"And I don't know if I'm ever coming home"

Things aren't quite as gloomy here as that line from an old '60s song, but the Icelandic volcano eruption has created quite a mess here in Frankfurt. One colleague went from "possible" to get home tomorrow after a LONG trip to "airport closed indefinitely" this evening. Reports are that hotels are being rebooked full.
I won't know about my travel until sometime tomorrow soonest, but as I was scheduled to connect home in Amsterdam (Schiphol, AMS) on Saturday I am not expecting good news.

On the other hand todays's talk on "Energy Standards and Energy Efficiency" went pretty well, even by my self-critical standards. (I didn't embarrass myself much outside of a small stumble pronouncing "Gebäude.") A pity more of the BIG-EU folks were not in attendance to see the good use I made of our slogan for this stand to wind up and summarize my talk, but oh well.

L+B Day 4: BACnet & KNX & Smart Grid

I had no scheduled booth duty today, though I spent some time hanging around and was able to help out in specific situations. Today was the busiest day so far and it was a good thing that we had several "floaters" (folks not scheduled to serve booth duty, but ready, willing and available as ever) on hand.

But I also had some time to start my visits to other halls. Today it was nearby Hall 8: "Electrotechniks" or some such. General impression: LOTS of LED lighting (yes, I know there was a lot of other stuff too). But if this accurately indicates where we are going, and of course price is not a factor in these displays, the days of LED-only lighting are not far off. While I like the better efficiency, I'm not sure I like LED lighting. Maybe it's just because I grew up in a time when nearly all non-industrial (i.e. fluorescent) lighting was produced by heating wires until they were hot enough to emit significant amounts of visible light; the light was very broad-spectrum. The narrow spectral range of LED lighting annoys me. Even CFL phosphors seem to be more broad-spectrum (and when shaded not far from incandescent) than LED light. But this may be temporary.

One thing notable in Halls 8 and 9 is the prevalence of KNX logos in booths. Many of these are not related to commercial building automation, but some are. On the other hand there are many companies whose names I do not recall from anywhere advertising their BACnet capabilities. And MS/TP in Europe seems to be gaining ground despite advice a LONG time ago from parties forgotten that it would never be accepted in Europe.

And Smart Grid... no vacation from that here. My Dutch colleagues have been seeing to that, making connections with a journalist interested in and a researcher working in this area. Note to self: the Dutch have an initial demonstration project already underway; look up "PowerMatchingCity" and "HoogKerk" (I was told I guessed the translation correctly, "High Church"). It even includes a couple of (IMHO) problematic electric cars. But the researcher now is gaining experience in areas in which the Americans are only making hypotheses -- it might be a good idea to bring them together.

It seems we weren't clear enough

When the committee approved Addendum 135-2008l (new workstation profiles and requirements) for publication we thought it was clear that the requirements for claiming a certain device profile were not absolute requirements but merely a "floor" -- a device could claim a profile if it met the required BIBBs, but it could claim others in addition to those required BIBBs!

It seems we were not clear enough on this point. I learned today that there is a workstation that met the former B-OWS, Operator WorkStation, profile, but that after the publication of Addendum l with the new reduced minimum requirements (the remaining ones becoming part of the new B-AWS, Advanced Workstation profile, the workstation developers removed all capabilities above that of the new B-OWS profile!

Iis clear that the BACnet committee has not communicated very well the relationship of BIBBs and device profiles. The profiles establish a baseline of requirements, and one is free to implement BIBBs over and above those minimums. The PICS provide a means for advertising the additional capabilities.

I will advise the folks involved of their error. (They'd likely figure it out soon enough anyway.) But the Standard clearly needs to be more clear on this point.

L+B Day 2

Little to report today. I arrived noontime, having worked on speaking preparations in the morning, only to find expo "traffic" lighter than expected and declining through the afternoon.

One supposition I heard was the timing of the show: last week had holidays and school vacations that kept many folks out of the office, and perhaps they felt the need to be in the office and advance work issues and e-mail before coming to the show. (Not to mention that some felt the 6-day show to be too long -- so far I cannot disagree with this.)

I guess we'll know over the next 3 days; Friday, being the last day, will be light of course.

Light+Building & BACnet, day one

I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, yesterday afternoon after a tiring 24-hour journey door-to-doot, home to hotel. I'd say grueling but it wasn't; just unable to sleep when I could afford to (on the planes) and barely able to stay awake when I couldn't afford to (at the gates). Nevertheless I got here, went through my usual adjustment routine, and was pretty much on schedule this morning.

My stint at booth duty wasn't scheduled to begin until 11:30 but I decided to go early to look around.

First impression: This show is HUGE, easily 3 to 4 times the size of the AHR Expo. I was glad for the shuttle buses that took one around the grounds, starting at Hall 1 and going all the way back to Hall 11 (Alerton is in Halle 9.0 D61: Hall 9, ground (0) floor, Row D, Booth 61).

Second impression: Sunday looked like it would be (and was) lightly attended. I know I was not the only annoyed at a Sunday showing, but apparently two of the halls were thronged, so there may be reason for this.

Third impression: Nice booth, Alerton! I was expecting something like a 10' (well, 3 or 4 meters) booth with folding backdrops, not anything like this!

So although it was a very low day (I talked with all of two or three potential customers), it was useful for warming up the points I'll likely be making the next few days in a relaxed environment. It was also good for touching base with many of my BACnet colleagues and competitors, learning about their new product offerings, and for a few technical chats on various BACnet topics.

It was also good to visit with the other BIG-EU members at the huge BIG-EU booth -- maybe in the next few days I'll find a spot where I can get it all in one photo.

New BACnet Elevator structure

After the day's teleconferences finally came to an end (BACnet Alarm Summit and Smart Grid), I was able to sit down and start drafting the revised BACnet Elevator structure, starting with the graphic that will drive the rest. The EL-WG has been advised; it will be interesting to hear what they say.

Meantime I need to start sectioning the proposal into two parts, specifically highlighting the material we need to have the Elevator folks looking at, rather than bury them in all the BACnet details.

Not sure how this will display, but I'll try...

Back to the BACnet Elevator

Between Smart Grid and energy-related activities it's been very hard to get back to the BACnet material. But I finally finished and submitted my "energy standards" powerpoint for Light+Building next week (though immediately after I was signed up for an intensive energy-related class the week before the spring BACnet meetings).

And now the revisions to the BACnet Elevator proposal are on top of the todo list!