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Industry Ignited Podcast
Why Smart Buildings Shouldn't Need Manuals or Complicated Apps | Ep. 111 [Jose Morcillo]
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The future of smart buildings isn't about adding more technology. It's about making technology work better for people. In this insightful episode of Industry Ignited, host Dr. Leeanne Aguilar welcomes Jose Morcillo, CEO and Founder of KNX Supply and Wolf Building Technology, for an engaging discussion about smart building automation, open standards, and the innovations reshaping modern spaces. Drawing from his extensive international experience, Jose reveals the challenges of traditional proprietary systems and why flexibility, reliability, and long-term compatibility are essential when designing intelligent buildings. He also shares how KNX technology allows different manufacturers and systems to communicate seamlessly, helping property owners avoid expensive vendor lock-in while preparing their buildings for future advancements.
The discussion goes beyond traditional automation to explore how AI-powered systems, intelligent lighting, predictive maintenance, and real-time energy optimization are creating more efficient and comfortable environments. Jose highlights the importance of human-centered design, explaining why smart technology should feel natural, intuitive, and almost invisible to the people using it. From reducing energy consumption in commercial buildings to improving wellness through lighting that supports natural circadian rhythms, this conversation reveals how thoughtful innovation can deliver meaningful results.
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What if the smartest building is not the one with the most apps, but the one that simply works intuitively, reliably, and without locking you into one vendor. Welcome to Industry Ignited. I'm Dr. Leanne Aguilar, and today I'm joined by Jose Morsilio, CEO and founder of KNX Supply and Wolf Building Technology. Jose has more than 20 years of experience designing and delivering smart building solutions across residential, commercial, and mixed-use projects in the US, Europe, and Latin America. Jose, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. I'm very grateful to be here today with you.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah. Now you're in you're in sunny Florida these days, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. It's amazing. And I I love it really. I can I cannot complain. So it's amazing.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarSo, Jose, you started your career as an engineer and found your way into home and building automation more than 20 years ago. What first pulled you into this field and what made you stay with it for the long term?
SPEAKER_01So I study telecommunications engineer engineering, and my background is engineering. So I'm a technical technical guy, as I used to say, in Valencia. I studied in Valencia, in Spain. And when I finished, uh I got an internship and an engineering firm. And that's where I first saw like building automation in action, right? We had a department that they were working with KNX and some other technologies. And uh to be honest, I didn't look. I didn't go looking for it. I just showed up and uh I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I started with residential projects, smart, small homes actually, and then step by step to bigger things, bigger projects like shopping centers, uh patent stores, hotels. And I started to see the real potential of what this technology could do, actually. Around that time, I created an online forum called knexforum.com, and it was a support community, uh just a place where people could ask questions and share knowledge about KNX, right? At that time, there was nothing about KNX, no forum, no nothing. So I decided it could be the I decided that that could be a good idea. But something interesting happened because users started asking me for training, for consulting, and for product recommendations. So the forum grew actually into something more. It became Domonetio, the company I founded in Spain, and it's actually a company is is is running, it's a running company today. It's offering training, consulting, and KNX and Ali product sales worldwide. And that was a real turning point for me. And uh actually, what keeps me in this field after 20 years, I'd say two things. So the first one is that KNX is a solid technology, it's been around for decades, 35 years already, and it keeps uh getting stronger. That's rare in tech, actually. The second thing is um, and and this is key, you are not tied to any single manufacturer. So we have in KNX, we can we can work with more than 500 manufacturers. We have more than 500 producing uh around 8,000 products in the market, and you have a real freedom of choice. That's what actually makes a smart long-term bet for anyone who thinks about the future of a building or or or a home, and not just a today's today's installation.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarRight. Okay, so you're really focused on the solution and you have a lot of different resources, is what I'm I'm hearing. You're not just tied to one solution, one manufacturer. Uh, you're really just focused on what the best fit is for that home or that building.
SPEAKER_01Yes, correct. And and that works actually.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. And I'm I'm hearing really your business grew organically in a lot of ways too. I think people started seeing you as the expert and seeking you out and and then growing that way.
