BACnet Groups Merge

The BACnet community recently gathered in Nashville for its annual conference and expo and announed first and foremost that the BACnet Manufacturers Assn. (BMA) and the BACnet interest Group-North America (BIG-NA) have merged to form BACnet International.

“This is a great opportunity,” said Carl Ruther, president of BIG-NA. “It will provide a wonderful forum for end users and engineers to network, exchange ideas and stay educated on current technology and application issues.”

Additionally, Ruther, facilities manager for the University of Cincinnati, said members will also be able to actually influence the direction of the standard by expressing their needs.

Eric Craton, president of BMA, added that the two groups joining forces should allow the community to more strongly articulate and demonstrate the value of open systems.

At the conference, a giant demonstration of interoperable systems was conducted with almost all exhibitors participating. Another highlight of the three-day conference, which took place Oct. 23—25, was an update on web services. Steve Tom, director of technical information with Automated Logic, Kennesaw, Ga., noted that the first thing most designers need to be aware of is that they don’t have to be experts with XML to take advantage of the web. Second, XML and web services do not replace BACnet or other communications protocols, but rather, provide greater flexibility and remote monitoring capabilities.

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