Andrey Golovin, Editor-in-Chief
Dear readers!
You are holding in your hands the first issue of the bulletin «Automation of Buildings in Russia», established and prepared by the BIG-RU Building Automation Association and the ALTpress publishing house.
Probably, many will ask why another publication about building engineering systems is needed? Of course, today in Russia there are many magazines covering various issues of building engineering systems, but there is not a single one entirely devoted to the issues of their automation.
The editors plan to implement in the bulletin the ideology underlying the BIG-RU Association — the unification of all participants in the process of constructing intelligent buildings. Equipment manufacturers, installers (system integrators), operating companies (facility management), investment and construction, development and consulting organizations.
The structure of the bulletin includes several main sections, which will continue to form its content:
«New equipment», «Unique projects», «Expert opinions», «Investor page», «Foreign experience».
A special place is given to news provided by direct participants in the building automation market. The BIG-RU Association will regularly inform about its activities. With many years of experience in the building automation market, we use our existing international connections to provide our readers with cutting-edge information on the state of the building automation market around the world. In each issue, you will see articles by leading experts from America, Europe and Asia. The bulletin has received support and the right to translate and publish in Russia the most interesting materials from specialized publications with worldwide renown.
For the first issue, we chose a somewhat philosophical, but nonetheless relevant question as the main topic: «What is an intelligent building?»
Understanding that there is no clear answer, and slightly paraphrasing the well-known proverb — «So many specialists — so many opinions», we involved experts in an open dialogue and tried to ask them questions that concern all participants in the construction process today.
Despite the fact that the bulletin was established by the «Association for Building Automation and Engineering Equipment Control Systems Based on the BACnet Protocol» — BIG-RU, we welcome all existing standards and technologies on our pages.
Our goal is to unite advanced ideas in building automation and we are pleased to provide the bulletin as an independent platform for posting your information. The first issue of the bulletin was published in a circulation of 20,000 copies, but by the end of 2006 the circulation of the monthly publication should reach 50,000.
The bulletin is distributed free of charge by mail. Recipients are specialists from various fields directly related to building automation. The main distribution regions are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and other cities with a population of over one million. Anyone wishing to regularly receive our publication can send their postal address to the editorial office and will be automatically included in the list of subscribers. We hope that the bulletin «Automation of buildings in Russia» will be useful and interesting to you!