Since 1999 AutomatedBuildings.com has been an on line magazine and web resource. We provide the news and connection to the community of change agents that are creating our present definition of smart, intelligent, integrated, connected, green, and converged large buildings. Our virtual magazine and web resource provides a searchable platform for discussion and exchange while creating opportunities for B2B for all new and existing stakeholders.;xNLx;;xNLx;We hope you will enjoy this new fresh way to fly through time in 2D or 3D to quickly get to our great quantity of valuable information
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I find it interesting that our shift early in the DDC industry from the name Energy Management Control System ( EMCS ) to Client Comfort System ( CSS ) in the early 1990 with this documents still online was a harbinger of acknowledging the important of the client satisfaction connection. It is amazing that this game changing document is still online this was what Jane and I were doing with our day job 5 years before the start of AutomatedBuildings.com http://www.accommodationandrealestate.gov.bc.ca/Doing_Business_With_Us/Technical_Manuals/files/ccs/index.html button In those days we often joked about the "Make Me Happy Button" an important input from the field to let us know that our clients were not happy this of course was long before smart phones and social media. In those days we had no method of communicating with the happiness of the measured variable of our process our client.
What does the author know about facility operation? Most Engineered System readers know me from my monthly Building Automation Columns and my online internet readers know me as the Editor/Owner of AutomatedBuildings.com but before doing either of these I spent over 35 years in the industry optimizing operating procedures in existing facilities and large buildings. Johnson Controls in Milwaukee originally trained me as a service/sales engineer. I left my post of service manager with JCI to operate several buildings for a local developer. After that I accepted a contract position as the Assistance Energy Analyst for the Province of Alberta. This gave me exposure to the new and exciting world of computer simulated energy performance, although the program did run on paper cards on a mainframe computer in Ottawa over a very slow modem. For over 25 of these 35 years I operated as Sinclair Energy Services Ltd providing energy simulations, conservation, and automation consulting for existing large buildings in Western Canada. While working on a computer simulation for a 60-acre solar heated bubble that was to bring a mild environment to a northern Alberta town for both for the construction and finished town-site Don Holte of Nova Engineering taught me that the scope and approach to environment control engineering was unlimited. Don went on to be the International President of ASHRAE. Several of my industry mentors share a good understanding of computerized large building simulation principles. I started Sinclair Energy Services Ltd to do computer simulations, energy conservation, as well as identifying computerized controls related opportunities in large existing buildings. The University of Alberta (U of A) started a total Direct Digital Control system in 1975. I was lucky to be part of this project that was installing large campus buildings with only total DDC without any conventional controls. The computers were as big as refrigerators, and we had a system analyst and a team of code monkeys, plus we had to create and build most of our own software and sensors as most had not been invented yet or were too costly. Being part of the team that created these extremely interesting leading edge systems spawned many life mentors for me. I was amazed at the quantity and variety of people required to build what had not been built before. This project and associated mechanical/lighting energy conservation projects for over 15 million square feet of facility helped me gain insight into large complex operations. A central chilled water plant with over 15,000 tons of cooling and miles of distribution allowed us to hone our hydraulic skills and let the DDC system prove us wrong or right. In the early 1980s, I moved to Vancouver Island and Sinclair Energy Services Ltd started providing similar services for the British Columbia Buildings Corporation that then had over 22 million square feet of space in over 700 buildings. The DDC revolution had begun and it was centred on the lower BC Mainland and Vancouver Island. Most of our energy studies on existing buildings ended in the retrofit of the existing controls to the new DDC systems. Working with the industry to make the new DDC as powerful and flexible as possible further increased my team of industry mentors. I still had time to be a founding member and a President of both the local chapter of AEE and the Vancouver Island Chapter of ASHRAE. I was fortunate to be on the teams that won the ASHRAE international energy award for existing buildings Robson Square for BCBC and Vancouver Art Gallery for City of Vancouver and several AEE energy awards, plus local BC Hydro Power Smart awards. Sinclair Energy Services worked with the local utility BC Hydro "Power Smart Program" which allowed us to identify, document, and oversee the implementing of many million dollars of energy conservation projects. Several clients as well as several large hospitals allowed us more insight into special application projects. All of our work was done in existing facilities and buildings and the identification of these operational opportunities gave me insight into the existing operation team. In all our projects, much of our time was spent retrofitting, rebuilding and training building operators to the point that we created a High Performance Building Operator's Course. I wish that the Web had been invented so we could share this with you now. It included the essence of room load calculation, building simulation, thermo and energy analysis of various types of air handling type, control strategy development, power optimization, and more. The best part was the creation of a personnel network of high performance operators that could share ideas and help each other solve problems. I hope to achieve the rekindling of this valuable network of super operators online
Started web creation in May first issue was online July Since 1999 AutomatedBuildings.com has been an on line magazine and web resource. We provide the news and connection to the community of change agents that are creating our present definition of smart, intelligent, integrated, connected, green, and converged large buildings Our Mission as originally set in July 1999 "To Become Your Resource for Internet Information on Automated Buildings." The evolution of Automated Buildings has reached revolutionary status. The revolution has been caused by the standardization of communication protocols such as BACnet, LonTalk, Web Based control, and the wide use of the Internet and Intranets. As technologies converge and our clients' expectations are fueled by the ease of access and freedom of information on the Net, our only weapon is to be informed. We will encompass environmental control, energy metering/accounting systems, lighting control, life safety/fire, security, communications, high tech tools, web resources, and interactive information systems. Automated Buildings wants to discover the who, what, where, when and why of this fascinating field. Please subscribe to our monthly updates and share this resource by having all of your automated buildings stakeholders subscribe. The monthly updates are free and will help keep us all informed as revolution gives way to rapid evolution into the millenium. •How is the automated building systems industry using the power of the internet, intranet to evolve their products? •How are the evolving standards such as BACnet, LonTalk progressing? •How will networking change our approach to automated building systems? •What new sensor products are likely to make a significant change? •What training and shareware resources exist? •Existing operating building systems will be discussed, both their successes and failures. The names given to building automation systems are varied: •Building Automation Systems or BAS •Building Management Systems or BMS •Facility Management Systems or FMS •Energy Management Systems or EMS •Energy Management Control Systems or EMCS •Client Comfort System or CCS plus many more. We will group and provide connection to all of these plus lighting control companies, fire / life safety, security, the sensor, actuation, and end device industry and anything else that is now becoming part of an automated building system. Why we did it. The editors of AutomatedBuildings.com have run a successful automation and energy conservation consulting firm for large commercial buildings over the last 25 years. Our involvement with the industry, our clients, organizations such as ASHRAE, AEE, etc has given us some insight into the large building automation industry. Much of our lives has been dedicated to keeping up with technological changes, but never has the pressure to keep up with the concepts now changing our industry been more important. Emerging communication standards, building systems evolution to common networks, the internet itself as a control system, these rapid communications of change are spinning the industry at an incredible rate. Although the net is an incredible resource, it has been described as a library with all the books on the floor. Mining the net for useful information and creating virtual relationships with the industry is slow work. Once the information is gathered as a special interest resource it can greatly increase the productivity of an industry and propel it forward, but only if the industry embraces and helps the resource grow. Spurred on by the success of our friends Bob and Brenda Hetherington of HomeToys.com and their pulling together of the home automation industry we have started AutomatedBuildings.com to provide a similar service for commercial and industrial automated buildings. Our relationship allows us access to their mentoring and internet experience. We feel that their resources will allow us significant leverage to bring your AutomatedBuildings.com resource to you in as short a time as possible. We hope you like what we are doing. If you do, "tell a colleague in the industry". If you do not like what we are doing or know of a better way for us to achieve our goals tell us via email and we will try to incorporate your suggestions in our site. AutomatedBuildings.com is intended to be an interactive process to bind our industry. I wish us all luck in the development of your resource AutomatedBuildings.com. Ken and Jane Sinclair
It has been a fun filled few months since the start of AutomatedBuildings.com. We are suffering a little bit of vertigo from the learning curve but the industry support has been great. A special thanks to all our subscribers. Your support has been most encouraging and shows us that there is a need for the information that we are assembling. Our first issue showed our general direction, and this July web site launch issue contains input from the Automated Building Industry. I am pleased with this month's articles and general web enhancements. Please feedback your thoughts as well as the kind of information you would like to see in your internet resource. Help us get known to the world by telling a friend or colleague if you find the resource useful, if not tell us. Our August 99 update includes interesting News/Press Releases. Check out the Hartman Loop and China Markets. A new section has been added to Press Releases called New Products. In this section we will try to keep you abreast of the rapidly evolving market. Also as requested, we are setting up a Want Ads Section on the Resource bar which for now includes Employment Opportunities and Dealers Wanted sections. We are pleased that the industry is using us to communicate with the industry. In addition to the above changes we have reworked the Link Library adding 15 new links plus several new sections; Actuators Dampers & Valves, Input Output Devices Sensors & Relays, LonTalk& LonMark End Device Products, and Installation Manufacturing Products. A new section Humidifiers has also been added as these devices are often supplied by the automation industry and are a integral part of good environmental control. We have added an Industrial Control Companies section because of the convergence of our industries. Much of the evolution occurring in the industrial sector is also occurring in automated buildings and in the future I will be adding sites that have interesting approaches to common problems. A special thanks to BACnet guru Michael Newman for helping us introduce AutomatedBuildings.com and for providing a link from ASHRAE's automation resource for the industry the BACnet web site at http://www.bacnet.org/. As you can see we have been busy responding to your requests and look forward to continuing to shape AutomatedBuilding.com into your internet automation resource The Automator our Emagazine will keep you on top of the late breaking news, articles and product reviews for the Building Automation Industry. Our Editorial below provides a update of what is new in this issue. Please feel free to copy the Cartoon/Satire at the right to your web site or newsletter. This will help us get AutomatedBuildings.com known to the world. We need your help to build an internet resource for the automated building industry. Please email us your views, news, new products and articles ... complete with pictures. After all ... what is a magazine without pictures?
