Beyond Eyes, a brand initiated by Heijmans, a major Dutch construction-services business, with CSU Cleaning Services, says it has deployed over 20,000 LoRaWAN-connected IoT sensors for Heijmans? clients in the Netherlands, as part of their smart building concept.
Beyond Eyes uses wireless sensors from Clickey to collect anonymous data on a building?s utilization, occupation, usage and indoor environment. The smart building sensors are then connected through the private LoRaWAN IoT network managed on Actility?s ThingPark Enterprise IoT platform, where data is aggregated and then forwarded to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub using using ThingPark Enterprise Azure connector.
In 2017, Heijmans and CSU Facility Management had initiated Beyond Eyes, a smart data-driven service which collects data in buildings, then combines that data with smart technology to achieve the business objectives of building owners and property managers. Beyond Eyes currently provides smart building solutions throughout the Netherlands, with a plan to expand their solution, which focuses on health, welfare, and productivity of the end-users, worldwide. For Smart Building Solutions, they provide a suite of plug-and-play sensors including desk occupation sensors, room occupancy sensors, people counters, energy sensors and environmental sensors, which can be integrated into existing building-management systems.
Each of these sensors, which can be mounted under desks, walls, and ceilings, have a unique ID number and are wirelessly connected to a software system, using LoRaWAN network. The collected anonymous data is then sent to the cloud where it can be analyzed and visualized via an online platform.? Clients gain access and insights from their data through a variety of front-end applications, the company said.
The sensors constantly measure activities and circumstances important for office locations, such as space occupation, traffic to and from the building, comfort, and air quality (temperature, CO2 levels, light intensity, humidity, noise level).? Information from various building environments and locations is sent to Actility?s LoRaWAN network server, where it comes together on the Microsoft Azure platform in the cloud. This is where data security and management occur, after which the aggregated data is made accessible on a dedicated application.
Beyond Eyes Smart Building solutions provide insight into the performance and use of a building which leads to process, staffing and building improvements to enable cost savings, the firm said. The solution is suitable across a wide variety of building types? including offices, museums, universities, hospitals, stadiums, and other organizations.
?With our partners Clickey and Actility, we managed to build efficient IoT solutions with a seamless integration of thousands of connected devices over a large mission critical LoRaWAN network, and our application fully leverages the scalability and analytics performance of Azure IoT,? said Jeroen Groenen, Manager of Beyond Eyes.
?At its heart the Beyond Eyes solution utilizes Azure Digital Twins and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to help workers get back to the office safely and at the same time, help those who are providing workspaces more efficiently manage their properties. It has been great working with Actility to make sure that the power of LoRa technology can be utilized by Azure solution builders. By using Digital Twins and Dynamics, Beyond Eyes can digitally model the structure of a building with all its properties. Using sensor data, they can visualize in real-time how the building is performing, how it is being used, and how to optimize it across multiple use cases,? said Tony Shakib, Partner General Manager, Azure IoT Business Acceleration at Microsoft.
