Priva helps iconic music venue regain control
Priva Blue ID BMS (building management system) technology has helped a premier live-music venue in Milton Keynes regain full control of its heating and ventilation after the previous BMS failed. Installed by Priva partner 3G Controls, the adoption of Blue ID at The Stables was recommended due to its modularity, which ensured the project could be executed as a simple like-for-like retrofit.
The £4.4 million Stables building was opened in 2000. The BMS installed as part of this refurbishment began to malfunction around 10 years ago, eventually leading M&E consultant Max Fordham to seek an alternative solution by turning to one of its preferred system integrators, 3G Controls.
Marc Thomas, 3G’s lead engineer on the project, explained, ‘We discovered that the existing BMS hardware had failed, the warranty had expired and there was no control specialist available to provide support. As a result, we concluded that a site overhaul was the only way forward.’
The task of the BMS at The Stables is to control the boiler, various pumps, underfloor heating and a number of fans and AHUs, including the air-handling unit serving the main auditorium.
Marc Thomas says, ‘Priva Blue ID not only offered a cost-competitive solution to requirements, but the inherent modularity of the system made for a pretty straightforward retrofit project that we were able to complete in just three days while the whole venue stayed live – we maintained plant operations manually during the retrofit process There was only a small amount of additional engineering to perform, such as replacing one or two sensors, valves and valve actuators.’
One of the major advantages of the new BMS is its new intuitive front end that can be easily accessed by non-technical people in order to monitor and override functions as required.
Now that the BMS is fully functional, the next phase of work will see the introduction of remote management via a cloud-based portal with the option of adding BI Metrics. This will help to save energy and ensure that the building continues to perform in an optimum way.
