Smart LED Lighting

Smart lighting market analysis

Street lights can not only achieve simple lighting, but also control the time and brightness of the lights according to the weather and the flow of people; lamp posts no longer just support street lights, but also help you make choices to avoid stagnant water and avoid congestion, and even become you The entrance to connect to WiFi. This is the help and convenience that smart lighting brings to citizens in the field of street lights.

The term “smart lighting” has been hot in the LED lighting industry for many years. However, in the past few years, smart lighting has mostly been “thunder and rain, but little rain”, which is mainly reflected in: the smart lighting industry has not yet formed a certain scale, the market acceptance is low, and the smart lighting technology is immature. By 2017, this situation has changed a lot. Smart lighting is no longer “not tepid”, and smart lighting standing at the air outlet is even more “infinite.”

The lighting electrician industry needs a “savior”

Since Edison invented the incandescent lamp, mankind has officially entered the “bright era” of lighting and electrical appliances. The light source lamps have also gone through the development stages of incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, and LEDs. Entering the LED era, with the continuous upgrade of LED technology and the expansion of the LED market, the LED lighting industry has seen rapid growth in recent years. Both LED lighting companies and distributors have tasted the “sweetness” of the growth of the emerging LED lighting industry in the past few years. At the same time, the rise of the LED industry with electronic properties has also increased the relevance of the electrical industry such as switches, and the development of the electrical industry has also benefited.

However, in recent years, due to the low barriers to entry in the LED lighting electrical industry, more and more people have poured into the LED lighting industry hoping to get a share of the pie. The LED lighting electrical industry has also evolved from the “great profit era” in the past to the present ” Products are small in profit, and the market is bleak. Tachyon visited the first-tier markets across the country and learned that many LED lighting electrical distributors lamented that “business is difficult”. In this context, which areas should the LED lighting electrical industry distributors break through the development dilemma? Who will be the “savior” of the LED lighting electrical industry?

Recall that in the past few years, the word “smart” once became a hotly discussed vocabulary in the LED lighting electrical industry. Many LED lighting electrical companies have “tested the water” in the smart field, and distributors have also begun to pay attention to “smart products” and their market demand, profitability, etc. The majority of LED lighting manufacturers seem to “smel” the beauty of the smart
lighting (home) field. Money” King. In the past few years, despite the efforts of LED lighting electrical companies to explore and try, smart lighting (home) companies with more outstanding performance have not appeared, and the popularity of smart lighting (home) market is not satisfactory. But the good news is that in 2017, the situation has changed, and people can see: Smart lighting (home) has already
taken the lead, waiting to soar!

It is undeniable that, after years of exploration and experimentation, the intelligent control technology of LED lighting lamps has continued to advance, and the intelligentization of electrical products such as switches has begun to show an extraordinary scene. As an emerging industry, smart lighting (home furnishing) has the most concern in the market today. To this end, Tachyon visited hundreds of distributors across the country to understand their real demand for smart lighting (home) products and the acceptance of market users, in order to give the majority of manufacturers committed to this a little inspiration.

Market acceptance is not high? Market demand continues to expand!

As an integral part of smart home, smart lighting is similar to the concept of smart home and has been discussed hotly in these years. Although many companies actively participate in it, the actual application of smart lighting (home) is still in its infancy. At the same time, under the discussion and promotion of manufacturers, although smart lighting (home) products appear on the market, their market acceptance still needs to be improved. Previously, data from a survey of LED lighting distributors across the country by Grand Lighting showed that only 24% believed that the acceptance of the smart lighting (home) market was “quite good”, and that the proportion of distributors who thought it was “not satisfactory” was 38%. 38% of distributors said bluntly that “the acceptance of the smart lighting (home) market is’not ideal’.

Who can seize the smart lighting market and create profits

In the past few years, the acceptance of the smart lighting (home) market was not high, and the reasons were many:

1. The smart lighting (home) technology was not mature enough,

2. The smart lighting (home) market was not cultivated enough,

3. Smart lighting (home) ) Product prices are generally high,
4. Smart lighting (home furnishing) market promotion is not strong enough, etc.