SPEAKER_01That's true. That's true. And uh and actually I feel proud of that, actually. So so so yeah, uh this is how I grew up in uh in in this business. And uh I actually like to be an example for other people that are starting in this business as well. And that's what I'm doing, is if I can share my experience, uh, what worked for me or what didn't work, I do it.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarRight. And I think what I'm hearing, just like having that heart to help people, really just looking to see what the best solution is from that, and then developing that trust and relationships. And from there, you probably get a lot of recommendations. So you've worked across Europe, Latin America, and now the United States. How has that global perspective shaped the way you think about smart buildings and what different markets actually need?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, and that's a very good question because every country is different, not just country, people is different, technicians are different, electrical contractors are different. So each place taught me uh something different. In Barcelona, in Europe, for instance, I learned the technology, the real depth of it. I worked with the top manufacturers, with top developers, and I specialized in large projects. And I understood what it means to build something that has to work for 20 or 30 years. Europe takes that really seriously. So that was my experience, my main experience in Europe. In Latin America, I took that knowledge and I put into work in hotel projects mainly, and then also in training programs. So we developed training programs for Latin America for people that want to want to start into this technology, into this field in KNX. So we provide KNX certified trainings in mainly in cities like Colombia and Borda and uh and Peru and Lima and so on. Latin America is different contexts, different challenges, but the same technology. It made me it made me a better communicator because when you explain KNX to someone who's never uh heard of it, you have to be very clear and very practical, with no room, believe me, no room for technical words. And and that's what was I applied at that time. And here in the US, I land scale and business thinking. Uh, when you are working in uh 300 uh hotel rooms in Oklahoma, the question is not just does this work today? That's not the question. The real question is can someone maintain this property, this building 20 years from now with no knowledge of who installed it? That changes how you design everything. So those three experiences together give me a perspective that I think honestly, I think it's hard to get any other way. So I've seen what works, what doesn't work in different markets. So with different budgets, with different cultures, and that makes it actually that makes it easier to find the right solution for any pride.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarSo, like you said, it's just really listening and understanding the needs of each individual um I guess project too, and and depending on where they're at and what their needs are specifically. So it's really being flexible and uh malleable according to the needs of the situation in the project. So, for those of our listeners who aren't familiar with KNX supply, tell us a little bit about the company itself.
SPEAKER_01So I think of it as an ecosystem, right? So, not just as an independent solution provider or companies and so on, but a full ecosystem. So you cannot grow a market by just selling products. This is this is a fact because some many people, especially for KNX and especially in the US market, they don't even know about KX. So they need to get trained, they need to be trained, they need help to develop the projects and so on. So Wolf is the integration and project delivery side, and we design and deliver the actual smart building installations. So from high-end residential, commercial hospitality, and many other projects. That's where the real work happens on the ground. Kinex Supply, for instance, started because when I arrived to the US, you couldn't reliably source Kinex products here. So there was no real reliable place where you can find and you can buy products. The market had been essentially dormant for 15 years. So I built the distribution infrastructure first because without it, you cannot even start a project. And then Sinex Academy. And the reason for this is for training. Because if there are no training installers and integrators, nothing else matters. So you can have the best products, the best standards, and still fails in the field because the person installing it doesn't understand what they are doing. So training, I think training is very important, and uh this is one of the main pillars here in the USA.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarRight. Yeah, so all of these pieces fit together for the larger vision for providing smart buildings.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's true. And actually, each piece makes the other stronger. So that's that's a good point of this. Yeah.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarNow you're a strong believer in open standards. For listeners who may not be technical, what does an open standard mean in the context of a building? And why should owners, developers, or facilities teams care?