Getting streetwise about outdoor lighting

Getting streetwise about
outdoor lighting

According to Gartner, “Intelligent streetlights will be one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the city.”[1] But if that’s the case, most cities are still in the dark. Many authorities don’t know how many street lights they operate, at what power level and which types. Without this base level of understanding it’s hard for them to take advantage of immediate potential savings from energy reduction and automated lighting management, let alone the long-term benefits of connected street lighting as a central infrastructure and source of valuable city data and insights, which Gartner alludes to. By controlling lights wirelessly, however, every city can start on the journey to smarter, better managed lighting.

[1]. Source: Analysts Explore How IoT Technologies Are Poised to Transform Cities at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016

getting streetwise about outdoor lighting

We’re all connected?

Outdoor lights come in a huge range of shapes and forms from many different vendors. Some are designed to meet specific light levels using different power LEDs, CoBs or high power arrays, others are carefully spaced and designed to illuminate different road widths. They can be mounted on various pole heights, in urban areas, parking lots, public parks and buildings. But despite all their differences, they have one thing in common: they can all be controlled wirelessly.

Standardized drivers?

That’s because Philips has established a standard to store asset information and energy consumption in the LED driver, enabling innovation to continue, while assuring that connected lighting is ‘plug and play’. Any light with a Philips Xitanium SR (sensor-ready) LED driver can be ‘discovered’ – which means using lighting management software you’ll be able to see fixture model, production date, colour temperature, and energy consumption – in a convenient dashboard or app.