Technology

As AI Strains the Grid, R-Zero Cuts Building HVAC Energy 20 to 40 Percent

Published

3 months ago

June 23, 2026

R-Zero’s Physical AI platform uses real-time occupancy to reduce ventilation energy in existing buildings, with no capital investment and savings verified against utility bills.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As AI compute demand strains power grids and drives operating costs higher across every sector, data centers accounted for approximately 1.5% of global electricity in 2024, according to analysis from the Brookings Institution, with demand growing significantly faster than overall electricity consumption. Fortune 500 technology companies, major telecommunications providers, Ivy League institutions, and nationally ranked healthcare systems are turning to R-Zero. The Physical AI platform for buildings is cutting HVAC energy use by 20 to 40 percent without retrofits, capital investment, or operational disruption.

Most commercial buildings still run HVAC on fixed schedules or indirect signals like CO2, with ventilation sized for a peak occupancy that rarely occurs. Average peak occupancy across commercial buildings is roughly 50 percent, and HVAC accounts for about 40 percent of a building’s total energy use. The result is systematic over-conditioning of empty and under-occupied space, hour after hour.

R-Zero closes that gap by putting intelligence in the building’s control loop, without any new HVAC equipment or rewiring. The platform senses live occupancy across every floor, zone, and air handler, interprets how each space is actually being used, and continuously determines how much ventilation it needs minute to minute, communicating directly with the building’s existing control system. When a zone empties, the system automatically dials back airflow to a certified low-energy mode, also known as ASHRAE-compliant Occupied Standby, then ramps back up the moment people return. The same intelligence runs across an entire portfolio, learning each building’s patterns, constantly adjusting to how the building is actually being used, holding comfort inside defined guardrails, and catching inefficiencies before they show up on the energy bill.

“Buildings are one of the largest sources of controllable energy waste, and most still run as if every room is full,” said Jennifer Nuckles, CEO of R-Zero. “We turn real-time occupancy into control decisions inside the existing building system, so the savings show up in the financial reporting, not just on a dashboard. That is what physical AI looks like when it operates infrastructure instead of describing it.”

Verified Results

At a nationally ranked children’s hospital system, R-Zero deployed its platform across a 521,000-square-foot facility where ventilation had previously operated at fixed levels regardless of occupancy. The following results were measured against a pre-project baseline using IPMVP methodology:

30 percent reduction in HVAC energy use23,000 kWh saved9.72 metric tons of CO2 avoided72 percent reduction in excess airflow during low-occupancy periods66 percent of operating hours in a certified low-energy ventilation mode or ASHRAE-compliant Occupied Standby modeZero impact on occupant comfort: 100% of occupants reported temperature satisfaction

Adoption and Recognition

Most building operators know they are over-conditioning space. The barrier has never been awareness; it has been the capital commitment, operational complexity, and risk of replacing working infrastructure to fix it. R-Zero removes all three.

Commercial buildings account for approximately 30% of U.S. energy consumption, and HVAC is often the single largest controllable operating expense. As utilities and regulators look for ways to reduce grid strain without building new generation capacity, optimizing existing building infrastructure has become an increasingly attractive source of demand reduction.

The platform is gaining traction across building types where HVAC spend is high and occupancy is variable: non-clinical healthcare facilities, higher education campuses, corporate offices, and large commercial real estate portfolios. R-Zero is offered through a shared-savings model with no upfront cost, and fees are tied directly to verified savings measured against actual utility bills, removing the capital-approval barrier that stops most building intelligence projects from moving forward.

R-Zero’s approach earned ASHRAE Technology Awards at both the Golden Gate Chapter and Region X levels in the Healthcare/EBCx Building category, evaluated on measured field performance against a pre-project baseline rather than vendor claims.

To learn more about R-Zero’s Physical AI, visit rzero.com/audit.

About R-Zero

R-Zero is the Physical AI platform for buildings. The platform uses real-time occupancy intelligence to operate existing building systems, reducing HVAC energy by 20 to 40 percent, lowering OpEx, and supporting NOI without capital investment, operational disruption, or added burden on facilities teams. R-Zero integrates with existing BMS infrastructure over BACnet and delivers verified savings measured against actual energy bills using IPMVP methodology. R-Zero has raised a total of $170 million to date, with backing from La Caisse, Mayo Clinic Ventures, World Innovation Lab, John Doerr, and DBL Partners. Learn more at rzero.com.

MEDIA CONTACT BAM for R-Zero rzero@bambybig.agency

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SOURCE R-Zero

Technology

Moonlock by MacPaw Wins Red Dot Award 2026

Published

5 minutes ago

September 7, 2026

Moonlock earns recognition in the Interface & User Experience Design category, proving that thoughtful design belongs in cybersecurity as much as anywhere else.