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I I like you asked me that question because that's the one that that's a very important question, especially for the US market and for people that don't really know what is KNX, right? And uh so let's let's think, for instance, about Wi-Fi. Okay, Wi-Fi, your iPhone works with a router made by Cisco or HP, Hewlett Backer, for instance. And that that Cisco router works with your Android table, uh tablet, sorry. So your neighbor's printer connects to the same network, and nobody had to call a special technician or use a proprietary app, right? So it just worked because everyone agreed on the same language. So KNX is that for buildings. A light from uh a light switch from a German manufacturer talks to a deemer from a Spanish manufacturer, for instance, with uh which talks to a present sensor from a Japanese manufacturer. So the same protocol, the same language. You don't need to pick the KNX brand. There is no KNX brand because it's not a brand, it's a standard. So for building owners, this is very important. This matters for one reason above all. Your building is a 40 year asset, not a three-year tech cycle. And this is very important. The company that sold you a proprietary system may not exist in 15 years. This is a fact, and this is happening. We are we are seeing we are seeing a lot of examples, not just in the US but worldwide, about companies that are not longer in the market. Or they they change to another uh business or market, or they get acquired, or they just discontinue the product line. With an open standard, you're you're you are not hostage to anyone's business decision. And that's very important for end users.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarOkay, so KNX is the standard, and it's an open standard which many different manufacturers can adopt, and that just guarantees that it will work together with others following that same standard.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Absolutely. Not just today, but also in 35 years.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarAnd going forward, that makes sense. Okay. So a major theme in your work is avoiding vendor lock-in. What problems do building owners face when they are tied to one proprietary system? And how does KNX create more flexibility over time?
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, I've seen I've seen this many times. So an owner installs a proprietary system, amazing, beautiful, high-end brand, looks great on day one. And then the integrator who installed it goes out of business. That happens or moves on. Now nobody local knows how to service it. The vendor wants to charge X hundred dollars for an hour for remote support. And what something breaks, when something breaks, you are either waiting weeks for a specialist from that brand or reaping out uh a system that still works mechanically. The real that's actually that that's actually happening. And the real cost of vendor lock-in is never the initial purchase, it's the servicing, extensions, and the upgrades. And what looks cheap upfront, what may look what may look cheap up front, becomes really expensive to own. So what happens with Kinex, right? With Kinex, any certified integrator, any Kinex partner, any Kinex dealer can open the project file and work in it. There are over 500 manufacturers making certified Kinex products. Uh, if you prefer brand disappears tomorrow, just swap the component and move on. And that's your real flexibility.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah, that makes sense. And I've I've said oftentimes it's expensive to be cheap in many areas in life, but but it is right. It's like what like you mentioned, while the system itself may be cheap, what it takes to maintain or trying or the hassle of trying to find somebody who can work on the system, trying to find replacement parts, trying to upgrade down the road, all of that, right, can become a huge nightmare.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, especially in this industry, believe me.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah. So as you're mentioning, so KNX, it's really something like Wi-Fi. It's not a single brand, but it's a a shared language that many manufacturers can build around. Why is that distinction so important for the long-term performance of a building?
SPEAKER_01Because people confuse standards with products all the time. So when someone says, I want KNX in my building, in my project, they are not choosing a brand. They they, I mean, they don't go for any specific brand. They choose an standard, right? So they are choosing a protocol. And within that protocol, they have hundreds of certified products to choose from. Different price points, different factors, availability, aesthetics, and so on. So a Kinex device certified in 1995, for instance, still works today in 2026, Kinex certified device. So the protocol is backwards compatible, and this is very important. This is what happens now, this is what happened, and this is what is going to happen in the future. So that kind of longevity doesn't exist in proprietary systems. It's a 30-year-old, 35 years old standard that's still being actively developed, and that's really, really rare interesting.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarRight. Yeah, that is. So 35 years. And who maintains the standards? Is it an international board?
SPEAKER_01Correct. Yes, this international K Nex International Association is taking care of the standard, the marketing activities, and uh keep it alive, yes.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah, okay. Now you said that people don't necessarily need smart homes or smart buildings, they need technology only when it makes life easier or solves a real friction point. How do you separate useful automation from technology for technology's sake?
