Industrial Automation and Networking Leader to Demonstrate the Role of Protocol Conversion in the Connected Factory Live at PACK EXPO 2014

York, Pa. - October 28, 2014 - Red Lion Controls, the global experts in communication, monitoring and control for industrial automation and networking, today announced that the companys flagship Crimson 3.0 software now offers communication support for more than 300 industrial protocols. Protocol conversion is a key element needed to make the concept of the Connected Factory a reality, empowering plant managers to adapt existing equipment including drives, PLCs and HMIs to drive efficiency while reducing total cost of ownership in industrial environments.

"One of the many challenges faced by end users, OEMs and system integrators is to find software tools that enable communications between hundreds of disparate devices and protocols in both a cost effective and time effective manner," according to Craig Resnick, vice president at ARC Advisory Group. "These software tools must be intuitive enough to enable disparate device and protocol communications via simple configuration programs that do not require programming or training. Red Lions Crimson 3.0 software appears to fulfill these market requirements that in turn provides the business benefits of quicker project deployment, better asset utilization and a greater number of devices actively communicating, all of which results in increased productivity and profitability for manufacturers and integrators alike."

With just a few clicks, Crimson converts protocols for disparate industrial devices, allowing them to share work-in-process, machine status and other information. Deployed on Red Lions award-winning Graphite HMI panels, ProducTVity Station, Data Station Plus or other industrial automation offerings, Crimson gives organizations the ability to boost productivity, optimize material usage and troubleshoot systems in real time. Supporting the simultaneous conversion of multiple protocols, the use of Red Lions Crimson-enabled products allow companies to easily integrate almost any PLC, PC or SCADA system for data collection, monitoring and control of factory floor equipment from different manufacturers.

"Connecting systems and sharing information enables companies to optimize productivity and streamline processes, but in order to do that the devices need to be able to communicate," said Jeff Thornton, director of product management at Red Lion Controls. "By offering support for over 300 industrial protocols that vary from proprietary to open-source, we give our customers the industrys widest range of choices to seamlessly extend connectivity across the factory floor to remote locations without requiring new equipment investments."

Red Lion will demonstrate the power of Crimsons protocol support for todays Connected Factory live from PACK Expo booth 8747 in Chicago on November 2-5. Attendees are invited to take the "Crimson Challenge" to discover how Crimson can be used to drive efficiency across industrial automation applications. For more information or to download Crimson, please visit www.redlion.net/Crimson.

About Red Lion Controls
As the global experts in communication, monitoring and control for industrial automation and networking, Red Lion has been delivering innovative solutions for over 40 years. Our award-winning technology enables companies worldwide to gain real-time data visibility that drives productivity. Product brands include Red Lion, N-Tron and Sixnet. With headquarters in York, Pennsylvania, the company has offices across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Red Lion is part of Spectris plc, the productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls company. For more information, please visit http://new.redlion.net.