Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Feb. 21, 2020. Take a quick scroll through this newsletter and you might think it’s the driver issue. Indeed, we have presented a number of driver-centric articles that cover the topic from most every angle. And as I have said repeatedly, a good driver is as important as LEDs or any other solid-state lighting (SSL) subsystem in delivering quality of light. Our expanded newsletter frequency for 2020 will allow us the freedom to periodically curate content for you in this manner.
One of the driver stories, however, is brand new. And it also covers the hot trend of smart and connected LED lighting. Acuity’s eldoLED driver business unit has announced new driver products that meet the DALI-2 DT8 certification. DALI-2 is a connected lighting standard now promulgated by the Digital Illumination Interface Alliance (DiiA) and the newest versions of the standard can be utilized to connect luminaires to a control system (inter-luminaire) or to connect subsystems within a luminaire (intra-luminaire). In the case of the Acuity announcement, the news is inter-luminaire focused. And the DT8 certification means that drivers with multiple channels for white-point- or color-tunable systems can rely on a single DALI-2 address and command stream for dynamic control.
The eldoLED driver announcement comes shortly after the company had revealed deployment of such a white-point-tunable system in a public entertainment and shopping venue called the Forum Groningen in the Netherlands. The goal is not apparently direct impact on the health and wellbeing of visitors to the Forum Groningen. Instead, it appears the eldoLED supplied project will just use the tunable SSL to set ambient scenes. The company called it among the largest public deployments of such tunable lighting.
Signify, meanwhile, also announced a major connected lighting project that involves a large UK retailer called Marks & Spencer. The project involves Signify’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform called Interact and specifically the Interact Retail version of the platform.
Marks & Spencer can now control the lighting in every one of its retail locations from a central point. That means the company can also monitor the lighting, document energy usage, and perform preventive maintenance routines. The centralized scheme can control lighting based on energy prices, and eliminates a somewhat complex system burden on personnel at a local company outlet.
Our Strategies Unlimited research unit has two new reports available and the new global LED report will be available soon. The Global Lamps Market Update and Forecast 2020 and the Global Luminaires Market Update and Forecast 2020 are available for purchase and download online.
You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. Please note my relatively new email address below. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.
- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]