Ever wondered how life would be if your smart buildings systems integration company was acquired by one of the largest real estate companies in the world? I had a chance to catch up with one of the smartest smart buildings integrators on the planet, Paul Oswald, to find out. As a long-time system integrator, Paul merged his company ESI with CBRE, and is now known as CBRE/ESI. Hear what he has to say about how this merger changed his approach to smart building controls, as well as his thoughts on the new technologies on display at the 2016 RealComm/IBcon show.
Catching Up with Paul Oswald CBRE/ESI
Paul Oswald and ESI develop innovative solutions that enable commercial property occupiers and owners to efficiently manage their building systems and remotely monitor and analyze energy usage in real time to identify and achieve potential savings. ESI is providing analytics-driven managed services on over 180 million sq. ft. of facilities at over 2,800 sites throughout the U.S. ESI was acquired April 14, 2015 by CBRE Group, Inc.
ControlTalk NOW: The Smart Building Podcast/Videocast Week Ending February 22, 2015
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This week’s ControlTalk NOW continues with Automated Buildings, Ken Sinclair’s 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory video series coverage featuring two highly venerated members of the HVAC and Building Automation industries, John Petze, SkyFoundry and ESI’s Paul Oswald. Daryl Clasen gives a video overview of Loytec’s amazing product portfolio and the watch the 2014 ControlTrends Awards Thermostat winners: Honeywell’s RedLINK (Residential) and Scheider Electric’s SE8000 Series (Commercial) receive their awards. Wrapping the week up, Mike Newman, heralded as the Father of BACnet, shares his ControlTrends Hall of Fame induction award trophy.
Part 4: John Petze at the 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory. See and hear what SkyFoundry’s John Petze has to say at the 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory. John discusses the importance of making data revelant and useful to building owners. My favorite John Petze quote, in this rich and thought-provoking session, is “we should not get overly carried away with having all the devices talking to each other… they don’t really have much to say to each other.”
Product Review: Daryl Clasen reviews Loytec Building Automation Controls. We had a chance to catch up with Daryl Clasen, from Loytec, at the 2015 AHR Show. In addition to a complete line of Smart Building and Building Automation Controls, Daryl introduces us to the Loytec VAV controller with Smart sensor and some of the most gorgeous, flexible touch pad panels you will ever see. Check it out and let me know what you think in comments.
Let the Good Temps Roll: Honeywell RedLINK Wins Thermostat of the Year! Honeywell’s RedLINK thermostat prevailed in one of the most heavily contested categories of the 2014 ControlTrends Awards. Honeywell’s exclusive RedLINK Wireless Technology’s ability to meet comfort needs and provide APP-connections that yield the greatest customer satisfaction (and expanded business opportunities), while offering an unparalleled array of accessory add-ons that increase the ease of connected installations.
Honeywell Q5024 Retrofit Globe Valve Linkage “Make Market” Update. The pricing for the new Q5024 linkages and accessories was inaccurately labeled in the recent product announcement bulletin. The pricing links in the bulletin 15-0004 referenced information that listed the pricing as “MADE market” when it should have been “MAKE market”. To get an accurate listing of MAKE market products, download the Dynamic Custom Price Book on the B2B. This has been updated to accurately reflect the MAKE status of each part. Click here for instructions on how to download the Custom Price Book.
Part 5: Paul Oswald at the 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory. ESI’s Paul Oswald addresses the Skills Gap and the concept of People are a company’s most important asset. IoT has replaced the previous industry M2M buzzword, and some new technological concept will soon replace IoT, but people will remain — and represent the real and sustaining value of any company.
2014 ControlTrends Hall Of Fame Inductee H. Michael Newman.
Congratulations again to H. Michael Newman the father of BACnet on his induction to the 2014 ControlTrends Hall of Fame. To see Automated Buildings’ Ken Sinclair, induct Mike into the Hall oF Fame click here. Mike has been a member of the Association of Energy Engineers, the Cornell Society of Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and is a senior member of the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society. H. Michael Newman recently authored Direct Digital Control of Building Systems: Theory and Practice.
