We have been covering connected lighting for seven years or so, and it’s become an increasingly popular concept to further the energy savings already afforded by LEDs and to enable new applications ranging from indoor wayfinding to outdoor smart cities. But one constant of these years has been the lack of accepted and standardized connectivity or network standards. The Digital Illumination Interface Alliance (DiiA) is hoping to ease the connectivity roadblock to broader smart solid-state lighting (SSL) deployment with its newest version of the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI-2) standard, and our colleagues at Lux will host a webcast on Oct. 18 that examines the new standard, support of control devices, certification of products, and more.
DALI has been around for a number of years as one of the few standardized networking schemes that could provide connectivity between a control system and one or more intelligent luminaires. DALI will continue to be utilized in that traditional manner, but it will also be a key technology in terms of other usage scenarios. DALI-2 will enable connection of sensors, user input devices, application controllers, and more in addition to linking lighting controllers and luminaires.
What might not be abundantly clear in the above summary is that DALI is suddenly being deployed within a luminaire (called intra-luminaire) as well as to connect other devices to one or many luminaires (inter-luminaire). We recently hosted a webcast on smart luminaire development that covers some of this ground.
In fact, both Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) and Osram are using a DALI-based scheme to link smart drivers with sensors and wireless communication modules inside a smart luminaire (see LightFair video interview). Wireless networks may become the most popular option for inter-luminaire networks, but DALI still has a vital role in the eyes of the DiiA and many lighting manufacturers.
Even outdoors there is a play for DALI. Three years ago after the Street & Area Lighting Conference (SALC), we described how utility Georgia Power was requiring luminaire vendors to use smart DALI-enabled drivers in street lights, with the DALI connection able to link to sensors and wireless modules in the luminaire.
The Lux webcast will touch on all of these concepts and will feature Dr. Scott Wade, DALI technical and certification manager. John Bullock, who is applications editor at Lux, will host the event. The presentation will describe how DALI compares with other networking options and how it may be combined with other networks in a smart SSL system. You can register ahead for the Oct. 18 webcast.
