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KNX presents the eighth KNX Awards (6/5/2010)

Splendid KNX Award 2010: Participants and winners from the whole world

On 13 April 2010 in Frankfurt (Germany), a total of 11 KNX Awards were presented for internationally outstanding KNX home and building control projects. The grand awards ceremony was part of the world’s largest KNX event – the KNX TOP Event 2010 – attended by more than 1,200 guests from 54 different countries. This year for the first time, in order to take account of the huge diversity of projects from around the world, three additional categories were created for the KNX Award, each based on a geographical region: Europe, Asia, and Africa, America and Australia. In addition, in three categories, two companies were awarded first place, in recognition of the extraordinary originality of the projects entered in these categories. This year’s ceremony once again broke all previous records: four times more KNX projects were submitted than just two years ago, and this time from 48 different countries.

The KNX Award, which was created in 1996, is a reflection of the growth of KNX around the world. Initially just a very few projects from Germany and Switzerland were entered, whereas in recent years more and more projects have been submitted from all over the world. At the eighth ceremony on 13 April 2010, at light+building in Frankfurt, a total of 11 international KNX projects received awards in 8 different categories, in recognition of their exceptional originality, sustainability, and future orientation. Selecting the winners was no easy task for the jury: more than four times more entries were received this year than just two years ago, with entries coming from 48 different countries. More than 1,200 guests from 54 countries attended the award ceremony, which formed part of the KNX Top Event at the light+building trade fair. The awards were presented by Ms. Jeglitza-Moshage (Director of the light+building trade fair) and Messrs. Wetzel (AIE President), Demarest (Director, KNX Association), Glasow (CEO of Andromeda Ltd), Krabbe (President, KNX Germany), Jakobi (CEO of ZVEH), Schneider (President, KNX International) and Conrad (winner of the “Competition Young Electricians 2008”).

The impressive range of award-winning projects entered from Asia, the USA and Europe testifies to the diversity of ingenious solutions being developed using KNX. 1,000 euros were awarded in each category of the KNX Awards 2010. Each winner in each of the categories additionally received the KNX trophy. Awards were presented to the following eleven companies, in eight different categories:

1. KNX Award International - Europe
Two companies shared this award:

MAPE s.a.s. from Novara, Italy, successively networked three automotive sales locations via KNX IP, to allow the internet to be used for communication with a central management system. As a result, all systems can be centrally monitored and modified. Alarms can be reliably received and dealt with. In this project, KNX directly controls both the normal and the emergency lighting, and the shading. Burglar and technical alarms, air conditioning, heating, audio systems and energy management are furthermore all incorporated into a centralised system via interfaces.

The second prizewinner in this category was the Russian company EcoProg Ltd, who equipped offices, reception halls and conference rooms in Moscow’s tallest building – the “Federation Tower” – with KNX for the leading Russian bank VTB Bank. Here, KNX room automation serves to control and regulate lighting, shading, and heating, air conditioning and ventilation. The room automation is integrated into the building management system. KNX allows a high level of tailored comfort to be achieved, and reduces energy consumption.

2. KNX Award International - Asia
The jury selected two projects to receive awards in this category:

Delhi International Airport Ltd. from India received the KNX Award for its Terminal 3, which opened in March 2010. Around 11,000 KNX devices are installed in the terminal. From the outset, the forward-looking planners wanted to use KNX for the switching and dimming of the terminal’s 100,000-plus illumination points via motion sensors, timers and a centralised visual display, having had good experiences with the system in other projects. Here, too, the open KNX protocol allows central monitoring of all subsystems.

Dana Corp. from Seoul, South Korea, won the KNX Award for its “Mark Hills” project, in which it equipped eighteen high-end apartments with KNX. The lighting, shading and air conditioning in the apartments can be operated via design push-buttons and a central touch panel. Here KNX plays an important role in maximising comfort for the residents. The openness of the system meant it was possible to incorporate it via a RS-485 interface into a home network commonly used in Korea, to allow centralised operation of all systems.

3. KNX Award International - Africa, America, Australia

Benolli from Los Angeles received the KNX Award for its work on the luxurious home and guest house of famous baseball player Eddie Murray. Murray wanted a house that combined optimal comfort with high-quality design and energy efficiency. He chose KNX after thorough evaluation of the options available, because no other system offered such a comprehensive range of solutions and products. Every single system is incorporated into the overall system, from lighting, shading, air conditioning and audio/video right through to the alarm system and fire places. The platform-independent visual display is dynamic and, for maximum convenience of operation, offers scenarios such as “Absent”, “Eco” or “Party”. The system’s various automatic functions serve to reduce energy consumption by 20%.