The perfect balance between simplicity and sophistication! The SE8000 Series is a sophisticated addition to the Schneider Electric™ product portfolio of room controllers. With rich, customizable features, the SE8000 Series enables significant energy savings with accurate temperature control in any space. The SE8000 Series room controllers can be easily integrated into most building management systems (BMS). Remote monitoring and control of HVAC, lighting, and metering systems allow facility managers to ensure their building is always operating at peak performance.
Part 5: Paul Oswald at the 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory
ESI’s Paul Oswald addresses the Skills Gap and the concept of People are a company’s most important asset. IoT has replaced the previous industry M2M buzzword, and some new technological concept will soon replace IoT, but people will remain — and represent the real and sustaining value of any company.
Technology changes rapidly and sometimes radically. Technology is not and end-game. People must create value for customers with each new technology — to make buildings run better. Attracting new talent is critical. We spend too little time developing the next-gen talent and a lot of tribal knowledge is leaving the industry. This is not about technical training. Companies need to add talent development to their business models and use the IoT (sexy) technology to entice new talent to their organizations.
ControlTalk NOW: The Smart Building Podcast/Videocast Week Ending February 15, 2015
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This week’s ControlTalk NOW reviews publisher and owner of Automated Buildings, Ken Sinclair’s 2015 Connected Community Collaboratory. This unique and informative video series captures the wisdom and insights of some of the brightest minds in Smart Building and HVAC Industries, teaming John Petze, SkyFoundry with Marc Petock, Lynxspring; Andy McMillan, BACnet International; Paul Oswald, ESI; and Jim O’Callaghan, EnOcean Inc. generated powerful experiential knowledge — shared in a very consumable video format. Don’t miss! Four more videos sections to follow.
Marc Petock, Vice President Marketing, Lynxspring drew attention to the reality that cyber security considerations were absent when the founding protocols were established. The industry as a whole was unaware of, or naive to, the dangers that cyber-terrorism now poses to our industry. The solution requires a collaboratory response, because no single business or party can remedy the threat by itself. It requires awareness and dialogue at every level: manufacturers, C-Suites, systems integrators, service providers, and building owners need to pro-actively deal with all of the existing and potential issues.
BACnet International President, Andy McMillan’s thought-provoking dialogue was a compelling case for managed lighting and the natural power of lighting where focus has shifted from the energy-savings aspects to hospitals releasing patients in shorter periods of time (circadian rhythm), learn well classrooms that ramp students’ energy and alertness, and retailers that sell more of the things they want to sell — these are the nouveau marketing ways. Also, lighting problems are in the construction and procurement processes. Much more collaboration required.
This year’s theme was “Our Connection Community and the Internet of Things” ( CCIoT). The meeting was designed to be fast moving and expected the attendees to have a basic understanding of the evolving connection communities’ needs, and a list of required reading from the presenting thought leaders was provided to get attendees up-to-speed. Presenters were given five minutes after which, Ken Sinclair served as moderator to ask a few questions for clarity. No power points allowed; only old school face-to-face collaborating. Great stuff.
Introducing Honeywell’s Q50204 Retrofit Globe Valve Linkage. Honeywell is pleased to introduce their new Q5024 globe valve retrofit linkage. This linkage allows you to use Honeywell Direct Coupled Actuators (DCAs) to retrofit most manufacturers’ globe valves in the field, with no valve disassembly required. This linkage is easy to install and the wide variety of collar combinations fit most of your globe valve retrofit jobs. Save money and time by replacing old electrical or pneumatic actuators with reliable Honeywell DCAs. View as a PDF.
