Case study: Honeywell turns stadium into smart building

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Preparing for the Olympics with a smart building

Honeywell created what it called the “intelligent system” for the National Stadium in Beijing, China, turning the venue for the opening and closing events at the 2008 Summer Olympics into a “smart building.” Designed by highly controversial artist Ai Weiwei, the “Bird’s Nest” remains one of the most impressive feats of stadium architecture in the world. The 250,000 square meter structure housed more than 100,000 athletes and spectators at a time. To accommodate such capacity, China turned to Honeywell’s EBI Integrated Building Management System to create an integrated “intelligent system” for improved building security, safety and energy efficiency.
Signed in February 2007, this one-year project was designed to not only accommodate the 2008 Olympics, but also the events the stadium will continue to host decades into the future, including the 2022 Winter Olympics.

A Honeywell solution

Honeywell used its EBI Integrated Building Management System to integrate the building’s automation system; the fire alarm and fighting interlock control system; and the security automation system with distributive database technology. It also integrated the office automation system, the ticket management system and public address system with OPC technology to improve spectator management.

Helping fulfill the promise of a “green” Olympics

There was much talk about China creating a “green Olympics” by ensuring the event had a minimal impact on the environment. The stadium itself features built-in rainwater recycling, cooling heat pumps with underwater source and an energy management strategy. Honeywell helped the effort by providing an automation system designed to integrate and control the various equipment and devices that affect comfort levels or consume vast amounts of energy. They looked at three main areas for controlling energy use:

• Air quality
  • Air handling units, fresh air units, and air supply and exhaust systems.
• Drainage.
  • Water supply and drainage systems which monitor the rain flood control systems, the outdoor waterscape systems and the reclaimed water systems.
• Power Generation
  • Power supply for illumination systems and the elevator systems, the cold and heat source systems such as chillers, heat exchangers and ground source heat pumps.

The building automation system includes three central management stations designed to streamline data from more than 7,500 controlled points and uses 82 direct digital controllers, 769 sensors, 37 water valves and 106 air dampers.

Safety measures help prepare for the worst

Safety is always a concern at events where hundreds of thousands of people pack tightly into a building, so Honeywell decided to integrate the structure’s safety equipment.

The National Stadium’s fire alarm and interlock control system consists of an integrated central management station, 13 fire alarm controllers, 3,232 smoke detectors, 231 thermal sensors, 564 manual alarm buttons, 1,629 control modules, 2,559 single-input monitor modules and 187 double-input monitor modules.
The security solution from Honeywell integrated the video surveillance and control system, the access control system, the intruder alarm system, the guard tour system, the park management system and the integrated security control system.

Extreme security measures track every individual

The company’s integration system used personalized tickets and face-identification systems for both the Olympics and Paralympics Games. If an alarm was triggered by a false or unauthorized access card, the nearest security cameras could pinpoint the area and have staff quickly on the site.
With all that is going on during the Olympics it is very easy for people to get lost or to wander off into areas they shouldn’t be in. To help streamline the influx of 90,000-plus spectators, Honeywell installed its Temaline authentication systems as well as use an electronic ticketing system in the turnstiles and security checks so individuals could be tracked from the point of entry. More than 200 analogue, Honeywell-manufactured security cameras were integrated with the company’s Digital Video Manager.
The Honeywell-designed security automation solution also covers six security subsystems including a digital video surveillance system connecting more than 800 cameras, a Nexwatch access control system with more than 162 readers, a large intrusion detection system, a car parking management system covering more than 800 parking spaces and a connected tour guard system.