In the early 1990s, three networking Standards – Batibus, European Installation Bus (EIB) and European Home Systems Protocol (EHS) – were thriving in their native countries but were struggling to find their place in the wider European standardisation of home and building control.

Individually, they seemed to have a difficult road ahead until, in 1997, they were amalgamated into one.

The result was Konnex, or KNX – the world’s first open, royalty-free and platform-independent international Standard for home and building control.

Nowadays, due to growing interest in international markets, such as Australia, KNX has been approved as a European (EN 50090 – EN 13321-1) and Worldwide Standard (ISO/IEC 14543).

Based largely on the EIB specification, KNX adopted the configuration mechanisms and communications media aspects of EHS and Batibus to develop a new international Standard to improve on interoperability between different countries’ requirements.

Now, KNX has enhanced its global presence with the recent founding of the KNX National Group Australia. This launch represents a significant step for the local home and building automation market as it provides local support to KNX users.

“The formation of the National Group in Australia is a major milestone for the International KNX Association and is beneficial to the industry as a whole through increased global standardisation,” says International KNX Association director Heinz Lux.

The five companies involved with the establishment of the KNX National Group Australia are ABB, Cisco, Hager B&R, mySmart CTI and Somfy.

Ian Richardson, inaugural chairman of the KNX National Group Australia, says: “The formation of the National Group provides the Australian home and building automation industry with a vital resource that directly links to the controlling body of the International KNX Association.”

The group is a not-for-profit organisation and is actively supported by over 230 manufacturers worldwide with access to nearly 7,000 KNX certified product groups, and partnership agreements with more than 21,000 installers in 70 countries. It provides a range of solutions including lighting, metering, shutter and HVAC control as well as energy management, security and visualisation systems.

“The National Group is an independent organisation that simply promotes the KNX protocol and not a specific brand. The technology itself has been around for 20 years and is a truly industry-focused, brand agnostic system,” Ian says.

“This means that there is healthy competition in the industry and installers and end users get the most from guaranteed compatibility. You can pick the best equipment for the job you are working on an.

“There really is a groundswell of installers out there in the Australian market that are looking for an alternative solution that offers greater flexibility. That solution is KNX.”

Ian explains that an installer can become an accredited KNX partner by completing a five day training course.

The KNX technology is designed to be independent of any particular hardware platform. This allows independent manufacturers competing in a market to manufacture tailored technical solutions, in an environment maintained and overseen by an autonomous body that is not aligned to any single manufacturer.

It was designed from a database of more than 10 years of legacy systems. The final guidelines drew on wide experience in controlling lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, blinds and shutters, monitoring, alarms, security systems and load management.

Supporting different communications media – such as twisted pair, powerline, RF and Ethernet – KNX promotes interoperability across manufacturers. Different equipment can communicate on the one KNX network.

Peter Garrett is director of MySmart CTI – a high-end residential and commercial systems integrator. He is also secretary of the KNX National Group.

“As an integrator, we look at technologies and protocols to see how they best serve our business as well as the market,” he says.

“Now that we’re using KNX, it’s very different to how we were operating in the past. Previously, we used a single manufacturer’s product guide and built our project specifications around that. Now, those 20 pages have become 20 books, so you get to look and pick the right product for the job, and you can supplement them with products from another supplier.

“Moving forward this is great value to us as a business, and it suits our business model of not being entirely in one camp, which a lot of integrators are.”

In terms of learning how to get the most from a KNX system, Peter explains that it’s not too difficult.

“KNX technology is very similar to the existing systems in the Australian market in that it features a bus topology, runs very similar styles of cable and the software doesn’t differ wildly from other systems.

“We use a lot of Clipsal C-Bus product and we’ll continue to do that because they are the market force in Australia, but by opting for a non-proprietary system we have found a lot more choice in terms of price and features than were previously available to us.”

KNX Australia
www.knx.org.au