At this week's Realcomm | IBcon event in Orlando, Fla., IoT building automation specialist 75F and open smart buildings platform provider J2 Innovations have announced a collaboration to improve the energy efficiency of mid-sized commercial buildings.
As experts in smart building technology, J2 and 75F said the firms will now join forces to increase the proliferation of plug-and-play, IoT-based building automation offerings in order to drastically decrease the energy footprint of buildings.
Platform integration details
According to a press release, in the partnership, 75F will complement its out-of-the-box building management system with J2's FIN Framework to improve its capabilities in third-party system integration and sophisticated HVAC plant management.
FIN is a next-generation software framework for smart buildings, smart equipment, and IoT applications. The framework can integrate, control, manage, analyze, visualize, connect, and can be embedded on a controller, gateway, HMI, or server. FIN offers OEM, system integrator, and end-user platforms.
75F designs and manufactures its proprietary IoT-based building management system, billed as an out-of-the-box, vertically-integrated BMS that is more affordable and easier to deploy than competitive platforms. The firm says it leverages IoT, cloud computing and machine learning technologies to enable data-driven, proactive building intelligence and controls for HVAC optimization.
The FIN Framework-based offering will communicate natively with the 75F edge-based Central Control Unit and cloud, allowing single-pane-of-glass management and analytics through the company's Facilisight portal for building portfolio managers. By utilizing the FIN Framework, 75F contends it can further increase the overall flexibility of its platform while maintaining a seamless end-to-end experience for its customers.
Domain Modeler
As part of the collaboration, 75F and J2 will standardize on the use of a Domain Modeler, a tool that allows the Project Haystack community, an open source initiative to streamline working with IoT data, to contribute peer-reviewed, plug-and-play digital twin models of building controls and equipment.
The Domain Modeler tool lets community members easily create templates for building systems according to Project Haystack semantic tagging standards, re-usable by anyone else in the community thereafter. According to the partners, this new capability stands to revolutionize the integration experience for professionals across the commercial building controls industry, enabling fast and affordable data standardization for varying controls and equipment types.
"The Domain Modeler began as a project to improve our own process flow, and we quickly realized this could fundamentally enhance the way we all bring our buildings and their systems together," said Deepinder Singh, founder and CEO of 75F. "In addition, J2's FIN Framework is a perfect example of leading technology that can leverage the Domain Modeler to do this."
Prior to the full September full platform release, 75F and J2 Innovations noted they will be onboarding partners for a beta program. The firms are unveiling the technology partnership and the Domain Modeler tool with select demonstrations at the Realcomm | IBcon event from June 15-16.
"It's exciting to collaborate with another world leader in IoT and smart building technology," concluded Alex Rohweder, CEO of J2 Innovations. "We are very excited to support 75F in its journey to provide a complete IoT-based building management system. Our FIN technology will enable 75F to integrate more seamlessly existing legacy controls and equipment where needed, and further extend their offering towards holistic HVAC plant management."
