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ACN Task Group Receives ESTA�s Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award
2007-11-26

NEW YORK, NY -- ESTA bestowed the 2007 Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award, which recognizes extraordinary effort by a volunteer or group of volunteers during the previous year, on the ACN Task Group for their work in developing ANSI E1.17, the important new Architecture for Control Networks standard. The award was presented at ESTA's annual dinner on Thursday, November 15th prior to the start of the LDI trade show in Orlando, FL.

Steve Terry, retiring Co-Chair of the TSP Control Protocols Working Group presented the award to Dan Antonuk (Task Group Chair), Ole Bystrup, Flemming Jensen, Richard Lawrence, Rick Leinen, Kevin  Loewen, Alan Martello, Philip Nye, Stuart Cotts, and Yngve Sandboe.

Steve spoke about the level of expertise and determination required of the Task Group members, "Unlike any other standards project our industry had attempted, the creation of ACN out of whole cloth was an engineering effort of significant difficulty. Meaningful work on ACN became necessarily limited to a small number of software experts. Suddenly, it was not enough to have a big heart, be smart, and donate a lot of volunteer hours-one needed to be a network protocol expert. And that was the start of the ACN task group.

"After almost 10 years, and a lot of incredible engineering work by task group members and their companies, and a whole lot of just plain staying power, (ACN) is here: E1.17, Architecture for Control Networks. And that fulfils a dream that some of us have had for more than 20 years-myself included," said Steve. "And I believe, just like DMX512 was in 1986, ACN is the future of our industry for interoperability, but way, way, beyond just lighting."

These individuals could not have succeeded in their enormous task without the support of their companies which included Electronic Theatre Controls, Engineering Arts, Horizon Control, Leviton Manufacturing, Martin Professional, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pathway Connectivity, Sand Network Systems, and Strand Lighting.

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