Workshop on wireless technologies for the intelligent buildings and smart home business

Together with the Norwegian RFID resource network Wirless future arranged a workshop March 12. aiming at getting an overview of status of the Norwegian offering and experiences and to find out what needs to be done to utilize technology to reduce buildings costs and get buildings that increases user efficiency and comfort while reducing cost of operation and environmental loads.

The workshop engaged in the order of 40 participants mainly from the building sector. Status is characterized by:

• Manny of different standards and proprietary solutions creates barriers for real estate owners to use products from new suppliers
• Some real estate owners prefers traditional solutions not to get dependent of proprietary solutions
• The experiences of users are that suppliers has been promising more than they could deliver. In one project that was presented the supplier is now able to deliver what he promised 6 years ago. However, the technology is starting to become mature today in some areas, as for example alarm systems.
• Generally, the competence in the different parts of the value chain is low => Intelligent solutions are not a asked for in generall RFQ's => Only market addressed by suppliers of intelligent solutions is projects managed by the real estate owners themselves.

For a general maturing of the market a broad approch involving all the players in value chain is required.

Real estate owners needs to get a better understanding of the benefits of the technology. Studies of best practice from the oil and gaz industry, and experience from "intelligent hospitals" may give some information. However, there is a need for more knowledge from practical experiences.
Real estate owners would like to have plug and play open solutions allowing connectivity of different types of systems from different suppliers both on physical and on application level. Some suppliers claim that they can offer that. However, in a broad perspective it was acknowledged that there is a need for harmonization and standardization as well as competence and in some areas for more open system architectures.

There was a general commitment of the participants in then workshop to contribute to the process of maturing the market, although no specific projects where defined.

Innovation Norway made a presentation of how "IFU/OFU" projects may be financed.