October update has added a new feature a Site Search Engine. We have assembled enough valuable information to made a dedicated search engine a necessity. Give it a try, it's fun and you will find lots of neat articles and links on our site. Looking for articles by Hartman? Type in Hartman and hit start. Click on articles or reviews you want to view. If you wish to search the actual matched document for a keyword use the Find Function on your browser, usually "Ctrl F". Use our search feature to see if you are linked to us, and where. A special thanks to our new and ongoing advertisers. These companies make our web resource and Ezine possible so be sure to click on their banner/showcase ads under Products and become familiar with their services. As with any good trade magazine the advertising is much of the total content and message conveyed. For October there are new links in our Link Library and Software Library and several new News/Press Releases. Check them out. Our July/August web site launch went well, thank you for your support and kind words. Our fall, September issue is now on line with lots of industry news, new products, reviews and articles. See details below. Our Link Library has been greatly expanded. We currently have 220 sites linked and the number is increasing daily. We believe this to be the greatest single assembly of Automated Buildings Stakeholders on the internet. Security/fire companies have been added as well as providers of installation accessories and others. In our Software Library we currently have 23 sites linked, 4 new ones this month. Please use these resources as they will allow you to get valuable industry information in a fraction of the time spent searching the complete net. We are considering adding a search engine just to search our site to speed up your access time to information. A special thanks to our advertisers Belimo Actuators, Reliable Controls, Reed Expo and those presently placing ads. Be sure to visit our sponsors sites as they make the AutomatedBuildings.com resource possible. Please feedback your thoughts as well as the kind of information you would like to see in this internet resource. Help us get known to the world by telling a friend or colleague if you find the resource useful, if not tell us. Our September 99 issue includes the latest News/Press Releases. The new section added to Press Releases called New Products has been updated. In this section we will try to keep you abreast of the rapidly evolving new product market. Also as requested, we have set up a Want Ads Section on the Resource bar which for now includes Employment Opportunities and Dealers Wanted sections. Please use this new resource. We are pleased that the industry is using us to communicate with the industry. In addition to the above changes we have reworked the Link Library adding new companies and several new sections; Actuators Dampers & Valves, Input Output Devices Sensors & Relays, LonTalk& LonMark End Device Products, and Installation Manufacturing Products. A new section Humidifiers has also been added as these devices are often supplied by the automation industry and are an integral part of good environmental control. We have added an Industrial Control Companies section because of the convergence of our industries. Much of the evolution occurring in the industrial sector is also occurring in automated buildings and in the future I will be adding sites that have interesting approaches to common problems. Our link from the BACnet Web site has brought us lots of new readers and we continue to provide BACnet news with an article this month about BACnet Down Under. I asked Michael if there were any Y2K issues in the BACnet data exchange? His response by email was: "BACnet is Y2K compliant until 2155. The year field in all BACnet dates (a single byte) = (YEAR - 1900) and since a single unsigned byte can hold values from 0 to 255 we don't have a problem that will concern any of us..." A special thanks to BACnet guru Michael Newman for helping us introduce AutomatedBuildings.com and for providing a link from ASHRAE's automation resource for the industry, the BACnet web site at http://www.bacnet.org/.
News for December - AutomatedBuildings.com speaks at Dallas Expo International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo) February 7th-9th, 2000 "State of the Art" Capabilities in Building Automation Come and listen as we explore the latest advances in "Intelligent Building Systems." This FREE 1/2 hour presentation will offer attendees a quick overview of everything from the basics to the outer limits of Building Automation and Integration. See how far the automation of Commercial and Residential buildings has gone in the year 2000 and find out how these advanced capabilities might benefit you. Presented By: Ken Sinclair, Editor, AutomatedBuildings.com David J. Branson, Sr VP, Compliance Services Group, Inc. December Update includes a new feature - our Web Site Map located on the home page, plus a rework of your favourite resource our link library. The large number of links was becoming an issue to download for readers using low speed access. The link library has been restructured into four sections with an index page. The smaller segments load much faster and allow us the ability to expand this service. Several new sections have also been added: Independent Automation Representatives, Component & Product Distributors, Commissioning & Optimization Providers, and Network Service Providers. A new library resource Acronyms & Definitions has also been added to help you keep current with all the annoying acronyms that we must learn to understand our future. Please send us more as you find them. New links have been added to our Link Library so check out their services. News for November - California here I come! Editor Ken Sinclair has been invited to be the guest speaker at the joint meeting of the Golden Gate and San Jose ASHRAE Chapters, Dec 2nd at the San Mateo Marriott. I welcome this opportunity to share my thoughts with the two ASHRAE Chapters that conduct their business in the center of the Internet industry for America. My topic is: Are Automated Buildings Converging or Colliding with the Internet? Please help me present the actual facts by sharing your views and/or late breaking concepts. Email sinclair@automatedbuildings.com or call 250-656-5378 , Pacific Standard Time. Your input will be reflected in my presentation. It would be great if you could come out and join us at this ASHRAE joint chapter meeting. Contact the local Chapters for details. http://www.ggashrae.org/calendr.htm It is also timely that the November issue of our online Ezine "The Automator" has the theme "How the Web is Changing Our Industry". Several great industry articles on this subject are now online. This issue's cartoon pokes fun at a serious concern, the digital haves and have nots in our industry. As part of the industry embraces the information revolution and our convergence, another part is attempting to carry on business as it did in the past, ignoring the signs of change. Our industry is too small to be divided; reach out and help someone who is struggling with the rapid technological changes we must all go through.
Check out our February 2000 Press Releases, News Briefs and New Products. JOHNSON CONTROLS ACQUIRES ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS USA Our January 2000 issue showcases The International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo) Show in Dallas, February 7th-9th, 2000. Review our participation in the following news release. "State of the Art" Capabilities in Building Automation Industry support of our theme and the AHR issue has been great! Check out the 12 Articles, New Products, and News/Press Releases to preview what experts from our industry are talking about in the 21st Century. AHR Expo 2000 All companies participating in the Expo have this logo and their booth number listed. Get up to date previews of the Dallas show. Our Training Schedule has evolved to a list of System Training Links that will allow you to get quickly up to speed. We will continuously update as new sources are discovered. If you know of on line training which should be added please send an Email stating the URL. A review of yet another acronym WAP has been added to our new library resource Acronyms & Definitions. This section has been added to help you keep current with all the annoying acronyms that we must all learn to understand our future. Please send us more as you find them. Have you tried our new feature the Site Search Engine? Give it a try, it's fun and you will find lots of neat articles and links on our site. Looking for articles by Hartman? Type in Hartman and hit start. Click on articles or reviews you want to view. If you wish to search the actual matched document for a keyword use the Find Function on your browser, usually "Ctrl F". Use our search feature to see if you are linked to us, and where.
Theme "Now Available for Automated Buildings" Our April 2000 update includes lots of new web site features. Contractor Corner is a resource page developed just for the people that install and maintain Automated Buildings. This new space will allow a virtual community of Control Contractors to interact and get quick access to the rapidly changing Automation Industry. Please advise your contractors of this resource and suggest how we can make it better. ContractorCorner@automatedbuildings.com We have entered into a co-branding agreement with AEE Seminar and Books. Check out this new service. We welcome our four new sponsors Echelon, Coactive, Strategic Resource Solutions and ControlShop. Please check out their sites as our sponsors allow us to bring this online magazine and resource to you free. We are assembling an index with dynamic linking to all industry e-com sites to be part of our May issue. Please advise us of any electronic commerce sites you are aware of. e-com@automatedbuildings.com Our March site traffic has increased approximately 25% over February Thanks for your help getting us known in the industry. April's update has new links, press releases, new products and news briefs. See the two new categories in the Link Library - Flow & Pressure Measurement, and Health & Safety - IAQ.
Theme "Our Web Communities" June Update Lots of new products, press releases and new links are included in our June update. We already have articles for our July Anniversary issue. We have room for lots more and the theme of "A Year of Rapid Change" allows any topic to be included. We are working hard to give your automation web site a face lift and overall tune up to help us celebrate our first anniversary so please joint us with your input. Your editor is speaking at Mindware2000, Circon's Second Annual Partner Conference. My topic is "The Net Effect" which will include quotations from articles by industry leaders on their perceptions of the value of the Internet. I will discuss the goals of interoperability and the value of standards; a topic I am sure most Circon Partners know more about than me. I will also talk about the rapid growth and acceptance of the net by our automation industry, discuss examples of the total integration of the web and automated buildings and talk about convergence and whether it might consume or save us. I will close with some observed trends in eCommerce and Concept Contracting. I look forward to a lively discussion after. I welcome opportunities such as this to liaison with the industry as it greatly increases my understanding and provides new directions and valuable feedback on how to improve our automated buildings web resource. A special thanks to all those industry leaders that have shared our web address with their employees/associates and/or made us part of their web site as an active link. We are working hard to become your industry portal and web resource and we greatly appreciate your support. Your industry "B2B" web resource AutomatedBuildings.com is rapidly evolving. One year ago, or 4 net years ago, when we first started our online magazine and web resource we envisioned that we would be an "B2B" (Business to Business) website, but we thought of it more in the traditional sense such as control vendor to building owners. Rapid evolution fed by the tremendous change and effect of the net on the industry has us providing information for connecting network vendors with control vendors, net based software providers with vendors, contractors, and building owners and everyone with the rapidly evolving communication and web standards. When you review this month's new web resource Industry eCommerce Directory for the Automated Buildings Industry also look at our review of Ten Observed Trends in eCom for the Building Automation Industry. I think you too will be amazed at the rapid growth and acceptance of the web as an eCommerce tool for our industry. It is obvious that B2B eCom will change forever how our industry does business with itself. Will this rapid B2B revolution spread to the way we do business with building owners? Will bundling of our products and services evolve to packages that will be suitable for eCommerce to the building industry? Will controls and automation become an integral part and supplied building subsystems? Keep your bookmark set on AutomatedBuildings.com for the answers to this and other rapid industry changes. We do not know what is going to happen, but we will tell you as soon as we do. Navigation Tip Some sites that we link to have chosen to do a redirect when you click on the back button. This means you cannot get out of this site with your back button unless you double click quickly. We find this most annoying as it defeats standard internet navigation. Our Contractor Corner link has been well received. Do you have information you would like to share with this special interest group? Let us know and we will be sure they get the message. We are presently emailing to 2000 plus contractors. The ability to create virtual space for special interest groups in our industry is one of the luxuries of the a web based magazine. We are considering creating a Lifestyle Library, with corporate successes of improving lifestyles and a Designers Den with resources and links for designers. Let us know if you think these would be of use to you. Our July 2000 Issue will be our First Anniversary Issue. Our Theme will be "A Year of Rapid Change". Please share your thoughts with our readership.
