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Celebrating 25 years in business this year, Data Flow Systems, Inc. (DFS) is an established telemetry company that provides turnkey radio and network based telemetry systems for water and wastewater utilities across the nation.

The company was incorporated in June of 1981, by President Tom Smaidris and Vice President R. Brent Saunders.

“They opened shop in a 300 square foot office over a hair salon in downtown Melbourne,” said Steve Whitlock, vice president of customer relations for DFS.

The company is now housed in a new 33,000 square foot manufacturing facility.

Smaidris and Saunders had worked together at Harris Satellite Communications (SAT COM). Smaidris’ father, Frank, who worked for the City of Melbourne water utility service, had told him of the problems with the phone line telemetry system used to monitor equipment at remote pumping sites.

Smaidris told his father that it should not be hard to design a better system. He suggested using radio communications instead of telephone lines. His father challenged him to the task and a new company was born.

“Telemetry systems for water utilities at the time were almost exclusively jury-rigged from systems developed for oil and gas pipelines or electrical utilities,” explained Whitlock.

The DFS system was among the first designed specifically for the water and wastewater utility industry.

The first DFS system was installed at the Acme Improvement District, now called the Village of Wellington, in Palm Beach County.

DFS focuses on ease-of-use, longevity and expansion without re-engineering. Since the first installation in 1982, the company has installed and continues to service more than 125 supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and 7,000 remote terminal units (RTUs).

“Our primary clientele include any water, wastewater, stormwater, or reuse water utility, whether private, municipal, military or improvement district,” said Whitlock.

Because of the nature of the business, a utility’s property and equipment is scattered throughout their service area. Whitlock noted that a relatively small town like Melbourne has about 100 wastewater pump stations that move sewage from remote neighborhoods to the treatment plant.

“A telemetry system allows the utility to monitor and control the operations of all their remote equipment from a single, central site,” Whitlock said. “At one time, if a pump station failed, the utility learned about it when a customer called to complain about sewage overflowing into the street, or worse, backing into their home.”

With the use of DFS systems, today, utility departments know that a pump station has a functional problem long before any sort of spill occurs, which is a good thing according to Whitlock since regulatory agencies issue very severe fines to utilities that spill wastewater.

“The fresh water utility can monitor/control the levels in their storage tanks, the system pressures throughout their service area, etcetera,” Whitlock said. “Both these utilities can also use the system to help run the actual treatment processes in their respective plants.”

Stormwater utilities can control flooding by using the system to monitor stormwater levels in drainage canals, and open and close flood gates to manage the flooding.

“The reuse of treated wastewater is a valuable asset for many communities and entities such as golf courses and public parks,” he added. “(For example) Cocoa Beach offers treated wastewater to residents for irrigation purposes. Telemetry is used to monitor and control the distribution of the reuse water.”

An industry leading manufacturer of the SCADA systems, the Melbourne based company strives to provide cost-effective technology and dependable performance in harsh environments. Products are used for control and telemetry in water, wastewater, reuse, stormwater, and environmental monitoring. They are utilized where remote and local flows, pressures, temperatures and levels are measured, recorded, controlled and automated.

DFS’ TAC II system features a Hyper SCADA Server, a data concentrator that provides new levels of open architecture while supporting a variety of RTUs to meet specific customer needs.

The RTU models feature a modular building-block construction, programmable logic controllers and lift station/tank well pump controllers. The company includes all future software updates and warranties the software for the life of each system.
Smaidris and Saunders decided to locate their headquarters on the Space Coast because Saunders had lived in Brevard all of his life and Smaidris had been here since the late 1960s.

“We plan to keep the company local and now have plenty of room to expand as we need,” Smaidris said. “We have associated value added resellers, we call them VARs, who are authorized to sell, install, and service our systems from New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, and California.”

Smaidris takes service to heart and emphasized that a core principal of his company is to make sure that the systems can be serviced by the manufacturer or one of their trained representatives.

“What we say to people is, ‘no excuses – solutions,’” Smaidris said. “If it has a problem, we will fix it.”

Smaidris is able to keep his word to both customers and resellers by maintaining control over all system components.

All administrative, engineering, manufacturing and service divisions are located ad DFS’ modern Corporate Campus in Melbourne, Florida. Nearly half of this facility is devoted to the manufacture of TAC II Radio Telemetry Systems.

DFS strives to provide, in-house, all necessary resource personnel and capabilities to handle all aspects of the manufacture, installation, and service of the SCADA products.

“ We do everything,” he said. “We don’t buy software from someone else who might not be as committed or available as we are. We have control over everything in our systems.”

The entire product design, from central computer servers, system software, remote site monitors and control equipment is all controlled by and part of DFS’ design.

“We do not leave any of the system responsibilities to third parties,” Whitlock said. “We design it, build it, install it, train the customers, and service the system for as long as the utility keeps it. We’re not aware of another manufacturer of SCADA systems that perform turnkey applications and continue working with the utility indefinitely after the installation.”

All software is browser-based, allowing any user on the utility’s network to access it without the need for individual seat licenses. Whitlock noted this provides great savings for the end-user.

The VARs come once a year for a three- to four-day training. The Data Flow Systems facility includes a training area for them. The decision to keep all system parts and training localized has paid off according to Smaidris.

“It is a big key to our success,” Smaidris said of the decision to keep control of design and supply from within.

For more information, please visit www.dataflowsys.com