Solutions: KNX Multiroom and Multiuser Music Systems

By Charlotte Blissett-Griffiths, Ivory Egg (UK) Ltd. The ability to play music around the entire home has been around for a long time, but with KNX being Europe’s most popular protocol and the number of certified installers and consumers continually growing, the call for native KNX music systems is increasing. Why use KNX to Control […]

Trade Talk: Who is Eating the Pie – Electrician or Custom Installer?

By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. The summer is just about done and dusted for another year. The Tour de France yellow jersey is safely back in British hands, football is on the TV, Andy Murray successfully avoided victory at Wimbledon and the sun came out for several hours one day. Things are, it seems, […]

Country Profile: Qatar

By Rasoul Moghaddam, Armiti Group. The State of Qatar is a sovereign Arab country and an absolute monarchy. It comprises a small peninsula on the north-eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. Qatar […]

Trade Talk: The Third Amendment – A Change to UK Wiring Regulations

By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. Summer is here; schools are winding down, the exams are over, the holiday beckons. It has been a busy year for most systems integration companies in the UK from what I gather. Business was good pre-election, but post, it seems to be positively booming. So it is quite likely […]

First Principles: Setting the Scene for the Holidays

By Nikita Thompson, Ivory Egg. Going away for the weekend should be a simple and enjoyable exercise, but often we end up spending so much time and energy getting our house ready to go, we set off on holiday already stressed out. With a KNX scene, all of this hassle is avoided – even if […]

Best Practice: Programming in ETS – Back to Basics

By Christophe Lavergne, DMC USA. When we train people in KNX technology, we often see bad habits that they have developed when programming. Whether a newbie or an old hand, their projects in ETS software fail to have a correct structure and/or documentation. Some of the most common problems we see in ETS projects are […]

Trade Talk: LED and the Lighting Designer

By Simon Buddle, Future Ready Homes. Ambience, colour temperature, accent and task lighting – these are trademark phrases for a lighting designer. Creating wonderful room moods, with task lighting to enable reading, and accent lighting to draw one’s attention to an impressive architectural feature or well-placed ornament, lighting design requires an eye for design as […]

Best Practice: Heating Control via KNX – Part 3

By Nikita Thompson, Ivory Egg. In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on heating control using KNX, I discussed getting the temperature onto the bus, the types of control used, the modes available with KNX, using heating and cooling, two-stage heating and the dead band. In Part 3, I will bring all of […]

Security: Protecting Buildings from Cyber Attack – Part 2

By Chris Topham, Abtec Building Technologies. In Part 1 of this two-part series, we looked at simple ways to protect KNX projects from malicious attack over IP networks. In Part 2, we will explore some valuable tactics to protect your building management system (BMS). Whether you design, deploy or use KNX devices, this article will […]

Case Study: ABB Automation for Office Building in Glarus, Switzerland

By Franco A. Bonutto, Soltris Gebäudesystemtechnik. As a public utility company in Switzerland, Technische Betriebe Glarus Nord (TBGN) has statutory obligations regarding energy saving. Having decided to expand its office complex by adding another floor, TBGN commissioned us to plan, build and install an energy-efficient system for lighting, shading and HVAC control. The project was […]