Delivering

value beyond
illumination

Sensor networks are getting a lot of play in the technosphere these days, and for good reason. Sensors can collect data about human activity—the flow of foot traffic, usage patterns, preferences; the environment—daylight levels, temperature, humidity, the presence of chemicals or other dangers; and things—the locations of items in a warehouse, traffic patterns.

Connected lighting systems are uniquely positioned to serve as platforms for sensor networks. Lighting is already installed everywhere that people go, indoors and—at least in urban and residential environments—outdoors as well. Power is already available everywhere that lighting is installed. And connected luminaires already have the ability to send data “upstream” to IT networks. By integrating sensors into the lighting system, you have a readymade, distributed grid.

Connected lighting is all about two-way data communications. One of the biggest advantages that this bidirectional data flow supports is the ability to monitor, manage, and maintain lighting systems in real time.

In standard lighting systems, little or no data is available on the current state of the luminaires and other devices. Often, a system administrator must take the lighting system offline to troubleshoot, to change luminaire configurations, or to display new light show content.

With lighting management software running in the IT network or the cloud, connected lighting systems offer a much richer environment for system administrators to oversee and optimize operations.

When combined with a database, lighting management software can let organizations store historical data on operations, along with any data streams aggregated from sensor networks and indoor positioning systems. It’s hard to underestimate the value of the data-driven insights that can result from analyzing and reporting on this data, especially when combined with valuable data from additional sources.