The Austria Centre Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria, is the only congress center in the world directly connected to one of the United Nations organization’s four headquarters. As the largest conference centre in Austria, it can accommodate up to 20,000 people. The ACV has 24 halls that can handle between 100 to 4,320 people, 11 floors, 180 meeting rooms, and 22,000 square meters of exhibition space. Opened in 1987, the convention centre plays host to around 91,000 international guests annually.

In early 2018, the operators of the Austria Centre Vienna were considering their building control system options, paying particular attention to the building’s security, lighting, blinds, heating, and ventilation. The ACV, working with system integrator TGA, decided upon the GENESIS64 building automation and HMI/SCADA software suite from ICONICS, a global automation software provider and six-time winner of the Microsoft Partner of the Year award, providing advanced Industry 4.0, web-enabled BACnet and OPC UA certified visualization, analytics, and mobile software solutions for any smart buildings, manufacturing, industrial, or process automation application.

GENESIS64, which is BACnet Advanced Workstation (AWS) certified, was installed on two of the ACV’s servers, with the second server in cold standby. Five clients currently access the software, which is set up in a virtual environment, processing approximately 15,000 data points. All devices are now switched via BACnet. For the monthly consumption evaluations, 100 energy meters with M-Bus (Meter-Bus; used for remote reading of gas or electricity meters) are integrated into the system for energy-relevant evaluations via a BACnet gateway.

Smart and secure

The Austria Centre Vienna is no stranger to technological improvements. The facility provides a high availability Wi-Fi infrastructure for 20,000 people with over 35,000 simultaneous connections for all devices. There are over 1,500 permanently cabled LAN connections (each 1GB/s) throughout its offices and meeting rooms, as well as 40 gigabit backbone lines and 102 HD access points throughout the main building and exhibition halls. ACV is also dedicated to high IT security standards, with a range of security features including authentication algorithms (802.1x) that can be installed for occupants/attendees on request. Considering these technology investments, it made sense for ACV executives and operators to seek a building automation software supplier with the same dedication to wide data connectivity, security, and ease of use.

ICONICS’ building automation software solutions integrate HVAC, lighting, energy management, security, fire safety, elevators, people movers, and other building systems into a single, unified interface. The software provides comprehensive data visualization, trending, fault detection, analytics, mobile access, and more for building managers, facility operators, and maintenance personnel. ICONICS’ certified BACnet connectivity ensures integration with most existing building systems through simple installation, without requiring new hardware.

Flexible connectivity

The building operator, IAKW-AG (International Headquarters and Conference Centre Vienna, stock corporation), selected ICONICS GENESIS64 due to the functionality, compatibility, and flexibility in design it provides; all without requiring any major equipment upgrades. Easy implementation and rapid migration helped to successfully complete the project. Using ICONICS software significantly reduced development costs and expedited the project implementation time. According to ACV staff, working with ICONICS was straightforward and much easier than they had anticipated, considering the size of the project. The ICONICS software worked flawlessly right away throughout the six-month implementation phase and only minor adjustments, such as to the graphics, have been made since then.

With the Austria Centre Vienna’s new GENESIS64 installation, new devices could be connected via BACnet that were never connected before. In addition, thanks to the new software, the site’s energy monitoring and analysis will be further expanded. At the time of its new building control system installation, Austria held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Since then, the ACV has been, and will continue to be, pushed further than it ever has before. Additional expansion projects are planned for the building, and now that Austria Center Vienna has had a chance to see their new automation systems in action, ICONICS will be counted upon as a future partner.