LED TECHNOLOGIES SALES MANAGER
Our homes, workplaces and cities are becoming smarter and more efficient every day thanks to information technologies. One of the main technologies driving this transformation is connected lighting, which combines information technologies and LED lighting with a focus on light quality, high-level efficiency and a data-based concept. Connected lighting basically refers to a lighting fixture system that has sensors and is connected to a network that allows sending and receiving data. Making this system accessible via the internet on a tablet, smartphone or computer makes connected lighting a part of the Internet of Things (IoT) field as well. The concept of connected lighting initially emerged as a system design that aimed at increasing energy efficiency through motion, presence and daylight sensors and that can be controlled from a center. But the availability of lighting by its nature makes these fixtures ideal for use beyond their basic functions, such as collecting data about the environment inside a building or a situation/event in any part of the city. Many data obtained from occupancy monitoring to temperature and humidity measurements, from traffic density tracking to air pollution measurement provide valuable information and control over our living spaces, while also allowing instant adjustments to be made for the highest level of efficiency, comfort and safety. Therefore, based on the saying “Data is the oil of the new age”, the ability of connected lighting to collect and share data offers the potential and power to transform the way we live. Now, let’s take a look at the applications on how connected lighting plays a role in our lives together with the IoT.
High Level of Energy Efficiency
With the help of occupancy sensors, movement within a building is monitored and privacy is preserved, and lighting in that direction is turned on, dimmed or completely turned off at the required level thanks to the daylight sensors that work in line with movement or according to past trends, ensuring maximum energy efficiency.
A More Personal Workspace
Each person’s sensitivity to light and the tone of light in which they feel comfortable vary. Thanks to connected lighting, employees can achieve a more personal working environment by recording their location via a smartphone app and then instantly adjusting or pre-programming the light level and color of the fixtures in that location according to their needs or wishes at that moment.
Human-Centered Lighting
Connected lighting can help improve employees’ attention and performance during work hours by enabling a human-centered lighting, making rest hours at home more efficient or increasing focus o specific activity such as reading a book or improving students’ learning experiences in the classroom or patient experiences in a hospital.
Smart cities
A connected street lighting system gives user the opportunity to monitor each lighting separately from a distance and control its output. Thus, by providing abilities like adjusting the lighting to increase pedestrian safety in areas with high crime density, controlling the light level based on daylight and surrounding vehicle/pedestrian traffic, monitoring the current temperature, fault alarm and service life of the fixtures and scheduling their maintenance in advance, cities are provided with benefits in terms of security, energy efficiency and labor savings. Furthermore, by connecting each lighting pole to a wider network connection, these poles become a ready-made platform for the Internet of Things (IoT) and, beyond lighting, become a means by which many data can be collected, some of which are given below.
• Air pollution,
• Solar radiation,
• Wind speed,
• Noise measurement,
• Detection of gunfire,
• Temperature,
• Humidity,
• Traffic and population density,
• The number of pedestrians or vehicles going in a specific direction…
Stores and Personal Shopping Experience
Thanks to connected lighting, we can use light to influence the routes that customers follow in stores. Even by automatically detecting the product that the customer brings to the fitting room, an atmosphere based on the content of the product can be created. For instance, different settings for office clothes can be created in the fitting room to show a sports outfit in different ways. Taking it a step further, an application can be developed with a connected lighting system with indoor positioning features that collects data to help understand customer trends and employee performance, directs the customer to the exact location of the product they are looking for, or offers the customer customized product recommendations and related product information when they approach that area, or notifies them of in-store discounts and campaigns. This kind of application creates an opportunity for the store owner to increase sales by offering a personal shopping experience to their customers and be able to analyze and predict to improve business efficiency with the data obtained. Many similar applications such as these have not yet become very widespread. In fact, we can suggest that some of them are still in their “infancy”. The fact that LED lighting systems that already have LEDs installed and are not connected have a long service life due to the nature of the LED may also seem to be an obstacle to this transformation speed. However, based on the tremendous innovation and convenience potential that connected lighting can bring to our lives, we can say that it will be available in all areas of life in a very short time and increase its role each and every day.
