The joint booth of the BACnet Interest Group Europe (BIG-EU) at ISH 2025 (March 17 to 21), where exhibitors from the BACnet community presented their products and services, met with a great response. Trade visitors paid particular attention to the BACnet Academy, the BACnet Award, which honored the best student thesis for the third time, and the subsequent networking event.
For more than 20 years, the BIG-EU has been regularly represented with a joint sbooth at the ISH, providing information about the BACnet Standard and presenting new developments. This year, EVON, Kieback&Peter, TÜV SÜD, Johnson Controls and Tridium co-exhibited their products and services as well as exciting applications relating to BACnet. Representatives of the BIG-EU were on hand to answer the numerous visitors’ questions about BACnet. The response shows: Interest in BACnet – which, according to a BSRIA study, will already account for 77% of the communication protocol market by 2023 – continues to grow, particularly in light of the growing challenges in terms of energy efficiency, IT security and the cost-effective operation of buildings.
BACnet Academy with a new topic
The BACnet/SC presentations given in English and German by Hans Symanczik (Manager of the BIG-EU Office) were used by trade visitors to find out about the interoperable safety standard in building automation in detail. New this year were the presentations by Alexandra Henczka (MBS) and Patrick Lützel (TÜV SÜD) on the importance of BACnet laboratories. Two of the currently four certified test laboratories that guarantee global quality in building automation are located in Germany.
The BIG-EU’s Facility Management Working Group (WG-FM) also met during the ISH to further develop the “Cyber Security in Building Automation” guidelines. Its current status 09-24 was also published in English shortly before the trade fair – available at .www.big-eu.org/resources.
Third BIG-EU Awards Ceremony and Networking Event well attended
For the third time, the BIG-EU Award for the best student thesis was presented at ISH in the run-up to the major networking event. This year, Oussama Kalai-Ezzar, a graduate of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, was honored with the 1000 euro award for his outstanding bachelor thesis entitled “Investigation of IT security and operability of a smart building test environment considering the building automation protocol BACnet Secure Connect”.
Award winner Oussama Kalai-Ezzar emphasized: “The security and interoperability of building automation systems are becoming increasingly important. BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC) plays a key role in ensuring the reliable and secure operation of modern, connected buildings. It is fascinating to see how BACnet continues to evolve, opening up new opportunities for secure and efficient building automation.”
The BIG-EU Award will be presented again next year, at Light + Building 2026 from March 8 to 13 in Frankfurt. Students and supervisors of BACnet theses are once again invited to submit their work to the BIG-EU.
