Why is Data Standardisation in Smart Buildings Important?
As buildings have evolved, they have been hit by a tsunami of smart tech devices and systems. We are now experiencing new problems that the smart tech initially aimed to solve. This fragmented industry lacks standardisation; therefore, buildings are filled with multiple vendor’s products, various communication protocols and no clear strategy. As buildings have progressed, this has often resulted in an overload of data, duplications, data silos, manual/time-consuming processes, and we’re even seeing companies ripping out and replacing perfectly good technology at a very high cost just because there are communication issues. This obviously has a big impact on project cost but also on the environmental impact of the building; carbon involved in the production and installation of technology is wasted if it is ripped out when it is still fully functional and operational. This has a negative impact on the carbon neutrality of the building – something many governments are clamping down on with net-zero targets set out for commercial buildings.
This has resulted in the industry beginning to adopt common metadata. This allows building operators to understand and interpret building data easily as well as software applications that were not part of the original installation, therefore allowing for future upgrades.
The most notable standards are Brick Schema and Project Haystack – both address the problem and aim to create a unified building.
Raw, siloed data is not very helpful. “Without qualifiers and context, raw data can’t be understood. To be useful, data must be sorted, arranged, meta tagged, and often presented visually. Decision-makers, whether an automated system or on-site engineer, must be able to understand the data for it to be useful” (Propmodo 2021).
By using a common language, OEMs can create products and components that can seamlessly communicate throughout the development and use of a building. Having data that is standardised and tagged in a consistent way allows analytics and insights to be easily achieved, and it minimises problems arising in the future if newer technology is added. This unified approach creates the best experience for occupants, maximises efficiency and creates a more environmentally friendly building that can be easily controlled and monitored.
Data normalisation also hugely reduces the cost of installation. System integrators will not have to spend weeks or months developing complex solutions just to get A to talk to B, it will make the whole process much simpler, and therefore, the adoption of smart buildings should increase as a clear strategy emerges.
What is Brick?
“According to BrickSchema.org, Brick is an open-source effort to standardise metadata about buildings and the relationships between building assets. Using this metadata and information generated from sensors around the building, Brick is integral for delivering on healthy building concepts, including digital twins, personalised environments, touchless operations, automation, improved efficiency, and predictive maintenance” (Engineered Systems 2021).
What is Haystack?
“Project Haystack is an open-source initiative which seeks to standardise the way semantic tagging and data-modelling are used in smart buildings for various applications, including HVAC, power management, lighting, shading, metering, fire detection, security, access control, CCTV, water leak detection, space management, asset management etc.” (Siemens N/A).
Haystack 4 now supports data-modelling, with a methodology for taxonomies and ontologies.
How can amBX help?
Industry-agnostic application middleware will play a vital role in reducing the complexity that is holding much of the PropTech and IoT industry back from more widespread adoption.
As we focus on connecting all the different subsystems in a building, the ease of access and data normalisation becomes critical. Lighting should and will form a large part of the valuable data sets in the future. At amBX, we are focused on supporting and aligning with this process to speed up smart building traction by minimising the complications of accessing this data. As amBX is hardware agnostic, we also offer the standardisation of lighting control for smart buildings removing the barrier of proprietary and closed system integration issues.
-Jon Couch, Director of Product