Milestone for CityVerve as Asset Mapping connects first building

MANCHESTER’S pioneering smart city initiative CityVerve has been deployed for the first time at Manchester Science Partnership’s Citylabs 1.0.

The first implementation at the 100,000sq ft biomedical centre of excellence was installed by London-based property technology company Asset Mapping and will provide data to help Citylabs become more efficient in terms of energy use and maintenance costs.

CityVerve, the £10m Internet of Things demonstrator, was launched in July and will create a blueprint for smarter cities worldwide by using state-of-the art technology.

Asset Mapping has connected a secure Internet of Things (IoT) gateway to the Building Management System (BMS) of Citylabs 1.0. The gateway is now been providing a constant stream of live data from all heating, cooling and ventilation systems throughout the building.

The next steps are to complete the mapping of all equipment that is used to operate Citylabs 1.0, including energy and security, as well as to install additional IoT sensors to gain further intelligence.

Once all the individual systems are connected, and the data is made available via Asset Mapping’s web application, operators and facilities managers will be able to make informed decisions to run buildings better.

Their expertise combined with Asset Mapping’s technology will result not only in more efficient building operating management, but in improved tenant experience, ranging from better air quality to equipment that is always working and a proactive facilities management team to support them in an agile workplace.

Citylabs 1.0, at the heart of Manchester’s Innovation District, Corridor Manchester, is one of the newest buildings in the Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP) portfolio, the science and technology campus operator in the UK and a partner in the CityVerve consortium.

In July MSP announced a £60m two-phase expansion of Citylabs with the creation of Citylabs 2.0 and 3.0 in Manchester by 2020.

In the next two years, Asset Mapping, with MSP, Bruntwood, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and University of Manchester (UoM) will connect a minimum of nine buildings within Manchester’s ‘Innovation District’, where CityVerve’s demonstrator is located.

The public, visitors and resident businesses will experience how the Internet of Things works for them, for example, automatically adjusting the lighting and temperature in rooms to suit the weather outside and the pre-set preferences of the people inside.

The CityVerve open platform is designed for the integration of third-party apps and equipment. This means that there will be opportunities to further engage and enhance the experience of Manchester’s citizens, to further improve the maintenance and performance of cities, and provide a unique environment for collaborative innovation between companies in the Smart Cities sector.

The deployment at Citylabs 1.0 is also the first time that Asset Mapping has showcased its technology for smart building operations, connecting Building Management Systems (BMS), Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and Energy Management into one system.

Bill Clee, chief executive at Asset Mapping, said: “This is a huge, step forward in the way that buildings and cities will collaborate, and its practical approach makes it the first of its kind anywhere.”

“We will, next, spend some time with the facilities management team at Citylabs 1.0 and get their input, this is their building and they have the best ideas on how to improve it. They need to experiment with the technology so we can both find the value in the use of IoT for building owners, operators and resident businesses.”

Rowena Burns, chief executive at MSP, said: “This is an important milestone for CityVerve. It shows that we can do great things through this unique project to demonstrate how Internet of Things technologies can improve lives and public services in smart cities.”

“MSP wants to establish a partnership with Asset Mapping that we can extend to other projects and other buildings. We want to use Citylabs as a testing ground to create best practices and standards for useful innovation within smart buildings and smart cities.”

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