Light and Building 2018, one of the largest trade shows in Europe, gathers over 2,700 exhibitors and their advanced lighting and building automation technologies in Frankfurt. Those technologies reflect the highly dynamic nature of the sector and the rising demand for smart life and efficient energy management around the world. In particular, one of the most exciting things must be to learn what major companies announce and showcase at the fair. Here, LEDinside sees a trend that big lighting companies are now transforming themselves from lamp suppliers to IoT solution and service providers.
Philips Lighting
Just two days before the fair started, Philips Lighting announced its intention to change the company name to Signify. It held a press conference yesterday explaining that the new name embodies the company’s effort to shift if focus from light manufacturing to IoT software development that helps lighting become even smarter. The Dutch conglomerate is expected to complete the transformation by 1Q19.
The company also announced its new IoT platform Interact that collects and analyzes data from systems which receive signals from LED lamps, LED drivers, and sensors to provide intelligent monitoring and tracking services. The platform can be deployed in various applications, including sports, landscape, industrial, office, retail, and street lighting. Harsh Chitale, CEO of Business Group Professional, Philips Lighting, shared that it was introduced to a university in Dubai to help new students with their enrollment and guide them on campus on their first day. The company also added that the Hue App 3.0 will be launched soon in spring 2018.
Philips Lighting made it clear that professional and entertainment lighting will be its main focuses. It showcased the gaming lighting application co-developed with renowned gaming hardware supplier Razer. With Philips Hue and Razer Chroma, the lighting system floods the space with different colors, creating a sense-stimulating gaming experience.
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In terms of light quality, it also demonstrated the Expert Color technology that simulate the color spectrum of a halogen light. Instead of the cold white light that consumers complaint about LED, Philips’ LED products is able to project light with a color rendering index (CRI) of 97, similar to that of a halogen light, and provide a warm atmosphere to a space. The technology has been widely employed in locations such as hotels and restaurants, said a Philip staff.
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LEDinside also spotted a small corner where Philips showcased a few OLED panel lights. The company is currently developing related technologies, whereas it has no plans to roll out any OLED lighting products in the short term due to the high production cost and the lukewarm demand for such products at this moment, explained Eric Yu, General Manager of Philips Lighting Taiwan.
Osram
Germany-based lighting giant Osram also demonstrated its IoT solution. Standing in front of the Osram booth, what LEDinside saw at the first sight were beautiful LED array lights showing the themes Osram presented for Light and Building 2018—Light for the commercial and industrial sectors and IoT solution for better management. Instead of displaying all kinds of lighting products like its competitors, Osram emphasized its lighting control services and what its new IoT technology can do for its customers.
The company introduced Lightelligence, an open IoT platform that effectively controls devices it links with. When used in an office, it helps manager to monitor the occupancy of each area, track the lifetime of each lamp installed, tune color temperatures and intensity of lights based on the amount of external light detected by sensors.
The open platform serves as a foundation on which customers can add a wide variety of functions depending on scenarios it is used for. Customers can integrate the platform with different devices and build in different tracking and monitoring software to enable smart farming, smart factory management, and smart cities. The user interface of the platform can even be customized to make it look like a system devised by a customer. Lightelligence, according to an Osram staff, has successfully penetrated to different markets due to the high degree of customization.
Osram also displayed its beacon technology—an OSRAM EINSTONE beacon module. It allows virtual, wireless interaction with people who are using mobile end devices such as smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. When a person with a mobile device and a matching app approaches a transmitter, the device picks up the beacon signal. The app can then trigger individual information or offers (location-based services) depending on the person’s location.
Digital Lumens
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Digital Lumens, now owned by Osram, showcased its building intelligent platform SiteWorx with Sense, an environmental sensing device, and the DLA Micro lighting control. The products are specifically tailored for industrial use and target the community such as warehouse managers. The company witnesses a surging demand for smart management solutions from the industrial sector and notices that consumers are satisfied with the smartification of their facilities and money-saving results by utilizing the technology.
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The company also offers intelligent LED fixtures. With a sensor embedded, the DLE high bay light offers not only various lumen output and light distribution but emergency lighting capability to ensure workplace safety.
The Zumtobel Group
The Zumtobel Group, an international lighting company headquartered in Dornbirn, Austria, showcased its connected lighting solutions for retail, office, industry, and sports applications. The group in 2017 launched Zumtobel Group Services, a new business unit strengthening its position as a lighting services provider. The lighting group now offers a wide range of services –light contracting, design services, consultation on intelligent lighting controls and emergency lighting systems – to meet the increasing demand for project management of turnkey lighting solutions.
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(Images: LEDinside) |
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