50 BUSINESS FEATURE: SMART BUILDINGS February 2015
The Shanghai Tower, now under construction, will utilise automated shade control and solar adaptive software throughout its 121 occupied floors. The structure, designed by Gensler Architects, uses more than 13,000 automated shades and hundreds of wireless window sensors to ensure that shades can respond to local daylight conditions
Key Points n The majority of individual system networks are being consolidated on the internal IP backbone, making it easier to access data n Intelligent building management requirements should be considered at the earliest stages of design n Collaboration with complementary service integrators can open doors to major integration projects n 70-80% of all buildings will be refitted with smart systems of varying degrees of ability, presenting massive opportunities to integrators
Picture: Gensler
n AV system integrators are ideally placed to offer skilled integration services and already understand communication and programming concepts involved
Intelligent working AV system integrators are ideally placed to offer services to help the construction industry create smart buildings. Steve Montgomery asks how they can enter this lucrative market
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hroughout history there have been numerous examples of new technologies that have rolled along almost unnoticed for a period of time before suddenly creating radical change to the established order. It is likely that we are approaching the tipping point for smart buildings.
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Bob Snyder, content chairman of the Smart Building Conference, which returns to ISE for its third Amsterdam edition this month, believes this to be the case: “The primary instigators to the creation of smart buildings are the widespread need to connect separate services and utilities onto a common
IP backbone, along with a demand for better internal services and work environments. Even though individual systems do not exhibit commonality of language, the fact that they are present and accessible on the same network means they can be linked in an integrated and allencompassing solution.”
The question, then, is who is best placed to take advantage of this trend and expand their service offerings to realise greater return on investment? It is not necessarily the large corporations and manufacturers that supply the largest elements of building management. Says Snyder: “You don’t need to
build a product or system to be able to integrate it. The trick is in understanding how to take data from a variety of sources and use it to control individual systems.” This places the AV integration community in an ideal situation. “AV people are ideally placed to make the bridge between systems: HVAC, energy, access control, security lighting and so on and make them talk to interact with other through a single control interface and access point; techniques they have been practising for years.”
Position of influence One of the major obstacles facing the AV integrator is being able to influence the tripartite combination of building owner, architect and systems engineers involved in the initial design and development of the building and its infrastructure. “Buildings contain a multitude of separate systems that are controlled from a limited number of access points. At best, there may be a combining control application that simply brings them together to a single point – it doesn’t combine and integrate them,” says Mark Tallent, international product manager, lighting and building controls for Crestron. “It is only when total integration is considered from the early stage of design that it can be achieved. Unfortunately the AV element is often perceived as a final ‘add-on’ to the internal fitting out of the building, which means it is harder for integrators in our industry to get involved.” He sees education as part of Crestron’s role. “The AV industry has always dealt with a broad spectrum of knowledge and with
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