Among them, “the technology is not mature enough” and “the market is not cultivated enough” has become the biggest difficulty in popularizing smart lighting (home) products. In other words, the immature technology of smart lighting (home) companies and the low awareness of smart lighting (home) products by social users have become the difficulties of the immature and difficult to popularize
the smart lighting (home) industry in the past few years.

An online survey from Tencent Home Appliances shows that 95.19% of netizens expressed interest in smart homes. But if netizens are asked to describe “what kind of life is called smart home life”, in fact, many people have no way to make it clear. In fact, this is also true in the smart lighting industry. At the same time, the immature technology of smart lighting companies makes smart lighting (home) products only stay in the “pseudo-smart” stage of simple dimming and color adjustment, and users can’t really experience the so-called smart lighting.

The market acceptance of smart lighting products is not satisfactory, but at the same time market demand is also continuing to expand. According to a market research report released by Markets and Markets, a global market research consulting firm, the total smart lighting market is expected to reach 8.14 billion US dollars by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.07% between 2015 and 2020. It is foreseeable that the market share of smart lighting (home) needs to be further developed in the future.

For this reason, in recent years, the majority of enterprises have concentrated on improving smart lighting technology, actively nurturing the smart lighting market and enhancing the smart lighting experience of users. The recognition and acceptance of distributors and smart lighting (home) products is gradually increasing. Today, cross-border brands such as Huawei, Haier, and Xiaomi have entered the field of
smart lighting, and powerful lighting electrical brands such as Hongyan, Oppe, and NVC have become more prominent in the field of  smart lighting (home). In 2020, smart lighting (home) has been on the “outlet”!

Bluetooth mesh: paving the way for a smart lighting platform

Commercial lighting itself is a ready-made interconnection network, and the introduction of Bluetooth mesh network into it can provide commercial and industrial facilities with an innovative way to improve operational efficiency and support new business opportunities.

Retailers will be able to provide in-store navigation and customized promotions; hospitals will be able to track patients and equipment, factories will be able to automate monitoring and maintenance; companies will be able to intelligently control lighting and room temperature, and monitor occupancy and safety.
With its unparalleled universality, reliability and interoperability, the Bluetooth mesh network turns smart lighting into a wireless connection platform.

Wireless lighting is a technical challenge

To create a wireless communication technology to support a reliable, sensitive, safe and scalable wireless lighting system, difficult problems are indispensable. It can be said that Bluetooth mesh was born to solve such problems to a large extent, especially for commercial lighting systems.

For wireless protocol designers, providing support for multicast operations involving multiple sets of devices is a huge challenge. Take a wireless lighting switch as an example. It can control a group of lighting lamps containing more than a dozen devices. Each lighting lamp controlled by this switch must be turned on when the user turns on the switch. Not only must there be no significant delay, but also at the same time turning on easier said than done, especially when walls and other environmental factors cause signal attenuation or interference.
When we use a wireless dimmer switch to replace the lighting switch in this scene, the difficulty will be even greater. The switch must be able to provide smooth, timely response and precisely synchronized lighting control in a natural and user-pleasant way. Wireless technologies originally designed for simpler use cases such as smart thermostats will struggle to meet these requirements.

When the Bluetooth mesh was originally designed, reliability and the ability to provide support for the harmonious coexistence of multiple groups of devices were the primary requirements. Other requirements included security.

Bluetooth mesh lighting function

Bluetooth mesh is a full-line solution that covers wireless communication from the bottom of the stack to the specific application behavior at the top. Lighting is an application in the field of Bluetooth mesh. By introducing features designed specifically for lighting systems and other applications, the role of Bluetooth mesh goes far beyond pure wireless data communication systems. It can support the general needs of lighting for “out of the box” and ensure the interoperability of products from different manufacturers.

All mesh application behaviors are implemented through software modules called “models”. The Bluetooth Technology Alliance has defined a series of standard models, which have been carefully selected to meet the specific needs of the product. This allows lighting products to easily have non-lighting features, such as supporting sensor work, and allowing these features to directly process the main features of lighting in an integrated form without the need for an external controller.

