For years most major sporting events have relied on Caterpillar Entertainment Services to power up the television broadcasts. It seems that at every landmark game, from the World Series to the Super Bowl, one can find the signature Caterpillar black boxes powering the broadcasts into living rooms around the world. Consistent with Caterpillar’s pursuit for continual improvement, they undertook an initiative to incorporate new technologies to enhance system reliability. In doing so they reached out to Wenzlau Engineering for a solution. Combining approaches used in military command and control systems with Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) technologies, Wenzlau Engineering is helping Caterpillar deliver systems with unprecedented capabilities. Our teams challenge was to make these Caterpillar black boxes talk to each other, to work with together, and to think and provide insight to assist field engineers providing reliable power.

For Fox Sports’ coverage of the recent MLB All-Star Game in San Diego, our team deployed a power system embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, enabling all system components to collect and exchange data. This allows Caterpillar to anticipate problems, analyze data, and respond in real time to make adjustments. The Caterpillar team on the ground receives instant text messages telling them when performance threshold are not being met, allowing them to act immediately. “This is just the beginning,” says Caterpillar’s Phil Wessels. “Our team, which is a combination of our internal engineering and select strategic partners, is continually improving security, communications encryption, data analytics, and predictive maintenance. These are all terms we did not use even five years ago but are now driving our solutions. Simply put, it is an exciting time for both CAT and our customers.” This collaboration between between Fox Sports, Caterpillar, and Wenzlau Engineering is proving to be a HOME RUN!

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