LonMark continues to increase and expand its service offerings to the global LonMark Community
August 26 , 2008 – San Jose, CA – LonMark International (LMI), a non-profit trade association recognized as the industry authority for certification, education, and promotion of interoperability standards for the benefit of manufacturers, integrators, and end users has experienced a significant increase in activity in the last few months. We have been diligently working towards greater market awareness and acceptance of open LON systems. Our efforts have been met with overwhelming support from both our 500+ members and from our industry partners. We are happy to share the following update on some of our recent activities.
Demand-Response/Utility
There has been a significant increase in the Automated Demand Response (ADR) arena and LonMark’s technical team has been meeting to develop the necessary standards. Several Utility Task Group meetings have been held to evaluate the methodology and direction we need to take in order to present the market with a comprehensive set of building-level functionality. The task group has established an action plan and, with the help of some industry leaders like Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, EnerNOC Corporation, Akuacom Corporation, Constellation Energy, and others, the direction is taking shape. The objective is to produce a basic system architecture and a series of profiles and functionality along with interfacing to Web services to respond to ADR signals.
Training
We launched our first public training class this past quarter to rave reviews. This one-day training class is a preparatory course for professionals wishing to become certified. The training class is designed as a refresher course for individuals already familiar with the basic concepts of LON and LonWorks, and for those who have had prior training and field experience. The class was first offered in Baltimore, MD, and soon afterwards, was also offered in San Jose, CA. As we refine the material and ensure the class meets the needs of the attendees, we will be expanding the schedule. We are also offering a “Train-the-Trainer” program to allow existing or new training/testing centers to offer this class.
LonMark Credentialing
The LonMark Certified Professional Credentialing Program is growing rapidly. We have now reached close to 220 certified professionals around the world. As we look forward, we have ambitious plans to offer the credentialing program in several different languages. Currently, the test is available in English and German, however, soon, we will begin translation into Spanish and Russian as we open testing and training centers in these countries. We are currently working on updating the existing set of test questions and making the test even better and more comprehensive. Later on this year, we plan to begin the development of the Installer-level exam and plan to have it online sometime during the first half of 2009.
LonMark Guidelines and Standards
Recently, LonMark released the new guideline for ISI – Interoperable Self Installation – a mechanism for auto-installing LON devices. This advancement in network management is a necessity when it comes to the home market. A handful of companies have now released their ISI-enabled products and more are to come this year.
New LonMark Profiles have been developed for the streetlighting market, and recently new members, who are committed to an open approach to streetlighting applications, have joined LonMark. Continued technical and marketing/promotion efforts in this sector are generating increased interest in open systems.
New Demand Response profiles are in development in response to the increasing awareness of the value of load curtailment, flex pricing on energy, and real-time control. Additionally, new efforts are underway to develop standard web services to support the requirements for a two-way WSDL XML set of services. On a side note, LonMark and oBIX continue to work together to develop the oBIX (under OASIS) set of building information exchange web services.
Additionally, our efforts continue to support LON becoming a standard within ISO as well as other regional and local standards. This ongoing effort requires both a technical as well as a political grasp. We are committed to enhancing the standards and making them available worldwide.
Project Support
LonMark continues to support major projects around the world including major corporations, city, state, and federal governments, campuses and more. We are working to help these organizations understand how to implement an open, interoperable system architecture and develop a master plan for their facilities. Many of these organizations are implementing the Master Systems Integrator approach, pioneered by LonMark, which increases fair competitive bidding, reduces the reliance on sole-sourced supply, and encourages a long-term, unified system architecture.
Products
There are now nearly 750 LonMark Certified Products and thousands of additional products that support LonMark-based solutions, and new products continue to come to the market in a wide variety of applications and industries. New open distributors of LON products have entered the market helping to build the case for open availability and sourcing. The controls industry is beginning to follow the computer industry in this regard: unbundling hardware from software, unbundling installation from service, unbundling engineering from integration. All of this points to a lower cost set of solutions, which will enable market growth and adoption. Energy-efficient solutions have become accessible to all types of facilities, not just the ones with large capital budgets. Driving the price down, while driving the reliability, flexibility, and ease of use up, is part of our ongoing mission.
LonMark Magazine
We are now in our fourth year of publication and are reaching close to 20,000 distributed copies worldwide and a variety of editions. Recently, we released our Chinese and Japanese editions to rave reviews. All back issues are available for download in PDF format from www.lmimagazine.com. In addition, local editions are available from our Affiliates in Russia, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany.
LonMark International continues to forge ahead with its mission to increase the education, awareness, value, and adoption of open interoperable systems using the LonMark Standards. We estimate that over 350,000 systems and over 100,000,000 devices have been installed worldwide in applications ranging from buildings to trains, and from homes to factories, from energy to irrigation. We continue to be the best source of open solutions and our breadth and scope continue to expand to meet market needs. For detailed information on any of these topics, please contact info@lonmark.org or see our updated website at www.lonmark.org.
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About LonMark International
Since its inception in 1994 and new corporate structure in 2003, LonMark International has become a major driving force in the establishment of interoperable guidelines for building, industrial, transportation, residential, and utility automation.
LonMark membership is open to any manufacturer, distributor, engineer, system integrator, or end-user committed to the development, specification, and use of open, interoperable products utilizing ANSI/CEA 709.1 and related standards.
LonMark International is a non-profit, mutual-benefit trade association with close to 600 members worldwide, and local affiliates in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. LonMark’s mission is to create, support, and promote the standards for open, interoperable LON -based products, systems, and professionals. For more information about LonMark International, testing, and educational opportunities please visit www.lonmark.org.
Products, which have been verified to conform to the LonMark interoperability guidelines, are eligible to carry the LonMark logo.
LonMark and the LonMark Logo are registered trademarks in the US and other jurisdictions. Other marks belong to their respective holders.
