LonMark® International, a non-profit international association recognized for the certification, education and promotion of interoperability standards for control networking, today announced the winners of its “Best of the Year” awards for 2015.  LonMark certified products, people and companies have served as the foundation for thousands of open, interoperable systems worldwide. These annual awards reflect the vision and innovation shared among the members of the LonMark community.

Categories and winners for 2015 include:

Multi-Vendor Project of the Year (Large):  HGI for its Erweiterungsbau Landratsamt Sigmaringen Project

The Landratsamt Sigmaringen is the public administration body responsible for the district of Sigmaringen in Germany. A needs assessment performed in 2006, found that the existing building was no longer sufficient to support its employees. So, a retrofit project was initiated to support the creation of 190 office workplaces and flexible use of meeting rooms, plus a new open approach for building automation.  The project involved the integration of products and solutions from fourteen different suppliers. But the most important prerequisite for the project involved a uniform and consistent communication protocol, which supported the unrestricted data exchange between the office space and plant automation. By specifying LonMark certified products for room automation, they were able to provide new functionality and energy efficiency throughout the facility.

Multi-Vendor Project of the Year (Small-repeatable): Distech-DVP Facilities

This multi-site project involved the networking of 80 medium box retail stores using smart server gateways and LonMark certified lighting and HVAC controls from several different companies. The project included a cloud-based data archiving system that can scan 6000 I/O points in less than 5 seconds. A single front-end platform was created that provided the customer with a dashboard for equipment control, troubleshooting and repairs using smart phones.

Certified Product of the Year: Devtech HID Fugen

The DEVTECH M2M HID FUGEN 35W-1000W is a LonMark certified, power line-based, energy efficient ballast. It is capable of driving HID lamp types such as HPS/MH/CMH/CDM-T/CXL lamps with remote monitoring, control, dimming, scheduling, alarming, data logging, energy consumption (kWh), failure information, and metering information. 

Visionary of the Year: Martin Mentzel has been actively promoting open control systems based on LON® technology for many years. Martin joined LonMark Germany in 2005 and since 2008 he is a prominent member of the LonMark Germany board. In 2007, Martin Mentzel founded SafeSquare GmbH, a young and innovative company, offering a comprehensive and integrated service portfolio for safety technology supporting the IEC 61508 safety standard. Martin remains very active in developing LonMark profiles as is evidenced by his work with the new VDI profiles. Martin is well respected and well known throughout the LonMark community and currently serves as a LonMark Ambassador.