Our August update in now on line with new products and August's news releases. A new section has been added under our About button called Reader Profile and it outlines who reads AutomatedBuildings.com. From our July anniversary issue - It has been a year of not having time for the wet paint to dry before we move on to our next evolutionary step. This month's editorial/article "A Year of Rapid Change" or The Metamorphosis of a Digital Dinosaur provides an insight into who we are plus a quick review of our first year as AutomatedBuildings.com. I feel we all must be going through a metamorphosis of some type to get our minds around the changes that are occurring in our industry. I am convinced that reading and talking about these changes is the quickest path to understanding. By now you have probably noticed the changes in our web site look. These include new top menu artwork with "mouse overs" to improve understanding of the function of each button, plus a more interactive home page to quickly guide you to the sections of our portal that interest you the most. The rework was necessary to keep with the professional articles, and material sent to us by our contributors. The evolution to "Your Global Automation Portal" surprised us as it seems that several of our readers reached this conclusion before we did. We have several international articles and links so take a global look at our industry and what is happening in other parts of the world, as it may affect you more than you think. As usual this issue has lots of new products, press releases, new links and great articles that expand on our theme. We welcome back good friend Tom Hartman with a new provocative article The "COMFORT INDUSTRY" a 21st Century Opportunity . Tom gave us one of our first articles "Network Control" one year ago. His January article Essay on Change was also extremely well received. Tom's articles are consistently among the "top reads". Your editor enjoyed the opportunity of making a presentation at Mindware2000, Circon's Second Annual Partner Conference. It was great to observe the excitement and enthusiasm that was in the air with this dynamic team of system integrators. I welcome opportunities such as this to liaison with the industry as it greatly increases my understanding and provides new directions and valuable feedback on how to improve our automated buildings web resource. A special thanks to all those industry leaders that have shared our web address with their employees/associates and/or made us part of their web site as an active link. We are working hard at being your industry portal and web resource and appreciate your support. Please review our web resource Industry eCommerce Directory for the Automated Buildings Industry and I think you too will be amazed at the rapid growth and acceptance of the web as an eCommerce tool. Keep your bookmarks set on us we do not know what is going to happen next month, but we will tell you as soon as we do.
Prepared for the Net Effect? Here is an example Europe's leading research and consultancy company specialising in intelligent systems in buildings advises us that the North American Controls Market could double. The global interest and capabilities are amazing and if we are not in touch with our local markets, global interests are. "State-of-the-Art Capabilities in Building Automation" AHR Expo Atlanta Jan 2001 - Show Sponsored Sessions. Explore the latest advances in "Intelligent Building Systems." See how far the automation of commercial and residential buildings has come - from today's trends to the outer limits of building automation and integration in these FREE 1/2 hour presentations. Presented By: Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com, David J. Branson, Compliance Services Group, Inc. We welcome back Echelon as one of our sponsors and are pleased to help them invite our readers to their LONWORLD2000™ the world's largest annual forum focused on the technology and business of networking everyday devices like washing machines, stereos, light switches, energy meters, thermostats, HVAC systems, and more to the Internet. ORLANDO, FLORIDA, OCTOBER 18-19, 2000. We also welcome the LonMark Interoperability Association as a new sponsor this month. Note that we have had the BACnet Manufacturers Association (BMA) as a sponsor for several months and we are pleased to have our automation portal provide an independent arena for information exchange by designers, manufacturers and users of these and other protocols.
Virtual Image Logo Creating and Maintaining Your Virtual Image You are your Virtual Image and it is inevitable that your Virtual Image and your real identity will become one. If the last update of your web site was December 1998 you are now virtually dead. As the hewers of the new virtual world lead us into a "Java Jungle" or choose to "Flash Us", remember that your clients are simply looking for Content, Consistency, and Continuous access to the virtual you. My November column in Engineered Systems magazine provides insights on how we must stay plugged into being virtual. Our contributing editors have been very busy each providing an excellent article for this month's issue. Hartman Designing Greener Buildings, Mc Gowan Control Synthesis Damiano The Advantage of Direct Measurement for Ventilation AutomatedBuildings.com's presentation "The Only Thing Constant is Change" at Andover's WW Meeting 2000 (Marco Island) expanded on concepts from our Articles and Columns. Focus was on The Net Effect, forging Velcro Relationships and Cloud Control. We were not able to tell the Andover folks anything about ecom as over 40% of their orders are processed this way. Lots of new web based products were presented plus a lot of well founded excitement about their new merger with a leader in digital video technology Integral Technologies. Please welcome our newest advertiser Building Automation Products, Inc. (BAPI) specializes as a manufacturer of sensors for the commercial heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) industry. In an effort to bring our virtual images to you faster through reduced load time we have divided The Automator home page in two. Editorial/Articles/Reviews are now on one page and Headlines, News Briefs, plus New Products are on another. Are you having trouble keeping up with the evolving Network & Internet Standards? We have created a new section that has linkage to over 25 communication standards. Our Summary of New Industry Links allows you to quickly view who is new and happening. On Line Training and Information Resources is just the start of what I feel will grow to a useful part of our site providing access to training for the industry. Scheduled Industry Courses has also been added.
see our AHR EXPO 2001 Review - Atlanta "State-of-the-Art Capabilities in Building Automation" AHR Expo Session Head Retread - Update on the above AHR Expo Session in Atlanta Special AHR Show Preview for Automation Exhibitors to show featured products and provide news releases. More information on the Sessions at AHR Expo. Our contributing editors have provided excellent articles for our special show issue. Hartman - Steps to a More Efficient Chiller Plant a follow up article to Improve Chiller Plant Efficiency! Mc Gowan - DDC's Future 1-01 Damiano - The REAL Costs of Poor Indoor Air Quality In addition to the above article, Tom Hartman is providing two presentations at the ASHRAE Winter Meeting in Atlanta. 1. Symposium 2, at 8:00 AM on Sunday, January 28th Central Energy Plant kW per ton and Demand Controls 2. Seminar 29 at 10:15 AM on Tuesday, January 30th Adding New Life to Old Systems: Control Retrofit Case Studies I am excited about my presentation with Dave Branson at the Expo. The Head Retread article provides insight into our direction. There is still time to share your thoughts with us on what you think the "State of the Art" is, email me your observations. All exhibitors and automation stakeholders are invited to provide input for these Expo sessions for 2002 and beyond. Come out Wednesday, January 31st 9:15am to An Open Forum for Automation and the Future
•Occupant Connectivity for Building Controls The development of low cost wireless data transmission technologies demands a new look at how building control systems can effectively employ such technologies. Thomas Hartman, P.E. The Hartman Company •Continuous Digital Control (CDC) The term Direct Digital Control therefore no longer describes the industry's goals; rather it wants Continuous Digital Control. John J. "Jack" Mc Gowan, CEM Energy Control Inc •Wireless Technology and the Internet Converge to Offer Equipment Monitoring Solutions "..... in an industry where prevention is key and time is money, wireless monitoring provides a strategic advantage for those who want to maximize the potential of their HVAC/R equipment. "Kevin Duffy, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Notifact •What Should You Be Looking for-- When Choosing a Local Positioning System? "....... a powerful local positioning system must be flexible in its design and in the amount of applications that it can offer. It should be completely open from the component level to the network level and all the way up to the application level." Ofer Yourvexel VP Marketing, ELPAS Ltd •Seamless Connectivity One Company's Success Developing and Implementing LonWorks networks based on RF technology. Tracy Markie Engenuity Systems, Inc. •The VykonTM Solution: Unlocking the Power of Networks "We need to encapsulate all systems information into a common object module that can then be accessed or manipulated - without regards to its origin of manufacturer - consistently, seamlessly and from a standard Web browser." Dennis W. Tuft, Vice President, Marketing Tridium Inc. •HVAC Solution New Mechanical Engineering Software Should Have Major Impact on Industry Brad Fullmer, Editor, F.W. Dodge Intermountain Contractor •Working Without Wires Imagine how this technology could radically change how we commission buildings. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com •The Greening of Buildings with Automation "Enviromation" - The Art & Science of Communication/Automation Integration with our Environments. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com •Componentization of the Control of the HVAC Industry The next phase of building automation technology will bring new life to some traditional equipment. Likewise, it will usher in a rethinking of what building HVAC systems do, and how they do it. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
•Web-enabled Energy Education The question is, will World Wide Web or "Web" change the way that education is delivered? Jack Mc Gowan, CEM Energy Control Inc •Putting the Leverage in e-Learning e -learning provides an opportunity to deliver cost effective solutions to improve performance. Chuck Miles, Johnson Controls •Are (W)eLearning Yet? We call the creation and delivery of learning material by electronic means "eLearning." David Fisher, PolarSoft® Inc. •New Roads to Interoperability Oh, and don't forget the IT Industry. David J Branson, PE, CSG Communications •HVAC University One key area of the program that assists students with HVAC systems concepts is a systems "Help" file which gives the students a basic understanding of HVAC components and systems design. Joseph V. Simmons, Van Boerum & Frank Associates •"Demand-Controlled Ventilation" (DCV) and Intake Rate Control First, let's get one simple truth out of the way. There is no direct relationship between interior CO2 levels and intake rates. Len Damiano, EBTRON Inc •Pressure Measurement Improves Air Quality There is a misconception that the reason buildings require ventilation is to supply outdoor air so people can breathe oxygen. Diane Shaughnessy, Setra •Computer Based Training or CBT, is an effective and efficient form of education for most anyone. CBT is simply a CD-ROM that a student can use whenever and wherever they choose. Dr. Malcolm Lewis, Better Buildings Interactive •An Internet to the Guest Room Solution They need access to e-mail, corporate databases and the World Wide Web and they're ready to base their hotel choice on Internet connectivity. Allan M. Olbur, Comprehensive Communications Systems Corp •School Improvement Plan DukeSolutions will unveil a strategy to help school districts. Erika Heatherly, DukeSolutions •Opportunities to Meet the Combined Needs of K-12 Facilites, Technology and Educational Programs The project will also bring real-time building and energy data into the K-12 curriculum accessible as "read only" data via a web browser. Edward H. Brzezowski, Facility Energy Services, Inc. •eDucation and the Automated Building Evolution The line through the year 2001 on our evolution trend graphic slices though the layers of every control technology known to man. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com •Getting Over the Digital Divide It may be hard to imagine that all the players in an industry that automates large buildings have not yet made it over the digital divide, but it is true. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com •11 Revolutionary Automation Trends in Large Buildings These 11 trends are having a significant effect on the present revolution or rapid evolution of large Buildings Automation. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
Protocol wars rage on and our new interview section seems to provide the vehicle for industry leaders to quickly share their views with us. This information plus our current and archived articles will help answer your questions about protocol evolution. What do We Mean by Open Systems? Rand Arnold, President ControlShop TCP/IP Protocol - The Real Contender? Rehan Kamal, IT Strategist, Computrols Industry Restructuring Kevin Lynch, Executive Director, LONMARK® Interoperability Association Our article with top number of reads for July was Web Based Control Systems The Devil is in the Details by Steve Tom, AutomatedLogic. Entering Our Third Year TitleAs we move into the third year of our online resource AutomatedBuildings.com and our Ezine "The Automator" we reflect on our growth and the tremendous industry support. We are pleased to be evolving into your Automated Building Industry resource, providing news and information services. We cannot overly express our thanks to our advertisers/sponsors without whose support we would not be. Our July Issue is full of IT with articles about our industry's rapid transition and convergence with the Information Technology plus good resource articles on IAQ, and Adjustable Speed Motor Drives. Be sure to check out the review of The Building Control Group of the UK web site with a Free 94 page pdf Control Sensor Installation Pocket Book. Not quite sure how one gets a pdf in one's pocket maybe on a PDA? but it is a great international automation resource. Check out our new look - more white space to ease those tired eyes. Interviews section added. Read what industry experts are saying about current automation issues. If you would like to be part of this new interactive media contact us. Automated Building Systems eDucation The rapid changing Automated Building industry has always required that all players be constantly re-educating themselves to keep current, but never has there been a time when this is so important. Industry advertising/sponsorship is an important part of AutomatedBuildings.com overall content as it allows us to provide our services free. To keep our Global Automation presence very focused, we approach only industry building automation players as sponsors and advertisers. In this way we eliminate the amount of non-related information presented to you. The Business to Business or B2B within the Building Automation Industry that occurs on our web site is becoming as important to our industry presence as "The Large Building Automation Online Resource".
