46
images Philips Dynalite
LIGHTING
CONVERGING
TECHNOLOGIES
Lighting and IT
CEO, Richard Mulcahy
Lighting Council Australia
At present, lighting technology and design is rapidly
converging with communication technologies and
the Internet of Things (IoT) offering an exciting
pathway to the future.
The lighting controls sector in particular offers a
glimpse of what our future smart buildings and
smart cities will look like. Smart lighting, sensors and
control systems can provide smart homes, smarter
hospitals, smarter cities, smart traffic management
and smarter workplaces.
“Cities consume around 70% of all
energy produced globally.”
Source: Smart Cities.PDF, Page 4. http://www.
smartlighting.org/steering-committee/
Smart technology, smart cities and smart buildings
are well past the trial or introductory level with
some major installations. Further take-up will
follow as the general public begins to understand
the opportunities. Smart city applications can
enhance safety and maintenance issues for public
street lighting and traffic management. Currently
it is estimated that the number of connected
GOVLINK » ISSUE 2 2017
light points in street lighting has only reached 2%
globally so the opportunities are immense.
New light source technologies such as light emitting
diodes (LEDs), allow colour and colour change to be
used in buildings. Lighting controls allow dynamic
lighting and colour that can be managed to achieve
visual interest or entertainment. Vivid Sydney is an
example where lighting and controls have changed
the quiet winter tourist season into Australia’s
largest festival.
With the introduction of breakthrough technologies
such as, Li-Fi communication and the Internet
of Things (IoT), coupled with new apps that apply
“human centric lighting” concepts, society will be
forever changed. While there are important security
and privacy issues that these new technologies
must address, the benefits that they offer for our
health, productivity, safety, energy management,
entertainment and environmental management are
significant and presently difficult to fully appreciate.
Lighting controls in a smart building system extend
from simple presence detection to sophisticated
data collection and analytics.