New technologies

Smart lighting is helping to create smarter, safer and more comfortable spaces.

Lighting the world with smart technology

Software AG is one of the companies utilising its suite of products and solutions to integrate smart technologies into lighting systems and solutions across the Middle East. Technical Review Middle East spoke to the company’s CTO for Middle East and Turkey to hear more about the future benefits of integrated smart solutions.

AN AUTOMATED SMART building offers multiple benefits and is a fundamental element of any building automation system. For example, LED lighting systems reducing energy consumption, motion sensors that drive clever AI powered scheduling of lighting schemes as well as smart lighting creating safer, healthier, and more comfortable spaces.

Most Tier 1 cities globally are reaping the many benefits that smart lighting provides, such as setting lighting schedules, creating lighting controls systems, dimming options, daylight harvesting, limited usage of lights near windows when the outside light level is high enough and much more.

However, larger organisational, citywide and nationwide adoption is vital for its stellar position in the creation of smart cities. Therefore, it is not surprising that smart lighting forms an integral part of smart building technologies across public places, commercial buildings as well as modern communities that are built keeping sustainability as the anchor.

Photo Credit : Software AG

Vijay Jaswal is Software AG’s CTO for Middle East and Turkey.

Trends

New age smart lighting systems control comprise a smart sensor fitted within the light bulbs. The job of this sensor is to track motion, power usage, ambient light and temperature, and act as a data provider using the latest technologies such as IoT, AI and Bluetooth. These controlled lighting systems powered with motion sensing can provide many data references and usage information such as occupancy patterns, space utilisation, typical areas of mobility within the premises, scheduling the cleaning and maintenance based on usage patterns of objects, people tracking and more.

This data captured could be used for intelligent decision making. A classic example is cleaning and maintenance services scheduling, which could be connected through multiple factors such as the lighting system, HR information systems (occupancy), a roster of the maintenance company using the lighting system as an aggregator of data for efficient use of cumulative resources of manpower, energy and time taken to carry out the activity.

Photo Credit : Adobe Stock

Software AG's solutions

Software AG is lighting the path to a smarter future for lighting systems and software. Software AG Cumulocity IoT’s comprehensive integration capabilities ensures that secure connectivity to any ‘thing’ can be achieved quickly and easily. Software AG aims to make cities and communities smarter, by facilitating: • Reduction in cost of energy and maintenance • Predictive maintenance • Increased public safety from improved lighting • Enabling safer traffic • Ensuring measurable environmental impact due to reduced energy consumption So for example, Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT allows engineers to target streets and areas and identify the number of hours the bulbs have been lit and its lifetime figure. If for instance, the life expectancy of a bulb is 11,000 hours, upon reaching 10,925 hours, the IoT solution sends an alert message on the systems for engineers to time the bulb replacement, facilitating continued lighting in the area.

The opportunities with smart lighting that cities can capture go far and beyond value creation through energy (cost) and maintenance savings. ■