Hi, I'm Dave Spencer with the VTScada team
One of the unique aspects of my job is that
I get to explore up-and-coming
technologies to see how those might
influence the SCADA industry in the future.
Recently Chris little and I got
to meet our friend Martin, at the water
utility in Windsor Nova Scotia. There we
had the opportunity to put a Microsoft
HoloLens, an augmented-reality product, into
Martin's hands, to find out how a future
iteration of this product might
influence his daily routine.
Chris and I felt that this concept was
interesting enough to put into a short
video so we can easily share Martin's
thoughts on the technology and how it
might be used in the future. What you see
in this video is the HoloLens running
today's VTScada thin client as
projected holograms. I hope you enjoy it.
I'm the manager of operations for water and
wastewater treatment for the Town of Windsor
that includes overseeing all aspects of
the day-to-day operations for our water
treatment, and two wastewater treatment
facilities
I've been with the town for 10 years
I've been in this position for two years
[It's] incredibly interesting, the industry's
changing constantly.
As we do daily rounds through the water plant we
have a long
check sheet that we that we go through
everyday and in on weekends as well and
we check every every system in the plant
every pump, every chemical feed so
I think would be pretty
cool to be able to walk through the
whole water plant with this [device] on and
look at every piece of equipment
through the eyes of of real-time
data you know
and instead of the, you know, just
your general look, listen,
and feel, you know, and writing
numbers down on a on a chemical
feed pump or, you know, averages on a
motor and to be able to physically look
at everything in your facility
and it shows shows those amperages
and run times and an alarm
status is as you look at that piece of
equipment. I think it's that's a pretty
it's a mind-boggling, you know, technology
I think the augmented reality is
is a pretty neat concept you know it
again like to have to have all that at
your fingertips as the that's the that's
that's a that's a pretty cool thing. You
know the the way of the old school
operators is slowly dissipating, you
know, the more conferences,
courses, and information sessions that I
attend; there's a continuing trend
of of younger operators that are a
little more comfortable with technology
you know and just the guys I work with
were all we're all roughly the same age
and we're all kinda on board with trying
out the latest and greatest, you know, and
you know going from, you know,
are our new wastewater facility with with
the technologies were using there to
to one of the first and utilities to to
be using all this SCADA, you know,
so I think, I think it would be well
received and obviously there's a
substantial amount of training that
would have to be involved there, you know,
for everybody to come comfortable
with it and you're bound to have a few
staff members i think that are gonna
going to have some some hard times with
it but I think that in general it'll be
quite well received.
I did note that just trying
to get your fingers right, like just
just becoming accustomed to it I guess
this is the biggest hurdle for
anybody and to to convince them that
that it's a good thing and that's a good
tool. You know when I first started I
was overwhelmed with with just you know
the SCADA coming from from what I was
using and from my last job and it was a
it was a bit of an undertaking to, to
learn that and and become comfortable
with it but once you got it, you know,
I couldn't operate without it anymore
and
I think, you know, something like this,
you know, in 20 years time might be, you
know, somebody could be sitting there
saying the exact same thing, you know,
only without without having a HoloLens
on my my head, walking from my plant,
how could i ever ever know what's going
on? You know, so it's a,
it's a pretty neat technology