Our October issue adds to the restructuring theme with an interview about selling new automation concepts. Our October Headlines also provide a definition of the potential markets. We feel that our readers interest in this area is increasing and we will provide more information on marketing in the future. The Building Automation industry is presently undergoing major restructuring including a complete reconstruction of the existing control procurement process and methods of doing business. Many players in our industry feel that only minor changes are occurring, however today's restructuring will change who we are and whom we work for. Please read our articles on Industry Restructuring and feedback your comments. More on "Proto-calling" Protocol wars rage on; John James, Vice President Products Group, Cimetrics Inc responds to Rehan Kamal, IT Strategist, Computrols comment "Today's BAS standards like BACnet and LonWorks will go the way of BetaMax and Quadraphonic sound" with "This is an "apples & oranges" comparison. BACnet objects and LonMark profiles are examples of Application-Layer standards and TCP/IP is a Transport, or Data-Link Layer standard." Read the Interviews Our new interview section seems to provide the vehicle for industry leaders to quickly share their views with us. I hope you are learning as much from these interviews as I am. This information plus our current and archived articles will help answer your questions about how the protocol evolution is restructuring our industry. If you would like to be part of this new interactive media contact us. We have a sneak preview of an article scheduled for publication in Engineered Systems' October issue. Restructuring for the Componentization Era Major restructuring of our industry is required and is happening allowing web wise solutions with full integrating of the Componentization Era into powerful enterprise controls. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com Our article with the top number of reads for September was What is New and Hot in the Building Automation Market by "Jack" Mc Gowan, Energy Control Inc.. Make sure to check out all our favorite articles in our archived articles section
January 2002 will be our Show Issue - AHR Expo 2002, Atlantic City. Plan to be a part of this issue. March 2002 our theme will be "Marketing New Concepts" and will deal with making your business in Building Automation successful. Contents & Features Making Sense of Sensors Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com Second Generation Sensors Erika.L.McGinley, Johnson Controls Inc Marketing and Business Successful Contracting: Beyond the Technical Issues Al De Wachter, ICS What got you to where you are… won't! Darrell Matocha and J. Rand Arnold, P.E. ControlShop Automation Systems Financing … a new trend? "Jack" Mc Gowan, CEM Energy Control Inc Industry Technical Trends Our Industry Should Support New Division 17 Steve Thomas, Johnson Controls, Inc. Ideal World, Ideal Protocol, Ideal System Jim Henry Founder, Chairman BACnet Interest Group – AustralAsia (BIG-AA) Wireless Monitoring and Control Trond Lokstad, Neils D. Aakvaag, and Jonny Skalvik, ABB Corporate Research, Norway Integrated Facilities Management William J Stermer, SRS - Strategic Resource Solutions "The Indispensible Internet" Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
If we do not take control of the data presentation of our dynamic information, the Information Technology or IT Industry will. It is important that our solutions seamlessly mesh with the IT industry, but it is even more important as an industry that we control the content and interaction of our information model or models. This article by Eric and Dave provided the corner stone of our web services forum.
Whenever I talk to my friends in the industry and ask "How can I make AutomatedBuildings.com better?" the quip is "more pictures of pretty girls". So for those guys here it is, a picture of crusty the consultant turned editor with Katie Harmon, Miss America 2002. The AHR Expo was a great event exceeding all expectations by attracting 28,513 visitors from around the world. See my review of this event in this issue. Last month's most requested article Information Model: The Key to Integration and most requested Interview "Open" Building Control Systems plus feedback and encouragement at the AHR Expo spurred us to create our Online Forum for an Industry Web Services Information Model. At the AHR Expo this year there was a lot of interest in the application of evolving web services as a higher level of communication integration for our industry. We have created a first cut at an online forum to help inform the industry, and speed evolution of a Industry Web Services Information Model. Please review our first cut which includes Guidelines, Probable Industry Applications, an Industry Call to Action, plus valuable links to Known Resources. http://www.automatedbuildings.com/webservices.htm Please provide your input, both positive and negative. Control Solutions, Inc What are Web Services? IBM says, "Web services are self-contained, modular applications that can be described, published, located, and invoked over a network, generally, the World Wide Web." Microsoft's description is more succinct, "a Web service is programmable application logic, accessible using standard Internet protocols," Others define Web services as a business logic or information made available using the XML (Extensible Mark-up Language)-based SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).
Our April issue brings several firsts for AutomatedBuildings.com. Our first venture into providing connection to industry experts who can provide online training courses for our industry. Please check out this new section and provide us your feedback. http://automatedbuildings.com/online/ Our second first is the monthly generation of articles. Up to now we have only published articles every two months, but the constant flow of excellent industry timely information has caused us to change our format to publish monthly. Special thanks to our content contributors. Before our online web magazine our industry would have to wait six months to one year to get the correct printed magazine theme to publish building automation information. Now holding relevant information for a month seems a crime. I hope you like this new format as it will allow a more even flow of reading information to you our busy readers. New interviews in this issue on Online training and our March/April theme "Making Our Own Markets". Read the interviews and articles and imagine between the lines how you could use these concepts to grow your markets.
Our June issue includes the introduction of our Online Forum for Web Based Facilities Operation. We are excited about this trend in large building automation as it builds on most of the principles presented by our magazine. Next month we will start our fourth year of operation as AutomatedBuildings.com. It has been an amazing journey from a beginning of "You are going to do what?" to an acceptance by the industry as a valuable and growing resource. We thank Edward H. Brzezowski of Facility Energy Services for some of the key components we used from his original graphic for our composite graphic. Ed has a great web site with much insight into Web Based Facilities Operation. Check it out at http://www.fes-nj.com. Here is Ed's original graphic which provides a great overview http://www.fes-nj.com/FacTechEduc/ModularAVDigitalConnectivity.gif. June and May issues feature many articles and reviews on the Trends in Intelligent Buildings. Be sure to check out these valuable resources. Our first venture in online training has been positive with Jack reporting back; "The first Automatedbuildings.com Seminar is in full swing, and the list of participants is quite impressive. It is a true international venue, based through the Web Portal in Canada, and providing timely information to a group of end users, contractors and OEM's from the United States, Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia. As the image implies this seminar is linking building automation professionals on a global basis with a forum for learning and exploration of building automation and open systems." Please check out this new section and provide us your feedback. http://automatedbuildings.com/online/
Our theme is "Getting to There from Here" and explores the problems applying new concepts in our industry. The bringing online of the August issue is a good example of "Getting to There from Here" as it was assembled and downloaded from our sailboat called "Emoticon :)" named after those Emotional Icons that we use to give our emails life :) Finding a good cell phone signal for modem connection in the towering mountains around the sounds and fjords of the northern BC coast was a challenge, but finally a sandy spit on a small island in open water insight of Desolation Sound allowed us our ideal "Here" to project ourselves "There". The message is that there is freedom in today's technology, explore it and find how it can work for you. The August issue features our joint venture with Engineered Systems Magazine a Pullout Supplement for their August Issue Web Based Facilities Operations Guide. Doing more with less by using Web-based anywhere information to amplify your existing building operational resources. We were pleased to have the opportunity to share our thoughts on this exciting new area of Facility Operation in print with Engineered Systems readers. We have provided the complete supplement online with links to several related articles. Check it out We welcome our online instructor's Frank Miraglia's first article Does Size Really Matter? We got feedback this month and have brought back our letters to editor. We feel that this is an important section of our online magazine as it lets you express how you feel about the information we are presenting. This issue marks the start of our fourth year of operation as AutomatedBuildings.com. These four years have included a lot of "Getting to There from Here", but the changes and transitions are nowhere complete and the task continues at an increased pace. The slow adopters are starting to panic and are generally working at a feverish pace to catch up. Few believe that the web will not be part of their future. AutomatedBuildings.com has housed much of the information generated in the last four years, sometimes even being the catalyst that spurred everyone on. We thank the industry for allowing us to provide this valuable service Enter story info here
I am often asked, "Who is driving the web integration that is presently revolutionizing our industry?" The answer is "We the people of the large building automation industry". This article provides insight to our theme for October of "Web Based Facilities Operations" and builds on the significant amount of information that we have assembled on this subject in the past. I am off to LonWorld at the end of October http://www.lonworldexpo.com/ in Toronto to be part of a panel including Surf Networks, AutomatedBuildings.com, CABA, and Echelon to discuss how the latest trends in building automation such as sustainability/green design and independent commissioning agents influence the lives and businesses of building owners, integrators, facility managers, tenants, consulting engineers, and OEMs. The most read article for the month of August was our joint venture with Engineered Systems Magazine a Web Based Facilities Operations Guide. Doing more with less by using Web-based anywhere information to amplify your existing building operational resources. We were pleased to have the opportunity to share our thoughts on this exciting new area of Facility Operation in print with Engineered Systems readers. We have provided the complete supplement online with links to several related articles. Check it out Lots more new articles on this subject in this issue check them out. Strato Automation AutomatedBuildings.com has housed much of the information generated in the last four years, sometimes even being the catalyst that spurred everyone on. We thank the industry for allowing us to provide this valuable service.