BOSTON, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — MacPaw is proud to announce that Moonlock, its antivirus and protection app for Mac users, has been named a winner of the 2026 Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design, recognized in the Interface & User Experience Design category. The award is an international mark of design excellence, judged on the strength of an idea, its execution, and its real-world impact.

Since launching in October 2025, Moonlock has taken a different approach to cybersecurity, reflected in every detail of the app. Its intuitive interface, plain-spoken copy, and hand-drawn illustrations replace the cold, technical tone common to security software. The result is a security app making protection feel easy and stress-free for everyone, expert or not.

Clear, human, beautiful products are a core MacPaw value, and the company pays attention to every detail, from aesthetics to user experience. Moonlock is no exception: it was built to make cybersecurity accessible to everyone, whatever their background — and design is central to that mission.

“Cybersecurity has a reputation for being intimidating — all alerts and jargon, with the sense that you need to be an expert just to stay safe. We built Moonlock to change that,” said Oleg Stukalenko, Head of Product Management at Moonlock by MacPaw. “From the start, we wanted it to feel human and welcoming, so that online protection becomes a natural part of everyday life rather than something people worry about. We think of design as everything someone actually experiences with us, not just the screen in front of them. Having the Red Dot jury recognize that work means a lot to the whole team.”

The Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design celebrates the craft behind how a product looks, feels, and speaks to the people who use it. Held since 1993, the competition is open to established and emerging designers, agencies, and companies across 18 categories. Each year, an international jury of 30 experts from design, science, media, and consultancy evaluates the entries, bringing a wide range of professional and cultural perspectives to every decision.

With this win, Moonlock continues MacPaw’s legacy of design excellence. It is the company’s fourth Red Dot Award: in 2017, Gemini 2 became the first macOS application to win the honor, followed by CleanMyMac in 2021 and CleanMy®Phone in 2024.

About Moonlock

Moonlock is a part of the MacPaw ecosystem that offers simple, approachable, and stress-free Mac protection and antivirus capabilities.

About MacPaw

MacPaw is a global technology company founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, with offices in Boston, MA and the EU, creating a digital ecosystem for Mac users. Combining capabilities such as system care, cybersecurity, app discovery, and more, the ecosystem aims to unite MacPaw’s suite of software, third-party tools, and AI solutions to collaborate on behalf of the user. Through Eney, an AI-powered assistant and the interface of the ecosystem, MacPaw aims to help users and developers within their workflows, driving the next generation of human-computer interaction.

Contacts

pr_team@macpaw.com

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SOURCE MacPaw

Technology

DBGallery Delivers “AI Knowledge Layer for Visual Assets,” Bringing Automated Enterprise DAM to Organizations of All Sizes

Published

5 minutes ago

September 7, 2026

Automated AI metadata converts photos and videos into structured organizational knowledge, transforming digital chaos into a strategic advantage without the manual effort.

TORONTO, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — DBGallery today announced the expansion of its visual intelligence capabilities, formally positioning its platform as an AI Knowledge Layer for Visual Assets for organizations and teams of all sizes. By replacing manual keywording with automated AI metadata analysis, DBGallery converts raw photos, graphics, and video into rich, structured organizational knowledge the moment they are uploaded.

For years, visual assets lost value because nobody had the bandwidth to tag them. With an automated metadata layer, that changes completely. Visual media becomes instantly discoverable, creating compounding, multi-year value, and puts DAM within reach of more organizations.

Historically, Digital Asset Management (DAM) was reserved for large media organizations with dedicated archiving staff. Resource-constrained teams across tourism boards, municipalities, higher education, non-profits, and marketing teams across numerous industries were locked out by the sheer labor required to manually tag thousands of files—turning vast digital asset libraries into unsearchable “file graveyards.”

DBGallery’s AI Knowledge Layer changes that economic equation by shifting DAM from a labor-intensive requirement into an automated, accessible workflow hub.

“For years, visual assets lost value over time because nobody had the bandwidth to tag them properly,” said Glenn Rogers, Director of Product and Project Management at DBGallery. “When you introduce an automated metadata knowledge layer, that changes completely. Visual media becomes instantly discoverable through structured context, custom prompt targeting, embedded OCR text, and interactive video transcripts. The metadata doesn’t just solve today’s search, it creates compounding, multi-year value for the entire organization, and brings DAM within reach to more organizations.”

