Preventing Water Damage with IoT: Inside Millennium’s 50.000 m2 Leak Monitoring System Powered by Datacake
When your business complex hosts a conference center, fine dining, wellness facilities, and over 1,600 workspaces across 50,000 m², even a minor water leak can escalate into a serious operational and financial issue.
That’s why Millennium, a premier business and lifestyle center in Switzerland, turned to IoT for a water leakage prevention strategy. After experiencing water damage in the past, they implemented a proactive solution built on 1500+ MClimate Flood Sensors, the Datacake platform, and intelligent automation, ensuring peace of mind through constant monitoring.
About Millennium
Millennium is a high-end business, events, and lifestyle center in Lausanne–Crissier, bringing work, culture, and leisure together under one roof. This new-generation smart building spans more than 50,000 m², welcomes over 3,000 professionals daily, and hosts more than 1,000 major corporate and cultural events each year.
As a state-of-the-art hub, Millennium offers flexible, fully equipped spaces — from meeting rooms to a 500-seat auditorium and the world’s first Montreux Jazz Club. Its advanced technologies and dedicated hospitality make it an outstanding venue for corporate events and immersive experiences.
Beyond its business infrastructure, Millennium offers premium amenities such as restaurants, fine delicatessen, wine cellar, art gallery, bookstore, certified fitness center, golf simulator, hair salon, dry-cleaning, and a 500-space parking facility with on-site vehicle wash.
Millennium is designed as a tech-oriented ecosystem, integrating advanced systems that enhance comfort, security, connectivity, and automation. Its infrastructure features innovative technologies such as an electrochromic façade that adapts to sunlight and weather conditions, eliminating the need for conventional shading systems.
The Challenge: Preventing the Unseen Risk
Despite its cutting-edge design, Millennium faced one of the most common and costly threats to modern buildings: water leakage.
As Martin Schlienger, Chief Technology Officer recalls:
“In its early stages, Millennium benefited from real-world feedback on water leakage events management, which highlighted the advantage of integrating a robust detection and alerting system right from the start.”
From that point on, Millennium’s IT and facilities teams knew they needed a smarter, faster, and more scalable solution to protect their investment. The challenge was multifaceted:
● Detect leaks instantly and reliably, across a vast multi-level site● Avoid invasive wiring in a high-end architectural environment● Centralize management of devices, data, and alerts across departments● Integrate seamlessly into existing systems — from Microsoft Teams to security dashboards
As Martin Schlienger, Chief Technology Officer, explained:
“Water damage can spread silently — even more dangerously than fire. You might see a drop on your desk, but the entire floor above could already be flooded.”
To ensure full protection, the team envisioned an intelligent, wireless, real-time monitoring network, one that could scale effortlessly across their complex.
The Solution: 1,500 Flood Sensors, 29 Gateways, and Datacake Platform.
Millennium deployed a comprehensive IoT-based leakage detection system built around the Datacake platform.At the core of the project are 1,500 MClimate Flood Sensors, connected through 29 Miromico LoRaWAN gateways and managed entirely via Datacake’s integrated LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS), eliminating the need for third-party systems or external servers.
This unified approach gave Millennium’s team full control of both network and device data through a single, intuitive interface.
“Datacake made LoRa simple,” says Antoine Vigo, IT Operations Manager. “We could manage the network and the devices in one place, no double onboarding, no complex configuration.”
MClimate Flood Sensors
Miromico LoRaWAN Gateway
The sensors, discreetly installed throughout the building, detect water using a 3-pin contact system that triggers alerts the moment liquid is detected. They also measure ambient temperature, offering additional environmental insights without extra devices.
Beyond Detection: Intelligent Automation with Cake Red
To extend functionality, Millennium leveraged Datacake’s Cake Red, a built-in integration with Node-RED. This allowed the IT team to design custom workflows tailored to their operations, connecting Datacake data directly to existing communication and analytics tools.
Through Cake Red, Millennium implemented:
● Multi-channel alerts via SMS, email, and Microsoft Teams● LoRa-based visual alarms that change color for instant on-site awareness (blue for leaks, red for security incidents)● Real-time data export to Azure IoT and a time-series database, visualized through Grafana● Automated reporting and integration with the facility’s monitoring systems● Wireless panic buttons for employee safety
“The integration from sensor to user environment was straightforward — Teams, SMS, Grafana,” says Damien, Project Manager at Millennium. “There was no need to reinvent our workflows or train staff on new tools.”
Results: Real-Time Leak Detection Across 50,000 m² and No Downtime
Millennium’s deployment shows how IoT automation can deliver reliable, cost-efficient building monitoring at scale.With Datacake at the core of their IoT stack, the team achieved:
● Full wireless coverage across 50,000 m² of facilities● Instant, multi-channel alerts the moment a leak occurs● Multiple incidents prevented each month through real-time detection● Seamless integration with existing communication channels such as Teams, email, and SMS● Cost-effective scalability, thanks to a cable-free setup, 10-year battery sensors, and the Datacake LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS), included for free within the platform● Reduced downtime and maintenance costs through proactive incident management
It’s not about increasing revenue — it’s about avoiding loss. Every leak prevented is an event we didn’t have to cancel, an office we didn’t have to rebuild. Datacake helps us make that possible.”
Martin Schlienger, Chief Technology Officer, Millennium
By combining IoT connectivity, monitoring, and automation in a single, easy-to-manage platform, Datacake helped Millennium implement a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective leak detection system across its 50,000 m² complex.
The result is a smart building that stays protected around the clock, with fewer risks, lower maintenance effort, and complete visibility from sensor to dashboard.
Interested in bringing smart building monitoring to your facilities?
Discover how Datacake can help you deploy scalable, real-time IoT solutions without complexity.
Project Partners