New Trends in Building Automation - a Panel Discussion at LonWorld 2002 in Toronto, October 31, 2002 was a great event which allowed us to catch up with the exciting new developments in the world of Lon. December is our AHR Expo preview issue and we will be publishing information as we receive it to keep you informed. Please check out our AHR Product Preview. Every month AutomatedBuildings.com passes a new milestone or becomes involved in a new way with our industry. This seems to be a banner month and we have reason for celebration as the November logo indicates. Here is a brief summary. Growth: Our circulation for October measured by monthly served sessions and by unique IP addresses served is 1000 to 1500 higher than last month suggesting that we will come close to or exceed serving 30,000 sessions this month. If the average user session remains at 12 minutes that is over 6000 hours a month of online communication with our industry. It has been an amazing four years since the start of AutomatedBuildings.com. Our first International Advertiser is North Communications Limited. The UK's leading manufacturer of integration products and supervisory display systems for building services control and monitoring. LonWorld, Toronto I am part of a panel on October 31st discussing New Trends in Building Automation. This panel will address how trends in building automation influence the lives and businesses of building owners, integrators, facility managers, tenants, consulting engineers, and OEMs. AHR Expo 2003 Chicago Our fourth year at providing FREE Show Sponsored Sessions An Endorsing Publication of CABA's Intelligent & Integrated Buildings Conference. Sponsor and content provider for BuilConn who brings together manufacturers, distributors, integrators, contractors and dealers in the security and HVAC industries – To learn about and discuss technical and relevant issues. Supporting Publication for Net-atHome(tm)2002 Cannes Mandelieu, French Riviera, Nov 13-15 Media Sponsor for LonMark Interoperability Association Fall 2002 General Meeting: Monthly Building Automation Column since August 2000 for Engineered Systems has allowed us to share the excellent online content of AutomatedBuildings.com plus my ideas with the print reading world. We are now planning “The Sequel” to our AutomatedBuildings.com and Engineered Systems' joint venture "Web Based Facilities Operations Guide". This was the supplement to Engineered Systems' August 2002 issue. Controlling Convergence is scheduled for the Engineered Systems' April 2003 issue. KMC Controls In addition to the above, I have again re-emerged as a Consultant operating as Sinclair Energy Services Ltd on an over 1 million square foot project. I have been challenged with the task of taking my web based operations ramblings and making them into reality. It is a fun project and appears to be easier than I thought as vendors have made great progress in providing us web interfaces. Nov 2002 our theme is "Online Training: A Viable Option?" and discusses the industry's dependence on the web for training. We have received a wealth of articles and interviews. AutomatedBuildings.com has housed much of the information generated in the last four years, sometimes even being the catalyst that spurred everyone on. We thank the industry for allowing us to provide this valuable service. Be sure to read our articles plus our archived articles and interviews. Our recent venture into online training has been well received and we again see value in providing the online training service and connection to other related online services. Good trained Building Automation personnel are hard to find and we hope that by providing an easy method to learn about our complex industry we can help.
Our web site experienced more than a 10% growth last month. Thank you industry. There is a lot of excitement in the industry! The growing desire of progressive building owners to use web based solutions which have attractive Return on Investments or "ROI" is driving this excitement. The digital office revolution in their own and clients space has prepared building owners to grasp the potential of cost effective web based upgrades to existing and new buildings to increase, insure and communicate client comfort at the lowest energy and manpower costs. Moving to the next level of advanced digital buildings for owners is easily achievable now because of our industry's present position which includes a myriad of web based solutions. This position allows us to lead in the world's dynamic / interactive data integration revolution, bringing working examples such as Dynamic Energy Accounting, Indoor Air Quality, Client Comfort Communication & Control interfaces, etc. For us to achieve this goal we must look at repackaging our conservative industry which originally evolved selling thermostats, control valves and other devices. We must rapidly evolve into the exciting identity that makes web based information and interactions come alive with connections to the real world. I was pleased to be asked to provide my comments to the BuildConn advisory board which has created the concept of a Council of Advanced Building Systems. Although this concept grew out of the BuildConn advisory board, my input to the group was to make the scope larger than their highly focused integration group by involving building owners, designers, industry marketers, and the end users in their council. In short make it an "industry melting pot". This new body, Council of Advanced Building Systems, will bring together all players involved in buildings systems with members from all disciplines including HVAC/R, Access Control, IT, Lighting, CCTV, Security and Integration technologies. There is a concern in the industry that because the council concept was created by the BuildConn group that it is simply an extension of their excellent efforts towards providing critical cross industry information. I believe the council's effect will be the summation of it's members' efforts. If the members are concerned about the direction and scope, then the members will make the necessary changes. The council or an offshoot of it must provide critical industry marketing and positioning. Although there may be some over all questions the fact that the BuildConn group is prepared to assemble the council as part of their efforts deserves industry support. The council spokesperson, Anto Budiardjo, the conceptor of the Building Connection Forum Buildconn, is presently assembling a group of industry leaders for a steering committee to guide development. A group of founding members will also be assembled as a demonstration of total industry commitment. Please join me in providing your support to this Council. The AHR Expo was a huge success with a lot of excitement. Read our Chicago in Review for more details on this incredible industry event. January Industry buzz is; Have you seen the new CABA Technology Roadmap for Intelligent Buildings? This document is the focal point for our industry to get on with the task of repackaging and reinvention of the large building automation industry. I have dedicated my February Engineered System Building Automation Column to this topic. What do you think of Internet 0? Make sure you read Building Intelligence & the Internet "system was referred to as "Internet 0," because it sought to create a layer below today's Internet that provides a foundation for its interface to the physical world" This may bring a big change to our industry. The end of January is the AHRExpo.com and we will be posting information as we receive it. Please come to our free sessions http://www.ahrexpo.com/meetings/sessions.html and provide us your input. Also please check out our AHR Expo Product Previews. Every month AutomatedBuildings.com passes a new milestone or becomes involved in a new way with our industry. Here is a brief summary.
The excitement still goes on, our April joint venture supplement/outsert called "Control Convergence" goes out this month to over 50,000 of Engineered Systems' readers in print and online to over 30,000 AutomatedBuildings.com readers. Although the printed message is powerful It occurred to me while we were preparing the online version that the extra power of linking key words and concepts allowed the depth of the data and usefulness to be significantly increased over the printed format. Now if we can figure out how to take that power to the convenience of paper we will have a winning combination. So for now I recommend that you view the information in both formats. I was pleased that my contributing editor and friend Tom Hartman joined me on this project and as usual delivered a powerful message that encourages all our minds to thinking bigger thoughts. My ES column for April Community Convergence shares a common theme. Our business communities must converge as part of our transition to web-based ways. A great article in our April issue called Economy Drives Convergence by Jeff Gollnick Communications Manager, Alerton Inc. adds further power to our Convergence theme. I was very pleased to add to our Web Services Forum a proposal from Paul Ehrlich of Trane Global Controls Creating a standard for XML and Web Services for Building Control. An initial meeting to gauge interest and begin planning will be held at BuilConn in Dallas on April 23rd from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. If you are interested in attending in person or via teleconference please RSVP to Kirk McElwain at kirkatcaba@sympatico.ca I am also very excited that my abstract entitled "The Greening of Buildings with Automation" has been accepted for presentation at the CIBSE/ASHRAE Conference to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, September 24-26. http://xp20.ashrae.org/MEET/scotland2003-menu.htm. The conference title is “Building Sustainability, Value and Profit”. In addition I have also been accepted to submit a paper on a similar topic to the Asia Pacific Conference on Built Environment 2003 18-19 November 2003 (Tue-Wed), Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel, Hong Kong http://www.ashrae.org.hk/apc2003/ Their theme is buildings will need to be responsive to human needs, yet reduce their environmental loadings. I believe that our greatly changed large building automation industry is the key to many of the required solutions of Sustainability, Value, Profit, being responsive to human needs, while reducing environmental loadings. Yet as an industry we consistently fail to tell the world. Please help me take our message to the world by sharing your thoughts on this subject with me sinclair@automatedbuildings.com.
Guideline for XML / Web Services for Building Control The Building Controls industry has made great strides over the last 10 years in the creation of communications standards. Both BACnet and LonTalk are now viable, commercially accepted solutions that provide owners with open communications. Yet while we have made great progress in these areas as an industry, there has been an emergence of a larger, more globally accepted standard created by the world of Information Technology. In particular the broad acceptance and ever lowering cost of Ethernet / TCP/IP / XML communications is finding its way into our industry. Owners today are looking for:
May BuilConn in Dallas was a gratifying event for me; a lot of what we have been talking about on our web site for the past four years is now coming to pass. Finding this group of open-minded open systems people who are willing to discuss objectively all platforms to truly give the owner what he wants was inspirational. Open systems is an evolving concept and each opening of another system leads to a greater opening of our minds. We have a few interviews that share the feeling of BuilConn; something significant happened there and it will take us all some time to completely comprehend. Keith E. Gipson, CEO and CTO, Impact Facility Solutions www.myfacility.com co-founder of the world's first, internet based Enterprise Energy Management company, Silicon Energy Corp. provides some great industry insights in to the industry and BuilConn connection. Read the interview. Jack McGowan shared the BuilConn Experience and kicked in with a great article on Deep Integration. Deep integration is a process rather than a conclusion, but it results in true Energy Web Services that companies can offer to go far beyond traditional DDC and Building Automation. Jack and I have agreed to prepare yet another supplement/outsert as a joint venture with Engineered Systems for the November 2003 issue called "Selling Integration". Please feed either one of us with any information you have about our industries approach to selling our new metamorphous. Our April joint venture supplement/outsert called "Control Convergence" went out this month to over 50,000 of Engineered Systems' readers in print and online to over 30,000 AutomatedBuildings.com readers. Although the printed message is KMC Controls powerful It occurred to me while we were preparing the online version that the extra power of linking key words and concepts allowed the depth of the data and usefulness to be significantly increased over the printed format. Now if we can figure out how to take that power to the convenience of paper we will have a winning combination. So for now I recommend that you view the information in both formats. I was pleased that my contributing editor and friend Tom Hartman joined me on this project and as usual delivered a powerful message that encourages all our minds to thinking bigger thoughts. My ES column for April Community Convergence shares a common theme. Our business communities must converge as part of our transition to web-based ways. A great article in our April issue called Economy Drives Convergence by Jeff Gollnick Communications Manager, Alerton Inc. adds further power to our Convergence theme. I was very pleased to add to our Web Services Forum a proposal from Paul Ehrlich of Trane Global Controls Creating a standard for XML and Web Services for Building Control. An initial meeting to gauge interest and begin planning will be held at BuilConn in Dallas on April 23rd from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. If you are interested in attending in person or via teleconference please RSVP to Kirk McElwain at kirkatcaba@sympatico.ca I am also very excited that my abstract entitled "The Greening of Buildings with Automation" has been accepted for presentation at the CIBSE/ASHRAE Conference to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, September 24-26. http://xp20.ashrae.org/MEET/scotland2003-menu.htm. The conference title is “Building Sustainability, Value and Profit”. In addition I have also been accepted to submit a paper on a similar topic to the Asia Pacific Conference on Built Environment 2003 18-19 November 2003 (Tue-Wed), Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel, Hong Kong http://www.ashrae.org.hk/apc2003/ Their theme is buildings will need to be responsive to human needs, yet reduce their environmental loadings. I believe that our greatly changed large building automation industry is the key to many of the required solutions of Sustainability, Value, Profit, being responsive to human needs, while reducing environmental loadings. Yet as an industry we consistently fail to tell the world. Please help me take our message to the world by sharing your thoughts on this subject with me sinclair@automatedbuildings.com.
