For the third year in a row, Samsung Electronics Air Conditioner Europe B.V. (SEACE) has organised its Climate Solutions Days event. The company brings together industry leaders together with customers, partners, and other key stakeholders to discuss trends in the industry and showcase Samsung’s latest product innovations in climate solutions. Annually, the event brings together people from around 30 countries. For this year’s event, the format was changed to a ‘Climate Solutions Forum’ allowing participants more in-depth experience of, and involvement in new solutions and technologies. This also provided more opportunities for direct feedback to Samsung, and to get new insights into developments in the HVAC landscape as a whole.
To open the event, Wim Vangeenberghe, President of SEACE, and Vice President of Global HVAC Solution Business, Samsung Electronics, presented his view, based on decades of experience in the industry, on the trends for the coming decade. These include:
- The transformation of customer expectations. It is clear that customers expect products and technology to enhance their experience of life. Which means that products enhance connectivity and work seamlessly together for a total customer experience.
- It is estimated that 68% of the world population will live in cities by 2050. This requires cities, and the buildings within them, to get much smarter.
- Products in the home must connect people to the world around them, whether it is the ability to order new supplies for the home or communicate with other people.
- The way that HVAC suppliers sell will change, in ways that cannot be predicted. New business models may move beyond product-based to service- and/or subscription-based models, as many other industries have already done.
Transforming the customer experience
Samsung has always been on the cutting edge of customer-oriented solutions, and its HVAC division is no exception. The company recently announced the launch of its ClimateHub, an integrated solution for heating and domestic hot water supply.
In addition, the company showcased a new wall-mounted air conditioner platform with R32 refrigerant, featuring its unique Wind-Free Cooling technology and new smart control functionalities. In Wind-Free Cooling mode, fresh air is dispersed gently and evenly through thousands of micro-holes, creating a “Still Air” condition1. It allows people to live, work and relax comfortably without experiencing unpleasant cold drafts.
Samsung also gave live demonstrations of Samsung SmartThings, an IoT and AI based platform through which more than 4000 certified smart devices from Samsung and third parties can be connected in one ecosystem. Samsung strongly believes this will increase comfort and safety in people’s homes, while saving costs. Based on algorithms that learn from people’s daily routines, data is used to optimise various key home functions. It is controlled via the Samsung SmartThings App.
In addition, the Samsung Marketing Cloud was featured. This is a new platform that Samsung will start to roll out for its channel partners in the first quarter of 2020, allowing them to retrieve and - in a later stage - customise Samsung marketing assets and materials. It allows Samsung to harmonise its brand marketing approach in Europe, while supporting channel partners in their local commercial approach in an easier and more efficient way.
Smart everything
As the home becomes a living organism, connecting people to each other and the world around them, in-home appliances will need to work seamlessly together. Entrance control, security systems and many more things will be connected with the outside world.
Smart sensors in buildings will detect every malfunction, and predictive algorithms will even forecast malfunctions before users will experience it. Samsung foresees that service companies will be fully integrated with the building and intervene instantaneously.
All these connections mean that data protection and security will be even more important. Samsung highlighted its Knox system. Samsung Knox is a comprehensive set of security features, pre-installed in most of Samsung's products.
Technical partnerships for complete ecosystem solutions
Samsung is establishing technological partnerships with other companies who deliver devices and systems to buildings. The company is already working with partners in the field of access control, locks, parking systems, lights, and are planning many more.
Samsung’s innovation campus
The rapidly changing requirements of customers in the climate solutions space means that installers, suppliers, and others in the industry need to stay up to date on the best experiential solutions. Samsung’s innovation campus has trained 20 000 young people in 13 countries since its establishment in 2018. There people get trained in the skills needed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.