Update: OPC Xi is now called OPC .NET 3.0.
Original post: We began this week with a post about the compatibility of the OPC Express Interface (Xi) standard with the existing OPC classic real-time, alarm & events, and historical data access servers to provide interoperability of process automation software and systems.
The OPC Foundation recently held a webinar highlighting this interoperability. Supplier participants included Advosol, Cogent Real-Time Systems, Emerson, Iconics, InduSoft, Kepware, MatrikonOPC, MobiForm Software, OSIsoft, Smar, Software Toolbox, Transpara.
The full OPC Xi Technology Demonstration hour-long webinar recording is available on the OPC Foundation website if you have an OPC Foundation account.
One of the demonstrations I’d like to highlight from this webinar is InduSoft’s Web Studio software connected with Emerson’s DeltaV system. I’ve embedded this 9:17 video from the InduSoft YouTube channel with permission from the InduSoft team.
The first two minutes gives some background on InduSoft and Web Studio and the following minute how the OPC Xi server is part of the DeltaV system. At 3:00, an architecture diagram show the information flow of real-time process, alarm, event, and historical data flow to OPC Xi clients, even through firewalls and across the internet.
This is possible as described in the post earlier this week since OPC Xi is built on top of the secure Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), part of the Microsoft .Net framework.
At 3:30, the demonstration shows how a connection is made from Web Studio across the internet to a DeltaV OPC Xi server. The content inside the OPC Xi server is fully browseable (shown at 5:40). At 7:15, the selected real-time temperature coming from a wireless temperature transmitter [actually located on top of the parking garage at the Emerson Austin facility] is configured and displayed on the Web Studio graphics screen.
This demonstration and all of the others from the webinar show how OPC Xi extends interoperability to address and connect through the complexities of today’s highly secure networks. The result is to get the information into the hands of the right people, no matter where on the planet they happen to be.
I’ve heard that the other videos will soon be available on the OPC Foundation YouTube channel and will update this post when I see them out there.
Update: The videos are now available on the OPC Foundation YouTube channel. There are three: OPC MobiForm, MatrikonOPC, and this same InduSoft one.