Key Capabilities of the DBGallery AI Knowledge Layer include:

Automated Auto-Enrichment: Extracts OCR text from images and PDFs, identifies objects and faces, and summarizes photo and video content upon upload or subsequent batch analysis.Custom AI Description Prompts: Admins and users can tailor global or image-specific prompts to extract structured domain data—ranging from architectural style identification and brand compliance to social media captions and emotional tone analysis—and can be outputted as HTML or JSON for direct ingestion into websites or ERP systems.Interactive Video Transcription & Timelines: Generates time-stamped, sentence-by-sentence spoken transcripts aligned with video playback, allowing teams to click any transcript line to jump instantly to that exact moment in the video.Non-Spoken Scene Analysis: Automatically inserts AI visual scene descriptions into pauses in speech or non-verbal video clips, ensuring complete visual context alongside spoken transcripts.

This AI framework is integrated directly into DBGallery’s production-proven platform, capable of scaling to millions of assets and thousands of users. Designed specifically for multi-user team collaboration, the platform combines Single Sign-On (SSO) and granular action-level permissions with full audit trails, custom metadata fields, usage analytics, and cloud or on-premises deployment options.

By combining cutting-edge AI automation with a secure, highly scalable foundation, DBGallery allows organizations of any size to deploy enterprise-grade digital asset management without adding administrative headcount or compromising on data governance.

To explore the AI Metadata Value Chain or learn more about DBGallery’s enterprise AI capabilities, visit https://dbgallery.com/ai.

About DBGallery

DBGallery is a leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform trusted by over 100+ brands across more than 25 countries, ranging from non-profits and educational institutions to global enterprise organizations. By combining scalable SaaS or on-premises architecture with powerful AI metadata automation, DBGallery empowers teams of any size to organize, discover, and turn visual media into structured, searchable business data. Learn more at https://dbgallery.com and https://dbgallery.com/ai.

Media Contact

Glenn Rogers, DBGallery, 1 8888080381, grogers@dbgallery.com, https://dbgallery.com

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SOURCE DBGallery

Technology

Coda Launches Fresh Coda.co Website, Built for Publisher Growth

Published

5 minutes ago

September 7, 2026

SINGAPORE, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Coda today launched a revamped Coda .co website, creating a more comprehensive destination to explore Coda’s products, pricing, insights, and global capabilities.

The new Coda.co has been rebuilt to meet the needs of Coda’s B2B audiences, with gaming remaining at the heart of Coda’s business and expertise. The site also reflects how Coda is bringing that experience to a growing range of digital commerce businesses across entertainment, education and other verticals.

Designed to make it easier to evaluate opportunities with Coda, the site brings together practical information on market dynamics and local payment preferences alongside richer product pages, case studies and pricing.

The new Market Guides provide a country-level view of consumer behavior, payment preferences, and growth opportunities across 49 markets, while the Payment Guides go deeper on 94 individual payment methods worldwide, covering reach, adoption, and integration considerations.

Coda has also introduced a dedicated Pricing page that offers greater transparency into standard and custom pricing options, payment method coverage, and other commercial considerations. This sits alongside an expanded repository of case studies, white papers, and blog posts, providing deeper insight into why businesses choose Coda and how they use its Merchant of Record service and broader product suite to grow revenue, enter new markets, and build stronger direct-to-consumer channels with ease.

Shane Happach, CEO of Coda, said, “Publishers and brands are making decisions across more markets, payment methods and channels than ever. Our job is to bring clarity to that complexity. The new Coda.co provides a sharper view of the commercial opportunities we see and how Coda’s products and services help our partners turn that potential into meaningful growth. Gaming remains central to Coda, and the expertise we’ve built in the industry continues to shape how we help partners grow across digital commerce.”

The new Coda.co launch marks another milestone in Coda’s evolution as a global digital commerce leader, with a site designed to grow alongside its products, partnerships, and ambitions. The website will be available in Japanese, Chinese, and South Korean languages by the end of the year.

Learn more at the new www.coda.co

About Coda

Coda is a global leader in monetization, distribution, and commerce, trusted by the biggest names in gaming, entertainment, and technology, including Activision, Electronic Arts, Riot Games, Ubisoft, and Moonton. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Singapore, Coda operates with 670+ employees worldwide, with core hubs in Asia and Europe. Coda combines payments, commerce, distribution, and rewards to drive global revenue growth for brands and publishers.

Coda’s products include Codapay, which provides access to 400+ payment methods across 80+ markets through a single API integration; Coda Webstore, which powers fully customized direct-to-consumer storefronts; Coda Consumer Platforms, including Codashop, Recharge.com, and Startselect.com; Coda Distribution, which extends reach through a network of commerce partners; and Giftcloud, a UK-based rewards business serving enterprise customers across Europe.

Coda is backed by Apis Partners, Insight Partners, Smash Capital, and GIC, and has been named an APAC High Growth Company (2023) by Financial Times, one of Granite Asia’s NextGenTech 30 (2024), a payments leader on Fortune’s Fintech Innovation Asia list (2024), and listed among The Straits Times Fastest Growing Fintechs (2024). For more on Coda, visit coda.co.

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SOURCE Coda