AutomatedBuildings.com Article - Connecting Convergence

In our fourth supplement “Connecting Convergence” prepared for Engineered Systems Anto and I identify the major trends that are fuelling the connection of real time data to our client’s enterprise. For the most part convergence has happened and what is left to do is sort out who will be the players and which standards will be used in providing these essential connections. Anto’s views are well expressed in his portion of the supplement Convergence or Divergence? Which way to Enterprise Building management? He outlines the drivers and trends and then analyzes what is going on to move us forward in delivering value to building owners and operators.

For background on the convergence we are talking about, see the previous three supplements: “Connecting Convergence”

A lot has happened since our November 2003 Marketing Convergence supplement. I have listed below what I feel are the significant events that have occurred in the last 9 months. I provide my summary comments in blue as to how I see these events improving the connections to our client’s enterprise.

The http://www.xml-symposium.com/ where I led a panel discussion on XML-related HVAC industry initiatives and views was a great success. This event was held in conjunction with AHR Expo in Anaheim and a 2005 symposium is now planned in conjunction with AHR Expo in Orlando, February 2005. I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the active movement in aecXML. aecXML is an XML-based language used to represent information in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. The amount of ASHRAE and industry folks that are involved in making convergence connections is truly amazing.

This event, lead by CABA, was the first convergence connection event to be held in conjunction with an ASHRAE winter meeting. It created industry awareness and allowed the many players of the convergence connection to be identified.

This event was followed up by Anto’s second annual BuilConn 2004 with over 90 presenters and content contributors speaking around and about convergence. The co-location of the M2M Expo (Machine To Machine Expo) proved to be a dynamite combination. It became obvious that we have been in the M2M business for years but had never looked at ourselves that way. The M2M folks bring new ideas and products to propel our industry forward, and are a great addition to our community. Anto is taking his successful BuilConn event to Europe in Brussels, October 26-28, 2004.

The BuilConn event has become a must for practitioners providing convergence connections. The reach and impact of this event just keeps growing. This year the addition of M2M with lots of Wireless and IT folks helped us all change our thinking about what the connections to real time data might mean. BuilConn Europe will make this thinking global.

The oBix (Open Building Information Xchange) meeting was also held in conjunction with BuilConn with the following highlights:

Ideally the efforts of oBIX will be user lead. Toby Considine – Technology officer for Facility Services at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, indicated an interest in taking on the chair. Appointment of Toby passed by voice vote with no objections. Paul and Toby will work on transitioning leadership over the next 30 days. Toby can be reached at Tobias@facilities.unc.edu

Sinclair: Toby welcome to your new position as oBIX chairman. How does it feel to guiding this exciting group?

Considine: I am excited to be involved with group that I think has the potential to change the controls industry, to change what owners and operators can expect from buildings, and to advance several values that I hold very dear.

I have been integrating technology and facilities at the University of North Carolina for seventeen years. Clearly the first goal of Facilities Operations at a University is cost-efficient operation; I think oBIX will enable us to do that better. It is also clear that the way we have been doing things is quite simply not agile enough to support the ever –changing education, research, and public services goals of the University.

Considine: The transition is going along nicely. On April 26, the CABA board confirmed the recommendation of the oBIX committee at BuilConn. Paul Ehrlich of Trane, David Clute of Cisco, John Petze of Tridium, and Byron Hill of Johnson Controls had joined OASIS in the interim and were able to promptly begin the OASIS process. On May 15, a formal call to participate went out, and people have been signing up rapidly.

As we had hoped, the transition to OASIS has brought in a more diverse participation. I have fielded inquiries from power distribution companies that would like to talk to the building as well as had discussions of alliances with other OASIS committees and with technology companies that were not paying attention to oBIX before.

oBix evolution and usefulness has been slowed by politics and re-organization but with a new mission statement and Chairman, 2004 will be the year to watch to see if they can reach their true potential. Solutions are being developed daily that do not include the benefit of this standard.

I was also moderator for the open system panel at BuilConn. I was the moderator last year and again at the XML-Symposium in Anaheim in January but the group’s dynamic message is always changing and new, and this presentation was no exception. There was lots of focus on XML by all. In fact it really got the XML mega panel session which was on next started early. The message is very clear that our union with IT and our acceptance of open standards is going to mean a significant change in attitude for us all. Problems which seem big to the Automation industry are not even an issue for the IT folks. The message was very clear - Don't talk about it! Just do it.

XML is a part of everyone’s plan and oBIX will have to hurry to be part of this as most are moving ahead with XML implementation because they need to meet their connection commitments to capture the new convergence business.

