AutomatedBuildings.com Article - A Preview of the Haystack Connect Technical Program

Technology continues to drive rapid change in smart building technologies, energy management and operational efficiency solutions. The most significant advances are being driven not by a single company, but rather by collaboration and a community of companies creating open, best of breed technologies that work together through a range of open protocols and software interfaces. These new technologies reach the market through a growing group of practitioner communities, each with deep expertise in their own fields. Key to success is the challenge of making data more easily available across systems and applications. This is the focus on the Haystack Community.

Haystack Connect 2015 (May 18-20) brings together the systems integrators, technology providers and end users who are leading the way to more efficient and sustainable buildings and advanced smart-device applications.

The Haystack Connect technical program brings together thought leaders from across industry and provides detailed information for attendees. The call for papers is open until March 15. Here is a brief sampling of sessions that will be presented based on submissions to date:

The Data Modeling Category is receiving a number of great submissions and shows the growth and maturation of the topic within the industry. Topics include:

Introduction to Project-Haystack — If you are new to project-Haystack and data modeling this is at the very best place to start to get up to speed and learn to hit the ground running

Project-Haystack Working Group Meeting — The group will focus on extending tagging models for a range of applications and addressing a number of open topics from the discussion forum. Think of this session as an in-person, real time, open forum discussion.

Reinventing the engineering process for automation systems using tagging. Since the beginning of the automation industry, the "point" (the sensor or control point) has been the primary data element. Everything revolved around the individual point and everything had to be bound to a specific individual point. Alarms, control logic and graphics all referenced individual point addresses. Transitioning to a tag-oriented data model enables a complete re-invention of the engineering process resulting in an order of magnitude reduction in engineering time.

New method of tagging convention and taxonomy for building HVAC control systems and equipment for automatic system mapping. Open communication protocols make information available. One important problem in using the technologies of communication protocols is the lack of a standard and naming convention for the identification of sensor within these systems. The procedure of naming convention is often personal to the installer. Therefore, it is difficult to use system data after installation even if the information is available. This study proposes a new method to encode information properties of sensor and control system equipment.

The Hardware Session is also seeing submissions including:

New Solutions for Getting Data out of Buildings: Haystack data pumps can lower that cost of getting data into enterprise applications and the cloud, via nomenclature definitions which enables one data source for multiple applications and how do we keep haystack installations updated with tag libraries.

IoT and Today’s Hardware
IoT is allowing us to move from connected devices to connected intelligence. The next generation hardware requires faster processors, more memory, secured access, a selection of connectivity and capacity options to support a variety of applications and go beyond simple device connectivity to include device configuration, device management, and device-level application enablement. This presentation looks at a new embedded edge device technology platform based on open-source, open programming and open hardware technologies.

The Analytics Topic is receiving a number of submissions including:

How Data and Analytics are Changing Business Models for Energy Consultants and Commissioning Agents.

Embedding Analytics at the Edge — What’s possible at the device level by embedding advanced analytics at the device level. It is now possible for the same level of automated analytics to be executed at the "edge" in small controllers and embedded devices that can be connected to existing remote devices and systems.

Integrated Energy Analytics. The biggest challenge facing building operators today when it comes to controlling and reducing energy usage is the lack of the right information from the equipment systems that consume energy, and real-time analytics that fills the gap between the facilities operational layer and the business layer. In order to deliver analytics that have substance and value, you have to identify, connect, collect (securely), synchronize, organize, manage and understand where data is coming from and its meaning.

Connected Commissioning - The Business Case for Analytics
This discussion shares a real world project involving a diverse team of building operators, property and asset managers, and engineers from a portfolio of medical office buildings. Their case study highlights the process of deploying a technology-enabled, value-driven data management and training program that results in lower costs and increased tenant satisfaction.

In the Cyber Security category:

Secured Connections: When it comes to the access of the devices, systems and applications that run and operate our buildings, they are smarter and more connected than ever before. With these threats, Cybersecurity models need to radically change to provide the right level of protection for this new, connected world. Central to this is the ability to securely connect. This presentation explores securing today's connected building devices, systems and applications and the exchange of data.

Developing End to End Security for Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is expected to bring huge benefits and to grow very rapidly, but that will only occur if we can be assured that the Solutions we have are secure. Traditional systems have had, at best, minimal security and protection. Connected devices need to be protected from being corrupted and from being impersonated in order to infiltrate the rest of the Network. This session will address the security issues that the Internet of Things presents and propose a practical set of measures and solutions intended to provide end-to-end Security in this fast emerging Industry.

And in the Energy Category
Utility Rates and Programs Create Opportunities for Systems Integrators. Gasoline prices may be low but electricity prices are not dropping. Many areas of the country will see significant increases in demand costs in 2016 and beyond. Utility rates and related programs are creating business opportunities for systems integrators — you just need to know where to look. This session will show you the way.

Energy and Analytics - A Path to Excellence. This session will focus on three topics:

Wireless
Where we are with Wireless? Wireless Technology is being increasingly used both for personal devices such as Smart Phones and wearables, and in machine to Machine use as part of the Internet of Things. This session will look at the various Wireless methods and Standards available with a look at the relative success and technical capability of the different, often competing, offerings. These will include Wide Area Connectivity using 3G and 4G LTE. WiFi and the opportunities offered by the new 802.11 ac 5MHz standard, and the various low energy solutions using Point to Point and Mesh including 802.15.4 with Zigbee, Heart, 6LowPAN, and other Low Energy solutions such as Enocean and Bluetooth Smart.

This is just a sampling of the papers submitted to date. Consider joining the community at the Haystack Connect event — submit a presentation and share your expertise.

The detailed schedule of sessions will be published in March as we assemble submissions around the main conference themes.

The Call for Papers is open until March 15, but don’t wait! Submit a Paper here: http://events.haystackconnect.org/2015/#presenting

Full information on the conference can be found here: http://haystackconnect.org/

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