The BMiS (Building Management and intelligence Systems) being installed in the house are designed by me and form the basis of my new company, which for now let's call “NewCo.” Presently it’s a non-trading entity but not for much longer – watch this space. There is nothing like fully testing everything on yourself before you go to market. Whilst all the integration works on paper I am confident we will encounter some unexpected issues.

I have linked BMS (building and environmental controls) to voice and data network (the 'intelligence'), web access control, security, video security, and entry control, to create a seamlessly integrated intelligent building. This offering is entirely scaleable and I have christened the systems as BMiS (Building Management and intelligence Systems). A house or an airport can be fitted with essentially the same systems as are going in Cloud 8 as it is all totally scaleable. The advantage for the client is that he now has one “bottom to kick!” Those endless meetings of people sitting around a table all pointing the finger at each other as to why “the solution" is not working will not occur with us! The buck will stop with us, but we will not be cheap.

It will only be the very top of the house market (expensive to you and me) that will be able to afford these systems. Speculative house developers will not commit to the level of sophistication or the cost of our systems. Our systems will mainly be directed towards the commercial market in all its guises.

So let me take you through some of the functionality that will be incorporated into our home.

Cloud 8 has no curtains or air conditioning and large areas of glass. For shading, and let's face it discretion, we have external and some internal blinds. Passive ventilation in the shape of manual opening ventilation doors set to one side of the large fixed windows, and some automatic-opening windows strategically located within the property give us the ventilation we need according to our environmental analysis tabulation.

We have 24 heating zones but you won’t see a thermostat in the house. We have 106 lighting circuits with plenty of recess lighting in the ceilings and trench lighting in the floor. Paths of light can be created throughout the house, most circuits are dimmable, and lighting moods are easily created. Some of our lighting will be controlled by the weather station located on the roof. Our lighting design is very important – the effect of lighting design on a glazed house is very important and you will see some of the expected effects on the pictures below.

In all cases the pictures are of components and the blue images are of the effect on Cloud 8	The entrance hall. The luminaires are being changed to some wonderful discus style lights - if I can afford them!l	The kitchen and breakfast bubble at the far end
The living area - with its wonderful flazed wall	Bedrooms 1 & 2	Master bathroom

Automatic windows will close if it rains, coloured lights change in the ponds according to weather conditions, blinds close automatically according to light measurements and time. External blinds lamella adjust according to temperature and sunlight. But these are just environmental matters – what other functionality can we do that has a practical benefit?

Judy (my better ¾) has recently lost a great deal of her hearing and now wears digital hearing aids in both ears. As one can reasonably speculate that her hearing will not improve it seems sensible to provision for when matters become more challenging. With this in mind the first thing we did was to speak to the RNID who came to look at the various potential challenges the building presented. Having consulted them we are going to install "T” loop systems in both the study and the living area. In the living area we are also going to cable for infrared just in case the volume of steel in the vicinity of this area interferes with the signal. We are also going to provision the telecoms network with “T” loop phones at key points.

I mentioned to the RNID that I was going to programme two lights in each room to flash – one for phone and one for entry. I can also programme the system not to flash in the children’s rooms after a certain time so their sleep is not disturbed.

The RNID pointed out that they sold lamps with wireless link to the phone and door but with my infrastructure I don’t have the problems of ordinary lights – I just reprogramme the system. So when someone enters the drive if a computer is being used in the house a picture will appear on the monitor – or on the television if it is on – or will appear on the access control console. When the visitor reaches the front door an image of them is seen via the same means. On pressing the doorbell the appointed light in each room will briefly flicker and Judy will be able to answer the door from any “T” loop phone in the house and speak to the individual at the door and she can let the visitor in. Additionally there are two small access control panels located in key positions within the house – these have a small video screen and voice connection to the entry panel and a great deal of other functionality besides. So despite having a disability Judy will be provided for invisibly and her ability to know what is happening around her will be greatly improved.

The RNID people have been marvellous – should any member of your family experience this difficult loss then they should contact the Institute early on for advice.

Presently Building Control offices around the country are looking at documents which makes broadband a requirement in all future builds. This is set to become mandatory and with this exciting development comes a huge range of opportunities. Network solutions in the home are going to grow rapidly. Video on demand will explode in the UK as it is doing in the USA. The fastest growing area of computer sales in the US is for home use and the networking of US homes. As a result of having a more advanced telecoms network providers most houses are fitted with optic fibre. I have Cat 6 but I am optimistic that this will last me very well until wireless becomes sufficiently robust to take care of Cloud 8.

The distribution board for the South building

Power, voice, data sound and television cables to the North building

Pleasingly, Roger knows where they all go

The alarm panel and the IP Homenet hub locations

The telecoms and computer network is hubbed next to the south building distribution board – for no other reason than cabling convenience. The Secom alarm board is located just above. In total we have 3 distribution boards but don’t forget the abilities of the system are significant. There is no central computer for the BMS – each sensor and actuator has a chip onboard, which collectively is known as “distributed intelligence.”

The boards, sensors and actuators, collectively manage heat light and power distribution, movement, blinds, gates, watering systems, window operation, ventilation, links to security. Now when I say lighting control this is rather more sophisticated than on/off as I hope you will see in the forthcoming film.

The computer network can be used to adjust temperatures lights using a touch sensitive visualisation of the house or they can be adjusted locally at the switches within the rooms. The network has web access control so I can ensure the children do not arrive on undesirable websites - their computers are closed down at a set time – no arguments! I can close their access to the web or load their sites that they are allowed to look at but not permit them to go elsewhere. You are then confident that they are not seeing things that perhaps you would prefer them not to see. A file and print server is also attached to the unit – and the ability to create a VPN or a WAN. This is all on a linux based protocol which is auto updated by us.

Telecoms include CLID, DECT, voicemail, call forwarding, different ring tones for members of the family and business. There is also an intercom as part of the phone network which is useful to speak to children when you are preparing to leave the house. I am sure many parents will relate to this. Also through the telecoms network I can communicate with the house from any telephone line and the house can (if I choose) communicate with me. We have under floor heating being installed. This has a 30 minute lag from pressing the button. If driving home early one winter's evening and the family are away I can phone the house and switch the heating on 30 minutes before I get home. For that matter I can do almost anything else should I wish to including running a bath at a preset temperature 5 minutes before arriving home – but I am only interested in practical issues.

I can arrange for the house to call me. Imagine laying on a beach with WAP phone in the bag and receiving a call from Cloud 8 with video showing you realtime that your house is being burgled. The alarm system will have advised the police, video will have been taken of the assailants and sent to a remote server by our computer network, but do I really want to be told this when I am on holiday? What can I do that the house is not already doing?

I’ll build this page up with pictures and more information as we progress with the visually more interesting material.

Well this is an interesting bit of design ...... click to enlarge the image

What is it / they ? Where in the building do you think it / they may be located?

Answers by email – the correct one gets a guided tour of Cloud 8 for 2 people
in whatever state we are in.

Answers to be in by the 4th April 2005