IoT excerpt from full article by Harry Pascarella
Emerson, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, UTC and hundreds of others were all showing off the latest and greatest HVAC systems, components, controls and technologies. Moving from booth to booth, machines, devices and materials are the center of attention. Pure-play technology suppliers were present as well, offering devices and software for integrating systems and analyzing machine health; however, it became clear that OEMs are still missing the true value of Internet of Things and smart systems technologies.
Building automation and control vendors are trying to change this. The evolution to smart systems for these players is more natural than that of OEMs, but is by no means guaranteed. The solutions I saw from the likes of KMC Controls, Delta Controls, Acuity’s Distech, and others are beginning to point in the right direction for the most part, but are still falling short.
The whole point of these systems in the first place is to make it easier for suppliers and adopters to do their jobs, save time and money, increase existing revenues and drive new revenue streams.
One company at the expo, LynxSpring, stands out as an innovator that is trying to bridge the gap between user needs (and budgets) and the automation and control industry. They have put together a modular system based on Tridium’s Niagara framework that provides connectivity and control down to edge devices that is easily integrated with legacy systems and intuitive for facility managers to use. They are leveraging an ecosystem of OEMs, channel partners and systems integrators to help deliver these solutions to many different types of end customers with many different needs—from restaurants and retail to offices and apartments. LynxSpring’s ecosystem and business model is indicative of the collaboration and new thinking that is required to effectively provide smart building systems.