Hitachi scales IoT for small- and medium-sized buildings
- September 9, 2024
- Steve Rogerson

Hitachi has developed IoT technology to improve management for small- and medium-sized buildings.
Its BuilMirai building IoT offering is included in its Lumada (www.hitachi.com/products/it/lumada) offering that turns data into insights for driving the digital transformation of social infrastructure.
This should improve building management efficiency, maintain and improve operational quality, and enhance user comfort.
The package is based on the technology, experience, and know-how that Hitachi accumulated through the development and provision of BuilMirai for large buildings. Hitachi will provide this as a service. As a first step, from November 2024, Hitachi will launch three offerings, all available via smartphones, to pass through security points at apartments, monitor building facilities for malfunctions, and monitor security camera imagery. These will be available via monthly subscriptions that users can select as needed, reducing their investment burden.
In the future, Hitachi will continue to expand and enhance the menu to promote the development of a global standard model of BuilMirai in collaboration with Hitachi group company GlobalLogic (www.globallogic.com), and will accelerate the global expansion of its green and smart building business.
In recent years, various social issues and needs have emerged against a backdrop of the rising prices of raw materials and energy, soaring labour costs, labour shortages, and climate change associated with global warming. In the building-related field, there has been a significant increase in interest in creating value for buildings in response to changes in office demand, improving the efficiency of building management, and responding to environmental issues such as the more efficient use of energy.
In large-scale redevelopment projects, there is a growing trend of having dedicated smart building systems to address these. However, for small and medium-sized buildings, which are the majority of buildings in Japan, it is difficult to implement initiatives due to budget constraints, including installation cost, and there is a dearth of systematic options suitable for small and medium-sized buildings.
Hitachi (www.hitachi.com) has so far been selling the BuilMirai IoT platform f to large buildings. BuilMirai has been chosen to be the building operating system for flagship projects.
The first three models for small and medium-sized buildings enable security points in apartments to be controlled remotely, enable building facilities such as water tanks, pumps and power receiving and transforming equipment to be monitored remotely, and enable security camera imagery from multiple locations to be remotely monitored.
All three can be used via a smartphone by apartment residents and building managers at any time and any place. Subscriptions allow users to select the parts they need, reducing the investment burden.
Users can unlock security points such as entrances and elevators using a smartphone and call the elevator car to the entrance floor. In addition, guests and couriers can be pre-registered to ensure smooth entry by verifying their GPS location and conducting a one-time authentication.
The monitoring also lets users remotely unlock entrance security points while viewing security camera images in real time using a smartphone. And they can record visitors.
BuilMirai building IoT is provided as a platform for green and smart buildings, connecting various building facilities and systems to enable centralised management, analysis and control of data. This should help improve the efficiency of building management, maintain and improve the quality of operations, and enhance the comfort of users.