RTI Announces Raiford Smith as the Newest Member of the Advisory Board

Smith to Serve as the Energy Market Advisor Providing Strategic Counsel as RTI Accelerates IIoT Technology for Future Energy and Power Systems

SUNNYVALE, Calif.— July 17, 2018—Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company, today announced Raiford Smith as the newest member of RTI’s advisory board. Smith is the vice president of energy technology and analytics at Entergy, and has more than 27 years of experience in the energy industry. Smith joins RTI's advisory board as the energy market advisor. He will influence the company’s direction as it brings advanced connectivity technology to some of the most exciting applications in energy, such as hydropower systems, wind power systems and the smart grid.

At Entergy, Smith leads the company’s pursuit of new technology and development of customer-facing products and services. He has extensive experience in working with electric utilities on digital transformation and analytics. RTI is currently working with electric utilities across the world to move from device management to data-centric architectures in order to provide a radically advanced approach to automation that safely and seamlessly integrates humans, existing mechanical equipment, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

RTI software today runs the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest power plant of any type on the continent. RTI also connects and controls many other hydropower plants and thousands of the world’s largest wind turbines. Additionally, RTI is heavily involved with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to advance renewable energy integration into the future grid. All these systems leverage RTI’s implementation of the Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) standard.

Smith holds several patents in interoperability and edge-based analytics. He has played a major role in the vision and initial development and deployment of the Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB™) framework. RTI is a principal in the development of the OpenFMB standard, along with Duke Energy and several national labs. 

"The energy industry is at a pivotal point. Renewables will soon be more cost effective than coal or natural gas," said Stan Schneider, CEO of RTI. "Raiford's expertise will be instrumental as we expand in this market. Future energy systems need a new, powerful data-centric connectivity framework." 

"The energy industry is moving towards a more connected future. Interoperability between components and systems is the biggest challenge," said Raiford Smith, vice president of energy technology and analytics at Entergy, and advisory board member at RTI. "Seamless integration is crucial, but electric utilities need a solution that preserves their existing system while protecting future investments. RTI is on the cutting edge in this market. I’m honored to join the advisory board to help pave the path forward."

Smith will join inaugural advisory board member, Scott McNealy, and Automotive advisor, KT Neumann, to identify strategic growth opportunities and expand the company’s influence in the IIoT. RTI is continuing to recruit additional advisory board members throughout 2018, targeting an influential member in each of the company’s key markets of the IIoT.

For more information about RTI’s Advisory Board, please visit: https://bit.ly/2Ktygj8

About RTI

Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company. The RTI Connext® Databus is a software framework that shares information in real time, making applications work together as one, integrated system. It connects across field, fog and cloud. Its reliability, security, performance and scalability are proven in the most demanding industrial systems. Deployed systems include medical devices and imaging; wind, hydro and solar power; autonomous planes, trains and cars; traffic control; Oil and Gas; robotics, ships, and defense.

RTI lives at the intersection of functional artificial intelligence and pervasive networking^SM.

RTI is the largest vendor of products based on the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) standard. RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Download a free 30-day trial of the latest, fully-functional Connext DDS software today:  https://www.rti.com/downloads.