While they don’t look like traditional industrial settings, outdoor sporting venues face similar harsh, environmental conditions to utility and manufacturing sites. The similarities don’t end there. The communication in these stadiums is also considered mission-critical – ensuring patrons not only have an enjoyable experience during the game, but that they enter the arena in a systematic, timely and safe manner.

On October 21, 2016, a notably significant internet security event occurred affecting millions of U.S. internet users via an army of hacked internet-connected devices. Normally we don’t think too much about the security of our seemingly helpful and harmless home routers, DVRs, surveillance cameras, cable set-top boxes and other systems we use every day, though there are plenty of indicators that we should attend to making them more secure.

In this age of high-efficiency production and processing, thousands of dollars’ worth of automation and monitoring devices and equipment rely on robust cabling solutions to work properly.

Do you require VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) cable for on-machine applications, where it will be in constant motion? Or what about needing it for installation in tight spaces? Up-to-now, these situations have been hard to address. On the one hand, construction-grade VFD and standard THHN building wire or tray cable do not provide adequate VFD system protection or the pliability needed. On the other hand, high performance Belden VFD cable has not had the extreme flexibility needed.

Nowadays, manufacturing businesses rely heavily on their automation, instrumentation and control data communications for industrial networking. When it comes to relaying signals between devices, machinery and the control system, there’s no margin for error. Indeed network availability of 99.999 percent uptime or better is often the goal. Given this reality, a robust industrial Ethernet infrastructure consisting of environmentally-hardened network cabling, connectivity and active components is essential to long-term performance and reliability.