The Lion's Den: A Podcast From Red Lion Controls

On this new episode of Red Lion’s The Lion’s Den podcast series, Gabrielle Bejarano, sits down with Marcel Van Helten, CEO of Red Lion, to discuss how the company is addressing its biggest challenge yet: secure accessibility of data. They explore current industry trends and how Red Lion is redefining the industrial automation space by empowering customers with the right data. Marcel shares insights into the challenges faced by customers and how Red Lion's solutions bridge the gap between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) layers.

The conversation covers:

• The challenge of increasing productivity in the face of limited labor resources and the need for improved productivity.
• The challenges faced by customers when implementing advanced technologies like AI and cloud-based solutions, particularly ensuring access to accurate and complete data.
• Red Lion's positioning as the industrial data company, offering solutions for remote asset communication, connecting implant assets, operator interaction with machines, and integrating data into cloud environments.

“Wherever you are, whichever consumer you are for data, we want to make sure that you have seamless access to that data in a secure way, so that’s what our products do,” said Van Helten. “So, we basically have solutions which, if you have a remote asset and you need to communicate to that remote asset and get data out of that remote asset, we do that.”

Van Helten joined Red Lion as the CEO in November 2022 with more than 25 years of experience in strategy, planning, execution, and leading technology businesses. He has spent over a decade in leadership and management positions at General Electric and its affiliates, spent time as the Chief Portfolio Officer at Abaco Systems in Augsburg, Germany, and was the President of Brüel & Kjær Vibro for three years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, as well as ING in Computer Sciences from Fontys University of Applied Sciences.

Since the advent of the computer, many technological developments have later followed in helping improve how information and data are shared. Of course, in all its benefits, technology is not foolproof, and plenty of issues have arisen as a result. Multicast, which is a communication method via ethernet, is a type of connection where data from one destination can be sent to multiple destinations at the same time, per After Academy. In contrast, it offers a different multitasking communicative component than that of other computer network castings.

But with pros, there are also cons, which is why developers have worked to create and implement tools that can circumvent potential issues. With this in mind, what are the best practices that help mitigate a possible malfunction of data transferring via multicast?

Host of “The Lion’s Den,” Tyler Kern, sat down with Barry Turner, Technical Business Development Manager at Red Lion, about implementing multicast and the ways to prevent technical issues.

Kern and Turner also talked about …

• The differences between multicast versus unicast and broadcast
• How the IGMP snooping method for network switches helps control traffic
• The benefits of having a good backup system for possible multicast issues

“The multicast, as long as it’s configured properly when it switches, you're good to go — you're in good shape. But if you misconfigure it, it will cause problems, or can cause problems on your network, and a lot of times as the network grows and gets bigger and bigger, it becomes more apparent that the problem is there so you may be misconfigured, but your network traffic may be low enough it doesn’t actually manifest in downtime … So, a better approach is to have the right networking equipment — may be something that actually supports automatic IGMP snoop, so you don't have to worry about that at all,” said Turner.

Barry Turner has worked at Red Lion for 10 years and was previously a sales engineering manager with the company. Prior to that, he worked as a Network Engineer at N-Tron.

Since the advent of the computer, many technological developments have later followed in helping improve how information and data is shared. Of course, in all its benefits, technology is not foolproof, and plenty issues have arisen as a result. Multicast, which is a communication method via ethernet, is a type of connection where data from one destination can be sent to multiple destinations at the same time, per After Academy. In contrast, it offers a different multitasking communicative component than that of other computer network castings.

But with pros, there are also cons, which is why developers have worked to create and implement tools that can circumvent potential issues. With this in mind, what are the best practices that help mitigate a possible malfunction of data transferring via multicast?

Host of “The Lion’s Den,” Tyler Kern, sat down with Barry Turner, the technical business development manager at Red Lion, about implementing multicast and the ways to prevent technical issues.

Kern and Turner also talked about …

• The differences between multicast versus unicast and broadcast
• How the IGMP snooping method for network switches helps control traffic
• The benefits of having a good backup system for possible multicast issues

“The multicast, as long as it’s configured properly when it switches, you're good to go — you're in good shape. But if you misconfigure it, it will cause problems, or can cause problems on your network and a lot times as the network grows and gets bigger and bigger, it becomes more apparent than the problem is there so you may be misconfigured, but your network traffic may be low enough it doesn’t actually manifest in downtime … So, a better approach is to have the right networking equipment — maybe something that actually supports automatic IGMP snoop, so you don't have to worry about that at all,” said Turner.

Barry Turner has worked at Red Lion for 10 years and was previously a sales engineering manager with the company. Prior to that, he worked as a Network Engineer at N-Tron.

Barry Turner and Megha Agrawal discuss why managed ethernet switches are important.

• Managed ethernet switches optimize network performance.
• Managed ethernet switch features help support creating security layers.
• Managed switches ensure customers’ industrial automation and networking needs are met.

Jeff Thornton discusses harvesting automation & process data.

• Having accurate data can transform your business.
• The PM50 offers contactless monitoring.
• The better data you have, the better decisions you make.

Jeff Thornton discusses the benefits of working with an OEM

• The PM50 addresses original equipment manufacturer (OEM) needs.
• The PM50 cuts back on significant expenses while providing excellent capabilities.
• The PM50 comes with an app, equipping workers with high-tech support.

Jeff Thornton discusses the benefits of working with an OEM

• The PM50 addresses original equipment manufacturer (OEM) needs.
• The PM50 cuts back on significant expenses while providing excellent capabilities.
• The PM50 comes with an app, equipping workers with high-tech support.