"IT" Could be the Start of Something Big Now, with the growing use of building networks and the convergence of building controls and IT networks, it is becoming far easier to connect building occupants to the building control system by employing a simple "comfort and lighting" icon on each occupant's PC. Thomas Hartman, P.E. The Hartman Company The Time and Resource Generator The black hole of building management and control can be cost effectively transformed into a "Time and Resource Generator". Paul F. O'Conor Chief Marketing Officer, WebGen Systems Building With the End In Mind Every building begins with a vision. Now a new approach to construction helps owners fully realize that vision in brick, mortar and technology. It's called Knowledge-Based Integration. Joel Lehman, Vice President, Sales, Johnson Controls Americas and Kim Metcalf-Kupres, Director of Global Marketing Construction, Johnson Controls Choosing The Right Integrator For Your Building Automation Project With the trend toward interoperability in building controls, the not-so-subtle differences between product, network, and system integrators take on additional significance. Will Podgorski, Staefa Control System Product Manager, Staefa Control System Important Considerations in Buying a Data Logger No matter what you need to measure, job one is understanding your measurement accuracy requirements. Evan Lubofsky, Onset Computer Corporation CO2 Control And the International Mechanical Code A response to the May Issue article Ventilation Codes ICC's International Mechanical Code vs. NFPA 5000, Analysis and Recommendations Mike Schell, Director Sales & Marketing AirTest Technologies Rebuttal to Response to May Article This is my response to Mr. Schell's comments. Leonard A. Damiano, V.P. Sales & Marketing, Ebtron, Inc The Power of Voice Recognition - Why not now? ....why couldn't a building technician or maintenance person use their voice to commission new or repaired equipment, adjust temperature thresholds on an HVAC unit, or be notified of unusual readings on a pressure gauge? Jeff Barbieri, Vearch Preparing For Your Metamorphosis Metamorphosis is evolution on fast forward. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
The above July logo got me thinking that it is almost August and I am getting ready to go on a sailing holiday. I am also planning for my speaking engagement at CIBSE/ASHRAE Conference Edinburgh, Scotland and have just become a media sponsor and speaker for "Intelligent Building, Building Intelligence" China Forum, Nov 13-14 Shanghai, China, so life is busy but good. I am working hard to have our global online large building automation magazine continue our cross pollination and inter-connection of automation and intelligent building stakeholders. I applaud the "Intelligent Building, Building Intelligence" event's scope that includes not only intelligent buildings, but intelligent communities, and intelligent facility management. I believe that China has the opportunity and potential to lead the world with exciting new fully implemented intelligent communities, as they expand their large building infrastructures during a time of previously never before available new technologies. It will require careful planning and global communication with many new players to achieve the goals but events like this will be the catalyst to start the process. I will keep you posted as the event unfolds
Internet-based Energy and Security Most industry proponents believe that energy, security, and IT technology are converging-with the Internet taking center stage. Jack Mc Gowan, CEM Energy Control Inc. The Rising Need for Unbiased Market Research With an increasing number of hardware, software and solution options, the biggest challenge is staying informed. Frank Capuano, Strata Resource, Inc. Managing Your Building as an Enterprise Imagine a new generation of building automation systems that will increase profits and pay for themselves. Now, imagine leveraging your existing systems and infrastructure. Brian Jones, Marketing Consultant, The S4 Group, Inc How To Estimate Job Costs For Profit As a business person you too need to reduce your risk to an acceptable level, and to do that you too need to accurately estimate your job costs. Clifford McGarvey, BAS Estimator, Inc. The Connected Home’ Event Preview ‘Linking services to products for tomorrow's lifestyle’ Ian Johnson, Junction PR Metamorphic Markets We cannot expect our traditional markets to lead to our future business model; we must morph our identity and methodology to capture the new opportunities of today's Metamorphic Markets. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
Protocol war yields to productive peace Ironically by narrowing the choice of control protocols the industry can now invest more in well understood, and supported systems that are easy to specify, install, integrate and modify. Peter Manolescue, securityXML Ltd. Emerging Business Opportunities for Facility Management and Service Providers Just think of intelligent homes, security/surveillance and health care over Internet. Not to mention the web based supervision and control of HVAC in buildings. Robert Holmström, Botech AB Protection during Electrical Outages; Power Quality Everyday Electrical Power Quality changes hourly, these changes affect nearly every system's reliability in your facility and the bottom line of your business. Ramon Esparolini, RayMark Engineering What the Heck Hardware do I Use for Auditing? "What type of hardware is recommended for running an audit?" This article works towards explaining the available hardware options and to answer this question. Bill Shadish, Fundamental Objects, Inc. Cityport Tridium Drives Successful Multi-bus Integration at ABB's Intelligent HQ Case Study John Houston, Wildwood Public Relations Ltd Documenting our Changing World Our ability to assemble and document the information we are about to change, as well as documenting how we changed it, is cardinal to our successful transition. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
October's issue was a little late off the press as Jane and I have just returned from Worldwide CIBSE/ASHRAE Gathering of the Building Services Industry held in Edinburgh Scotland. Please read the review for a heart felt message to our industry from Terry Wyatt, President of CIBSE Scotland is a fascinating place steeped in history in many ways but especially for the building industry. Their collection of large buildings from Castles to Cathedrals to 1800's office buildings to the new parliament buildings in Edinburgh now under construction, inspired my November building automation column for Engineered Systems titled Protection, Correction, and Connection. Watch for it next month as well as the pullout supplement written by Anto, Jack, and myself called "Marketing Convergence" - Connection and Convergence Combine. Tom's article Ending the Blackout Blues, We need (REALLY need) to improve the way our industry delivers - tells us to first, take responsibility for our designs and to be open to new ideas and approaches. Amen Tom. These will be some of the messages I will be taking to the Intelligent Building, Building Intelligence" China Forum Shanghai, China Nov 13-14. Check out this and other coming events. September is here and the summer is over; time to get on with a busy fall and what a busy fall it is going to be. Anto BudiardjoWe have a new Contributing Editor - Anto Budiardjo. Please join me in welcoming Anto to AutomatedBuildings.com's team of industry experts who are our contributing editors. Anto Budiardjo is the President and CEO of Clasma, Inc., a marketing and event planning company whose primary focus is providing professional services to the full spectrum of the building systems industry. We feel that Anto's marketing approach plus his desire to help market our industry is an important part of the total message AutomatedBuildings.com wants to take to our readership. Anto is no stranger to our online magazine, the creator of BuilConn he has been a constant industry news generator. We are just getting around to making it official. Be sure to read Anto's interview XML initiative for Buildings. Click here to find out more about Anto Anto has joined us in the preparation of our third pull out supplement on convergence "Marketing Convergence" prepared for the November issue of Engineered Systems. Jack McGowan, Anto and I outline the importance of our industry getting involved now in the marketing of convergence. .
Marketing Convergence - Engineered Systems November Supplement Convergence Will Happen Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com Why Is There A Need For Marketing? Anto Budiardjo - Clasma Inc. Selling Integration and Convergence Jack Mc Gowan, Energy Control Inc. Applying Advanced Technology Products and Services to Projects The Process is the Problem! Thomas Hartman, P.E., The Hartman Company Oh, what a month October was! Anto Budiardjo - Clasma Inc Reporting on BACnet Conference oBIX Meeting in Cincinnati LonMark Meeting in Munich Networked Building Control Enhances Demand Responsiveness The convergence of IT and building systems technology has produced secure, cost-competitive products that are more effective for demand response than non-networked control. Rachel Reiss, Senior Research Associate E SOURCE Technology Assessment Group, Platts Research & Consulting Software suite for LonWorks Networks It is aimed at small network integrators as well as industry professionals who want to access the reliable and high performance LonWorks communication technology. Serge Le Men, Sales Manager, Newron System Building Controls and BACnet, IT and XML. A report from the BIG-NA conference; BACnet, IT and XML are hot items. Keith E. Gipson, CEO & CTO, Impact Facility Solutions Unconventional Design Guide for High Performance HVAC Hydronics Systems Proven solutions to optimize hot and chilled water system performance. Paul Skoglund, President, Flow Control Industries Inc. Protection, Correction and Connection If you think the evolution is complete think again. Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
Our December issue published from Australia, includes a review of Shanghai. It has been a very busy time for us. In addition to planning for our free sessions at AHR Expo 2004 Anaheim, I have been asked to moderate a "Panel Discussion on XML related HVAC industry initiatives and views" at the XML Symposium. The XML Symposium will be held on January 27, 2004 at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel and will be in conjunction with the AHR Exposition. This will be another ground breaking event for the large building automation industry. What is oBIX? oBIX stands of Open Building Information Xchange, and is an industry wide initiative to define XML and Web Services based mechanisms to present building systems related information on TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. For more information read this month's interview What is oBIX?
There were more that just Mickey and me at the AHR Expo - nearly 40,000 showed up to an excellent event run by the capable folks at International Expositions. There was a tremendous feeling of anticipation as rapid change was all around us. The feeling was amazing! I was extremely pleased to the moderator on the "Panel Discussion on XML related HVAC industry initiatives and views" at the XML Symposium. My panel of Extraordinary Gentleman did a great job of providing insight to the reach of this new data carrying vehicle. The significant of XML in our future was well defined at this exciting symposium attended by over 160 attendees. I applaud CABA for bringing this timely subject to the ASHRAE winter meeting. This confirms the ever expanding reach of ASHRAE. I was impressed with the industry's desire to use the capabilities of this new data transfer vehicle. 2004 is starting to look like the year of convergence in the buildings industry. Probably the most interesting and core piece is the realization that XML and Web Services (XML/WS) will be a unifying technology, a catalyst for convergence. Be sure to read my interview with Anto that provides insight to the XML Symposium. Also see our oBIX FAQ and the article oBIXTM Evolves at AHR Expo by Randy Amborn, Trane. Tremendous interest by the complete industry at the CABA XML/Web Services Committee meeting at the Hilton, Anaheim on Jan. 26, 2004. A general concern was expressed by all that the marketing message is clear that XML Web Services does not replace BACnet or Lon field bus networks only enhances both. Concerns were also raised about the standards organizations necessary to bring XML Web Services to an industry standard that could be accepted by our industry as well as the IT industry. Our free industry sessions were also well attended with 100 to 160 per session. Dave Branson and I enjoy these sessions as they give us an opportunity to have open discussions with the industry. In several sessions it was very clear that the expertise was in the audience, but this only served to increase the value of these informal sessions. Again we thank AHR Expo for the opportunity and for providing the arena to stage these sessions. I have created a new page of Demonstrations & Presentations Available Online. The medium that we have evolved to of Browser Based Web Presentation can be effectively used to share information and demonstrate our industry's capabilities. As you view these linked demos imagine how you could use the demonstrated techniques to better explain your products and services. Please feel free to share with us demos that have impressed you. While I am asking you to share with us, please provide your links for our industry's online resources of documented building intelligence. Be sure to read my interview with Anto for more info and do plan to be in Anaheim to take in the XML Symposium and get involved in the movement. What is oBIX? oBIX stands of Open Building Information Xchange, and is an industry wide initiative to define XML and Web Services based mechanisms to present building systems related information on TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. For more information read the interview What is oBIX?