4. KNX National Award

The Germany award went to a company from the city of Erfurt. Gebäudesystemtechnik Schumann implemented a KNX system in the innovative multifunctional building “Wolke 14” (“Cloud 14”) in Sonneberg, because sustainability, energy efficiency and flexibility were important criteria for the developers, even though the purposes for which the building would be used were not yet known. The solution, which incorporates all trades, can be operated simply by diverse users. The system records the power, heat and water consumption of the building’s various owners and functional areas, in order to create statements of consumption for precise periods of time. In this building, presence detectors switch the lights on and off during the day, and at night they set an alarm off if an intruder is detected.

5. KNX Publicity Award
The Publicity Award, which this year also went to two prizewinners, attracted wide interest.

knx-user-forum from Germany won the Publicity Award for its unusual idea of equipping a motorhome with KNX. This project shows clearly how diverse and sometimes surprising KNX functions can enhance comfort and security and enable intelligent energy management in a home – in this case, a motorised one. For example, there are sensors in the seats and on the floor that trigger commands. When the vehicle’s flat-screen TV is activated, the vehicle’s shutters automatically close. Naturally KNX also keeps a lookout when the vehicle’s occupants are out, and lets them know when fresh water or fuel are running low – for example via iPhone. The motorhome’s power supply, solar collector, batteries and generator are also monitored automatically. So far, the KNX motorhome has covered 22,000 kilometres in its travels across Europe, without any technical hitches.

BIS Group from Rostov on Don, Russia, also won the Award for its committed marketing efforts. The company is one of southern Russia’s leading engineering firms working in the area of building control systems. In its own showroom, BIS Group runs demonstrations of the extensive possibilities that KNX offers for planners and building owners, showing how it is manufacturer- independent, and can be operated centrally via a visual display. The impressive demonstrations cover control of both artificial lighting and daylight, security systems including biometric sensors, audio/video, energy management and much more, to win over potential KNX customers.

6. KNX Special Award

GDS Digital Systems LTD from Athens received the KNX Special Award for its “Navarino Resort” project in the south-western Peloponnese in Greece. The first part of this vast resort opens in May 2010, including 766 rooms spread over two hotels, a golf course, sports and therapy facilities, and conference rooms. According to the plans, by 2020 there will be, for example, 3,000 rooms in eleven hotels, and a marina for up to 400 boats. Navarino is to be a 100% emission-free resort. The vast size of the project is also the main challenge for the KNX system: in order for the complete building control system to be managed centrally, 190 main distribution boards need to be linked via thousands of kilometres of wiring. In tackling the project, GDS Digital Systems LTD divided it up into subsystems, using the same group addresses in these. The central control system can differentiate between the addresses using specially-programmed routers, to enable addresses to be used economically. The vast scale of the project in terms of trades and integration work testifies to the system integrator’s many years of experience with KNX.

7. KNX Energy Efficiency Award

EIB-Tech Helmut Lintschinger from Andechs, Germany, used KNX to reduce energy costs at the Munich headquarters of Infineon by 25%. This office location with 6,500 workstations, which the company moved into in 2006, was upgraded in following years with KNX for lighting and solar shading, with a central visual display incorporating more than 10,000 KNX devices. Initially the visual display was used for central functions such as optimisation of the building’s solar shading control, and the switching of the outdoor lighting. In 2008, however, it was upgraded again to create a complete energy management system. Now, for example, it turns the corridor and stairwell lights off according to the brightness outdoors, and limits the time for which the lights stay on in the toilets. Measurements show that these changes have significantly reduced energy use, and as a result the KNX enemanagement system is now being further extended to cover more areas.

8. KNX Young Award

In 2008, six vocational schools in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy and Hungary launched the project “Smart Home in Europe” as part of the EU education programme Comenius. The 200 participating students believe in increased networking of residential buildings. The group decided to use KNX technology because it is the most prevalent system – and the worldwide standard – for networked building automation. The group defined Promotion, Lighting, Audio and Video, Energy and Communication as the focal points of their project. So far, the Promotion and Lighting components of the project have been implemented – by presenting this group with the KNX Young Award, the jury want to further encourage their forward- looking work.

KNX Association is the creator and owner of the KNX technology – the worldwide STANDARD for all applications in home and building control, ranging from lighting and shutter control to various security systems, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, monitoring, alarming, water control, energy management, smart metering as well as household appliances, audio/video and lots more. KNX is the worldwide standard for home and building control with a single, manufacturer independent design and commissioning tool (ETS), with a complete set of supported communication media (TP, PL, RF and IP) as well as a complete set of supported configuration modes (system and easy mode). KNX is approved as a European (CENELEC EN 50090 and CEN EN 13321-1) and an International standard (ISO/IEC 14543-3). This standard is based upon more than 20 years of experience in the market including its predecessors, EIB, EHS and BatiBUS. Over 190 member companies worldwide from different application domains have almost 7000 KNX certified product groups in their catalogues. The KNX Association has partnership agreements with more than 30,000 installer companies in almost 100 countries.

www.knx.org