Siemens Building Technologies has high hopes for 2012; it did not provide just 12 trends to watch but 15 of them. Security trends were outlined by Magali Epin, Marketing and Business Development, while building automation trends were discussed by Achim Schaepper, Head of Operational Marketing.
Siemens Building Technologies has high hopes for 2012; it did not provide just 12 trends to watch but 15 of them. Security trends were outlined by Magali Epin, Marketing and Business Development, while building automation trends were discussed by Achim Schaepper, Head of Operational Marketing.
Security
1.Convergence drives physical security closer to the IT industry. This adds additional requirements from IT which influence the entire customer life cycle processes. Similarly, there are increased requirements to use existing IT infrastructure in medium to large installations, running business and security systems in parallel.
2.Smart buildings will drive the disappearance of the divide between security, safety and building automation (BA) technologies in the context of comfort, energy efficiency, life safety and emergency response. The availability and intelligence of safety and security sensors support system integrations that deliver benefits beyond the field devices' intended use.
3.The demand for management stationincreases as the benefits they bring in the definition, deployment, and measurement of safety and security standards and processes across entire organizations and multidiscipline systems gain recognition.
4.Supported by smart field devices, increased connectivity and intelligent data processing power, emergency response resources and systems will be called upon based on real-time situational awareness, desired outcomes and “best fit for purpose” rather than on predefined responsibilities or processes.
5.Evacuation routes can be adapted to the actual situation based on real-time building data and dynamic emergency lighting. Evacuation and response scenarios will be simulated with software tools to identify potential bottlenecks in evacuation routes and program alternative routes. Intelligent occupancy detection will help first responders evacuate buildings more efficiently.
6.Safety and security budget contractions drive new business and engineering models. As wireless communication technology matures, it will be used alongside wired communication infrastructure to optimize installation and wiring in a security and safety project, particularly for renovation jobs and at locations where it is difficult to install wiring.
7.Compliance with local safety and security regulations are no longer sufficient in the “global” public eye. Due diligence is key. Maintenance of installed security systems needs to be improved, and periodic performance and functional tests should be implemented.
8.Security and safety increasingly become an integral part of corporate social responsibility initiatives, driven by rising political pressure at city and national levels. Accountability will be recognized as a key risk management enabler. This will drive technology investments to improve safety and security incident prevention, detection, response and recovery as part of new reputation management strategies.
Building Automation
9.Simple thermostats will take on additional intelligence. They will serve as room controllers for lights, blinds and HVAC.
10.Remote monitoring will become more popular. It will be cloud-based and a basic services offered by BA manufacturers. Software analytics will, to some extent, automate the remote monitoring process. Similarly, remote monitoring as a security service will find more acceptance, driven by the need to continuously monitor the IT infrastructure used for physical security installation to guarantee system availability and alarm transmission.
11.Continuous commissioning of a BA system will gain awareness supported by regulations such as EN 16001 or ISO 50001.
12.Energy efficiency improvement will gain awareness in the corporate world. Energy efficiency will become a standard key performance indicator for facility management service companies for their performancebased payments.
13.Public and governmental organizations with budget constraints will increasingly adopt performance contracting and security models to renew their technical infrastructure in the buildings.
14.Net-zero energy buildings, or buildings that consume as much energy as they generate in a year, will become technical and economical realities.
15.As smart grids continue to be developed, it will become clearer that a smart grid cannot function without smart buildings. A smart building contains local intelligence and is able to generate energy locally, store energy locally and shift time of energy consumption.