SPEAKER_01Well, I have a simple test. So does this solve a friction, a friction point that a real person actually experiences, not a friction point that a tech person imagines, a real one, okay? So if someone has to pull out their phone every time they want to change the temperature in a room, that's a friction. Automating that makes sense, right? So if someone has to remember to turn off the lights in five different zones before they leave, that's a friction. So automating that would make sense again, right? So if I show a demo where you tap a button and the lights do something impressive, and you think, well, that's cool, you'd never use it daily, actually. That's not what you do every single day. So that's tech for tech shake. It will get turned off within six months, and the owner will resent having paid for it, to be honest. So the question I always ask a client, what annoys you what annoys you about your building right now? So you have to start there. Don't start with look what this system can do and then go backwards to make it work, right?
Dr. Leeanne AguilarRight. Yeah, that's true. People will buy things that they don't need and then never use them if if they're just focused on the coolness, you know, the cool factor of the technology. Yeah, but I like that philosophy, really starting from their pain points, starting from, like you said, what annoys them. And people are are quick to tell you that. It's like, oh yeah, come in and it's hard to get to this switch or it's impossible.
SPEAKER_01Let me tell you something that that we need to, I feel that we need we the experts on the field with experience. I think we need to educate the market. And don't get me wrong, but sometimes you need we need to tell the people, hey, you you will never use it. It's fancy, it's cool. Yeah, it might make sense for one time or two times, but but at the end of the day, it's gonna stop working because there is uh something, some piece in the middle that will not be in the market anymore in five years. And then you will call me and you will say, Hey, Jose, your system is not really working well, but it's not because of me. It's because of that piece in the middle that you decided that it's what you need at that point. And that that's not true. So so I think we have Kafka's responsibility to educate the market, to tell them, according to our experience, what works, what doesn't work. And based on that, we need to help the end user to make decisions.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah, right. Yeah, it's more than just impressing your friends. I mean, you can impress your friends a couple of times with cool things. But I mean, I've I've experienced that too, like um going into a home where there's maybe these um automated blinds that roll up, let's say, right? And then they never get used. And then it becomes irritating because you can't just like pull a cord and have the blinds go up and down. You actually have to find the remote, actually have to like, and then if the batteries go out, so it can be more of a uh nuisance than welcome to my life.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to my life.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarExactly. So in residential projects, what are the best use cases for automation when the goal is not to impress people with gadgets, but to make the home more intuitive, efficient, and comfortable?
SPEAKER_01So the ones that disappear, I'll say the best automation is the kind you forget is there. So for instance, lighting scenes are probably the most impactful, not because they are impressive, but because light affects how you feel in space all day long. A morning scene that brings up the light, bring the light, brings up gradually, for instance, a cooking scene in the kitchen, a movie scene in the living room, these are things uh people actually use every single day without thinking about them. So, also about access and security. Uh, if if you do it right in the right way, that means you never think about whether you lock the door uh or or your building knows you left and it handles it, and and that's the point. And also climate. I think it's very important that adapts to occupancy, especially for uh commercial buildings, not just based on a schedule, like uh 8 p.m. AC off or 7 a.m. AC on. Um not just about that, but a system that knows, really knows the the room is empty and backs off automatically. So that's where the real energy savings come from, and especially as I said before in hospitality products. And uh let me tell you this a category I'm very focused on right now, it's human-centric lighting. Have you heard about that? Tell me about it. So it's lighting that shifts its color temperature from warm to cold through the day. So so warmer in the morning, like kind of yellow orange light, and uh evening cooler and brighter during peak work hours. So it's not it's not gimmicks, it's that's real science behind how light affects our circadian rhythms. And let me tell you this: once you live it, once you experience it, you don't want to go back. Amazing. And it and it really works for your body.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarSo it's indoor lighting that's basically mimicking like the sunlight during the different times of the day. So during the morning, it's like a warmer light. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01Is it warmer or is it because like the sun is rising and you have yeah, and then if you need like more to be more active, so the light is colder. So when it goes into the evening, the light goes warmer, more like yellow color, like candle color, you know what I mean? So if you want to go down, if you want to relax, that's more warm. And if you go to stay active, that's more that's more cold. And and it happens, the the beauty of this is that we do it with with Kinex technology, we do it with with DALI in our Wolf building technology projects, and it's done automatically. So the the person, the individual, doesn't need to care about that.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarRight. They don't even notice, probably, but it impacts how they feel and like you said, their circadian rhythm and such. Yes. So interesting. No, I'll have to look more into that. That's fascinating. Yeah. No, I I recently uh moved into a home that has an atrium. And so I brought plants inside. And I've learned about lighting there that for plants, they need a full spectrum of lighting. You can't just put in regular light in the sunlight, you know, the over the doesn't necessarily let in enough actual sunlight, though, right? If you're gonna have a lot of plants indoors, certain types of lighting that you need, you know, for that certain types of things.
