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Shopping Centre

Introduction

Shopping Centres contain shop units of different shapes and sizes which are leased to retailers as well as other communal areas. The centre itself is a valuable investment to the owners and managers, who are keen to ensure it remains in good condition and operates efficiently. They must also increasingly track and report on a variety of environmental and efficiency measures. At the same time, the leaseholder of each shop unit requires a comfortable and trouble-free space so that their business can thrive.

IoTPortal enables monitoring of parameters such as air quality and humidity, leak detection, energy/water usage and people counting, over large centres. The flexible and scalable architecture allows it to be used for any size of centre, from a large centre with shop units inside, retail parks with a cluster of buildings or smaller shopping malls and markets.

IoTPortal provides an ideal solution to enable shopping centres to ensure the comfort of their visitors and shoppers, giving them a good shopping experience and encouraging them to visit frequently.

Challenges

Maintain a comfortable environment

Staff needs to regularly monitor soil and water quality in outdoor fields to check if they are conducive for the plants.

User Friendly Interface

The graphical interface with touch control ensures that users can understand and interact with the system. Use the Software Development Kit to develop your user interface to suit the needs of the conference or meeting room.

Compatibility and Flexibility

The system allows a variety of parameters to be monitored at different places in the room whilst keeping cabling and installation simple as all units connect to the same bus. Extend the system in the future by adding more Quad T-Junctions with additional or different sensors.

Integrated

Many systems consist of independent sensors which are not compatible with each other. With LDSBus you can view all data together on one panel, and you can control output devices based on these without worrying about bridging different systems together.

Challenges

Damage from Leaks

Water leakage can cause expensive damage to shop units and their contents especially if it goes undetected for some time. Individual shop units are often unattended overnight or may even be unoccupied. Manual visual checks around the clock are very labour intensive and can miss leaks.​

Energy Efficiency and Environmental

Utilities such as electricity and water usage are a significant cost to owners and leaseholders. Attempts to work together to optimise usage are missed without clear and intuitive visibility of the usage.

Comfort and Building Deterioration

The environmental conditions affect the comfort of visitors and long-term health of staff. Factors such as humidity and temperature can also lead to dampness and deterioration whilst VOCs from materials used in renovation / construction can be harmful.

Estimating visitor levels

Using rough judgement and estimation to determine occupancy levels at different times causes centre operators and retailers to miss out on opportunities to optimise resources and anticipate future demand.​

Lack of flexibility

Shopping centres need to adapt quickly to remain efficient and profitable, with regular changes in layout and shop usage, as well as accommodating seasonal changes. Monitoring and automation systems which cannot adapt hamper the centres' ability to do this.​

Solutions

In this shopping centre, the air quality and environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, motion, air quality, levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and CO2 are monitored constantly around the clock in each retail unit as well as in communal areas. Air Quality can be maintained via control and monitoring of ventilation fans and hydroponic solutions ensuring that shoppers and staff are comfortable, encouraging visitors to return regularly. Automated irrigation for planted areas (and water quality monitoring/maintenance for water features) allows the shopping centre to provide a more pleasant environment for visitors with minimal maintenance overhead.

Electricity and water usage can be monitored allowing efficiency improvements and environmental reporting, and the system can detect and alert staff to water leaks allowing immediate action to be taken. People counting and occupancy detection allows real-time visibility of visitor numbers as well as enabling analysis of this information for future planning. This data can also be used to enhance the visitor experience and make best use of the space. For example, by creation of a smartphone app with route planner, and incorporating occupancy levels into the map of the centre.

Use the LDSBus to connect sensors and actuators over long distances around the centre or install a gateway in each shop connected via the main wired/Wi-Fi network of the centre. The control room can monitor all shops via the web console dashboard on a large monitor whilst staff can monitor the status and receive alerts on the go via the smartphone app. The cloud-based platform allows remote access (off-site staff and head office for example). Individual shop leaseholders can be granted permissions to access certain data and configure certain settings as required.

