smartcustos: From smart bell control to an IoT platform for churches

Sometimes, the happy coincidence of an interesting story and a good idea gives rise to a new business model – as was the case with the Adiutor Hub, smartcustos’ IoT platform for church buildings. Here’s the story: in the small parish of Rohr in south-west Thuringia, an elderly lady makes her way to the churchyard day in, day out, come rain or shine, to ring the bells for masses, christenings, weddings and funerals. She then returns home, only to set off for the church again a short while later to stop the bells ringing. Kai Kerwel, IT manager at the Hessian engineering firm corosys, hears this story – and he has a brilliant idea: a remotely programmable bell control system is needed.

What began as a digital bell-ringing system has, over the past few years, been gradually developed into a comprehensive solution for church premises. The approach now goes considerably further. The calendar serves as the central workflow platform for church operations and building services: a scheduled event not only controls the ringing of the bells, but also the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and time-limited access for external service providers. This allows processes relating to church services, funerals, concerts or rehearsals to be prepared automatically. 

This eliminates a great deal of manual work for priests, sacristans and volunteers. The approach is particularly appealing for parishes with several churches: multiple sites can be planned, automated and managed remotely via a single platform. If, for example, a funeral service needs to be held at short notice, the date is entered into the calendar – and the relevant procedures are automatically set up.

Lighting, doors and locking systems can also be integrated into the same calendar workflow and controlled on a schedule-based basis – an approach that is specifically tailored to the operations of church buildings.

This is made possible by the Adiutor Hub’s connection via Telekom’s mobile network. There is no need for complex on-site IT infrastructure; the device is set up once and can then be controlled centrally via familiar calendar applications. “Our aim is to provide a solution that really works in the day-to-day life of church parishes: easy to use, centrally controllable and flexibly expandable,” says Managing Director Kai Kerwel. 

The platform also includes a set of sensors. The sensors can be positioned within the church, on the organ or at other relevant locations, and measure temperature and humidity. The mobile communications module integrated into the control unit, which uses a Telekom IoT SIM card, automatically transmits the measurement data to the smartcustos cloud, where it can be accessed centrally by church staff.

Climate data collection has been significantly expanded: in addition to continuous measurement, threshold and trend analyses are carried out to provide early warnings of critical humidity levels. Protective functions such as temperature gradient monitoring and humidity alarms help to safeguard organs, works of art, fixtures and fittings, and the building structure against critical climatic conditions. In addition, the system records the operating times and statuses of heating systems, windows and ventilation systems – an important basis for analysis and energy optimisation. 

Existing heating systems can be integrated via a retrofit or replaced. Pre-heating and post-heating take place automatically based on calendar entries, usage categories, and indoor and outdoor temperatures. The adaptive heating model takes into account building data, weather data and empirical values from previous heating cycles. This means that heating is not carried out on a blanket basis, but rather according to demand and as energy-efficiently as possible. This allows the church to be heated to the exact required temperature before services, concerts or funeral services. 

Ventilation can also be controlled intelligently. The system takes into account indoor and outdoor conditions as well as weather data. Windows, fans or air vents can be opened, tilted or closed automatically. In the event of rain, storms or frost, the system automatically prevents inappropriate ventilation. The platform assesses not only temperature and relative humidity, but also whether ventilation actually helps to improve the indoor climate. This ensures that ventilation only takes place when it genuinely benefits the building and the indoor climate.

“Telekom’s staff have contributed lots of ideas,” says Kerwel. What started out as a bell-control system has now evolved into an IoT platform for church building management: heating, air conditioning, ventilation, lighting and access can all be networked via calendars, sensors and secure mobile connectivity. “In this way, we help parishes to use energy more efficiently, better protect historic buildings and reliably automate processes despite limited resources.”