Share Your Knowledge – Bring Your Experience to Haystack Connect 2015. Planning for Haystack Connect 2015 is well underway. With a little over 4 months before the conference kicks off, the event has 14 major sponsors and exhibitors as well as 3 Media sponsors, with new companies signing up every week. See the current sponsors here: www.haystackconnect.org/sponsors. The technical program is taking shape with a number of papers and presentations submitted on a wide range of topics around the conference themes that include Data Modeling, Hardware, Analytics, Cyber Security, Energy, Wireless and more. Consider joining the community at the Haystack Connect event — submit a presentation and share your expertise.
Lynxspring Announces 2nd Generation Modbus to BACnet® Bridge. Lee’s Summit, MO – February 2, 2015: Lynxspring, a premier developer and provider of open, IP-control solutions for building automation, energy management, cyber protection, and device-to-enterprise integration today announced the release of the OnyxxTM-MB311, their 2nd generation Modbus to BACnet Bridge solution. Embedded with a Lynxspring’s Smart ModuleTM and running Lynxspring’s HelixxTM IP-software framework, the Onyxx-MB311 is more powerful and takes Modbus to BACnet protocol translation to the next level.
Better Buildings Summit, May 27-29. 2015 — Registration Now Open! Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC. This year, the Better Buildings Summit is expanding into new sectors and engaging a diverse set of market leaders. Over two and a half days Better Buildings partners and stakeholders will come together in Washington D.C. and participate in sessions and meetings focused on the sharing of the most successful strategies for achieving energy savings through energy efficiency. Check out our interactive Agenda At A Glance and be sure to register today.
ACI Releases New “Universal” Dry Media Differential Pressure Transmitter. ACI understands that sensor applications can often differ from job to job. To accomodate most differential pressure sensing applications, we now offer a universal range option. A single unit, A/DP2-10U, will give you field adjustable ranges of o to 1″, 0 to 2.5″, 0 to 5″, and 0 to 10″ and output flexibility of 4 to 20 mA, 0-5 VDC, 0-10 VDC, and 4-20 VDC. This is critical for optimizing pressure within your facility.
Belimo ZIP Economizer Training. On Thursday, February 12, 11:30-12:30 EST, Stromquist will be live streaming a training session on Belimo’s award winning ZIP Economizer. Belimo’s product specialist will be on hand to explain what makes this product so unique and how it can make saving energy easier. The ZIP Economizer is the most technologically advanced Airside Economizer solution in the market and is designed to provide the most energy savings through advanced economizer logic strategies.
Rob Allen’s 7 Minutes in Control: Mike Marston. Join Stromquist Company’s Rob Allen and EasyIO’s Mike Marston as they discuss the reasons for EasyIO’s meteoric global success and the 3-time ControlTrends Award winning FG-32, as Plant Controller of the Year, Gordon Chan’s Small Manufacturer CEO of the Year, and Lim Hoon Chiat’s (and SK Foo’s) award-winning technical support.
ControlTrends Awards Highlight: Neptronic Wins Vendor of The Year: Small Manufacturer. Founded in 1976, Neptronic is a private corporation that designs, manufactures and distributes products for the HVAC industry. Their product line includes intelligent controllers, electronic actuators, actuated valves, humidifiers and electric heaters.Neptronic products are designed and manufactured by over 250 dedicated employees in their 7,500 m2 (80,000 ft2) state-of-the-art facility located in Montreal, Canada.
Live Training Rewind: Revisit the Belimo Team as they teach the ControlTrends Community about the Belimo Zip Economizer. This is a rewind of the Live Stream Belimo Training held Febuary 12, 2015 at the Stromquist & Company training center. Belimo’s product specialist explains what makes this product so unique and how it can make saving energy easier. The ZIP Economizer is the most technologically advanced Airside Economizer solution in the market and is designed to provide the most energy savings through advanced economizer logic strategies.
Honeywell Momentum 2015 Partner Conference Sep 20-22, 2015, J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa Palm Desert, CA. Momentum 2015 is coming! Save the date for Honeywell’s premier partner conference and join hundreds of building controls professionals to connect with industry leaders, understand evolving market trends and discover Honeywell’s vision in the Intelligent Building marketplace. J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa Palm Desert, CA.
