Schneider Electric has announced Vijeo Citect V7.20 SCADA software, the latest version of its integrated industrial automation and control solution, increasing overall performance of control systems through improvements in operating systems technologies and native integration of real-time video to enhance security features.

V7.20, Vijeo Citect software provides a more holistic view of processes through the addition of support for the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Providing a control system that supports the latest Microsoft operating systems, Vijeo Citect V7.20 software enables users to take advantage of the technology and security improvements these operating systems offer both now and into the future. Additional security enhancements, such as server authentication, have been introduced to provide an extra layer of protection to networked control systems.

The new software can also help companies better meet their growing surveillance and remote monitoring requirements by adding the ability to closely monitor critical processes, high-value equipment and strategic production materials through the integration of live video feed from Pelco cameras. The surveillance features allow operators to view video directly on SCADA screens, control the camera movement, and link control system events, such as alarms in secured areas, with the surveillance of those areas all while keeping track of control system variables.

"Schneider Electric’s Vijeo Citect V7.20 real-time live video capabilities, along with its Windows 7 security enhancements, provide manufacturers and processors with features that can provide the quick financial returns required to justify the migration, while offering those businesses the additional protection needed to help defend against both external and internal information intrusion," according to Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group.

Further boosting overall operational efficiency, data continuity and minimizing risk, the software diminishes the need to interrupt or restart the system when alarm and trend changes need to be made, adding the flexibility to roll-out modifications progressively and in a controlled manner. Server-side online changes make it possible to add, change or remove elements from alarm, trend and report servers without re-loading, thus allowing any unchanged alarms, trends or reports to continue to function without interruption.

Finally, Vijeo Citect V7.20 SCADA software offers operators access to improved real-time operational intelligence through extended tag information. With the addition of tag extensions, each variable tag now has richer context information with a collection of functional elements, each of which contains value, quality and time-stamp information as a collection of items. The addition of quality and time-stamped information facilitates a better understanding of how the system is changing and more accurate decision-making data.