Facility Management - Better, Faster and Cheaper Why consulting, integration, implementation, and business process outsourcing are necessary to provide better, faster, and cheaper Facility Management Technology solutions. Robert Verdun, Computerized Facility Integration, L.L.C. Reaping the Benefits of IP How IP Access Technology is Making 'Intelligent Buildings' a Reality Deepak Wanner, Founder, Precidia Technologies One of our sixteen is missing … or can Integration be specified? Jack Mc Gowan, CEM, Energy Control Inc. Facilities Are Poised To Become New Sources of Business Information Automation vendors can now play by the same rules as IT and use modern integration technologies to transform the closed languages of their automation systems into the open and pervasive integration languages of IT. Tim Huneycutt, Principal, Gridlogix, Inc. oBIXTM Evolves at AHR Expo Short for Open Building Information Xchange, oBIX is an initiative to define XML and Web Services-based standards for exchanging building systems information with each other and enterprise systems. Randy Amborn, Senior Marketing Specialist, Trane Global Controls and Contracting oBIX FAQ Anaheim - January 26, 2004 Press Kit Controls Hardware Erosion The concept of networking to the video screen with browser-based menus seems to be a natural evolution for all these products. Ken Sinclair Editor/Owner AutomatedBuildings.com
Lots of excitement in the air. At the XML/Web Services meeting In Anaheim when asked to introduce myself and give a reason for being there I stated "I Smell News." I was right and being in the business of providing content for an online magazine that informs the industry of the latest trends in Large Building Automation this movement has been a windfall. Lots of articles and interviews about the industry's next big event, BuilConn, but also lots of our traditional information flowing. When I started our original web services forum in 2002 we had hoped to have a demo for AHR 2003 Chicago. Our web services forum which has now become history stated "It now appears clear that the AHR Expo 2003 in Chicago will be too soon to provide a good demonstration and discussion. The general movement of the IT industry into turning the excited web services concept into a reality has taken much longer than originally estimated and discussions still go on. We will revisit this demo at next year's AHR Expo." We did not make that date either but we did have a very successful XML Symposium. Well this demo is finally going to happen at this year's BuilConn. In one of the conference call surrounding the setup of the XML Pavilion the question was asked "Can anyone not port their XML data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet? There was no reply from anyone, not even a question. This made me feel that my April Column for Engineered Systems called Entering the Enterprise Through the Office was very timely. Also one of the deliverables for the XML Pavilion is Microsoft Office Integration - This demonstrates how some of the newer generation Microsoft® Office products such as Excel 2003 (Professional Edition with XML support), FrontPage or InfoPath can 'consume' web services from different building systems and display their data. A lot of interest has been generated by BuilConn's Buildy Awards (The equivalent of the Academy Awards for our industry). A lot of folk who have been soldiering on without recognition of their efforts and their project successes. This year's short list has been prepared - BuilConn: Announces Finalists “Buildy” Awards so come out to the BuilConn event and cast your vote, plus be sure to get involved in nominating next year's Finalists. What is the Buildy Awards Program? See http://www.builconn.com/buildy/index.htm This month's Review: Content and Quality of presenters keeps BuilConn 2004 Fresh provides insight and connection to the over 90 presenters & content contributors for this exciting event. If you feel that BuilConn is dominating our magazine for the last few months it is because they are generating a lot of the industry's news and April is their month to shine. Last month's editorial follows with more info about the event. Welcome to our March The Build-up to BuilConn issue. As you can see we have a lot of information about this event, which this year includes the first ever industry awards called the Buildy Awards. Be sure to read my interview with Tish to find out more about these new awards and how you can participate. I am pleased to be a track leader as well as a moderator for the BuilConn event. I have summed up my feelings about last year's event the subsequent year in my March building automation column for Engineered Systems. This year's event is also being co-hosted with the M2MExpo. I feel that this will provide another valuable step in the total convergence process. The folks at BuilConn have provided a 10 % discount for all www.automatedbuildings.com readers click here for more details. Here is a link to the BuilConn Preview PDF file (1.2MB)
Getting Honest About Comfort Comfort and environmental quality complaints top nearly every survey made of building occupants' concerns about their workspaces. Thomas Hartman, P E, The Hartman Company Productivity and Health vs. Energy Penalties - the Outdoor Air Riddle Len Damiano EBTRON, Inc. Cost Comparison Model - Open vs Proprietary Introductory Article - 9 part series Paul D.J. Mason, C.E.O. BWP plc Successful Contracting: It all starts with an Estimate Al De Wachter, President Independent Control Specialists Inc Object Oriented Programming in Control System Software Engineering Sean Leonard, OPC R&D Manager, Matrikon 4-way mixing valve? or a pump with variable speed? When to choose and when to combine? Christer Johansson, M.Sc, Development Engineer, ESBE AB. Submitted by Leif Paxton, Paxton Corporation Entering the Enterprise Through the Office As we re-examine and better understand the interactive power and mesh-ability of the office backbone of most company enterprises we see evolving standards with simplified presentation. Ken Sinclair Editor/Owner AutomatedBuildings.com
Wow, last month Automated Logic got gobbled up by Carrier / United Technologies and this month it is Andover's turn to get gobbled by Schneider Electric. Last year TAC was also gobbled up by Schneider Electric plus, Novar of the United Kingdom acquired Alerton. What does this all mean? Change in our industry is constant. I am sure this is all for the best, although I feel that we will all miss the innovation that these companies provided to our industry. It does tell me that what we are doing is becoming main stream plus very global and that web ways and the importance of controlling the new wave of the converging real time data with our existing clients' enterprise is not going un-noticed by the major players. The purchase the industry leaders' client base is well understood as the quickest way to move into a new industry. I feel that the games have just begun and the independent companies have a clear message that if you provide comprehensive powerful integration solutions and assemble a strong client base someone will likely buy you out. This keeps the pressure on us all to innovate and keep the creative juices flowing. With Andover Controls, Schneider Electric will expand its security capabilities and benefit from a platform well suited for expansion in electronic security, which is a € 20 billion market growing by 7% a year. Last year when Schneider took over TAC the market was estimated at €11 billion, growing on average by more than 6% a year. Our markets in all areas are rapidly expanding and globalization is upon us. Our last month's article LonWorks and BACnet Solution on a Chip was extremely well read and created a lot interest. This month Waking Up to Wireless points out that this new approach will add even more fuel to the fire. Exciting times and a great time to be in the news business. I finally got around to updating our Education tab. Although it had many broken links I was pleased that most of the core messages where still true and I was able to provide linkage to more online information. I was prompted to get at this when someone thanked me at BuilConn for providing this education reference service and said that he had all new employees spend a few days poking at the section just to get a overview of what our industry is all about. Now if I can only convince the new kids reorganizing their company web sites with active server pages and flash to not break the original links to their valuable information. I cringe at the loss of impact of some of the several year old web sites being reorganization by those not understanding the power of existing related links. Be sure to read our update. A great link connected to our training links is Lighting Controls Industry Offers On-line Education which provides insight and valuable information to radical changes in lighting control. Be sure to check out our other valuable training links. Check out Events CalendarBuilConn Europe and LonWorld® 2004 Shanghai, China have been added and we are media sponsors of both. Our May issue marked the 5th year or the 20th net year anniversary of AutomatedBuildings.com. In a web world a multiplier of 4 is often used to convert to net years. Net years are felt to be necessary as quarterly reviews in lieu of annual reviews are required because web dynamics are such that an annual review only could prove disastrous. The growth and direction changes of our web site provide us with constant amazement. Our 40 plus advertisers allow us to assemble and host our web site providing the industry with resources and informations from an army of authors who monthly create our incredibly fresh content which is provided free to the industry. Every article, interview, news release, new product, review, and link has been archived. This provides an evolutionary record of our rapidly changing industry with quick access to 20 net years of information, easily accessed from our site search engine. http://automatedbuildings.com/search/sitesearch.htm
Cost allocation for campus and industrial facilities The governing board may set an overall objective to reduce energy costs, but if the responsibility and accountability for the reduction is not measured at the department or facility level, no one owns the goal and it is unlikely to be realized. Jim Lewis, CEO Obvius LLC State-of-the-art bus technology at Sälipark When HVAC/building automation planners and system integrators, electrical planners and installers work together efficiently, a win/win situation is created for all those involved. Markus Keel, Product Manager, Belimo Europe. Tridium takes Building Controls into the 21st Century on Landmark Dubai Project Standing 53 storeys and 269 metres high, the architecturally striking 21st Century Tower in Dubai is the tallest apartment block in the world. Terry Casey, Managing Director, Tridium EMEA Wireless Mesh Sensor Networks Enable Building Owners, Managers, and Contractors to Easily Monitor HVAC Performance Issues Paul Sereiko, Founder, President, Sensicast Systems Transforming the U.S. Electricity System “Bringing the Electricity System into the Information Age” Rob Pratt, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Building Automation Systems Legacy The ability to reconfigure and monitor changes made to an automation system in real time is of tremendous importance to building managers. Brian Jones, Marketing Consultant, The S4 Group, Inc More Intelligent Building and save money, VBHQ part 2 This is the third of 9 articles on VBHQ where we introduce the building, the cost benefit for interoperability and the cost benefit gained from the procurement technique achievable with open systems and choice. Paul D.J. Mason, C.E.O. BWP plc Waking Up to Wireless Wireless…. WAKE UP it is here and it is now! Ken Sinclair, AutomatedBuildings.com
It is sailing season again as you can see by our July logo and Jane and I are looking forward to setting sail soon but lots of excitement in the industry that we must share with you before we go. My building automation column for July for both Engineered Systems and AutomatedBuildings.com provides insight on how to purchase a system before or while the paint is drying. There is a lot of that going on everywhere in the industry and in the midst of all the wet paint it is difficult to determine what is real and what is not. Creating a Request for Proposal allows you to clearly states your mandatory requirements and to express your overall intent, while the resultant proposals allow the evaluation of real available technology. Please read this column and share your thoughts with me. I have long been a fan and supporter of DDC Online: www.ddc-online.org/ with several links from our training section. DDC Online is a web-based resource that specifying engineers, commissioning providers, building owners, facility managers and others can draw upon to make informed decisions about building controls based on credible information. Please read Maria's interview and note For the first time, the Iowa Energy Center is accepting Sponsoring Partners for its DDC Online Web resource. Companies can now reach DDC Online’s 6,000 unique visitors a month by becoming a Sponsoring Partners. Do not miss this opportunity to support this valuable resource for our industry. Contact Maria for the details of how you can help this worthy cause. Maria Corsi mcorsi@energy.iastate.edu Anto tells us of yet another new venture "BuilSpec" from our interview - BuilSpec is a series of one-day educational seminars to bring much needed education on the dynamics driving open systems, integration and IT convergence to consulting and specifying engineers. Anto is also looking for industry sponsorship of these great events. Talk to him and see how you can be part of the large task of educating the designers/consultants in our industry with the rapid changes that have occurred www.builspec.com. These two interviews plus my latest and greatest column indicate that the industry has shifted focus to getting on with the task of specifying, procuring, and just better understanding the complexity of open systems and IT integration. May's Favourites article LonWorks & BACnet Solution on a Chip was also well read in June and to further fuel the interest in this new chip, Jim Lee provides a first ever interview on this chip for AutomatedBuildings.com The technology inside the Lisa “BACnet on a chip”. Be sure to catch up on this exciting new development. What else is shaking??? The article Introducing Earthquake Intelligence in Building Automation. Bet that is one sensor type you did not see coming. Certainly caught me flat-footed, an interesting new opportunity for our industry. Also we are pleased that the new chairman of oBIX has found time in his busy schedule to share his "blocks" with us; a very insightful article from a user perspective oBIX Building Blocks. Wow, in May Automated Logic got gobbled up by Carrier / United Technologies and in June it was Andover's turn to get gobbled by Schneider Electric. Last year TAC was also gobbled up by Schneider Electric plus, Novar of the United Kingdom acquired Alerton. What does this all mean? Change in our industry is constant. I am sure this is all for the best, although I feel that we will all miss the innovation that these companies provided to our industry. It does tell me that what we are doing is becoming main stream plus very global and that web ways and the importance of controlling the new wave of the converging real time data with our existing clients' enterprise is not going un-noticed by the major players. The purchase the industry leaders' client base is well understood as the quickest way to move into a new industry. I feel that the games have just begun and the independent companies have a clear message that if you provide comprehensive powerful integration solutions and assemble a strong client base someone will likely buy you out. This keeps the pressure on us all to innovate and keep the creative juices flowing. With Andover Controls, Schneider Electric will expand its security capabilities and benefit from a platform well suited for expansion in electronic security, which is a € 20 billion market growing by 7% a year. Last year when Schneider took over TAC the market was estimated at €11 billion, growing on average by more than 6% a year. Our markets in all areas are rapidly expanding and globalization is upon us. Check out Events CalendarBuilConn Europe, M2M Europe, and LonWorld® 2004 Shanghai, China have been added and we are media sponsors of both.
