We know that buildings are both complex and expensive to manage. While many intricate systems exist within a building, lights are among the most crucial, complex, and costly components to manage. Why? Simply because lighting is everywhere. It defines how buildings and spaces are used and must respond dynamically to occupants’ and facility managers’ needs as conditions change.
But all too often, lighting adjustments depend entirely on single, repeated actions by people to adjust them to the needs of the space. Retailer stores, data centers, university campuses, or hospitals all utilize their lights in different ways for different purposes. We began to wonder, how would lighting management differ if our lights were all cloud-connected, and how would that vary for various building types?
By providing greater visibility and insight, fine-tuned control, and automation – at scale.
We are excited to announce the private preview of Atrius Building Manager. Our end-to-end cloud solution helps building owners and operators reduce operational costs, optimize energy usage, and improve occupant experiences, starting today with their lights.
What is Atrius Building Manager?
Cloud based portfolio control
Being part of Acuity Brands means we are intimately familiar with the impact great lighting can have on a space and its occupants and how we can support the management of the luminaires themselves long after they are installed. As lighting solutions have continued to become longer-lasting and more sustainable, managing lighting features and functionality continues to be a time and labor-intensive process.
Equipment lifecycle support
Building Manager is designed to manage all elements of that lifecycle, from the control of the fixture to ongoing testing and upkeep to reporting on usage and health. By providing facility operators better visibility into equipment performance, they have more time to focus on higher-level priorities.
Feature Spotlight: Equipment Health Reporting
Insight into the availability of all fixtures to ensure spaces are operating as intended.
Using light to enhance spaces
Lighting no longer means making a space more visible. As our spaces become more multi-use and complex, lighting has evolved to serve many more needs. It not only has to be functional and energy-efficient, but also complement a space’s architectural design and uniqueness.
As lighting brands continue to innovate the solutions to enhance the spaces they brighten, Building Manager provides facility operators even more control in how lighting shapes the experiences guests have within their space.
Feature Spotlight: Light Optimization
Deliver a specific experience within spaces through greater control of lighting, colors, hues, and wavelengths.
Creating greener spaces
17% of the energy consumed within the United States comes from commercial building lighting systems. And with organizations continuing to adjust their in-person policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, usage patterns of built spaces will continue to evolve. This can challenge many facilities that rely on pre-set lighting systems built on established schedules.
Building Manager provides users options to dim lights when they are not needed in full use, giving them the ability to take advantage of their space’s natural lighting or reducing lighting when a space is not in use for the time beginning.
Feature Spotlight: Energy Optimization
Smart dimming intelligently reduces brightness without increasing wear on the fixture and extending its usable life.
Automated compliance testing
Perhaps the most overlooked but arguably the most important lights within a space are those related to health and safety. Emergency and exit lighting management is critically important to the overall safety of guests and occupants and is required by any federal or state mandates. For instance, the National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code guidance requires emergency light testing to occur every 30 days for 30 seconds, or annually for 1.5 hours.
Looking ahead to a smarter, safer, and greener future
Today, we have over 3500 sites actively using Building Manager and many more being deployed across North America. We are continuously investing in developing the portfolio capabilities to support more of a building’s connected infrastructure, with lighting being an exciting and impactful start. Coupled with Atrius Building Insights, our Building Performance suite gives customers the ability to not only know how their buildings are performing but to take action to drive smarter, safer, and greener outcomes.
To learn more about Atrius Building Manager, contact us for more information from our product team, and be on the lookout for more information on Building Manager in summer 2022.
