• By integrating with the process historian from Canary Labs, Longwatch can not only display all the data from an event, it can show video of what happened out in the plant
NORWOOD, MA, Aug. 5, 2009 -- Longwatch Inc., a leading developer of Video MES software, announced a bi-directional OEM agreement with Canary Labs, a premier maker of data historian software. The Longwatch Video Historian now offers Canary Labs Trend Historian and Trend Link software that enables users to link video with plant data. Together, the two systems archive all the relevant information -- video and real-time data -- from a process or automation system, making it much easier for plant operators and engineers to analyze events, alarms and actions.
When video cameras are situated to monitor process or automation operations -- such as assembly lines, inspection stations, machine tools, pumping stations, tanks or similar systems -- video from the cameras is stored along with real-time data from the process. If an alarm occurs, or operators want to analyze problems with a system, both the archived trend data and video can be "replayed" and displayed simultaneously using the Longwatch Viewer software. This allows operators and engineers to see all of the pertinent process data from the historian, plus view video of the process equipment, at the same points in time.
The Longwatch Video System can acquire video from both analog and digital cameras throughout the plant. Video data can be sent over existing plant networks, wireless or cellular links to a central server in the control room, where it can be viewed on HMI/SCADA workstations. Video can be viewed live, attached to an alarm message as a short "snippet," or archived in the server along with real-time process data.
Canary's Trend Link chart object, integrated into the Longwatch Video Historian for automatic visual synchronization of trend charts and video, can interface to other historical data archives using OPC-HDA. Similarly, the Canary Labs Trend Historian collection engine can obtain real-time data directly from PLCs, RTUs, data acquisition systems, DCSes, PC-based control systems, and other smart systems via OPC interfaces.
Video makes analyzing past events and trends much easier than simply looking at raw data and reports on a screen.
"Canary Labs has enabled us to make initial installations of our new Video Historian very easy and very capable," said Steve Rubin, President and CEO of Longwatch. "Our Video Historian has received a great deal of interest from early adopters, and the inclusion of the scalable and powerful trend engine from Canary makes the product that much more valuable," Rubin said.
"We're pleased to be working with the innovative team at Longwatch," stated Gary Stern, president of Canary Labs. "The engineering teams in both companies have a rich and successful history of satisfying the needs of industrial customers. With this relationship, we're able to take the application of our product families to new levels and new applications," he added.
The Canary Labs historian and trending component is part of the "Starter Pack" of Longwatch's Video Historian software.
About Longwatch
Longwatch Inc. was founded by industrial automation and software veterans with the goal of simplifying video delivery over existing SCADA, HMI and distributed control networks. The result is the Longwatch Video System™, a portfolio of products that enables SCADA system users to view events and easily verify alarms at local and remote sites using both legacy and new networking infrastructures. The system integrates video and system alarms on the same display for fast, reliable operation and decision-making.
About Canary Labs
Since 1985, Canary Labs has been focused on delivering best in class historian trending tools and solutions on a global scale. Our client base has grown since our inception, to over 10,000 implementations in over 24 countries around the world. We believe our success is driven by our focus on developing our solutions from the end user's perspective, with scale in mind. Our Trend Viewer is the viewer of choice for our clients across all industries due to the flexibility and control provided at the end user level without the need to involve IT. Large enterprises have come to rely on Canary Labs' scalable architecture and performance, enabling our clients to collect 100,000+ tags at millisecond intervals utilizing the smallest hardware requirements in the industry.
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