TAC Announces Powerful New Graphical Tools for TAC Vista™ 5 Building Management System.

MALMÖ, Sweden – Nov. 16, 2006 - TAC, a leading provider of open, integrated systems for building automation, has announced the availability of the TAC Vista 5 building management system. It features powerful graphics tools that create a totally new experience for building owners and operators.

"We have taken the popular and widely used TAC Vista building management system and enhanced it with best-in-the-industry graphics," said Rolf Olsson, director of product management for TAC.

According to Mr. Olsson, TAC Vista 5 provides complete building management capabilities; from the analysis of facility alarms, to gathering and managing the critical data needed for day-to-day operations and energy management, to the development of an overall operations strategy in a constantly changing business environment.

"With the new enhanced graphics capability," said Mr. Olsson, "building owners and operators now have one of the most powerful and easy-to-use tools in the industry allowing them to see and manage facilities more effectively than ever before."
The new graphics capabilities include:

• Smart graphical components – Smart components encapsulate intelligence and make the system easier to use. Any attribute of a graphical object can be controlled by real-time data and client side scripts, allowing more functionality in the user interface.

• Graphics library – Ready-made symbols and components for buildings and building control include ISO, DIN and ASHRAE symbols and other graphics needed by most building managers. Symbols can be easily modified and new ones created. Graphical components and whole graphics pages can be dragged to the library for later re-use in the same or new installations.

• Graphical effects – Gradients, semi transparencies and animations can be easily added to the user interface, making it meaningful and intuitive. For example, temperature controls can visibly move, and alarms can blink or highlight to attract attention.

• Importing and embedding – CAD-produced drawings of building layouts and subsystems can be imported and edited within TAC Vista 5. Extensive support is also provided for standard image formats such as JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP, making it easy to use photos, illustrations and graphics from other sources.

• Multiple Runtime Environments – The new TAC Vista 5 Graphics can be run from the TAC Vista front-end or from a TAC Xenta™ web-controller. This provides TAC’s clients with tremendous flexibility and deployment options.

According to Mr. Olsson, graphics are easy to create, modify and re-use for any facility, and can be developed without extensive training. Once created, he said, the graphics make building management easier and more intuitive: "Graphical elements provide point-and-click command of control systems, so it's far easier to see what's happening in a facility and to take actions, such as adjusting set points, for example. I believe that we have truly raised the bar on where graphical interfaces should be in the building management industry.”

TAC Vista 5 graphics use XML-based TGML (TAC Graphics Markup Language), as well as standard Document Object Models and JavaScripts for calculations and mouse interactions. "The same mechanisms used for programming today's websites are used for creating graphics in TAC Vista 5, in keeping with TAC's open systems philosophy," said Mr. Olsson.

About TAC
TAC is a leading provider of building automation solutions based on Open Integrated Systems for Building IT. TAC's mission is to provide added value through building environment services for indoor climate, security and use of energy, delivered with advanced technology to end users and property owners throughout the world. With over 80 years of experience in the HVAC, building automation and security arenas, TAC employs more than 5,000 people worldwide, with partners and branches in 80 countries. TAC's parent company, Schneider Electric, is the world's leader in automation and electricity management, with 92,000 employees worldwide and operations in 130 countries.  For more information about TAC visit www.tac.com

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