Acuity Brands, a market leader in innovative energy-efficient lighting and control solutions, is pleased to report that its ROAM® wireless outdoor street light monitoring and control system continues to provide superior benefits to the City of Glendale, Arizona.  The ROAM system combines photo-control technology with remote monitoring and control capabilities to help manage and maintain outdoor lighting networks. The City reports that the ROAM implementation has been used as part of its comprehensive city-wide street light monitoring system since 2008, resulting in increased energy-efficiency and repair efficiencies and a dramatic reduction in street light outages.
 
The City of Glendale, AZ was the first US city to have the ROAM wireless monitoring system installed. After the City had fully installed the system on each of its street lights, spread over 55 square miles, the ROAM system reported that over 10 percent of the City’s streetlights were either malfunctioning or not operating to industry standards. The monitoring, reporting, and measuring capabilities of the ROAM system, coupled with the system’s work order management functionality, helped the City and its repair crews decrease the average number of outages to less than 1% of the total lights. The integration of the ROAM system with the City’s streetlight repair operations has resulted in a dramatic reduction of resident-reported outages. As a result, the City’s resident satisfaction levels have improved, while City staff, contractors and utility companies are held more accountable for their performance, all as measured by the ROAM system.
 
"The ROAM system has made a huge difference in efficiency of operations. Its remote monitoring functionality allows us to identify a light outage before residents call it in.  Since we know the exact location, our repair technician knows the correct light to work on.  With ROAM’s diagnostic information, the technician also has the needed information to know which component likely needs replacement," said Mike Sills-Trausch, Street Lighting Program Manager for the City of Glendale. "Another critical benefit we received from ROAM is being able to establish accountability for new repairs and repairs that have been delayed for some reason. The reporting is so accurate, even small changes in repair service are noticeable by City staff," continued Sills-Trausch.
 
"We are pleased to provide the City of Glendale with an industry-leading outdoor control solution that lowers maintenance and energy costs while helping the City provide continued, sustainable, high-performance results for its citizens," said Terry Utterback, Acuity Brands Lighting Vice President, Outdoor Controls.
 
The ROAM solution enhances efficiency and reliability, prolonging the life of an entire street light system. ROAM reports, via a web-based portal, the exact location of malfunctioning streetlights, including those that remain illuminated during the day, a problem called day-burning. With ROAM, day-burning lights can be quickly identified, isolated and repaired, eliminating energy waste.  Fixtures not working during the expected nighttime hours can also be promptly repaired, enhancing illumination of public areas and reducing reliance on city residents to report these malfunctions. By capturing electrical data at each fixture, ROAM provides detailed energy consumption and tracking, while monitoring critical electric distribution system characteristics. The ROAM system's asset management capabilities permit information about each streetlight, including pole type and color, fixture type, wattage and lamp type, to be bar coded into handheld communication devices, allowing service crews to know in advance what repair materials to take to a site, improving efficiency and reducing restoration time.
 
The ROAM solution is being used successfully by several cities throughout the country, including College Station, TX, Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX and Anderson, IN.

About Acuity Brands
Acuity Brands, Inc. is a North American market leader and one of the world’s leading providers of luminaires, lighting control systems and related products and services with fiscal year 2011 net sales of $1.8 billion. The Company’s lighting and system control product lines include Lithonia Lighting®, Holophane®, Peerless®, Mark Architectural Lighting™, Hydrel®, American Electric Lighting®, Gotham®, Carandini®, RELOC®, Antique Street Lamps™, Tersen®, Winona® Lighting, Syner¬gy® Lighting Controls, Sensor Switch®, Lighting Control & Design™, Dark to Light®, ROAM®, Sunoptics®,  acculamp™ and Healthcare Lighting®. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Acuity Brands employs ap¬proximately 6,000 associates and has operations throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
 
About City of Glendale, Arizona
Glendale is Arizona’s fifth largest city, located in the northwest region of the Phoenix metro area. Learn more about Glendale by logging onto www.glendaleaz.com or www.visitglendale.com.