After a long 4 years, Light + Building was finally back. The world’s leading tradeshow for home and building automation opened its doors from 2 to 6 October in Frankfurt, Germany. KNX Association was present at the with booths at prime spots in 2 halls.
In the newly built Hall 12 of Messe Frankfurt we presented the latest developments in the KNX technology, with as main focus the new KNX IoTech, KNX Secure and Energy Management with KNX. 22 KNX Members presented their latest KNX products and solutions at the KNX booth at Hall 12.0 B91.
You can still visit our booth at Light + Building!
With a new look, new location and new design, our stand in Hall 12.0 tuly stood out. It played host to exhibition panels from over 20 members, as well as a presentation stage, a reception, three different sections for our key themes of Energy Management, IoT and Security, and areas for the KNX Championships, ETS, networking, and more.
We thank our thousands of visitors who came by during the fair. Did you miss the opportunity to visit us? No worries, thanks to the SIM-ON digital twin solution of KNX Member SIMLAB, you can still take a digital tour of our booth and discover more information about our key topics and products of our exhibiting KNX Members.
Focus on IoT, Energy Management and Security
As a global community, one of the most pressing matters of our time is climate change. Given that buildings account for around 40% of energy consumption, we are fortunate to be involved with powerful technology that can help to reduce this. By expanding into the IoT, KNX systems reach even further, but as we become more dependent on automation, it is essential that it is robust and secure. And so this brings us to the three key areas of focus for KNX Association, namely energy management, IoT and security.
KNX IoTech
Thanks to the KNXnet/IP protocol, KNX has been capable of using IP networks to communicate between devices, as well as between servers and clients. Expanding into the IoT world with KNX IoT however, qualitatively increases interoperability at IP level, making KNX the largest ecosystem in the building control market.
By adding new physical layers (mesh networks) demanded by the market, and becoming software-development-friendly, KNX IoT has become accessible and more attractive to IT companies and software developers.
With the availability of an open-source stack, developed by Cascoda, for KNX devices communicating on IPv6 networks, and a corresponding ETS app for configuring virtual KNX IoT Point API devices.
Developers can now use the open-source stack, which is freely available on GitLab.
Energy Management with KNX
To understand just how powerful and all-encompassing KNX is, the Energy Management panel at the KNX Booth showed an enormous diversity of applications that KNX can handle, including multimedia, audio, intercom, access control, cameras, alarm systems, fire protection, lighting, shading, fault detection, voice control, HVAC, coupling with other systems such as IR, and, of course, energy management with connection to charging stations, solar inverters, storage devices and meters.
For metering, there are devices for either direct or indirect coupling. There are also solutions for solar inverters that can monitor production.
You can use metering to find out what your general consumption is, but you can also have a submeter in a particular zone, or you can monitor at the level of a circuit. These systems have to be connected to central intelligence with logic.
KNX Secure
KNX Secure is designed to prevent attacks on the digital infrastructure of buildings, and there are currently more than 400 KNX Secure devices that are certified for conformity to AES128 authentication and encryption mechanisms. Furthermore, this year KNX Secure received the ‘Information security tested Smart Home and Building’ certification from the VDE, which confirms that the security standard protocols are correctly applied.
Within a KNX installation, KNX Data Secure relates to telegrams sent between KNX devices over any line type. For systems that are connected over a local area network using KNXnet/IP, KNX IP Secure adds an extra layer of security. If you wish to communicate over the Internet with your installation using KNXnet/IP, you should continue to use a VPN connection, in spite of the fact that, for example, a KNXnet/IP Secure tunneling interface will allow you to also authenticate yourself with password.
KNX Member products and KNX Professional Solutions
The KNX stand hosted more than 20 Members, each with their own panel to display their latest KNX Products and innovations. You can still discover each panel, with information on all the new products of our KNX Manufcaturers via the digital twin of our booth.
In hall 11.1 booth C92, our second booth, KNX Professionals showed practical implementations of KNX Secure. You can find on overview of them all in our KNX Secure Solutions Flyer.
Thanks for your visit and see you all in 2024!
