Telemetry

Communicating with remote devices

Panorama SCADA

Telemetry solutions are communication systems used to remotely control geographically scattered or isolated technical facilities or processes via a computer, smartphone or tablet, primarily through use of geolocation. The telemetry front-end offered by Panorama, our SCADA software, is used in many areas of activity such as drinking water management, sanitation, and distribution and development of water systems, etc. Our customer references, including from operators of vital importance and operators of essential services in the water sector, describe the main benefits of this solution.

In practice, the telemetry principle is based around sensors (for instance pressure, ultrasonic, flow, temperature, level sensors, etc.), transmission paths, and a display, recording, or control device. As a technology, it is capable of functioning with intermittent and low-speed communications and applies the following concepts: Establishment of a connection before communicating, exchange of data blocks in non-real-time (even in high-latency scenarios), and ability to communicate with the same device via different media. In all cases, telemetry requires reliable communications equipment such as telephone lines, GSM or SMS (for example for sending warning or error messages). Higher speed ADSL or fiber networks may also be a possibility for data transmission. Traditionally based on PSTN or GSM technologies, the world of hard wired and wireless telemetry systems is changing.

The arrival of the Internet of Things is shifting the goalposts. The industrial IoT offers notable advantages such as excellent communication capacity over long distances, low equipment costs and low monthly subscription rates. It may prove to be a complementary technology, useful for traditional telemetry systems and offering good performance for covering remote inaccessible points. The potential for this technological complementarity has been taken into account in Panorama software. Both in terms of communication equipment and functional coverage, you have all the tools required to create a telemetry application that meets your operational needs. Codra’s long-standing experience in this type of application guarantees the robustness and durability of the Panorama solution.

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Case studies

Installation of telemetry is usually used to communicate with several structures or plants dispersed over a wide geographical area. Telemetry equipment can operate in fully standalone mode in isolated locations.

The benefits offered by telemetry allow you to:

Optimize travel of personnel by reducing the number of visits planned, or even eliminating systematic rounds.
Modify the settings of remote equipment to adjust their operation to local constraints.
Centralize information and create collective intelligence in order to predict the consequences of an event on other downstream sites (such as a thunderstorm) or upstream ones (increased water consumption of users).
Regularly measure and compare indicators thus ensuring better traceability, which can be used to facilitate and improve the maintenance and service life of plants.

For example, telemetry allows you to read the parameters of your plant as if you were on the ground. Centralized in a SCADA application such as Panorama, these measurements can be correlated with each other or contextualized with other data from third-party or cloud systems. This way of operating will save you time and help you assess situations swiftly and accurately without incurring multiple visits to locations.

It is for these reasons that the operational center of water company Veolia Eau Seine et Marne Nord purchased centralized and remotely controllable Panorama SCADA software in 2007, allowing it to collect and map all the telemetry data transmitted from sensors on equipment installed in drinking water and wastewater treatment plants. This has enabled pooling of equipment monitoring and measurement data and facilitated access to information, ensuring ease of use and responsiveness for operators (both in their daily activities and on-call schedules).

Read the success story: VEOLIA

Equipment and protocols

These telemetry functions were first implemented by the water industry (applications for treatment plants, pumping, distribution and collection). Industry regulation and companies from the sector therefore dominate the market, for example, SOFREL and Perax with key protocols such as SOFBUS and LACBUS. Other markets then developed their own communications equipment and communication protocols, for example, electricity, gas, renewables and road traffic management and control. More recently, public lighting and building energy efficiency have been added to the trend. WIT, Ijinus and IoT protocols complete and diversify the current offering. Management software such as Panorama offers excellent interoperability between a wide variety of environments and systems. The ultimate aim is to provide operators with a powerful tool that is focused around their expertise in terms of daily tasks and delivers high-quality service and insights.

Our telemetry solution enhances the user experience of agents through, for example, provision of a mobile SCADA application. Multiple stakeholders will benefit from Panorama Mobile, such as operators, team leaders and production managers, as it gives you access to the information you need during interventions on the ground: visualization, real-time control, messaging service, and KPI tracking.

From a technical point of view, all of Panorama’s functions are available in a single configuration workshop: one interface for importing telemetry equipment configurations, implementing business rules and designing HMI views. Tailor-made support can even be provided by our integrator partners and experts to ensure optimal setup of your telemetry application.