The announcement reads harmlessly: the ODVA has taken a closer look at the OPC UA and TSN technologies and will be working on migration with the Ethernet/IP and Devicenet solutions over the next few years. - Ultimately, the Rockwell-dominated association is merely following the announcements and work of the other fieldbus organizations.

Why is the announcement still so explosive? As already explained in June, this is where the Shapers come into play: this conglomerate of companies has taken up the cause of establishing TSN plus OPC UA as 'the' communication standard in the industrial world. The original Shaper proposal was that all the necessary work should be carried out under the umbrella of the OPC Foundation.

As the OPC Foundation has so far only wanted to support the combination of OPC UA and TSN above the field level, the Shapers felt compelled to look elsewhere.

And after Rockwell Automation joined the Shapers in April, it now looked as if Rockwell would take advantage of the disagreements with the OPC Foundation and win the Shapers over to the ODVA. Could the Shaper vision - a standardized communication solution for deterministic cyclic and acyclic data traffic from the field level up to the cloud - be implemented under the umbrella of the ODVA? Would Rockwell Automation really be in favor of the 'one' communication standard TSN plus OPC UA? This impression was reinforced when the editorial team received an ad hoc invitation from the ODVA on August 23 for a 'special ODVA press event' on September 24.

After checking with the shapers, we receive a denial of our conclusions: "We haven't decided yet ... and talks with various clubs as the future 'home base' of the shapers are still ongoing," replies Stefan Schönegger from B&R on our behalf. The ODVA invitation for September 24th is also purely an ODVA invitation, we are told. The group of companies is still planning its own press conference to present the decision. However, it is still unclear whether this can take place before the TSN/A Conference on September 26/27, as originally planned.

And Stefan Hoppe, Vice President of the OPC Foundation, is quite relaxed when asked: "We welcome the ODVA's commitment to base further standardization on OPC UA technology! ... The OPC Foundation is actively driving the OPC UA over TSN development and strategy."

Whenever and however this poker ends! At the TSN/A Conference, the various fieldbus players will (have to) take a stand on the TSN migration of their systems as part of a keynote discussion. - And who knows: with a bit of luck, a good dose of good will and the necessary visionary view of those involved, the Gordian Shaper knot may yet be untied by then!

Further information on the TSN/A Conference can be found on the Internet.