The next ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest, the event where manufacturers and developers can test their products for interoperability with other manufacturers’ products, is scheduled to take place January 20 thru January 23, 2017, at the D/FW Marriott Solana in Westlake, Texas. Everyone is welcome to attend!

Plugfest is an outstanding educational opportunity for control manufacturers and developers to gather together in person and test their products for interoperability to the latest standards from the Technical Standards Program’s Control Protocols Working Group. Attendees bring controllers, intelligent lights, control protocol analyzers, and various other tools and devices, in an effort to seek out and resolve interoperability challenges. People attend from all around the world to plug into this network and improve their products. In addition to ongoing Remote Device Management (RDM) and DMX512 support, this event will highlight the interoperability implementations of draft standard BSR E1.33 RDMNet, and the newly revised ANSI E1.31 sACN protocols.

The scheduled hours are 4:00-11:00pm on Friday, January 20, 9:00am-11:00pm on Saturday and Sunday, and 9:00am to noon on Monday, January 23. The event is attended by members of the Control Protocols Working Group which authored the standards—they will be available to assist you and share their expertise. CPWG members can answer questions and help explain these industry standard protocols. As products using the ESTA RDM and ACN standards are now common in the market place, ensuring that products actually comply and deliver interoperability is important. This is an opportunity to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of the CPWG, one of the Technical Standards Program’s largest working groups. ESTA invites the industry to drop in and experience Plugfest. A full schedule and a link for hotel reservations can be found at http://www.esta.org/ESTA/meetings.php. For more information, or to register for the ESTA Control Protocols plugfest, contact the group’s organizers at plugfest@esta.org.