Leveraging the true and open standards of IP networks, providing seamless integration & enhanced value from existing building assets...

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In today’s market, the terms “Web Services”, “Internet Technologies”, and “M2M” are often heard in conjunction with building intelligence. After all, the idea of extracting powerful and useful data out of your building in order to make it run more efficiently sounds great. Who wouldn’t want to be able to save over $118,000 per year just from reducing energy by 300KW/month, all the while ensuring that your building is environment friendly? However, what is often overlooked is the integral need for integration at the building systems level. It is often assumed that these systems and sub-systems, such as, lighting, security, fire, HVAC, monitoring, elevators and access, are already interoperable. The systems are “open”, right?

Wrong. “Open” systems are generally categorized by one of two protocols, BACnet or LonWorks. These two protocols were developed to fulfill the need for “open” systems in the DDC systems marketplace and considered “open” at the device/network level. The ability to leverage the existing building assets is limited to the integration only between devices of the individual protocols. What about the other systems and subsystems? Doesn’t it seem logical to integrate them all?

The resulting integratred systems now allows a verifiable Return on Investments with documented energy savings and enhanced efficiencies in facility management. Even with these “open” protocols and the latest vendor technology, customers are still left with a proprietary user interface; a front-end controlled by the vendor offering no communication and/or value beyond the integration of one protocol (See Brighthouse casestudy).

The consequences to this vertical only integration can be devastating. First and foremost, it stifles new technology development due to the limited integration. Building performance is not optimized, offering only limited functionality with expensive maintenance costs! There are reduced management capabilities, offering only an isolated view, limiting reporting and monitoring options with less flexibility. On top of this, the customer is left with no common user interface and remains both contractually and physically restricted to one vendor. Typically the costs associated with these new “open” systems have been tremendous and sold as the key solution and/or answer!

The Truth. There is a much more efficient and cost effective solution. Instead of replacing complete systems and subsystems with the latest “open” protocol, embark your building on a migration path towards openness as defined by the IT standards of today, leveraging your existing assets through advanced systems integration. Schedule, monitor, override, data log and trend all on a customer-owned website, dynamically connected to all building systems and sub-systems, providing live, real-time data via dynamic HTML/XML.

A truly “open” building takes the idea of openness to the next level; utilizing the Ethernet based TCP/IP protocol (the IP backbone and corporate LAN already installed in your building) and integrates all system information into the following Ethernet based protocols, XML, HTML, HTTP. This IP-Centric platform is 100% protocol agnostic, raising the bar on today’s industry standards.

In order to achieve this, advanced Systems Integration must incorporate the building systems, integration & services and enterprise levels of the building, offering a means by which separate systems, once operated independently, now have the capability to function as one system, thus offering the opportunity to leverage theexisting (and expensive) assets currently installed. The benefits associated withintegration are limitless. Most powerful is the fact that diverse systems can now work together to curb energy consumption, respond to critical events and perform tasks as one complete system thus increasing building efficiency (See Brighthouse casestudy).

At the end, the customer is left thinking; does this solution address all three levels of Integration:
• Facility-level?
• Network-level?
• Enterprise-level?

Does the solution use the open standards of IP (XML, HTTP, and TCP/IP) instead of proprietary technology or proprietary web pages? Will the solution incorporate your legacy equipment and multiple protocols? Is the solution easy to install and upgrade remotely? Can you select the vendor of choice, or are you required to work with specific manufacturers? Is the front-end license free, or are there on-going license fees/limitations/restrictions to use? Do you own and control your user interface/front-end? Can you easily enhance and upgrade your user interface? Will the solution pass the heavy IT scrutiny?

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