The real opportunity for wireless lighting-lighting as a platform

The Bluetooth mesh wireless lighting system can bring the above commercial and technical advantages, and its potential greater advantage is that the installation of the Bluetooth mesh lighting system can also equip the building with a wireless network and create a distributed platform for other wireless building services.

Illumination lights and switches are all microcontrollers with Bluetooth mesh communication function. What exactly these devices can do is controlled by software. The software can be upgraded, and the user can also add software to the lighting system. In this way, the lighting system has brand new functions that can give full play to the effects of Bluetooth.

Imagine a light that can be used as a Bluetooth Beacon to help visitors find the right direction in a building through a smartphone application, imagine a lighting system that can correctly locate people and physical assets in a building; imagine that it can use occupancy data And personal preferences to coordinate multiple system changes to create the best personalized building environment automation system; imagine a lighting system that can collect all kinds of data through building sensors, analyze the data and apply it in real time. Installing a Bluetooth mesh lighting system and using it as another service platform does bring many possibilities, far more than just the above few examples.

7 key factors to build a perfect smart city with LED street lights

“Smart city” refers to the integration of communications and tangible assets into a cohesive network to provide people living there with a safer, more livable, and energy-efficient environment.

In a smart city, real-time information is provided to administrators through city-wide sensors and monitors. According to the design, the collected data can achieve many functions, such as monitoring weather and air quality, adjusting traffic signals to reduce congestion, adjusting public transportation schedules to meet changing needs, and deploying emergency personnel more quickly.

Kansas City in the United States has realized an example of the smart city concept in a two-mile (about 3.2 km) corridor. Kansas City integrates sensors into outdoor street lighting to generate real-time pictures of traffic patterns, street cars, and even outdoor parking spaces.

Although the facilities of smart cities will be different across the United States and other parts of the world, one thing in common is the use of outdoor LED street lights as the “fixed points” for various sensors. This means that in addition to proper lens and housing design to direct the output light to where it is needed, it also minimizes glare and sky light.

Energy monitoring and calculation

Integrate outdoor street lighting into the smart city network to fully realize the energy-saving potential, so the lamps should be dimmable by adjusting and responding to changing environmental conditions. For example, in order to minimize energy consumption, lighting should follow a preset schedule.

In an emergency, the administrator should be able to cancel the pre-set schedule, and can also convert warm white light (because warm white has less influence on sky light, residential areas generally prefer it) to cool white, thereby Provide better visual acuity for emergency personnel.

Overvoltage protection

The risk of overvoltage caused by lightning, switching pulses, and electrostatic discharge on outdoor products is significantly higher than that of indoor products. Mitigation can be achieved by adding overvoltage protection to the outside of the electronic equipment.

Reliability

Temperature and temperature fluctuations, humidity, dust and water ingress, UV exposure and vibration are all causes of degradation or failure of outdoor lighting. Although LED packages used in lamps are most sensitive to high temperatures, system components (such as drivers, optical components, and integrated sensors) may be affected by other environmental factors. A comprehensive reliability and quality assurance program, including robustness testing, can help mitigate these risks.

Maintainability and upgradeability

GPS location, lamp status, sensor status, input voltage and current, and internal temperature are the types of information that smart city outdoor lighting products can provide for repairs or component upgrades with minimal downtime. In order to facilitate parts replacement or cleaning, maintainability/upgradability design is critical to the feasibility of the overall lighting system.

Interoperability

The ANSI C137 Lighting System Committee defines interoperability as “the ability of a system or system component to transmit, receive, interpret, and/or respond to data and/or functions in a defined manner.” Interoperability is often confused with “compatibility”. Compatibility refers to whether the device complies with a specific standard. Devices that conform to the same standard should be able to interoperate with the functions defined under the standard. Confirming the interoperability of lighting system components (for example, luminaires, sensors, network hardware and software) can reduce the risk of obsolete hardware and software.

Safety

Finally, consider network security. This aspect of smart city design seems to be the least clear in terms of the roles and responsibilities of suppliers and buyers, and therefore the most worrying. Although security itself is not a consideration in lighting design, it is important to remember that any device on the network may be attacked by hackers.