by Brianna Crandall — January 18, 2016—New research from U.K.-based building services and engineering consultancy BSRIA has found that the traditional building automation and control systems (BACS) market has continued to grow steadily over many years, especially in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). However, new technologies, innovations and innovative business models are already disrupting the traditional BACS business, according to the report.
Findings show that the BACS market continues to be led by a few dominant global players, while others are strong in certain regions, or in niche segments. However, the business of all of these could be significantly impacted by tech giants such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, as they are already players in the market.
BSRIA’s senior manager for energy and smart technologies, Jeremy Towler, commented:
A new connected, smart, LED lighting market is beginning to emerge which will see a change in the ‘balance of power’ within the building, moving from a building controls-centric to a lighting-centric form of building automation. The new generation of lighting controls will offer increased support for mobile access and personalized control solutions which will drive the building to respond to the individual.
This is in stark contrast to the classic experience where individuals have been forced to adapt themselves within the limited scope of the ‘traditional’ building automation systems. Not only does it signal a move away from the mechanical ‘wet channel’ towards the electrical ‘dry channel’ as the route to market, but it also means that an increasing proportion of the controls will arrive on site as part of a packaged, pre-tested solution.
Traditionally, BACS has mainly been applied to larger, more prestigious buildings, and the mid-scale market has represented a missed opportunity. Now, several suppliers are offering scalable solutions that are typically based around mesh networks and offer easy scalability.
While most of the impact of home automation has been limited to the upper end of the residential market, suppliers have also been targeting their solutions at the “lighter” end of the commercial spectrum in small-to-medium sized buildings. And although the homes market is still quite regionalized, global players are starting to emerge, according to the report.
Even though the cloud is increasingly seen as the most cost-effective means of providing BACS software, cybersecurity concerns remain. However, notable companies are rising to the challenge as they realize this is one of the biggest potential threats to the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is starting to change the focus of BACS systems from a more centralized / proprietary model to a more open and collaborative one. However, some data processing is more efficient if carried out locally, and this is fueling the rise of localized “fog computing” and “edge computing,” adds the report.
Towler continued:
As building automation becomes more information-based, so the demand for sophisticated building energy management (BEMS) software is growing at double figures, in the form of targeted applications, energy management and sophisticated analytics to identify areas for improved performance.
Increasingly, analytics need to be capable of handling ‘Big Data,’ as building systems generate ever greater data volumes. BACS suppliers need to be proactive in this area or risk becoming commoditized and marginalized.
While energy cost remains the biggest single driver, there is raised interest in employee comfort and the potential productivity gains resulting from a better work environment.
BACS are applied to a wide range of solutions and equipment, including air-conditioning, heating and renewables. These are substantial markets offering growth, and there are more opportunities for companies capable of expanding into these sectors, points out the report.
The above insights are sourced from BSRIA’s Market Briefing “hot topic” studies. Every quarter BSRIA updates these for the following topics:
- Threats to BACS
- BEMS opportunities
- Smart evolution
For more information on the availability and costs of BSRIA’s reports, visit the Market Briefing page.
