ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest Returns by Popular Demand

Last July’s Protocols Plugfest was an enormous success for the ESTA Technical Standards program as it attracted many first time attendees who brought several new control products to test and debug control protocol interoperability.

The experience proved invaluable for the attendees as they were given the opportunity to test their products with a wide array of other manufacturers control products on the same network. As the members of the Control Protocols Working Group are also event attendees the Plugfest has become the industries single leading resource in having protocol implementation questions authoritatively answered.

The ESTA Technical Standards Program is organizing another Controls Protocol “plugfest” as part of their January conference. It will be held at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Marriott Solana hotel in Westlake, Texas on: Friday, January 22 from 16:00 to 22:00; Saturday, January 23 from 09:00 to 22:00; and Sunday, January 24 from 09:00 to 14:00.

The Control Protocols Plugfest is an informal event where the only people to see the equipment work or fail being engineers and technicians, not customers. The event provides a working protocols lab for manufacturers' engineers to see if their products will co-exist and communicate with the products of other manufacturers, and if required - find out on the spot what is wrong, fix it, and try again.

The ESTA Controls Protocol Working Groups supports the following standards during this event:

ANSI E1.11 – 2008, USITT DMX512-A,

ANSI E1.17 – 2006, Architecture for Control Networks (ACN)

ANSI E1.20 – 2006, RDM-Remote Device Management over USITT DMX512 Networks

ANSI E1.31 – 2009, Lightweight streaming protocol for transport of DMX512 using ACN

For more information and to register, contact Scott Blair. Registration is required so that the logistics of the equipment delivery, setup, and removal can be properly organized. There is no charge for participation and the event is open to non-members. Hotel reservations may be reserved through the ESTA website.