Over 100 engineers and 27 vendors participated in theBACnet Testing Laboratories' (BTL) sixth annual BACnet Interoperability Workstation,better know as the "Plugfest," in Danvers, MA. The event, hosted by TAC, brings together BACnet vendors from all over the world to test their BACnet solutions and improve interoperability in a non-competitive environment.

This was the largest Plugfest to date, with over 100 engineers and 27 vendors participating. Companies represented at this year's event included ABB, Alerton, American Auto-Matrix, Automated Logic, BACnet Testing Laboratories, Cimetrics, Delta Controls, FieldServer Technologies, Honeywell Fire Systems - Notifier, Honeywell International, Invensys, ITT Bell & Gossett, Johnson Controls, Kiyon, KMC Controls, Lithonia Lighting, LOYTEC Electronics, McQuay, Phoenix Controls, Priva Building Automation, Reliable Controls, Siemens Building Technologies, Teletrol Systems, TAC, Trane, Tridium, Viconics, and York International.

"Round Table" testing was introduced to the Plugfest this year in addition to the usual one-on-one testing. The round table allows all the vendors to plug-in and test their solutions in one large multi-vendor network.

"The Round Table was a great success and the perfect example of the current state of BACnet," said Jon Williamson, product marketing manager for TAC and marketing chairman of the BACnet Manufacturers Association. "It demonstrated that a wide-variety of BACnet devices can be hooked up in a matter of minutes without difficulty using the BACnet protocol."

BACnet is an ISO standard 16484-5 for building technology protocols and is a registered trademark of ASHRAE.