OAKLAND, Calif. — Acuity Brands Inc. announced a private preview of its Atrius® Building Manager, an end-to-end cloud solution that helps building owners and operators reduce operational costs, optimize energy usage, and improve occupant experiences, starting today with their lights. 

Atrius Building Manager integrates multiple capabilities to provide greater visibility, insight, fine-tuned control, and automation, at scale, for any commercial building type. 

Lighting systems that respond dynamically as conditions change, whether through activities or occupant needs, confer maximum operational savings and efficiency. Atrius Building Manager can manage all elements of commercial light system operations — control of the fixture, ongoing testing and upkeep, detailed reporting on usage, and condition and maintenance needs of equipment. In turn, this capability provides facilities managers better uniformity and control over how their lights operate. Over time, Atrius Building Manager capabilities will also extend to managing other critical building infrastructure. 

"While many intricate systems exist within a building, lights are among the most crucial, complex, and expensive components to manage,” said Sandeep Modhvadia, vice president of product management at Acuity Brands. “Lighting is everywhere. It defines how buildings and spaces are used. And, as lighting solutions become longer lasting and more sustainable, management and control can often be a time and labor-intensive process. We saw a need for a solution that would help facility operators manage all their lighting systems from a cloud-based platform.”

Atrius Building Manager’s new capabilities include: 

• Simplified Firmware Management: Drivers and firmware can be seamlessly managed, updated, and secured through its cloud-based management platform.

• Deploy Set Configurations at Scale: Set and automate lighting programs to control thousands of sites with millions of fixtures within minutes. 

• Equipment Life Cycle Support and Health Reporting: Gain insight into all lighting fixtures for confirmation they are operating as intended. By providing facility operators better visibility into equipment performance, they have more time to focus on higher level priorities. 

• Light Optimization: Deliver a specific type of ambient experience through greater control of lighting, colors, hues, and wavelengths. As spaces become more multi-use and complex, lighting must not only be functional and energy efficient but also provide lighting quality and ambiance within an architectural space design and unique features.

• Energy Optimization: Smart dimming to intelligently reduce brightness without increasing wear on the fixture, extending its life, and allowing users to use natural lighting when full lighting is not needed.

• Compliance Testing: Automated testing and reporting to support mandatory state and federal regulations for critical infrastructure such as emergency and exit lighting, reducing the need for manual inspection. For more information, visit http://atrius.com.