servers to be CitectFacilities V7.0 and the clients to know the exact details of the cluster configuration from each of those servers. With this information the client is able to access all the alarm, trend and report information remotely.

Reliable Clustering
Reliable clustering is a proposition unique to CitectFacilities. A single server can operate as one half of a redundant pair for many remote servers. It is most beneficial in applications where the user has separate control systems scattered around the facility and requires a redundant system (without a redundant system at each local control center). It also works well for sites with a centralized server where particular processes need to be monitored through a local server with full alarm, trend and report functionality.

About Citect
Citect is a global provider of industrial automation, real-time intelligence, and next generation manufacturing execution systems (MES). Leveraging open technologies, CitectHMI/SCADA and Ampla connect to multiple plant and business systems. Its products are complemented by Professional Services, Global Customer Support and Educational Services. Distributed in more than 80 countries worldwide, Citect solutions are installed in numerous industries: mining, metals, food and beverage, manufacturing, facilities, water/wastewater, oil & gas, power generation/distribution and pharmaceuticals. Citect has offices in Oceania, Africa, the Americas, China, Europe, India, Japan and Southeast Asia. www.citect.com

Courtesy of  Citect