The Mission Communications RV is gassed up and hitting the road. The first stops were in Alabama and our friends had some nice things to say about us.

“That was the nicest unit at the show this year, that was a head turner. There was always somebody coming by or just staring at it, y’know?”

“It’s great for continuing education. It costs a lot of money to send these employees to these classes and to have a mobile classroom would be really great.”

“He actually took one of our actual stations, went through the setup process (with all the screen options), and showed what you could do. He walked us through it step by step on how to do it right there.”

“I learned more here than with the online stuff because you could interact easier because it was here.”

“We went into the classroom, we were kind of mesmerized.”

“Overall, that RV is fantastic!”

“They parked it right here at our wastewater treatment plant.”

“It beats being part of a 100-person audience at a show. You get a little more hands-on training.”

“I learned more here than the online stuff. You could interact easier because it was right here. Overall that RV is fantastic.”

“He pulled it all up on the big screen tv, pulled it up, showed us how to set it up, and it’s very interesting. For ya’’l the RV is gonna be a huge tool to be able to go out into the field and show what your product can do.”

“It’s a great product. That product system sells itself. I’ve been in this business for 30 years so when people demo things to me I think ‘yeah, that’s okay' but I’ve actually sat down and looked at this and I’m in awe of it, and amazed at how well it’s been thought through.”

Join our weekly webinar for appearances of the RV and roadshow updates. If you would like to participate, contact us at rv@123mc.com.

Certificates are available for any webinar attended,

by request.

It was 2008 and Savannah lacked an early warning system to catch sewer main blockages before they turned into sanitary sewage overflows (SSOs). According to city sources, there were new technologies coming online to catch manholes surcharging before they overflowed but Savannah had some specific needs. They needed a system that was easy to deploy, one that was cellular based (rather than proprietary communications based), one that could be accessed from any computer rather than dedicated terminals, and one that could send out warnings using more than one type of technology. “We needed all of this to fulfill one of our primary goals—to keep sewage in the pipes and out of the streets and waterways,” said Stephen Michael, City Engineer for the Savannah Wastewater Conveyance department.

Dale talks about installing the Mission Manhole Monitor Plus devices. “I’ve personally installed around 50 Mission devices, overall, and just started on the new model about a month ago. I like the new ones. The cable is wired inside the enclosure, and it makes the float cable less likely to fall off. I like the new lantern battery.” Mission purposefully designed these units to let customers perform simple maintenance like changing the battery.

Stephen also appreciates the battery. “I like that you can power it with the high-ampacity lantern batteries now. We can get more capacity out of them.” The previous version used a lithium-ion battery with a third of the capacity of the new units. Also, the new units use so little power that the battery can last five years or more. Even the new screen uses e-ink technology to display information using less power.

But there are more upgrades, according to Dale. “The older model you could easily twist it or knock the float off. But with the new model the float cable is wired into the unit. It makes it more secure, and the whole thing is lighter. I think the upgrade will be more efficient for us.” This is one of the improvements to make the device more durable in the sewage setting.

Stephen continues explaining how challenging Savannah is for conveying wastewater. “We have over 800 miles of gravity mains and 213 lift stations serving a population of 146,000 residents. Los Angeles services 100 times as many people but only has half the number of lift stations.” This is because Savannah is flat and requires the sewage system to have more lift stations since they can’t rely on the terrain. “If you have hills, you can use gravity to move your wastewater, sometimes for miles, without lifting (pumping) it.”

So, what’s the ongoing plan? According to Stephen, it’s installing the Manhole Monitor Plus wherever they’re needed. “If our maintenance data points to a problem area, we put a Mission Manhole Monitor Plus device in the next manhole upstream from the problem section of pipe.” Savannah Wastewater Conveyance department proves that a skilled team can proactively reduce SSOs with a good plan and good tools, like the Manhole Monitor Plus, avoiding cleanup efforts and saving money and other resources.

If you would like to know more about the Manhole Monitor Plus, please contact sales@123mc.com.

And the commands have been upgraded too. Customers can reply with a simple OK to acknowledge an alarm or OK ALL to acknowledge all open alarms. There are actually a lot of commands you can send to 123SCDA as text messages. You can list all of your open alarms (LIST), recall a specific alarm number (FIND #####), and even disable notifications for an RTU or a specific input for an hour (DISABLE RTU and DISABLE INPUT). The interactive features have come a long way. You can get the full list of commands from the 123SCADA portal under Documents, Alarm Notifications via SMS (Text Messages), or write HELP in the alarm thread for the most common commands. 

Adams previewed that other alarm destinations will follow the logic set by the new SMS alarms in the future. “We’re going to use these SMS alarm delivery features in other destinations too.” So look for other improvements in alarms and messaging. If you have questions about Mission SMS alarms and their benefits, contact us at sales@123mc.com or join our weekly webinars for live demos.

In modern times, vertical farming is the practice of growing produce in trays stacked vertically, as opposed to traditional farming on sprawling horizontal pieces of land. Ever since Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier’s 1993 book The Vertical Farm, it has been regarded as both a promising concept of the future of agriculture, and a dismissed and impractical pipe dream. But with recent strains on the supply chain, advances in robotics, and whispers of food shortages, its benefits are being revisited. And while recent headlines on cloning fruits and vegetables, creating plant-based meats, and genetically modifying food became the stars of the agri–tech world, indoor vertical farming has slowly evolved to a more viable solution.