2015 Niagara Forum — open 4 innovation — April 19-21 2015, in London. While everyone’s talking about the Internet of Things, Vykon is pioneering solutions for the Open Internet of Things. With nearly a half-million instances deployed worldwide, the Niagara Framework® represents the power of open — and the future of innovation. Discover the possibilities at the 2015 Niagara Forum in London, April 19-21. Learn what truly open systems can achieve for our partners and their customers, and get a firsthand look at our next generation platform, including Niagara 4 and our next generation hardware, JACE 8000.
Therese Sullivan Asks — How do You Spell IoT Smart Building Analytics?
For more from Therese Sullivan go to Building Context.
All the Big IT companies are running campaigns touting their role in the coming Internet of Things (IoT) computing era. A common vision is that software, particularly mobile apps, will reign supreme over embedded systems-on-a-chip, sensors, wireless communications and other components making more of the physical world digitally addressable. But, it is building automation and control firms – sometimes called OT, or operations technology companies – that have had to slog through decades of navigating relationships with big equipment makers to tap silo-ed data and do the necessary integration. All this work deserves its rightful recognition. But, as long as all the IoT marketing leads to substantive progress in building energy efficiency, does it really matter who takes credit?
I’ve been thinking about this in light of the US General Services Administration’s (GSA’s) Smart Buildings Analytics project. This project might be as close to a ‘No Spin Zone’ for building operational analytics at portfolio-wide scale as exists in the United States today. In May 2012, IBM was awarded the GSA fulfillment contract and it brought in partner ESI — one of these OT pioneers. The scope of the first phase of the project was to bring 55 GSA buildings around the country under better control through data analytics. At the 2014 Building Energy Summit in April, IBM and ESI presented a status report on the project, and this presentation has just been posted on youtube with accompanying slides available from the Summit’s organizer, CoR Advisors. So we can all see for ourselves how the project is balancing its Big IT and OT components. I’ll say that if you do an IT vs. OT analysis of this content – glancing slide-by-slide or frame-by-frame in the video – it’s more OT than IT. But, again – not the point.
Notably, in late 2011, IBM did a lot of marketing about its own Intelligent Building Management Software. Despite this marketing blitz, for the GSA project, ESI took the operational analytics lead deploying the SkySpark’s analytics engine from SkyFoundry. The architecture called for the information about equipment maintenance needs and energy usage trend data to be streamed to the IBM Workplace Management suite for further decision making. Familiar to CTO’s and CFO’s, the Integrated Workplace Management software category is a flavor of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software with custom-tailoring for facilities/real estate managers that want support in making financial decisions that relate to building and equipment assets, utility costs and carbon management reporting. IBM acquired TRIRIGA in 2011 to improve its offering and competitive position in this category.
The presentation gives a snapshot of the GSA project about 18 months in. IBM and ESI have proved the case for their Big Data approach to building energy efficiency, finding and correcting typical energy and money wasters like stuck dampers on air handlers and cases of simultaneous heating and cooling. More than that, the GSA project has revealed the real delimiting factor in continuing the data-driven approach. It’s not about IT or about OT – or about technology at all. Rather it’s about people and skills. Current facilities and building operations personal need retraining, or new digital natives need to be attracted into the profession. If the glossy and pervasive IoT awareness campaign can do this, everybody wins. Cheerios didn’t invent oats, but a great marketing campaign did get more kids to eat them. John Petze of SkyFoundry offers some great insight into the necessary mindset in his article “Considering Analytics? Start By Assessing Your Data Maturity Level.” Like other OT experts, he offers the message: Be inspired. There’s a great future in Buildings IoT. But be realistic too.
A Day In The Life of A Smart Building
Get ready for Ken’s interview tomorrow with Dan Klasen, from ESI, by watching this video.