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BACnet International Earns ASAE 2026 Power of Associations Gold Award for BTL Certification Program

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Association recognized for advancing sustainability, interoperability, and innovation in building automation worldwide.

MARIETTA, Ga., Aug. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BACnet International is excited to announce that the association has been selected as a 2026 Gold Award recipient in the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) prestigious Power of Associations Awards program for the organization’s global BTL (BACnet Testing Laboratories) Certification Program. The recognition highlights how associations can drive industry advancement, solve complex challenges, and create measurable societal benefits.

The ASAE Power of Associations Awards honor associations whose programs demonstrate extraordinary contributions to industry and professional advancement, economic development, advocacy, community engagement, and societal improvement. BACnet International was recognized for the BTL Certification Program’s role in transforming open building automation communications into a globally trusted framework for interoperability, energy efficiency, and sustainability.

“Receiving ASAE’s Gold Award is a tremendous honor and a testament to the collaborative efforts of the global BACnet community,” said Andy McMillan, BACnet International President and Managing Director. “The BTL Certification Program demonstrates what can be achieved when competitors, engineers, and industry stakeholders unite around a common goal: creating interoperable building automation systems that deliver measurable value for building owners, occupants, and the environment.”

Created and administered by BACnet International in collaboration with the BACnet Interest Group Europe and the rest of the global BACnet community, the BTL Certification Program provides independent testing and certification for BACnet products. Before earning BTL Certification, products must undergo rigorous third-party testing to verify compliance with the BACnet standard and demonstrate interoperability with products from other manufacturers. Today, more than 1,600 BTL Certified products are deployed worldwide, supporting building automation applications across HVAC, lighting, energy management, access control, fire safety, and other critical systems.

BACnet International’s award-winning submission highlighted the program’s environmental contributions. According to a 2026 study conducted by the University of New Hampshire’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, BACnet-enabled building automation systems, including those that have undergone BTL testing and certification, have helped mitigate approximately 1.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions globally between 1995 and 2025. By 2030, that number is projected to increase to 2.06 billion as adoption of interoperable, energy-efficient building systems expands.

Beyond environmental benefits, the BTL Certification Program has helped foster a competitive, multi-vendor marketplace that reduces integration risks, lowers costs for building owners, and expands opportunities for manufacturers worldwide. By providing a trusted framework for interoperability, the program has enabled broader adoption of building automation technologies while supporting workforce development and increasing mobility for building automation professionals.

The award also recognizes the unique role associations play in addressing industry-wide challenges. BACnet International has successfully united over 230 manufacturers, including over 160 corporate members, to collectively support a certification ecosystem that benefits the entire building automation industry and the communities it serves.

ASAE will formally recognize the 2026 Power of Associations Award recipients during its Power of Associations Awards celebration in Washington, D.C.

About BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL)
BACnet Testing Laboratories was established by BACnet International to support compliance testing and interoperability testing activities. It consists of the BTL Manager and the BTL Working Group (BTL-WG). Its activities include publishing the BTL Implementation Guidelines document; awarding worldwide BTL Listings to qualified BACnet devices; publishing and maintaining the BTL Test Package; approving testing laboratories for BTL Testing; providing testing services through its managed BACnet laboratory; and organizing the annual PlugFest Interoperability Workshop.

About BACnet International
BACnet International is an industry association that facilitates the successful use of the BACnet protocol in building automation and control systems through interoperability testing, educational programs, and promotional activities. BACnet International oversees the operation of BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL) and maintains a global database of tested products. The BACnet standard was developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and has been made publicly available so that manufacturers can create interoperable systems and products. BACnet International complements the work of the ASHRAE standards committee and BACnet-related interest groups around the world. BACnet International members include building owners, consulting engineers, and facility managers, as well as companies involved in the design, manufacture, installation, commissioning, and maintenance of control equipment that uses BACnet for communication.

