Addressing Obsolete Technologies

Concord specialises in the design, installation and maintenance of Trend BEMS. One of Concord’s clients, a world renowned full-service real estate and investment organisation that provides facility management (FM) approached them to help one of their clients, a leading international law firm.

Both the facility management provider and law firm realised that the Trend BEMS controls within the building utilised outdated technologies. Being obsolete, they were no longer supported by the manufacturer, making the existing system a risk to their business.

The original BEMS system had been installed quite a few years before Concord’s involvement, and used Trend’s IQ2 series controllers within all the main plant control panels in the building. They were also used on the thousand plus Fan Coil Units (FCU) that provide conditioned air to the offices.

Implementing Future-Proof Solutions

As the IQ2 series had since become obsolete, all main plant controllers were replaced with Trend IQ4E series web-based controllers as part of the upgrade, whilst the IQ21x series controllers on the FCUs were replaced with Trend’s IQECO range of BACnet/MSTP terminal unit controllers.

The obsolete Trend controls communicated using out-dated legacy networking technologies, so new BEMS networks were installed throughout the building. A structured backbone TCP/IP network was installed, connecting all plant controllers to the BEMS head-end. Multiple BACnet/MSTP networks were installed across the floors, which integrate the FCU controls into the backbone TCP/IP network and the BEMS head-end.

The original system on site included a Trend 963 Supervisor, which provided a graphical user interface to the BEMS controls, but the release of Trend’s new IQ®VISION Supervisor meant it made good business sense to upgrade the central monitoring station package at the same time, in order to provide a future-proof system.

Seamless Installation and Ongoing Support

The installation of all controllers and networks was carried out over a period of approximately 15-months. There was no disruption to day-to-day business, as any work required in client areas was carried out overnight by Concord’s dedicated engineers.

Concord has continued to work with the law firm since the upgrade, with the responsibility of monitoring and maintaining the BEMS within the building, including servicing and 24/7 call-out cover.