SPEAKER_01So you agree with me that it's a science below this, right?
Dr. Leeanne AguilarAbsolutely. I know, and having to learn what plants need what amount of light and and all that, and people the same thing, how much light you actually need, what kind of light you need throughout the day. And um another thing, like you were mentioning the smart systems that actually know when people are in the room too. I've experienced that because I also, you know, teach at schools and they have like smart systems with the lighting, but they aren't great all the time. If you're just standing in one part of the room giving a presentation, sometimes the lights will just all go off. And then you have to go and move around and get to a different part. And it's like that's an irritating thing. 100%. Yeah, it's like how the yeah, they're a little too smart, and it can be irritating when they they don't necessarily actually know if somebody's in the room. But so you can work with the technology to overcome things like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, correct. And actually, it's uh I'm I'm glad that you mentioned that because I actually ran a webinar a few weeks ago about this occupancy sensors, the entire world around occupancy sensors. We have many, many of them for several applications, for several head installations. So you need to consider a lot of things and you need to. plan in advance before moving into that. Yes. So 100% I agree with you. Otherwise you have the experiences that you have just mentioned. Yes.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah, exactly. And it's it's um disruptive also with online classes, I've noticed because like maybe the instructor is sitting giving a presentation and a lot of the people, it might be hybrid. Some people are there in person and some people are online and then the lights go off. They go down and they have to get it get up and it you know interrupts the whole presentation. Yeah. And then people online are like what just happened? Where'd everybody go?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarNow I one thing that fascinates me about what you said is that if you need to give someone a manual, the system has failed. What does that philosophy mean for how smart building systems should be designed and experienced by the user?
SPEAKER_01So this is number one rule in in in our company with my team do not deliver or do not make any manual for the people to use the system you are installing. This is this is number one rule and this is worldwide rule. I don't mind if we are in Latin America in Colombia in the USA Spain or or China. So it means the design goal is zero learning curve. That's what it means. If a guest walks into a hotel room and needs to read the instructions to turn on the light the system failed. It just failed I mean if a homeowner needs to call their integrator to adjust a scene adjust a scene that system failed also. If a facility manager in case of hotels or or shopping malls needs a specialist to change to change the operation hours on a floor that system failed. So the technology from a point of view should be invisible. So the experience should be obvious so that's that's the main difference and and this is why I care so much about the programming and the commissioning side on pro of projects not just the hardware but also the the programming side the smarts you can install perfect hardware hardware that that works for years and has a lot of warranty great and still deliver a terrible experience because someone program it in a way that made sense to an engineer but not make sense to a human. So the the best Kinex products I've seen and the and the ones I'm most proud of let me tell you this are the ones where the end user has no idea how complex the infrastructure is. So yeah they just know the building feels right and works.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarAnd it works exactly like they don't even realize it's there because it's not bothering them. Correct correct exactly it's intuitive and easy to use and like you said they don't think about the complexity it doesn't matter they yeah they shouldn't be thinking about it right absolutely so energy efficiency predictive maintenance lighting control HVAC shading and occupancy data can all be a part of the same ecosystem. Where do you see the biggest practical impact for commercial buildings today?