The halls and social events surrounding BuilConn were a buzz about the possibility of LonWorks and BACnet Solution on a Chip.

We where able to get Al Mouton, President, Loytec Americas Inc. to write a very well received article in our May issue of AutomatedBuildings.com LonWorks & BACnet Solution on a Chip

This exciting development of BACnet/LonWorks on a chip will do much to provide a simple solution for connecting convergence. I hope the politics of the special interest groups in the BACnet camp do not delay how long it will take to get this chip to market as competing solutions are moving ahead rapidly.

Another approach that includes BACnet and Lon, the first ever Niagara Summit hosted by Tridium attracted 350 attendees from around the world, 25 exhibitors, and dozens of prominent speakers, this validating the reach of the Niagara community. Tridium is the inventor of the Niagara Framework™, a software framework that integrates diverse systems and devices - regardless of manufacturer, or communication protocol - into a unified platform.

In an interview on our web site with Steve Fey, Vice President of Sales, Tridium, Inc tells us about his approach to connecting products to the convergence model with a Niagara Appliance. Extract follows;

Fey: The Niagara Appliance program is a solution developed for OEM equipment and service providers. In today’s market, OEM suppliers of mechanical and electrical equipment, building control, security, fire and life safety systems are increasingly being asked to web-enable their products, provide interconnectivity to a diverse range of other control systems, and communicate alarm and maintenance information to service personnel remotely over the Internet. The Niagara Appliance has been developed to address this with a cost effective solution that can be brought to market quickly.

Our industry’s strong focus in providing connections to convergence has rapidly evolved several choices for connection.

While I am talking about choices, Waking up to Wireless my June Building Automation column in Engineered Systems talks about the new movement and an evolving wireless ZigBee Alliance.

What is ZigBee? The ZigBee Alliance which is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard

I am writing this column just after returning from BuilConn in Dallas. The haze of mega information is starting to clear and I want to tell you about one of the strong trends I saw at the show. Wireless…. WAKE UP it is here and it is now! ….. AND it will again change the shape of our industry. Approximately 10 to 15% of the folks at the conference were in the wireless industry. Wireless is now cheaper, runs forever on batteries, can even be self-generating, and can now organize itself into self healing and repeating networks. Let me provide you connection to some of the new thinking that will appear in our building automation products in the near future.

Wireless has tremendous potential as most of our required connections to real time data are in existing buildings. Self generating networks of wireless devices will have a huge impact on the industry by providing the lowest cost solution for the giant retrofit market. The full impact of these new devices will be strongly felt in the next few years.

The Column ends with; All of this wireless technology is available now, and at a cost and size that will allow it to be incorporated into our next generation building automation products. Can you imagine the impact of low cost wireless networked devices in the mammoth retrofit market in North America?

All of the above varied approaches greatly increase the complexity of procurement of the best connection equipment. In my July column I ask and answer the question: How do we insure procurement of the latest and greatest?

The solution is to follow the IT industry procurement model and to buy the building controls much the same as an owner would buy his IT enterprise system. In purchasing IT systems the fact that it all fit together and worked is more important than the lowest cost. Feature, functionality and fit ruled the procurement process.

To follow this model the conventional controls contract is removed from the various fragmented building contracts. A Request for Proposal document that includes the owner’s mandatory requirements and the mandatory control points as defined by the building design team, is prepared by the owner/user and his specialized automation consultant. Removing this work from the plan and spec world has many advantages. One of the biggest is the purchase of current capabilities. The design time for a large project from inception to completion is often several years, allowing mammoth changes in automation capabilities and reach as well as the building owner’s requirements. Just in time automation procurement insured the latest and greatest at the lowest cost.

The great progress made in open standards in the last few years will allow the task of separating the hard building stuff (chillers, fans, lights etc) from the soft stuff (interfaces and integration) easier. A tight spec using one or more of the major protocols will become part of an integration request for proposal, this will allow equipment to be purchased with controls including well-documented global strategies.

I believe that using the approach of separating the hard stuff in buildings from the soft stuff will lead to insuring the procurement of the latest and greatest “just in time” technologies.

Comparing and procuring a Lon, BACnet, Niagara, custom IT, wireless solution or the correct mix of all or any can only be done by using a request for proposal approach. We have to unhinge our thinking and refocus on the overall required functionality and the mandatory requirements. Keep it simple and let the technology folks work out the details and respective costs of their proposed standards in their proposals.

We now have standards to assist in connecting our real time data to our client’s enterprise, but the newly defined BDE (Building Domain Expert) must sort out who will and how will we all use the same convergence tools to create new solutions to our existing problems.

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