When Cloud Meets Edge: Managing Air Quality Across Multiple Commercial Locations

Monday, February 6, 2023

Source | Cloud Computing Magazine

Cloud computing, though being able to trace its origins back to the 1950s, is currently experiencing some of the most rapid growth in its history. The cloud applications market is worth over $150 billion, with over 60 percent of the world’s corporate data stored in the cloud. The swift surge is thanks to the cloud’s flexibility, pairing well with the variety of innovative devices brought about by digital transformation. The most notable union is between the cloud and the edge.

The edge-to-cloud combination is allowing enterprises to leverage the variety of real-time data-driven decision-making technologies available, offering organizations previously unattainable possibilities, such as the ability to transform their work environment into smart buildings.

Smart buildings provide enterprises with an abundance of in-depth data, as well as autonomous capabilities, giving organizations the ability to make more informed decisions and optimize several facts of their work environments. For example, smart buildings can help businesses improve their indoor air quality (IAQ).

Through the use of technology like AI and IoT via cloud-managed edge solutions, enterprises can monitor and analyze factors such as room layout, humidity and moisture, maintenance, and operation of building ventilation systems, and certain pollutants and odors, garnering data in order to optimize airflows and predict air conditions.

This helps organizations create a healthier, more sustainable workspace for their employees, which in turn makes them a more favorable destination, as the current workforce increasingly emphasizes their own personal well-being when making career decisions.

Recently, Veea Inc., a leader in integrated smart edge connectivity, computing, and security technologies for edge and cloud, and WYND, a provider of comprehensive indoor air monitoring, environmental analytics, and air purification solutions, have deployed an AI-powered edge solution combining VeeaHubs, mesh networking, and distributed multi-location monitoring and control applications with WYND Halo IAQ Monitor and WYND Max medical grade air purifiers.

The partnership creates an award-winning duo, as Veea recently announced it received the IoT Product Excellence Award from TMC (News - Alert) and Crossfire Media for the range of VeeaHubs, while WYND recently announced it received the 2023 Innovation Award from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) organization for their AI-powered air quality products.

The solution has already been installed in a number of U.S. locations operated by Lincoln Property Company, a global, full-service real estate firm and Top 10 manager and developer of office, industrial, retail, and mixed-use properties.

“Keeping the indoor air environment healthy is the most important lever to reducing disease spread, but air is invisible, so it’s hard to tell whether the environment is good or bad as well as how to improve,” said Ray Wu, CEO of WYND. “WYND’s Halo air monitoring solution, along with cloud analytics (airIQ), enables comprehensive and proactive management of spaces for healthy and productive employees and guests. There is also a need to balance bringing healthy air with not wasting energy from systems like the HVAC when it’s not needed.”

WYND Technologies, Inc. supports the solution with their advanced clean air measurement and remediation technologies and devices. The Veea Edge Platform provides the local edge mesh network, which collects the data from the WYND Halo indoor air quality monitors, and performs the local processing for interpreting, managing, reporting, and presenting the information collected. The Veea Edge Platform also provides a wireless 4G WAN uplink to the cloud for remote reporting, alerts and notifications, and archiving.

Multiple locations can be connected to the Veea Cloud for highly efficient remote monitoring, management, alerting, data collection, and analytics with a unique distributed solution that can be implemented in a matter of days in an economically efficient manner.

“Our strategic partnership with Veea enables the modern, smart building to automate air operations and enable healthier spaces while saving energy at the same time. Veea enables the insights from WYND’s Indoor Air Quality monitors to transform into HVAC and other device controls to remediate detected issues automatically,” continued Wu.

Veea tapped WYND based on the quality and performance of their equipment and embedded, AI-enriched software and connected multiple air monitoring and purification devices using VeeaHubs and vMesh edge networking software and Veea Control Center to provide a fully automated and always-on air quality monitoring and purification system.

“Following the pandemic, air quality became an immediate and pressing priority for property owners and property management companies,” said Mark Tubinis, Chief Commercial Officer for Veea. “Together with WYND, and in concert with property owners and management companies, we have developed and perfected a full-stack solution unlike any other in the market today. The WYND-driven air quality solution is one of a range of smart building applications that run on Veea’s in-building digital infrastructure, which leverages edge computing for real-time automation and instant alerting based on specific criterion.”

The solution is part of a broader set of Veea’s Environmental, Social, and Governance as-a-Service (ESGaaS) solutions, powered at the edge by VeeaHubs, providing a unified solution across multiple edge devices, accessories, and peripherals. This solution leverages the combination of the Niagara building management open framework integrated with the Veea Platform and data analytics capabilities to bring robust, comprehensive, and market-leading solutions to market. These solutions provide direct, secure, and scalable control of building environments and associated operational costs.

“Whether conserving energy through smart lighting, detecting water leaks before they cause major damage, supporting safer spaces through connected and remotely controlled key systems, or remediating germs, pollen, smog, and harmful pollutants in the air, with our partners Veea is leading the market in smart building technologies,” stated Tubinis.

Veea and WYND will be demonstrating the solution at the AHR Expo from Monday, February 6, to Wednesday, February 8, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Booth B375.