August issue comes to you from our sailboat in Desolation Sound on the west coast of the mainland of British Columbia. We are fighting with slow speed connection over cell modem and concerns of keeping all our battery powered equipment charged, but we are still having fun while bringing you this issue. This issue is actually powered by our companion boat WhiteHawk as our electronics refused to charge our new laptop and we must operate on battery only. Lots of great information. 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. In addition my August Building Automation column Building the Building Domain is about how moving to the next chapter and getting on with the exciting business of building our clients’ real time data domain will have a profound effect. Please feed me back your comments. Lots of great articles.
September marks the end of summer holidays and back to our busy schedules. Lots of interesting developments occurring in our industry in the next few months. Check out our events calendar as there are lots of events that you will want to be part of, all of which are occurring amazingly soon. Tom Hartman writes about Growing a Greener Engineering Profession. Like a successful forest, our profession and our industry need to grow tall together. Inspiring words to help keep us all focused. I am also very pleased to have an article from what I feel is a completely new direction for our industry; Electronic Signage for Safer Buildings. Electronic Signage Networks represent the integration of now available technologies, and at a time when public safety needs are higher than ever before. Lyle Bunn the author provides great insight and links to valuable resources surrounding this new piece of our industry. If you want to meet some other new players in our industry be sure to read Enterprise Level, Multi-Building HMI – 3rd Party Packages … a work in progress …by Edward H. Brzezowski. Also check out Buying Open Systems (in Building Automation) This is the sixth of 9 articles by Paul Mason. This month's issue includes four new interviews The Who, What, Where, and When of BuilSpec Paul Ehrlich and Anto Budiardjo, An Outlet for Affordable Building Control Parts with Jeff Reid, Owner Automation Parts Warehouse, Wireless Sensing Solutions Conference Jennifer LaFond, Group Vice President, IDG World Expo, and i&i limited and Intelligent Buildings 2004 with Alan Kell. My review this month gives some suggestions on How you can help OASIS oBIX Technical Committee Advance Web Services. As always there are lots of other great articles, interviews and review Check out Events CalendarBuilConn Europe, M2M Europe, and LonWorld® 2004 Shanghai, China have been added and we are media sponsors of both.
October is a month with lots of exciting industry events. This month's column Globalization of Building Automation Standards outlines a few of these but for a complete overview check our events calendar. The article submitted last month Electronic Signage for Safer Buildings inspired me in this month's review to provide loose connection to web-based information on this exciting new industry convergence collision that is about to occur. See Web Resources for Networked Signage and Video Services We have two interviews which sing the praises of Using CtrlSpecBuilder. Both writers agree that it is a great product. It is free so what is stopping you from using it? Al's articles "a series of commentaries that are intended to stir up ideas for the high-tech contractor consist of excerpts from “PLUG” or the “Plan Users Guide”, a practical catalyst intended to promote positive change in the automation contractor ‘s world. The complete series will be made available upon request after all modules have been published in AutomatedBuildings.com." are working well. Be sure to give them a read as next month is the last in the series. Please note that all articles are archived on the site. •Plug 1 - Planning is not optional, unless profits are optional •Plug 2 - Successful project control system and Project Cost Intro •Plug 3 - Controlling Cost •Plug 4 - Job planning and Specific planning steps Register now for the day-long BuilSpec regional seminars designed to aid the consulting specifying engineer navigate the changing building systems industry in this time of IT convergence. Anto and Paul are putting on a great show so don't miss it when it comes to a city near you.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to provide a sneak preview on the upcoming BuilSpec one day seminars. Anto and I wanted to tell you more about these one day seminars so you would feel compelled to go the November and December scheduled events. Anto provided me insight through video conferencing and by sharing seminar content enabling me to prepare this sneak preview. In addition to our own web site search engine we have added the power of the Google search engine to allow you better search capabilities to our all the valuable information that has accumulated on our website over the last five plus years. Check it out http://automatedbuildings.com/search/sitesearch.htm Our contributing editor Jack Mc Gowan in the …back to School on Direct Digital Control of Renewable Energy article writes about the comprehensive design that integrates a Delta Controls DDC system with Geothermal Heat Pumps and a District wide lighting retrofit. Check it out. I got this email from Michael Newman - Hi Ken, The BIG-EU folks have just published the inaugural edition of their new magazine, BACnet Europe Journal you can also view a PDF of the magazine. Mike Mike is recognized as "the spiritual father of the BACnet protocol" in this journal. Read our review and download journal to find out more. In our November issue Al De Wachter concludes his 4 part - series of commentaries that are intended to stir up ideas for the high-tech contractor. They consist of excerpts from “PLUG” or the “Plan Users Guide”, a practical catalyst intended to promote positive change in the automation contractor ‘s world. The complete series will be made available upon request after all modules have been published in AutomatedBuildings.com. Paul Mason provides his eighth of 9 articles where we are introducing the cost benefit for interoperability and that gained from the procurement technique achievable with open systems and choice. There is now a bonus 10th article in Operational Costs for the VBHQ, available in February. The 9th article is now for January 2005 and is a real live case study of a fully integrated building in London.
December Brings closure to yet another exciting year in the large building automation industry. December and January are our Preview issues for the AHR Expo in Orlando and my Engineered Systems building automation column From Disneyland to Disney World AHR outlines our 6th FREE Show-sponsored Educational Sessions. In addition to these four free sessions I will also be part of the http://www.xml-symposium.com/ Wednesday February 9, 2005 8.00 am - 5.30 pm http://www.ahrexpo.com/education/xmlsymposium.php so Orlando AHR Expo will be as always a busy time. But I always enjoy catching up with what new in the industry and renewing old friendship. Sinclair: Will 2005 be the year of building-IT convergence? Budiardjo: There is a high possibility of that, Ken. I think the stars are in alignment, building owners are truly starting to realize what is possible, the economy is steady, products are becoming available, and the distribution is primed. So, yes, and the first months of 2005 will be very telling. In my interview with Anto Budiardjo Review of 2004 and Preview of 2005 Anto provides a great overview of what has happened this year in our industry plus what is likely to happen next year. BuilSpec as been well accepted and we have a review BuilSpec Seattle – The word on the street by Scott Sinclair. Be sure to read about what you have been missing. Plus lots of great feature articles: From Buildings to the Enterprise via IT The building industry needs to focus on that word “Information” because it is the information that can be extracted out of buildings that will provide the value to the enterprise. Anto Budiardjo, Clasma, Inc. ZigBee or Not ZigBee In order to standardize the implementation of digital radio telemetry across many markets, including commercial HVAC controls, the ZigBee organization has formed. Guy Zebrick, Account Manager, Kele, Inc plus Steve Tom tells us about Web Services – A New BACnet Standard ASHRAE SPC 135 adds Web services to BACnet and of course as usually lots of other great articles
As we start our 7th calendar year for AutomatedBuilding.com, I am proud of the hundreds of industry articles that we have published which originally seemed like future watch but now have become the reality shaping our industry. Our original mission statement for AutomatedBuilding.com has not changed and we are very proud of that. When we started our online magazine we did not know that the Internet would have such a profound effect on all our lives. From the beginning I could not even image that last month I would subscribe online to a IP phone service for our company and that owning software would become unfashionable and would be replaced with Application Service Providers (ASP) or hosted solutions like those talked about in this month's article Online Time Management. We could not see that networking of everything, open protocols and defining the path to convergence would dominate our web site content. But last month's favourite article Web Services – A New BACnet Standard ASHRAE SPC 135 adds Web services to BACnet by Steve Tom, and a close second in total reads by the article ZigBee or Not ZigBee indicates that we are all about networking and convergences. Look at the subject matter of this month's articles and interviews if there is any question. Devices that integrate many open protocols, Protocol Solution BACnet, LonWorks, Modbus, Metasys and ZigBee protocol solution. 2005 the year of XML? Anto's article's title says it all. Robots replacing people, Automating Large Building Security Using Robotics Networked digital signage become part of building automation ( Wow! I sure did not see that coming) Lessons Offered By New York Subway Digital Signage Network A wireless networking standard? Gads we are still struggling with open system wire based protocols. A New Bee in our Industry No! It’s not the return of the killer Bees, it is the ZigBee Alliance for wireless networking Nationally Controlled Building Automation with a low enough cost to entice the fast food industry Would You Like Fries With That? Automation Takes a Bite Out of the $400+ Billion Commercial Food Service Industry January's Interviews carry on the theme The Zigbee Revolution - Update on oBIX - Building Open Systems Seminar 2004 in Review - Intelligent Building Ranking System This month's review provides Sneak Preview of New Book - Web Based Energy Information and Control Systems A new Book is posed to be publish this spring. Barney has shared a bit of information with us so we can provide you some insight into the new book. The Table of Contents which is provided at the bottom of this review lists the author or authors of each chapter and reads like a who is who of our industry's mover and shakers.
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