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SOURCE BACnet International

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USI Launches AI Smart Camera Solution to Accelerate Smart Manufacturing

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NANTOU, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — USI today announced its next-generation AI Smart Camera solution, a comprehensive edge AI and vision platform that empowers manufacturers to accelerate digital transformation through AI-driven quality inspection, process automation, logistics optimization, and smart factory initiatives.

Moving beyond conventional camera hardware, USI’s AI Smart Camera integrates a high-performance, low-power edge computing platform, high-resolution imaging technology, and proprietary AI vision software to deliver real-time image analysis and actionable insights at the edge. Designed for modern manufacturing environments, the solution enables automated inspection, early defect detection, and faster, more consistent quality decisions. By reducing inspection costs, improving production efficiency, and enhancing product quality, it helps manufacturers accelerate their transition toward smarter and more autonomous production operations.

For manufacturers, the journey to AI-powered vision extends beyond object detection and defect identification. Success depends on turning AI from a proof-of-concept project into a production-ready solution that delivers consistent performance, scales efficiently, and seamlessly adapts to evolving manufacturing requirements.

USI addresses this challenge with an integrated AI Smart Camera platform that supports the complete AI development lifecycle—from data collection and dataset generation to model training and deployment. Its no-code/low-code AI model training platform further simplifies development, enabling customers to develop and deploy vision applications with greater efficiency and less dependence on specialized AI expertise.

Key features of USI AI Smart Camera include:

Real-Time Edge AI Processing: Performs image analysis and AI inference at the edge, enabling fast visual decisions and timely responses without relying solely on centralized computing.High-Quality Imaging for Industrial Inspection: Combines a high-resolution, low-lux-capable camera module with powerful Edge AI computing to support demanding inspection and machine vision applications.Faster AI Deployment: Integrates hardware, embedded software, and AI vision development tools into a production-ready platform, helping customers shorten development cycles and accelerate the transition from proof of concept to production.Flexible AI Vision Applications: Supports object detection, defect identification, OCR, key-part positioning and tracking, assembly verification, product classification, and operation behavior detection and analysis.Seamless Integration with Industrial Environments: Ruggedized design with industrial-grade interfaces, including Ethernet, Power over Ethernet (PoE), HDMI, and MicroSD, ensuring seamless compatibility with existing equipment, machine vision systems, and automation platforms.

By automating visual inspection and defect identification, the AI Smart Camera can reduce reliance on manual QA operations while improving inspection consistency. Its real-time visual intelligence can also provide actionable data to help manufacturers quickly identify process deviations, reduce defect rates, and lower production costs. The platform can further serve as an intelligent visual decision layer for automated production, providing real-time visual guidance and feedback to robotic systems. This enables manufacturers to move beyond inspection automation toward more responsive and autonomous production processes.

“Demand for AI-powered vision applications is growing rapidly across the manufacturing sector. Today’s manufacturers are seeking more than just camera hardware. They need complete, end-to-end solutions that can be deployed quickly and deliver measurable business value,” said Justin Chang, Director of the Vertical Mobility Solution Center at USI. “By combining advanced Edge AI capabilities with our integrated vision platform, we enable customers to accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing, quality inspection, and industrial automation applications. Our solution helps bring AI from proof of concept to production faster and more efficiently.”

As a global ODM partner, USI combines expertise in product design, manufacturing, and Edge AI integration to deliver complete solutions tailored to customer requirements. The AI Smart Camera is already deployed within USI’s own manufacturing operations, providing a production-proven reference platform for industrial AI vision applications.

Building on this experience, USI can customize AI vision solutions around customers’ specific production environments and business requirements, helping shorten development time, reduce implementation risks, and accelerate their smart manufacturing journey.

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/usi-launches-ai-smart-camera-solution-to-accelerate-smart-manufacturing-302871089.html

SOURCE USI

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Media’s future tense in AI-driven world

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BEIJING, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — This is an op-ed from China Daily.

