About 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to be responsible for an ATC D-B control group and learned the valuable lessons of building ATC shop drawing submittals. From this experience, I gained an appreciation for really good ATC submittals, and as a result, I'm concerned with what we are getting for control submittals today from equipment manufacturers who have entered the ATC business. Comparing today's new control vender performance vs. the traditional control companies, I have to say that those old-time single-source firms don't seem as bad as we perceived them just a few years ago when they dominated the ATC market.
With almost every piece of new equipment coming with its own computerized control packages today, the ATC contractor is just one of a few ATC contractors involved during the construction phase. Along with the traditional ATC contractor, a project may have a chiller ATC equipment manufacturer, a boiler ATC equipment manufacturer, and a central AHU ATC equipment manufacturer. No wonder commissioning is required when you can have four ATC contractors furnishing and installing the HVAC control systems.