SPEAKER_01So lighting control is still number one from an energy standpoint. Dell occupancy based lighting motion sensors that flip lights on and off randomly but intelligent presence detection integrated with Viming and daylight daylight harvesting. That consistently delivers like 40 or 60% energy production energy reduction on on lighting that's talking about lighting that's not that's not a projection we see in commissioned projects in in the USA. Regarding AIDS VAC integration climate integration is where the big money is in operational savings. But it requires the the right infrastructure to do it well to be honest. And when your lighting system knows a room is empty and it tells the AIDS VAC system also to back off that coordination is where you get real efficiency especially in in commercial buildings. And out at uh occupancy data most building managers are operating on assumptions about how their building is used. So the conference room on the third floor might be booked 80% of the time but occupied only 30% of the time. So real data changes how you manage space how you charge for it how you design the next building right and I'm working now in a retrofitting hotel in the USA in Oklahoma. It's a 328 rooms with it's a retrofitting so the installation is quite old it's more than 20 years. And the whole conversation started with energy costs in this case. So that's a commercial argument that connects with owners who might not otherwise care about smart buildings. Save money first. So the experience gets better as a result.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarOkay so what is the threshold like at what point how what age of a building should you start looking at potentially retrofitting and upgrading your your systems?
SPEAKER_01So we we are finding that many of the buildings or the products that we are retrofitting are because of the lighting system. So the lighting system the lighting controllers the dimmers are like old style they are they they they were made for incandescent light or halogen lights and now everything is LED right yeah or fluorescence yeah exactly so what's what's actually happening is that the facility managers and owners they change the fixers they change the the the lamps the chandeliers the bulbs and everything but the controls don't follow that so they start flickering and they start not to work properly. The dimming curve is not perfect and especially the most problem that the the most problem we see is the the flickering thing in the LEDs in the lights. So that's what we solve.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarOkay great and is there a certain age where that happens like buildings older than 20 years?
SPEAKER_0190% of the buildings are more than 20 years.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarStarting from 15 years you you need to consider to retrofit your building okay right it's like at what point did a the technology really really take off yeah so 15 or 20 years ago. Okay.
SPEAKER_01If we retrofit the building today we use our technology which is open standard. So it will remain there in the future I mean in in 25 years we will not have LED lights for instance we will have whatever lights in the market. So we just need to replace the modules so that we keep all the wiring all the existing infrastructure we can get it we just need to change the module. So that's the good part of the technology we are using in our projects.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarSo once you make that investment to go to the Kinect system that investment's made and then it comes down to less expensive upgrades in the future.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Correct that's true.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYou've talked about a future where we move away from controlling buildings through dozens of apps. Why do you believe the future of smart building control may be less app based and more conversational or autonomous?
SPEAKER_01Because nobody wants to manage their environment they want to be in their environment. So that's the main difference. Right now a sophisticated smart building might have five or six apps or BMS one for lighting one for HVAC and one for shading for instance and of course one for the access control or alarm system. Each one was built by a different company installed by different people. Each one has its own login username password. Each one requires you to understand how it works independently so that's not smart that's complicated. That's really complicated. So the direction I see things going is the building knows what you need before you ask. So it learns your patterns it adapts and when you do need to override something you just say it or you just do it. Literally in natural language that's what I see so for instance make this room cooler for the next two hours. Boom done. That's what's happening in the Kinex in this case so how Kinex fits KNX is the infrastructure layer that makes this possible reliable deterministic local control local control and the AI sits on top of the interface layer so you don't replace infrastructure you replace the programming interface. So that's the difference and that changes everything in terms of how accessible this technology becomes yeah I was going to ask about that next so where do you see AI creating the most value?
Dr. Leeanne AguilarPrediction maintenance energy optimization user experience or something else?
