Las Vegas has a way of turning everything up a notch. Add Elvis, a standing-room-only crowd, and six of the building automation industry’s sharpest minds on one stage, and you have something the AutomatedBuildings.com team has been perfecting for four years: the AHR Exhibitor Controller Showdown.
The fourth installment, billed the Elvis Edition, landed on Monday, February 2, 2026, in Room S220 at the Las Vegas Convention Center during AHR Expo 2026. Free to all registered attendees and packed to the walls, this one-hour session was part product showcase, part friendly brawl, and entirely worth the trip.
The Format: Let the Controllers Do the Talking
The premise is simple and brilliant. Leading manufacturers step up, show what their controllers can actually do, and let the audience ask the hard questions. No sales decks. No polished buzzword theater. Just real demos of features, flexibility, and performance, moderated by two people who know exactly which questions to ask.
Cochrane Supply and Engineering, the award-winning smart building controls distributor founded in 1967, held the reins again this year with moderators Gus Bauder and Abe Monreal keeping things moving at a pace that matched the energy of the Vegas floor.
The Contenders
Phoenix Contact brought their industrial-grade lineup to the table. The ILC 2050 BI — an industrially hardened Niagara 4 controller built for demanding building, infrastructure, and data center applications — has long been a workhorse. But the headline this cycle is the new Catan C1 EN: a compact controller with 14 individually configurable I/O points, a managed Ethernet switch, and support for BACnet, KNX, and Modbus. Six HP wide. Surprisingly powerful.
iSMA Controlli came in with a track record and a product line to match. The Italian-Polish company, which brings together the manufacturing depth of Controlli S.p.A. (founded 1936) and the innovation engine of Global Control 5, has been winning AHR Innovation Awards and turning heads in the Niagara community for years. Their MAC36 family — including the iSMA-B-MAC36PRO — continues to push what an edge controller can do at the intersection of IoT, BACnet, and cloud connectivity.
ABB Building Automation and Controls showed up with the weight of a global portfolio behind them. ABB’s building automation solutions scale from small commercial applications to large enterprise deployments, integrating AI/ML, IoT, and energy management into a unified platform. Their presence at AHR 2026 reinforced a clear message: smart building intelligence is not a feature — it is the foundation.
Distech Controls needs little introduction in this community. With deep roots in Niagara and a channel partner network that spans the Americas, Distech has built a reputation for controllers that are as integrator-friendly as they are feature-rich. Their participation in the Showdown for multiple years running says something about their confidence in a head-to-head format.
Honeywell rounded out the lineup. A giant in the industry with a portfolio that touches virtually every segment of building automation, Honeywell’s Advance Control building management system and their broader controls ecosystem gave the session a sense of just how far the technology has come — and where it is heading.
Why This Session Works
The Showdown format works because it strips away the sales layer and forces real conversation. When five manufacturers are sitting side by side, every claim is immediately stress-tested by four other experts who know exactly what is and is not possible. The audience benefits from that tension.
It also works because of who is in the room. The AHR Expo draws engineers, integrators, facility managers, and consultants who have spent careers evaluating these exact products. Their questions are specific, technical, and unforgiving. The manufacturers who hold up under that scrutiny earn something no marketing budget can buy.
If you missed it in Vegas, the session recording is available here:
And if you want to catch future sessions like this one, AutomatedBuildings.com hosts free industry education sessions at AHR Expo each year. Follow along so you are first to know when the schedule drops.
Meet the Speakers
Gus Bauder — Regional Sales Leader, Cochrane Supply and Engineering
Gus has been in the HVAC industry since his early teens, starting in residential installation in upstate New York before moving to Texas in 1986 to build a career in commercial controls. He spent years in the field as a startup, test-and-balance, and controls technician, working through the full evolution from pneumatics to DDC. He later led a building automation department for a wholesale distributor across a four-state territory before joining Cochrane Supply in November 2022. He holds certifications in Tridium R2, AX, Niagara 4, and multiple Johnson Controls and Honeywell platforms. When Gus moderates a controller showdown, the questions are never soft.
Abe Monreal — Area Market Leader, Cochrane Supply and Engineering
Based in Texas, Abe brings hands-on HVAC and controls experience to his market leadership role at Cochrane Supply. His background in the field gives him a practical frame for evaluating what contractors and integrators actually need from a controller — and that perspective shapes the Showdown’s questions as much as anything else.
Paul Langworthy — Industry Manager, BAS, Phoenix Contact
Paul leads Phoenix Contact’s building automation strategy and market development, helping position the company’s industrial-grade controller lineup for the unique demands of commercial building environments. He brings deep knowledge of the ILC 2050 BI and the newer Catan C1 EN platform to every conversation.
Pawel Szarmanski — Solution Product Manager, iSMA Controlli
Pawel develops and communicates product strategy for iSMA Controlli’s Niagara Framework environment. He has been a visible voice in the Niagara and BACnet communities for years, championing iSMA’s approach to IoT-enabled edge devices and cloud-ready building automation. His work spans product vision, market positioning, and the kind of technical storytelling that makes complex systems understandable.
Scott Holstein — Director of Sales, ABB Building Automation and Controls
Scott has been a recognized voice in building technology for commercial real estate, healthcare, education, and hospitality markets. Before joining ABB in 2022, he advanced to Director of Sales and Marketing at another major building automation manufacturer, overseeing new business development across the US. His focus at ABB is to grow the system integrator channel and help operators and integrators understand the connected, sustainable building solutions that ABB’s portfolio enables.
Scott Shaffer — Director of Sales, Americas Partner Channel, Distech Controls
With 30 years in building automation and controls, Scott has held leadership roles at Johnson Controls, Trane, Siemens, Schneider Electric, and now Distech Controls. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from Oregon State and brings a rare combination of technical depth and channel expertise to every conversation. His career arc is essentially a timeline of the industry’s evolution.
Steve Hoffman — Strategic Account Manager, Honeywell
Steve brings a strategic perspective on Honeywell’s building automation portfolio, working across enterprise and institutional accounts where scale, integration, and long-term performance are non-negotiable. His work sits at the intersection of relationship management and technical solution development — exactly the kind of experience that makes a controller showdown conversation richer.
AutomatedBuildings.com has been connecting the building automation industry since 1999. To explore our archive, follow our content, or ask about sponsorship opportunities, sponsors@automatedbuildings.com.
Sources:
