Are Your Controls Controlling YOU?

Update for the week of November 29, 2021

Ever feel like your controls company is controlling your project?

BubblyNet’s Bluetooth mesh wireless controls system offers many advantages without limiting the brands or products you can use in your design.

Our specifiers often share the frustrations they’ve encountered when their project’s controls system turns out to be inflexible, limiting or otherwise problematic. We hear these types of stories far too often:

You want to incorporate specific European fixtures into your design, but they lack the proprietary dimming option that the control system requires. To comply, you replace them with different fixtures that aren’t quite what you envisioned.

The project controls system’s dimming protocol requires that you specify a proprietary driver, triggering a budget-killing cost increase of 25%-30% per unit (multiplied by hundreds of units).

Pandemic-related supply chain issues are making it nearly impossible to predict the availability of the controls company-approved drivers that you need for your project. You look for suitable substitutions, but find that the only ones available to ship in time are deemed legacy or “phase out.” To keep the project on schedule, you’d need to make complicated changes (like switching from MLV to ELV or 0-10V). You’re out of options. The ordeal ultimately delays occupancy.

If any of these sound familiar, you need to meet BubblyNet. BubblyNet is a smart building platform that operates on a self-sustaining, native network. It’s a wireless controls system—but it doesn’t run on wifi. It doesn’t require an internet connection or a centralized hub. Instead, it runs on an energy-efficient native Bluetooth mesh network.

Advantages

The Bluetooth mesh model gives you the freedom of a wireless controls system without the security and reliability concerns inherent with other systems. BubblyNet’s scalable, future-proof, brand-agnostic approach delivers user-friendly, integrated and precise lighting controls. Here are some of the advantages that BubblyNet brings to the table:

Brand Agnostic & Interoperable: BubblyNet is an “open” system that allows integration with any device that complies with the Bluetooth mesh standard. Bluetooth has qualified well over 1,000 devices as mesh network capable, leaving you with a wide variety of appliances and devices that can readily be integrated into a BubblyNet system without modification or programming.

BubblyNet provides solutions for incorporating devices that aren’t readily Bluetooth-capable into your controls network. BubblyNet’s development team can employ add-on modules that enable Bluetooth mesh connectivity on devices using existing protocols like I2C, SPI or UART.

The BubblyNet software platform can also integrate with common cloud-based building management systems and in-room entertainment systems via wifi.

The interoperability of the BubblyNet platform brings many advantages. For one, it means you’re never limited to a pre-sanctioned list of lighting and appliance manufacturers that play well with the BubblyNet system. It also makes BubblyNet an ideal system for retrofit projects in spaces with existing hardware. Further, the system is designed to be “future proof,” meaning it won’t require costly overhauls or hardware replacements as the software evolves over time.

Reliable & Secure: BubblyNet is a standalone system that doesn’t rely on wifi connectivity or an internet connection. If the building’s wifi connection goes down, it won’t take the controls system down with it. Most wireless controls systems utilize a central hub that keeps the rest of the devices within the system online and functioning properly. When that hub malfunctions or goes offline, the entire system is compromised.

BubblyNet systems are self-sustaining, with devices running on a distributed network without a core, centralized device. If a device fails or goes offline, the system will remain operational. This makes BubblyNet as reliable as—and in some cases more reliable than—hard-wired controls systems.

Controls systems that run on wifi are only as secure as the wifi connection—and vice versa. If your controls run over wifi, a hacker may be able to target the controls system to gain access to your internet and data systems.

Bluetooth mesh networks are inherently more secure than wifi systems, which are commonly subject to remotely deployed cyber attacks and data breaches. Since BubblyNet does not run on an internet connection, hackers can’t target a BubblyNet system to gain sensitive information through the building’s internet or wifi connection.

BubblyNet operates on the security-driven Bluetooth mesh protocol, which requires three levels of encryption. Additionally, proprietary firmware specific to each individual device within the network protects the system from breaches via device cloning. Device configuration and security keys are encrypted to prevent intruders from gaining any useful data by physically interfering with a device.

The BubblyNet system also employs specialized security measures that allow safe, encrypted remote mobile and cloud-based remote management of building controls.

Learn more about BubblyNet’s comprehensive security features here.

Adaptable & Scalable: BubblyNet’s interoperability and lack of reliance on centralized hubs makes the system easy to deploy and easy to adapt to a wide variety of spaces and environments. The interoperable nature of the system means that a building’s existing hardware and infrastructure can be integrated into the BubblyNet network.

The distributed nature of a mesh network remedies signal strength issues commonly encountered when running other wireless systems. Concrete and metal structures within a space can create radio frequency barriers that disrupt or diminish the strength of the signal between a device and the system’s centralized hub. This can influence the placement of devices within the wireless network or can mean additional hubs need to be purchased and installed to ensure signal strength. With BubblyNet’s Bluetooth mesh network, control signals bounce from device to device. When signals encounter a radio frequency barrier, they go around it—the signal automatically changes course, bypassing any barriers.

BubblyNet’s mesh network system scales with your project and will scale over time. There are no issues or concerns about the system reaching capacity–adding new devices will actually strengthen the system. Since BubblyNet is completely wireless, adding new devices to the network over time won’t require complicated or costly installation projects.

All Around Efficiency: Bluetooth mesh networks require very little power to distribute information. Data transmitted over a wifi system typically requires 10 times more power than data transmitted through a Bluetooth mesh network.

Additionally, the BubblyNet platform makes it easy to incorporate and manage controls that monitor power consumption and dramatically improve energy efficiency. Learn more here.

For example, BubblyNet’s occupancy sensors can be used to automate lighting, preventing energy wasted when lights are kept running in spaces that aren’t in use.

BubblyNet’s brand-agnostic, interoperable system integrates with devices at various price points, allowing ample opportunities to cut costs by selecting budget-friendly devices or incorporating low maintenance, energy efficient options that save operating costs in the long run.

Let’s Talk

Interested in learning more? We’re here to help you determine if BubblyNet is a good fit for your project.

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