State-of-the-Art BAS in the UAE

In regions of the world where tourism is growing, often what distinguishes competing hotels and convention centers is the technology made available to guests, be they tourists or business people. Such is the case with the Dubai's Emirates Towers in the United Arab Emirates.

Among the tallest buildings in the Middle East—at 1,165 ft.—the towers' building automation system incorporates four graphic workstations that manage and integrate 20 building systems, including HVAC, fire alarms, CCTV, lighting, hotel and property management systems, an IT network based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and Gigabit Ethernet technology.

The backbone is a high-tech network infrastructure capable of supporting different multimedia, voice, video and data services, which is ideal for the tower's office and conference facilities.

"The vision for Emirates Towers was to create a state-of-the-art technological infrastructure, which could be scalable to future information as building management technology developments," says Ivan Brinkley, corporate technical director for Jumeirah International, the facility's owner.

The taller of the spires houses office space, and the second is a five-star hotel with 500 rooms. The towers are connected via a five-story structure incorporating 96,875 sq. ft. of space, and 40 stores and restaurants.

To ensure the most flexibility, the integrated system was designed with open protocols and standards. System architecture is also capable of integrating with different voltage systems found among the chillers, elevators and fire-alarm systems.

Because Dubai is situated in the middle of the desert, summer temperatures can reach 120°F, so temperature control is critical. Consequently, office areas and guest rooms are equipped with LonMark DDC controllers connected to the facility's LAN.

Additional systems tied into the BAS include power monitoring, paging and computerized maintenance management.