GE Lighting and ByteLight today announced they will showcase the next generation of LED lighting fixtures that communicate with shoppers’ smart devices while in-store, enabling retailers to provide exciting new location-based services using GE LED infrastructure. The innovative solution featuring GE’s Lumination™ LED Luminaire - IS Series is being unveiled at LIGHTFAIR® International 2014 (LFI®) in Las Vegas, June 3-5, in GE Lighting’s booth #4208.

ByteLight’s indoor location technology embedded inside GE LED fixtures will deliver high-value applications to retailers, providing the ability to understand the precise location of shoppers using an opt-in application powered by ByteLight on their smartphones and tablets. The solution combines Visible Light Communication (VLC), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and inertial device sensors, and supports any Android or iOS application on a smart device equipped with a camera and/or Bluetooth® Smart technology. The comprehensive approach enables retailers to reach a broad number of shoppers across the largest area—from the parking lot to anywhere in the store there is LED light. As a result, retailers can achieve continuous ROI on their conversion to GE LED lighting while providing a strategic platform for the connected retail store of the future.

To help retailers increase in-store traffic and basket size, GE and ByteLight are connecting smart LEDs to digital marketing platforms to deliver contextually relevant content and create social shopping experiences. For example:

• Welcome repeat customers with personalized shopping lists as they approach the store front, then provide an easy-to-follow map to optimize their shopping time

• Offer coupons and promotions based on shoppers’ position and direction in the aisle combined with shopping history

• Present customer reviews, play product information videos and connect on-demand with virtual associates to make brand choice easier

“The use of GE’s LED fixtures for location-based services brilliantly demonstrates how LEDs can go beyond the traditional ROI of energy and maintenance savings to fundamentally change the way people shop by combining data with location,” said Jerry Duffy, General Manager, Global Product Management at GE Lighting. “ByteLight’s technology ensures a cost-effective approach for indoor location by not requiring additional hardware infrastructure beyond the lights themselves. We’re excited to show off the technology at LightFair.” Launched in 2011, ByteLight’s patented LED indoor location technology provides significant advantages to both retailers and shoppers:

• Uses existing lighting infrastructure rather than requiring additional equipment like beacons, bringing faster ROI to LED deployments

• Determines the precise location and direction of shoppers anywhere there is light with accuracy within three feet

• Reaches every connected shopper that has a mobile device equipped with a camera and/or Bluetooth® Smart technology

• Reduces maintenance costs by being battery-free, since ByteLight is powered by the light fixture

“The value proposition for LED lighting is becoming less about illumination and more about innovative applications and services that digital light enables,” said Dan Ryan, CEO and Co-Founder of ByteLight. “We’re excited to work with GE to help reinvent LED lighting into a platform for indoor-location services that will revolutionize the in-store shopping experience and make LEDs play a strategic role in the connected retail experience.”