The S4 BACnet-ecobee hive at AHR

Klaus, Nancy, and Steve experienced a very productive and successful AHR Expo 2020 in Orlando. Part of the success is always in developing new relationships and reinforcing those that have been in place for many years. The highlight for us this year was the display of our S4 BACnet-ecobee Hive in the Contemporary Controls and ecobee booths.

We received great feedback from both displays and look forward to starting field testing of the product soon. During our booth visits we found several pure IoT products that could benefit from becoming a part of the BACnet ecosystem using the same S4 framework supporting our ecobee integration. We are following up on these opportunities with their manufacturers. We are finding that the S4 products are not any longer just for legacy BAS integration. They are bridging the gap between the local control needs of smart buildings and the advantages provided by the IoT world.

One of the lessons learned at the show was that value-added applications needing tagged data are gaining in popularity. We made the decision as a result that Haystack tagging, and the Haystack RESTful protocol will be included in our 2.0 release. A lot of the core development supporting this enhancement is already completed and testing is underway.

As always, the educational sessions were first rate and provided insight into the directions the industry is going. Steve was a panelist for session Obstacles and Opportunities for HVACR in the Next Decade hosted by Nicolas Waern. Panelists included Therese Sullivan, Troy Harvey, and Jason Houck. There were lots of thought-provoking comments from the panelists and some great questions from the standing room only attendees.

Steve spent time in the BACnet International booth in his role as marketing committee chair. BACnet International saw great traffic in their booth and participation by a record number of member companies during the show.

S4 was built on the premise that rather than a rip-and-replace approach to upgrading buildings we provide the path to building on what exists with value added applications first, then transitioning when it is convenient and cost effective. We are finding that this is just as valid for the IoT offerings as it was for legacy, proprietary BAS installations.