Group levels and types

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Groups of components

Complex multimedia installations are more than just a random collection of devices and software. These are usually grouped in some form during the planning stage: be it by rooms or individual stations such as exhibits or workstations. This makes it clearer which devices are responsible for what and how they work together.

But this grouping can be divided and named differently depending on the project. That's why you can flexibly build and name a tree structure in NeuroomNet.

Let's take a museum as an example:

At the lowest level, a digital exhibit could consist of components such as a computer, two projectors and an RFID reader. So we need a group type “exhibit”.

But there are also other stations that cannot directly be described as exhibits. Let's imagine a small digital signage station in the foyer that welcomes visitors with various images and videos or even interactive content. This station consists of a computer, software that plays the content, a projector to project the output onto the wall and the whole thing is supposed to be disconnected from the power after it is switched off. So we also need the group types “Digital Signage” for information displays and “Workspace” for employees.

These three group types are all at the same group level, which we call “technique” in this example.

Overall, in the example/image mentioned above, a hierarchy is defined over 4 levels:

• Level 1 “Technology”: Consisting of 3 group types “Work area”, “Exhibit”, “Monitoring”
• Level 2 “Room”: Consisting of 3 group types “Exhibition”, “Foyer”, “Administration”
• Level 3 “Buildings”: Consisting of a group type “Buildings”
• Level 4 “City”: Consisting of a “sister city” group type

Tip! If you are not sure at the beginning how to name the group levels, you can of course simply number them. You can rename them at any time later.

Concrete groups can now be defined for this hierarchy of group types - for example as follows:

You could create the following concrete groups at the lowest hierarchy level (“Technology”) and fill them with the following components:

• “Reception work area” group of the “Work area” group type, consisting of 2 components: a computer and a power strip that can be switched via KNX
• “Exhibit Projector” group of the “Exhibit” group type, consisting of 4 components: A computer, an RFID reader and two projectors
• Group “Exhibit 2” of the “Exhibit” group type, consisting of 3 components: A computer, an RFID reader and a screen

For the next higher hierarchy level “Room”, we define, for example, the following concrete groups with the following subgroups (groups of the next lower hierarchy level):

• “Reception” group of the “Foyer” group type, consisting of the “Reception work area” group
• Group “Exhibition Room 1” of the group type “Exhibition”, consisting of the groups “Exhibit Projector” and “Exhibit 2”

For the next hierarchy level “Buildings” we can, for example, define the following concrete groups with the following subgroups:

• “Exhibition building” group of the “Building” group type, consisting of the “Reception” and “Exhibition room 1” groups

Such a grouping, including hierarchy, allows scripts and other fully or partially automated actions (such as switching sequences) to be made much simpler, because, for example, a script can say “switch off exhibition room 1” instead of “switch off device 1, switch off device”. 2 off, …, switch device 27 off”.

This means that such actions and scripts are fully automated or partially automated

• Easier for people to understand
• Maintainable with less effort and
• Can be implemented error-free with less effort.

There are also the following aspects and advantages of grouping:

• Only groups can be located in building plans (see Monitoring module)
• The status of a group is always based on the highest warning level of its child components or child groups.