IPFusion unifies systems and devices so cameras, door locks, alarms, nurse calls, communications and lighting can communicate with one another.
“If you want the old approach of having hardwired signals, it’s expensive and it’s limiting,” Smythe said. “With one cable and integration software in the middle, you can query a device for many different things and optimize systems to be the most efficient. There are all sorts of applications once you have more data to help make those decisions.”
Yes, Alexa and Siri have become commonplace in almost all of our lives.
The growing trend for smart home automation can connect video cameras, lighting and your home’s thermostat with more and more devices being supported every day. The Internet-of-Things (IoT) trend has enabled your fridge and doorbell to talk to your smart phone.
But what about in industry? How do you create a smart building? A smart hospital? A team of Saskatchewan engineers has cornered the market on this emerging trend.
IPFusion unifies systems and devices so cameras, door locks, alarms, nurse calls, communications and lighting can communicate with one another.
IPFusion is an enterprise Internet-of-Things software suite created by a division of Delco Automation. Drawing from Delco’s previous experience and knowledge, development of IPFusion was started in 2012 and has matured into the commercial off-the-shelf software it is today.
Over the past number of years, it has been installed in many facilities across Canada, including correctional institutions, hospitals, commercial high-rises, energy facilities, stadiums, court houses and academic institutions.
“Enterprise automation is really shifting into a digital age. We are seeing a trend for large scale, software-driven automation with very complex systems that were never really meant to talk to each other,” explained Edward Reed, P.Eng., director of software with IPFusion.
“In the home automation space, systems are being designed to work together. In industry, it isn’t and that’s where the engineering component comes in. It’s a very complex side of things, especially when you’re spanning a bunch of different corporate departments like security, clinical healthcare, facilities and IT. All of those departments have different systems from different decades and we’re trying to bring them all together so they can work as one.”
The Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford and its staff and patients are beneficiaries of this technology.
This project was a recent undertaking for Delco Automation. There are more than 10,000 connected devices working together across door control, wireless staff communication, real-time location tracking, intrusion detection, water control, video surveillance, fire alarms, lighting and perimeter security.
“It is very hard to make those systems talk to each other,” Reed said. “Your fire alarm system doesn’t typically talk to your camera system. They just don’t connect. That’s why they need software in the middle to broker that communication and provide automation. IPFusion is that software.”
The new facility, which officially opened in March 2019, is a unique design. It has 284 total beds — 188 psychiatric rehabilitation beds and a separate secure wing with 96 beds for offenders living with mental health issues. Full lockdown on one side of the facility, while the other side allows some patients to come and go at their choosing.
To have a unified system that connects many systems, spans the entire facility and satisfies the different needs in each half posed an interesting challenge for the engineers.
Delco worked with consultants, facility staff and senior representatives from provincial corrections and healthcare to design a solution that satisfies all users’ needs. The facility has the ability to digitally shift system behaviour and security posture depending on the day-to-day needs of specific areas.
For example, the gymnasium is a shared area where the security posture shifts depending on the level of security required. Based on the type of user, it can be a secure area or completely open. All doors leading to and attached to the gym are automated and can be adjusted as needed by simply pressing a button on a touchscreen.
Another example of the software capabilities includes the controlling of water valves. Some patients at the hospital suffer from polydipsia – the desire or thirst for constant water, which can cause harm if too much is consumed. The software remotely controls the valves to allow nurses to disable the water flow to specific bathrooms or sinks. This is readily available at the nurses’ desk on a touchscreen that unifies all the systems on the unit.
The original Saskatchewan Hospital was constructed in 1911 and closed in 2018. Throughout its life, it saw little in the way of technology, automation and electronics. Introducing IPFusion and its vast capabilities was a major step forward for staff who work at the new facility.
Greg Smythe, P.Eng., a technical sales engineer at Delco, says an important part of this particular automation is how it is assembled so it is usable and doesn’t overwhelm users.
“The way some people are with technology, we have users who aren’t comfortable doing much more than using email,” he said. “If all of a sudden you present them with a system that controls several elements, a huge part of our design work is figuring out a way to make that all very seamless and easy to use.”
“If something is too complicated, you’re just going to ignore it because you can’t process everything. That’s a big challenge for us. We have to get the buy-in from all of the operators and users or all of our work is for nothing.”
This automation eliminates challenges that were placed on humans like dealing with emergencies and collecting information from various devices and documenting it on paper. Human error is taken out of a lot of these processes, resulting in increased safety and efficiency.
There are other facilities that also benefit from IPFusion, such as The Irene and Leslie Dubé Centre for Mental Health. For security purposes, automation provided by IPFusion is extremely effective.
Should there be an altercation between a patient and a nurse, the nurse can pull on a personal duress tag attached to a lanyard to activate a wireless duress alarm that, through IPFusion, will automatically alert security with the location of the incident, display location specific video cameras and message near-by responders. If the subjects move from room to room or from a room to a hallway, the location of the incident is updated on graphical maps and video cameras act as a live-tracking system and will follow the action.
“This allows them to have eyes and ears on situations so that, as first responders arrive on scene, they’re not walking blindly into a situation which could be dangerous,” Reed explained.
“The traditional way of notifying responders in an emergency could take up to half a minute. Now, we can do that in less than a second and seconds can save lives.”
IPFusion also is being applied in industrial settings. The software can collect data from water treatment plants to monitor instrumentation, alarms and key performance indicators. Although the basic concepts of data collection is not novel, how IPFusion presents the normalized data and leverages its robust automated workflows empowers organizations to be more effective and decisive.
“You can bring all of that information into one spot and make adjustments to how you’re managing your plant,” Smythe said.
“It’s totally reasonable to gather all of the remote data to a centralized location and automatically produce a detailed report that shows production from pump station X and pump station Y, for example. It helps reduce the time to create and send that information and increases the accuracy of that information and helps people make faster and more-informed decisions on how to run facilities.”
Delco Automation has partnered with companies internationally to provide IPFusion’s value to clients worldwide.
It’s not limited to linking systems facility by facility. IPFusion is looking at a bigger picture by spanning the entire province, country or all facilities of a large company to integrate and automate on a much larger scale.
“Different facilities have similar workflows, but they are also fragmented with different systems from different decades,” Reed added. “Clients sometimes have a limited perspective in what they can do with their technology because of what the system is or was. They believe they can’t achieve the same outcomes as more modern facilities can. But when you use this software and look at it with a wholistic view, you actually can in most cases. Connecting everything – that is the future.”
Delco Automation is a 100-per-cent Canadian owned and operated company headquartered in Saskatoon. Originally founded in 1994, Delco has expanded to include five major divisions with offices across Canada and has grown to a workforce greater than 250 professionals.