Philip K. Dick’s 1969 novel Ubik imagined a door that demands payment before opening — a fantasy then, but eerily prescient in today’s AI-driven world. While Elon Musk predicts AI will bring global abundance, for traditional media that abundance has already arrived — with devastating consequences.

The question is no longer whether AI changes media, but what role professional journalism can play when information is plentiful, yet truth, context and reality grow scarce.

Dick’s own life — overlooked, depressed and penniless — belied his extraordinary foresight. In The Man in the High Castle, he imagined alternate realities. Today, personalized algorithms, misinformation and AI-generated content make such alternate realities all too real.

Yet Dick’s vision also offers hope through an unexpected link with the ancient Chinese I Ching (Book of Changes). Both suggest reality is not fixed, but a pattern of ever-shifting possibilities. The I Ching asks not “What will happen?” but “What situation am I in, and how should I respond to its changing pattern?” That, arguably, is precisely the role media must adopt in the AI age: providing orientation, credibility and meaning when information itself has lost its scarcity and economic value.

Not all sci-fi is dystopian. Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics embodied faith that humans could impose rules on technology — yet today’s AI race is far more complex. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek imagined a moneyless, post-scarcity civilization; AI may be bringing that closer, just as Google’s free search and maps once upended the world.

So where does this leave traditional media? In a Dickian dystopia, media could become a modern-day I Ching — helping people navigate uncertainty, distinguish illusion from reality, and make informed choices when no single truth prevails. In a Roddenberry-esque future, media could guide humanity on how to live wisely with AI-driven abundance.

The practical challenge remains: financing itself in the first scenario and inspiring itself in the second. As Dick warned in The Man in the High Castle, humanity’s “destiny lies in the hands of a few men.” We can only hope some of them are traditional media editors.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/medias-future-tense-in-ai-driven-world-302871740.html

SOURCE China Daily

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New agentic AI platform sounds death knell for manual presentation tools

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Sembly AI launches Sembly 3.0 in biggest evolution since 2019

SYDNEY, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Sembly AI launches Sembly 3.0, an agentic AI platform that transforms an organisation’s documents, meetings, and CRM content into finished, fully branded presentations, proposals, case studies and reports in minutes in over 45 languages.

The launch marks the company’s biggest evolution since it was founded in 2019, repositioning Sembly as an “AI execution layer” for businesses. It turns everyday business knowledge into the finished materials companies use to sell, deliver and communicate.

Users simply need to specify their goal (eg, “Sell my services”) and the client’s website, then watch Sembly get to work: pulling information from business materials, deriving appropriate branding, researching the customer, and producing a bespoke on-brand pitch deck.

“Prompts make people think about how to talk to AI. But dialogue lets them focus on what they want to accomplish,” said Gil Makleff, CEO and co-founder of Sembly AI. “That makes creating business documents faster and more efficient, turning time saved into real business impact.”

“Manually creating presentations is a thing of the past,” said Artem Koren, Chief Product & Technology Officer and co-founder of Sembly AI. “Business materials are the substrate of decision-making: they are how companies communicate, persuade and decide. Sembly 3.0 changes how they are made entirely.”

“Your customers want to hear how you serve them in their specific world and their specific situation, and Sembly makes that possible for every customer,” Koren added. “With Sembly 3.0, your results are as good as how clearly you can state your goal. That’s all you’re limited by.”

Early users of Sembly 3.0 report saving two to three weeks of work on reports and presentations that traditionally pass through multiple hands before they are delivery-ready.

Heorhii Tulchyi, Chief Technology Officer at market research company, Bell & Holmes, is one of those early users of Sembly 3.0.

He said: “Sembly has fundamentally changed how I prepare presentations and client communications. It has saved my team and me weeks of work and dramatically accelerated how we turn ideas and information into polished deliverables. I haven’t seen anything else on the market quite like it.”

Sembly 3.0 is available from today at www.sembly.ai.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/new-agentic-ai-platform-sounds-death-knell-for-manual-presentation-tools-302870013.html

SOURCE Sembly AI

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