Telog Instruments Reveals The Power Of Data Acquisition, Analytics

Carlton Quallo, VP of Telog Instruments, shares with Water Online Radio details about the company, its latest products, and what separates them from others in the field.

Todd Schnick: We're coming to you live from Dallas, Texas. This is day three of AWWA ACE 2012 on Water Online Radio. I'm your host, Todd Schnick, joined by my colleague, Todd Youngblood. Todd?

Todd Youngblood: I'm having a ball this afternoon.

Todd Schnick: You know the water industry; I remember the first show we did about two, two and a half years ago. I'm thinking, “Oh, the water industry. How boring is this going to be?” Oh my gosh, what an education!

Todd Youngblood: We're having a great time.

Todd Schnick: They're cool people, and I think the education will continue with our next guest, so I'm excited to welcome Carlton Quallo, who is the Vice President and General Manager of Telog Instruments. Carlton, it's great to have you. Thanks for joining us.

Carlton Quallo: Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Todd Schnick: Well, before we get into Carlton, do take a second and tell us a little bit about you and your background.

Carlton Quallo: Sure. Originally, I got my degree in Computer Science and then I went on to get an MBA. I've been in the electronics industry for well over 30 years, and in water for about 25.

Todd Schnick: Outstanding. I'm excited to hear all about Telog Instruments. What do you guys do? How do you help and serve your marketplace?

Carlton Quallo: Our business has been on remote data acquisition from the beginning, so we've been able to collect data from virtually any point out in the distribution system or in the collection system and bring it back to our software so you can analyze those data and you'll have a history of those data and make use of the wealth of information that's in the field, but having it on your desktop.

Todd Youngblood: Carlton, take two, three steps back and take a look at the water industry and talk about some of the trends that you’re seeing.

Carton Quallo: I guess the biggest thing that I'm seeing and I'm sure you've heard this before is the need for information, and there has been sort of an explosion in the requirement for more data from the field. Everybody's trying to do more with less. We all know we have an aging water infrastructure, but in order to make the right decisions on what needs to be repaired, what needs to be fixed, you have to have the data. And that's where I see a tremendous amount of growth.

It is bringing more of that data back in a more usable form, easier to analyze and at a higher pace than before. In the old days, people did a lot of chart recorders, had it on paper. It was slow and impractical. Now in this digital age, being able to have all that information immediately on your desktop has given a great deal of power to the end user.

Todd Youngblood: Well, Carl, I got to ask you. How's Telog's Technology going to address this trend?

Carlton Quallo: As I said in the beginning, we've been in the remote data acquisition business for over 25 years, so we have a lot of experience in how to bring back data from the field and, more importantly, how to turn that data into useful information.  

We've been really focusing lately on the power of analytics, of being able to bring a wealth of tools to our customers that will allow them to do more than just collect the raw data, but also be able to analyze it both to operationally do more, because we can set up things like alerts where it notifies you when things are going wrong.

You don't have to have someone constantly monitoring the system. The system is telling you when something is going wrong. And then for the data analysts, we're giving them tools that allow them to easily and quickly be able to find where the issues are and then report those to upper management or to member communities.

Todd Youngblood: Carlton, this SCADA as a concept has been around for as long as I can remember. I'm not going to say since I started my career or tell you what year it was, but beyond the analytics, what else is different from traditional SCADA that you guys are bringing to the market?

Carlton Quallo: In traditional SCADA, as it says is Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. One way of thinking about it is we're the DA of SCADA. We're compatible with SCADA, we can easily transfer our data to traditional SCADA systems, but we are much cost effective than traditional SCADA and our products were designed from the beginning to be out in the environment.

All of our equipment is NEMA-6 rated, you can have them in underground vaults, you can have them in manholes. We really understand how things are done out in the field, and our units can operate both from AC power, but more importantly, it can be battery operated.

There are just so many places in the distribution and the collection system where there's no power. You have to have a way of keeping those units running, and battery is the way to do it.

All of our systems are really stingy in their use of power, so that it reduces the amount of times you have to go into the field to replace batteries. Many of our devices will go for years without a battery replacement.

Todd Schnick: Well, we want to hear about this wireless version of your Hydrant Pressure Recorder. Why is that so important, and what does that matter to the marketplace?

Carlton Quallo: Yes. We've had our Hydrant Pressure Recorders for a number of years, where we could manually go out and collect data, but now, what we've just introduced is our new HPR-32, which has a built in cellular modem and it will go for five years without a replacement battery, if you're making one or two calls a day.

This new device has allowed us to bring the data back to our Enterprise Software Package, which gives a better view of what's going on in the distribution system.

You can have GIS information in there, you can see your pressures throughout your whole system, all brought back and see it graphically as well in tabular form and get a better picture of what your distribution system is doing.

Todd Schnick: Carlton, I understand Telog has a new PRV Monitor also. Tell us a little bit about that.

Carlton Quallo: Yes. The new PRV Monitor, we're monitoring the inlet and outlet pressure on the PRVs and we can also calculate flow on the PRVs, so it's sort of a poor man's flow meter getting built out of the PRV.

We also teamed up with Cla-Val and using their flow meter, so that for Cla-Val meter, use their flow meter as well as the inlet and outlet pressures, so it makes a really nice package for being able to monitor your system pressures, your PRV pressures, but also, as I said, have an inexpensive flow meter.

Todd Schnick: Carl, I hate to say it, but we're out of time. Before we let you go, how can people get in touch with you, and more importantly, where can they learn more about the good works at Telog?

Carlton Quallo: Sure. They can go to www.telog.com, and they can reach me at cquallo@telog.com, and I look forward to hearing from your radio audience.

Todd Schnick: Outstanding. Carlton Quallo, VP and General Manager at Telog Instruments, it was great to have you. Thanks so much for joining us.

Carlton Quallo: Thank you so much for having me, gentlemen.

Todd Youngblood: Oh, it was our pleasure.

Todd Schnick: Alright, well that wraps this segment up. On behalf of our guest, Carlton Quallo, my co-host Todd Youngblood and all of at Water Online, I'm Todd Schnick, and we'll be right back with our next guest.