SPEAKER_01Predictive maintenance is probably the most underrated one. Right now most building systems fail reactively something breaks someone calls and with AI analyzing sensor data continuously you can see a bearing wearing out in an HVAC unit before it fails. So you schedule the repair the hotel guest never knows and that's worth real money in avoided downtime energy optimization it's also a very trending topic now with AI, especially in real time not scheduling. Again many people confuse real time with scheduling or to plan in advance with scheduling but it's not the same. A system that adjusts to actual occupancy real occupancy actual weather actual utility pricing in real time that's what it is that's something a human building manager cannot do at that level of granularity right yeah the last I would say user experience personalization selling hospitality matching for instance another hotel room that adjusts to your preferences not because you configure it but because the system learned from the previous stay. So the light the temperature and the room uh temperature the carton position the shade and everything and that's that's one of the latest products we are working with I cannot I cannot disclose the name of the of the hotel now but we are working on a 96 suites with circadian lighting and the question for hotel is what's the value of a guest experience that feels like the room already knows you right yeah so that's the real uh differentiation argument and this is not just an efficiency right yeah so I'm wondering how long does it take to feel the difference with the lighting do people have to stay there more than 24 hours to really realize the effects yes I mean that's enough that one day you feel it actually I mean that's some the the good thing of this that I like is that you don't feel and I ask many people about this the people projects that they they have circadian uh light they don't realize that the color of the light or the temperature is changing. It just feels yeah yeah so so they don't see okay oh now it's yellow or now it's more warm or more cold they they don't see it they just feel it or you know and I mean again this is this is science and this is amazing and I recommend for every single project.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah it's definitely a differentiator for hotels you know especially I would think the upscale hotels to offering offer that kind of experience experience. Oh yeah so looking ahead five to ten years what do you believe the smartest developers owners and facilities leaders should start doing now to make sure their buildings are ready for the next generation of technology?
SPEAKER_01I think I think light is the most underestimated building system. We've known for decades that light affects mood for instance productivity health and we've continued to install buildings as uh if a flat 400 lumens uh is good enough everywhere and all day and and it's not right with cutting lighting color temperature through the day from around 2700 Kelvin in the morning to 6500 Kelvin in peak working hours and back down and then back down into the evening support your body's natural rhythms and it's not about aesthetics and I said before it's about biology. So so I'm working on a showroom right now in in Miami where we are experimenting exactly this the client is selling the experience of being in that space and the lighting is a big part of what makes people feel energized or relaxed at the right moments. In uh in case of commercial applications offices hotels healthcare there is a strong return on investment argument because you are talking about employee productivity and wellness outcome as well in hospitality it's differentiation it's it's huge. For instance a wellness room that actually helps a guest sleeps better is something that people pay for it and talk about so so it really it's really really useful in in commercial and and also in residential where residential projects villas apartments once people experience it they don't want to live without it believe me it's it's amazing it's one of those things that sounds optional at the beginning until you've lived it uh for a month so so you're installing these in residential oh yes I don't even ask to be to be honest I don't even ask yeah so so it's it's yes or yes in all our projects so now all the lighting systems uh are tunable wide and they follow the circadian rhythm 100% very cool we'll have to yeah definitely look into that so you're creating a showroom too you said a showroom that that will demonstrate that people can go in and experience it themselves and see the benefits.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarYeah.
SPEAKER_01All right well Jose thank you for joining us today and for helping us rethink what smart buildings can become when technology is open intuitive and built for the long term how can listeners learn more about you KNX Supply and wealth building technologies well a few ways for products and distribution uh Kinex hardware uh everything you need to build uh to build and spec open and standard uh smart buildings in the US that's knexupply.com okay it's a website that you can look for many manufacturers technologies and so on for project delivery and consulting if you are an owner developer or architect working on a commercial or high-end residential project that's Wolf Building Technologies the the company that is behind the hospitality and residential projects in in the US or just you can just email me directly and or you can reach me on LinkedIn I'm actually very active on LinkedIn and I love it. I love my community so so you can reach me easily there. And if you are a professional in the industry and an installer or integrator engineer that you are looking for to get training to and certified in in KNX look for Synex Academy where we provide KNX certified training.
Dr. Leeanne AguilarWell thank you again yeah so listeners please reach out to Jose and thank you for tuning in to Industry Ignited be sure to subscribe and join us for the next episode. Until next time stay bold stay curious and keep igniting industry