Aachen, March 18, 2024 – The joint booth of the BACnet Interest Group Europe (BIG-EU) at Light + Building in Frankfurt am Main (March 3 to 8, 2024) was a great success. The products and services presented by six exhibitors from the BACnet community met with great interest among the numerous trade fair visitors. In addition to the BACnet Academy, highlights included the presentation of the BIG-EU Award for the best student thesis and the subsequent networking event.
Since the BIG-EU was founded in 1998, Light + Building has been a permanent fixture in the association’s trade fair calendar. The BIG-EU and its members are regularly on site with a joint BACnet booth, providing information about BACnet technology and presenting new developments. This year, the following companies presented their products and services as well as exciting applications relating to BACnet: MBS, OAS Open Automation Systems, Sauter-Cumulus, Tridium Europe and TÜV SÜD Industrie Service. Representatives of the BIG-EU were on hand to answer the numerous visitors’ questions about BACnet. The great response at the trade fair stand confirms the latest BSRIA study, which attests BACnet a global share of 77% in the communication protocol market – also due to the growing challenges posed by the EU Buildings Directive EPBD and the German Building Energy Act (GEG). Building operation with BACnet in conjunction with the new security standard BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC) fulfills all the requirements of a modern building, be it ecology, economy, security, or comfort.
BACnet Academy at Light + Building Generates High Demand The BACnet/SC presentations offered in English and German by Bernhard Isler, the main developer of Secure Connect, were used by numerous trade visitors to find out about the interoperable security standard in building automation in detail. The great interest in the BACnet communication protocol was also reflected in the large number of technical questions following the presentations.
Numerous Attendees at the BIG-EU Awards Ceremony and Networking Event As last year for the 25th anniversary of the BIG-EU, there was once again a large networking event at the joint BIG-EU booth, which was attended by numerous visitors and partners. At the beginning of the celebrations, the BIG-EU presented the “BIG-EU Award” for outstanding student theses in connection with the BACnet protocol for the second time. This year, Fabian Lesjak received the award, worth 1000 euros, for his bachelor’s thesis entitled “Investigation of BACnet Secure Connect in a Smart Building Test Environment”. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tobias Frauenrath from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Aachen University of Applied Sciences in the Smart Building Engineering (SBE) course. Award winner Fabian Lesjak emphasised: “It was a great experience to write my Bachelor’s thesis on BACnet/SC. The results show that BACnet/SC works very well in general.” The BIG-EU Award will be presented again next year, at the ISH from March 17 to 21 in Frankfurt. Students and supervisors of BACnet theses are once again invited to submit their work to the BIG-EU for the award.