The system allows you to monitor parameters such as:
  • Air Quality via the AQS (Air Quality Sensor) adapter
  • Temperature via the 4in1 Sensor and CO2 Sensor
  • Humidity via the 4in1 Sensor and CO2 Sensor
  • Ambient Light via the 4in1 Sensor and CO2 Sensor
  • Motion Sensing via 4in1 Sensor
  • Carbon Dioxide via the CO2 sensor
It provides manual or automatic control of devices too such as:
  • Control Ventilation fans to maintain air quality based on AQS and CO2 measurements (Relay actuator)
  • Control Lights depending on the motion sensor and light level sensors (Relay actuator or Dimmer actuator)

Sense

  • Air Quality via the AQS sensor
  • Temperature, humidity, ambient light and motion via the 4in1 Sensor
  • CO2, temperature, humidity and ambient light via the CO2 Sensor
  • Volatile Organic Compound concentration via the VOC Sensor
  • Water leak sensor connected via the LDSBus Modbus/SDI-12 adapter
  • Water Flow sensor connected via the LDSBus Modbus/SDI-12 adapter
  • Energy metering connection via the LDSBus Modbus/SDI-12 adapter
  • Hydroponic Air Quality system via pH, EC and water level sensors (via IO Controller)
  • Soil moisture/nutrient sensors connected via LDSBus to Modbus adapter for planted areas
  • Measure energy consumption of specific devices via 2CH RELAY + iSENSE
  • Occupancy levels via the people counting sensor

Monitor

  • Control room can monitor the entire centre on a large dashboard via a computer monitor
  • Staff can monitor entire centre via the smartphone app whilst on patrol and receive alerts if their attention is needed
  • Remote monitoring via web browser or smartphone app for off-site staff and head office
  • Providing an app to shoppers for planning their visit based on occupancy data
  • Automated Events such as:​                                                                      a) Control Ventilation fans to maintain air quality based on AQS, VOC, CO2, temperature and humidity measurements​                            b) Lights depending on the motion sensor and light level sensors​    c) Water circulation, air and dosing pumps for Hydroponic systems and plant irrigation, which in turn help ensure good air quality
  • Alerts inform staff allowing them to deal with emergencies such as water leaks
  • Export data for analysis later:​                                                                    a) Environmental conditions                                                                    b) Electricity/Water usage                                                                        c) People counting
  • Grant privileges for viewing and configuring to different groups of staff and leaseholders of individual shops

Control

  • Manual and automatic control of devices via actuators
  • Actuators connect to the IoTPortal Gateway via the LDSBus which provides data and power over a single cable
  • Ventilation fans via 2CH RELAY + iSENSE
  • Lighting via the 2CH RELAY, 2CH RELAY + iSENSE and Trailing Edge Dimmer
  • Water circulation, air and dosing pumps for Hydroponic systems and plant irrigation via 2CH RELAY + iSENSE

Advantages

Interface Water Leak Sensors

IoTPortal can interface to 3rd party sensors such as Modbus water leak detectors. Constant monitoring 24/7 combined with configurable alerts on the smartphone app ensures that staff can deal with leaks immediately and minimise damage.

Energy Monitoring

Monitor energy and water usage via meters with Modbus interfaces. Extract data to help with efficiency and environmental reporting and to reduce energy wastage. Control devices such as lighting and ventilation to save energy and monitor consumption of individual devices too via the 2CH RELAY + iSENSE.

Occupancy Detection

BRT Systems range of sensors and actuators combined with 3rd party devices connected via Modbus allows constant monitoring of conditions in the building. Automated reactions to turn on ventilation to avoid dampness and keep temperatures comfortable. Monitor and maintain Hydroponic systems to maintain good air quality and happy and safe staff and shoppers.​

LDSBus Flexibility

Easily connect, reconfigure and expand your sensor network with our LDSBus. A single gateway has 3 LDSBus ports reaching up to 200m each, covering large shops, with up to 320 sensors and actuators per gateway. Extend the area or number of devices easily by adding gateways.​

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