Fifty years in the controls industry has allowed me to see its evolution through different eras. Patterns repeat themselves, and timelines become blurry as one era ends and the next starts.
New eras evolve inside existing eras and become the change we see. The era we are entering is the most exciting and life-changing I have ever been witness to, more incredible than the changes created by the internet. Early innovators and adopters always lead this change.
"Dawn of a new era" is the overarching theme for Controls Con 2023, as the industry continues to embrace the role of augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based solutions. Speakers include some of the most influential decision-makers and building automation professionals navigating the moment of the industry. Speakers will deliver invaluable insights and demonstrations through keynote presentations, offering attendees a window into the technologies and policies transforming the BAS industry.
I refer to this new era in the title of this article as the era of “Enviromation," a new/old word taken from our failed started-up Enviromation Services, Inc. (ESI) thirty years ago.
"Enviromation" combines environment and automation. It describes the creative collision of today's environmental needs with the need to automate our informational and physical interactions.
We are all "Eviromationists" in this new era (another new word). We need to create interoperative connections using the power of IoT while building machine learning bridges that will allow controllable, sustainable AI interventions in this next era.
I have been invited to prepare my input for www.controlscon.com. “The Dawn of a New Era,” is what inspired this post.
I have been part of all the below Eras (which I feel my insight, hard won from decades of experience, qualifies me to name):
The era of pneumatic controls
In late 1960 when I first started in the Automated Building industry, I was introduced to several control technologies like pneumatics, fluidics, electric, and electronic. We were beginning to see the appearance of the first hard-wired logic machines with rumors of computers in our future. We were moving out of the pneumatic era, although it would remain the actuation workhorse. More about my journey before the internet era can be found at www.automatedbuildings.com.
The direct digital control (DDC) era
In 1975 we started Sinclair Energy Services (SES) as a consultant in the not-yet-invented Direct Digital Control (DDC) Era. First, we needed to invent and build the first DDC control systems!
The University of Alberta (U of A) started a total Direct Digital Control system in 1975. I was lucky to be part of this project, installing large campus buildings with the first only total DDC without any conventional pneumatic controls. In consequence the original SES evolved to be today's SES Consulting. That consultancy would thrive on the values of innovation and achieving results.
(In this CONTRACTOR article, we described our humble beginnings in Reinvention, Rebirth, Renaissance.)
Brief sidebar: why am I so fascinated by the home office concept? Because we now have the technologies we originally envisioned at the turn of the century to create a successful home-office interface.
Since 1975 Jane and I have worked from a home office providing Building Automation & Energy Services using a PET computer and 300 baud modem. In 1997 we created a company called Enviromation Services, Inc. to capture the integration of the home office connected to large buildings and businesses primarily by modems and phone lines. We floated concepts like the home office replacing the second car with the garage space becoming the new home office. It was still early, but a new era began when we started using email and were introduced to the Internet.
The Internet era
1994 saw the start of Environmation Services, Inc. (ESI).
Our core concept for Enviromation arrived way too soon. The underlying technologies still needed to evolve, and mass acceptance needed time to develop. We were under-informed and underfunded, plus too soon to market, but we saw where this concept would lead us in the future.
The masses needed help understanding my idea of trading the second car for a laptop and working from home to save the environment. The move to remote working was a change that only a world-wide pandemic could trigger. The Internet had just been invented; connectivity was still via the dial-up modem/phone. Faster networks and devices and mass evolution, plus a more profound education of the general public were all still needed.
Our first effort crashed and burned but introduced us to the exciting era of the Internet, the wonderful world of the web, and spawned several internet companies. It was the .com/dot bomb era as the world struggled to understand and create a financial model that would fit with the World Wide Web.
Along the way we all discovered the power of the Internet and networks, both physical and personal.
What we learn from our mistakes is way more valuable than what we learn from our successes. So get out there and make some mistakes!
We started living the lessons learned. For the last 30 years, I have been working out of our home office in a carbon-free, passive solar home. We supported the philosophy of living where you work. The office of the original SES was a home office since 1975. We used a 300-baud modem. However, I did travel daily to projects and became part of their teams.
Our hobbies were all (and still are) environmentally friendly: sailing, cycling, hiking, and kayaking. We live within walking distance of our food supply.
In 1999 we started www.automatedbuildings.com, at the start of the Internet era (one of our first articles is still online).
The Enviromation era started to evolve within the Internet Era. This 2001 article is a window on that era as it was happening:
"Enviromation" - The Art & Science of Communication/Automation Integration with our Environments
In 2003 this article, Innova Innovation in Comfort, Efficiency, and Safety Solutions. hinted at the new era to come. Key quote:
The meshing of Broadband, Telephony, and Building Automation has created a powerful new virtual architectural fabric. I call this fabric "Enviromation" a combination of the words Environment, Communication and Automation.
Growing greener buildings is not a new concept. In September 2003, I presented a paper at the Worldwide CIBSE/ASHRAE gathering of the building services industry in Edinburgh, Scotland titled “The Greening of Buildings with Computerized Web Enabled Automation.”
The Internet Era Spawned many innovations, such as moving the BAS graphics to be browser-based, web DDC control, data in the cloud, and cloud control. Along with these innovations came new concepts like Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.
All of which led in turn to —
Internet of Things (IoT) era
Master System Integrator rapidly transitioned to Internet Protocol IP networks, and the vendor provided the new devices with IoT capabilities.
In 1984, Tridium introduced the Niagara framework
Honeywell bought Tridium in 2005
By adopting the ways of IoT, powerful concepts like Virtual Reality, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence slowly became actual, working technologies. The most recent example to make national news is ChatGPT, a chatbot/Generative Pre-trained Transformer model.
More tools than we could imagine. What would we use these fantastic tools for? In a nutshell, to make this world a better, more liveable place.
A good starting point can be found in this transcript from the “Our Opportunity in ESG – The Need for Automation to Meet Owner’s ESG & Carbon Reduction Goals” panel discussion at AHR Expo 2023 in Atlanta, GA that captures the challenges and opportunities of this moment in our evolution. (For those unfamiliar, ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.)
All these eras created our bag of tools which is how we depict everything from now on in the Eviromation Era.
My last month's article discussed AI's Value in this new era, which has generated some great discussion on LinkedIn. You can follow—and join in!—that discussion via the links below:
Nicolas Waern – Digital Twin Specialist
(Thanks for the publication, Steve Spaulding.)
#digital #ai #aiforgood #chatgpt #community #architecture #automatedbuildings
I am pleased with our last post, which links to many online resources and educational YouTubes from AHRExpo Atlanta and speaks to the creation of our Creative Community Collisions.
Our Dinosaur DDC control systems were designed only to control, not be, self-driving, self-configuring data generation instruments. The collision of the IoT invasion and the high profile of the ESG era is fueling us and creating the perfect storm and transition to the dawn of the Enviromation Era.
The creative collision of today's environmental needs with our ability to automate and connect with IoT using Machine learning bridges to allow controllable AI intervention in this next era.
Please join us and share your opinions on our industry-edited dynamic library/landing/launch pad where we all can write on the walls for the world to see and the industry to exchange ideas.
Imaging yourself writing this article after your 50 years in the industry.