When you say the words “digital building”, it can sound like science fiction. Fortunately, they’re as real as ever.
A digital building is a location where control of many of the functions in a building, such as security, heating, lighting and venting, are automated and connected over a single network.
Older buildings can also be digitalised by adding “digital armour” such as a cloud-based service and IoT-enabled network on top of existing infrastructure.
Better business surveillance
Many workplaces rely on analogue CCTV cameras to protect their property and buildings; but older systems can be insecure, inaccessible and expensive to maintain.
Footage is stored locally and needs to be accessed onsite. To transport CCTV information, it has to be copied onto removable media with limited storage capacity.
Using cloud, businesses can add a digital layer to their video surveillance security without having to replace existing CCTV cameras.
Cameras can be connected to a smart, resilient cloud-based service. With the data stored in the cloud, there are no local limitations on storage capacity.
This provides end-to-end security and access control, as well as full compliance to data protection guidelines. All footage is encrypted and transmitted as and when needed.
Your business can access the visual data anytime, anywhere, via computer, tablet or mobile. These types of platform typically include the ability to manage accounts to suit your needs.
Smart security analytics can also determine when an event requires attention. Alerts can inform cyber security personnel when an incident occurs, providing the intelligence to make better use of buildings and sites.
Better energy management
Many businesses use systems from multiple suppliers for the day-to-day running of their buildings. These systems typically operate in silos and are unable to connect to each other.
By integrating security, lighting, fire and safety systems, you can gain control and oversight of all your critical buildings systems. A single platform can manage all the systems.
By integrating security and other systems, you can get greater value and efficiency than running them individually, in separate silos. This can help your business to minimise risk while making your building more efficient.
An energy management service can often be more secure, monitored, protected and encrypted than many individual systems. Combining them all over a single secure network can reduce the threat of disruption to critical building systems.
By collecting all data through a single service, it’s easier to comply with data legislation. This protects you from immediate and recurring fines for non-compliance with regulations such as the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).
It is also easier to ensure that regular updates to firmware and systems are enacted to keep you compliant.
A single service can eliminate equipment downtime and extend the lifetime of expensive energy and operations assets.
Equipment is serviced when it needs to be, rather than to fit the timetable of an expensive, ongoing maintenance programme. As you do not have to rip and replace everything at once, you can integrate energy solutions as and when it makes sense to replace your current infrastructure.
By integrating building sensors and systems, you can monitor equipment, consumption and performance in real-time. This gives you total visibility to monitor, control and manage sites across the globe. View all your data from a single dashboard that can be accessed from any web-capable device.
You can combine data from all your different building management systems, as well as from other sub-systems such as parking, CCTV, access control and lighting.
