Santa Barbara, Calif. — December 20, 2007

Traditionally building control systems have been defined by the manufacturer and the manufacturers' brand of controls systems. Today, with the launch of a "controls vendor free" control system, the industry is seeing a paradigm shift. Building owners and facility managers now have the ability to select building systems by a "best of
breed" approach. No longer limited by the technology that the manufacturer is willing to provide, building owners and facility managers can decide on the best technology in circulation. RZ calls this the Intelligent Building Systems (IBS) architecture.

With the inception of perfectHOST™ in 1988, Richards-Zeta introduced an innovative approach to entering application data and program information into a building automation system; graphical programming. Users create a schematic drawing of the control system on a computer screen using templates, which flow through inputs, through processing logic, to outputs. When the drawing is complete, the application is then downloaded into the BAS hardware.

Coupled with the establishment of the internet and subsequent standards, Richards-Zeta introduced the RZ Mediator as a powerful, intelligent middleware solution comprised of both hardware and software which allows for the convergence of multiple disparate building systems and IT. This domain and protocol agnostic integration framework is able to communicate with a number of disparate protocols and normalizes both IP and legacy serial based protocols. This normalization in turn allows for intra-protocol communication, the uniform application of services such as logging, and the common presentation of information that is sourced from the array of intelligent machines found in buildings.

By combining these two powerful technologies RZ provides for full, closed loop control service to be applied to any connected system or device regardless of manufacture or protocol resulting in this revolutionary "controls vendor free", control system.
By installing the RZ Mediator infrastructure, users have the ability to easily install, network and integrate any third party controllers, systems and/or devices into the Mediator framework and combine further value by adding supervisory control strategies and additional control logic. With the Mediator architecture, any manufactures' devices and systems which support open protocol standards (XML, HTTP, BACnet/IP, Modbus, SNMP, LonWorks, etc.) or numerous systems with proprietary protocols (RZ currently supports <65), now become an integral part of the fully integrated Intelligent Building Systems (IBS).

The Mediator by design is an open source (Linux and Python based) embedded internet appliance. Its powerful Multi-Protocol eXchange (MPX) framework provides the enabling technology for building owners and facility managers to actively pursue and obtain the "best of breed" technology systems. Since all building systems data is normalized, the possibilities are endless and the implementation of fully integrated IBS systems is obtainable. Services such as advanced building systems analytics, energy management, automated demand response (ADR), automated fault detection and diagnostics (AFDD), computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), work order systems, tenant billing, database management and global schedules are integrated within the building management systems.