Lon is the world's leading technology for networking building services devices, and is an international standard “Control Network” protocol (ISO 14908) as well as an American, Chinese and European standard for open data communication in building automation, controls & building management.

Lon is supported worldwide by more than 4,000 companies representing 80% of the building controls market with more than 100,000,000 devices installed globally in a variety of sectors including highway lighting, lighting management, heating and air conditioning systems, electricity metering, subway train brake control, security systems, fire detection, newborn baby location monitoring – and more.

Delmatic are acknowledged leaders in the supply of Lon technology and have equipped many projects with integrated and interoperable solutions controlling lighting, air-conditioning, window blinds and solar shading.

Lon open protocol technology provides future-proofing and multi-vendor advantages to clients as well as ensuring ease of interoperability and seamless integration with other building services systems.

Using Lon, specialist systems such as lighting, fire, air-conditioning, solar shading and security can seamlessly pool information to communicate and work together. Sensors and devices from various systems and manufacturers can co-exist on a single network and share data to enhance the overall building operation - so, for example, a single presence detector can broadcast messages which are received and acted upon by all other Lon systems in the building.

Lon frees clients from reliance on a single source of supply. Clients select the best-of-breed for detectors, lighting controls, HVAC and access-control units confident that these can be connected into a fully interoperable building control network using software plug-ins and standard configuration software: support staff can configure, manage and maintain any Lon system avoiding the need to learn protocols for different systems.

Technically Lon is superior to other protocols on the market. Lon is eight times faster than KNX (EIB) - Lon’s 78,000 bits per second (bps) compares to KNX's 9,600 bps - and incorporates acknowledgement handshakes which are not generated by KNX devices. Lon technology enables an entire system database to be created by reading back from the network devices - a feature not offered by any other technology. Coupled with distributed intelligence which guarantees no single point of failure, it is no surprise that Lon is the technology of choice for large, integrated projects where accurate, high-speed communication is important.

Open, integrated systems achieve enhanced building efficiency and reduced operational costs through the pooling and sharing of information: independent studies show that integrated Lon systems can also reduce capital cost – for more details see the “Integrated Systems” section.

Delmatic have equipped major international projects with integrated Lon systems and examples include:

Drapers Gardens London, UK

Pfizer Research Headquarters Sandwich, UK

ADIA Headquarters Abu Dhabi, UAE