Now you can easily build mobile interfaces for virtually any automation system.

Allen-Bradley, Siemens, GE, Schneider, Yokogawa, Modbus: with groov 2 you can securely monitor and control these and many more systems—through a groov operator interface that you can use on just about any mobile device.

In the Charter Township of Union, Michigan, staff used to have to travel to each equipment location to check on wells, pumping stations, and water treatment plants.

Wastewater Superintendent Michael Dearing and Chief Water Operator Shaun McBride added PCs running HMI software plus remote desktop software to view them, but it wasn't enough.

What they really wanted was a mobile solution to monitor even the smallest installations and check on key process indicators like flow, tank levels, and power consumption.

We're happy to announce that groov is a finalist in the Control Engineering Engineers' Choice Awards for 2014!

The annual Engineers' Choice Awards highlight some of the best new control, instrumentation, and automation products in the industry. This is the 26th year Control Engineering has recognized new products. A variety of hardware, software, safety, and process control products are among the 23 categories.

Awards are chosen by Control Engineering's print and online subscribers—and that means you.

If you have a groov Box (part number GROOV-AT1), be sure to install these updates. We've fixed some important issues, and you'll want to have the latest groov software.

First step is to activate your Box if you haven't already. You have to activate in order to get updates. Just go to activate.groov.com and follow instructions. Once you've activated, click the Get Updates button.

If you've already activated your groov Box, go to manage.groov.com and log in. Next to your groov, click "Show" in the Updates column.

PC-based HMI software works great when operators are at headquarters, but what if they're not?

Covina Irrigating Co. monitors 12 separate sites in their water distribution system, with an assortment of pumps, tanks, valves, filters, and more at each site.

Operators often need to see equipment data when they're off site. They used to use remote desktop software on a notebook PC, but that method allows only one operator at a time to log in and use the HMI.

groov gives you a simple way to create operator interfaces for mobile devices, so you can securely monitor and control your automation system from anywhere you need to.

Want to learn more about building mobile interfaces to securely monitor and control your equipment?

groov makes mobile simple, and this new video, 5 Minutes to Mobile, shows you how. With groov, you build PC and mobile device operator interfaces all at once.

You'll see how you can move elements around on the screen in Handheld view without changing Desktop view. And you'll see how the interface scales to fit all kinds of devices.

Mike Hake was watching the trends. He saw smartphones multiplying and his spare time at work shrinking—and he thought about how a phone interface to his equipment could save time.

Hake found his smartphone solution on OptoForums, where he read that operator interfaces built in groov run in a modern web browser on almost any smartphone.

Like most restaurants, That Bar-B-Q Place has a wide variety of systems worth automating, from refrigeration to fire alarms to security to TV menus—even to the barbecue smokers nicknamed "Jake" and "Elwood," shown at right.

But this restaurant also has an advantage: owner Dave Brosseau is an experienced systems integrator.

So when Brosseau wanted to give his staff the ability to monitor and control systems from inside the restaurant or in some cases remotely, he took a look at groov.

Automation World magazine's David Greenfield takes a look at the future of industrial HMIs in a recent video podcast. Joining him are Benson Hougland and Ben Orchard from Opto 22.