VTScada Alarm Notification System
Optional Component – Ensure that your critical alarm and process information finds you anywhere via text-to-voice phone calls, SMS text messages, emails and pagers. Dial into your application using your application security account to check levels, acknowledge alarms, change setpoints, or send commands to equipment.
Critical Alarms Find You - Today's SCADA operators are too busy in the field to have time to sit looking at screens all day waiting for problems to occur. When alarms happen, the system needs to be able to get that information to the right person as soon as possible no matter where they might be.
The VTScada® Alarm Notification System (ANS) transmits alarm information anywhere via text-to-voice phone calls, SMS text messages, emails and pagers. Dial into your application using your application security account to check levels, acknowledge alarms, change setpoints, or send commands to equipment.
Built-In is Better - VTScada's unique integrated approach to alarm notification vastly reduces integration time and ensures tight compatibility over the entire life of your SCADA system no matter what version you are running. Add ANS to any VTScada Runtime or Development Runtime license by simply updating your VTScada software key. The ANS shares the same tag and alarm databases as the VTScada application. Note: Alarm and event management is part of every VTScada application. The built-in SCADA alarm notification features described here are optional.
Leave No Alarm Unacknowledged - When an alarm goes unacknowledged for a user-defined period, VTScada won't stop until it finds an authorized person to acknowledge it. The system begins working its way through rosters of up to 30 contacts each. A contact is a combination of a staff member and a method of notification such as SMS text message, email, or over the phone via text-to-speech voice engine. This means you can create a contact for your cell phone and another for your landline. Each method allows the user to acknowledge the alarm and stop VTScada from sending further notifications. Configure any number of rosters for the whole application or specific functional areas. Roster activations are recorded as events in the alarm history.
Dial-In Phone Access - Dial in from anywhere to log in and use the auto-generated spoken menu’s system to hear system values (e.g. well levels), perform control actions (e.g. start pump 1), and receive or acknowledge a list of alarms.
Crystal Clear Text-to-speech - VTScada 11.2 adopted the Microsoft® Speech API (SAPI). In addition to providing the latest in text-to-speech technology, SAPI simplifies our licensing and significantly reduces the size of the VTScada installer.
Advanced Modem Management - VTScada collects modems from all application servers into a single pool. VTScada searches this pool, rather than a particular server, for an appropriate data or voice modem to use when sending alarms.
Automatic Failover - Server failover is an important factor in ensuring uptime and accessibility. This extends to alarm notification. Easily create lists of backup alarm notification servers that will automatically and seamlessly take over if the primary is unavailable. Responsibility will return to the primary server when it is restored.
Application-level Security - Secure access on incoming and outgoing calls is maintained through the use of the standard VTScada Security Manager. To receive status or alarm information, users are prompted by VTScada for their password. Users who do not have the ‘Alarm Acknowledge’ security privilege will not be able to acknowledge alarms.
Mobile Alarm Management – VTScada Thin Clients (licensed separately) allow you to securely view and acknowledge alarms anywhere using PCs, or HTML5 compliant smart phones and tablets. Thin Clients supersede the WAP Browser which was retired in 11.2.