The IoT takes center stage at LuxLive (MAGAZINE)

The annual London exhibition and conference focused squarely on lighting’s future as a data and information technology play. LEDs’ contributing editor MARK HALPER was paying attention.

Every year, the LuxLive exhibition and conference in London brings together the lighting industry’s movers, shakers, and up-and-comers to focus on the future. And every year, the Internet of Things (IoT) gains more prominence.

Interested in articles & announcements on IoT and lighting?

The November 2017 installment was no exception. The IoT literally took center stage, as the IoT Arena provided the focal point and main discussion forum of the sprawling show floor. Speaker after speaker took the podium and extolled the virtues of tying LED lights and luminaires into the Internet to help not only improve the operation and control of lighting, but to also gather data and thereby improve the operation of businesses, homes, roadways, public spaces, and facilities.

The premise is simple. As LEDs Magazine has written many times: Equip lights and the lighting infrastructure with sensors and communication chips, and suddenly lights move far beyond their traditional role of illumination as they morph into intelligent information networks that collect data and send it off to places for analysis in the cloud or elsewhere, providing valuable insights on sales, traffic, office use, and much more.

One thing remained the same as in recent years at LuxLive: Most of the testimonials continued to come from vendors, as opposed to end users.

But show organizers at Lux – a sister outfit to LEDs – did a fine job in bringing together the best and the brightest in the vendor community, and we expect that next year they might even land a few more end users, who at this stage prefer to stay closed-mouth for a variety of reasons, competitive advantage being one of them.

As is often the case, no one spoke more enthusiastically and articulately about lighting and the IoT than Gooee, the young IoT lighting company that provides electronics, networking, and computing to turn luminaires into smart devices. Gooee managing director Neil Salt kicked off the action, announcing several new advances at his company while also framing the importance of lighting to the future of the IoT, and vice versa.

“For generations, lighting’s been this thing that helps us see,” said Gooee managing director Neil Salt, who spoke primarily from a Gooee perspective, but whose outlook summed up the new IT-oriented ethos that is driving the industry. “Today, Gooee’s providing the ability for lighting to see. For lighting to gather data. To communicate. And to discover what’s going on within the built environment, and help understand how we work and live within the spaces that we exist in.

“Gooee’s vision is to be this data brain of building activity, using lighting as a host within the building, capturing the four key dimensions of building activity, which are people, products, place, and time.”

Salt likened data-centric lighting infrastructure to “Salesforce.com but for building activity data,” and noted that third-party software companies will develop programs to leverage it.

“So this data brain drives software applications based around three core propositions: light and energy analytics; space and occupancy analytics; and lighting control,” he said. “So retailers will be able to see information about what’s going on in their store both historically and in real time. They’ll be able to communicate with customers and generate brand value by using the beacons within the lights to generate sales; office managers will be able to use beacons and space optimization to provide more wellbeing and comfort to people within their buildings.”

LEDs has already reported on news developments from the show. For example, Gooee used the occasion to reveal a smart lighting trial at the Amsterdam offices of US real-estate giant CBREusccyswrsubuqvfztzfxfyebycawccfcy, and Feilo Sylvania disclosed that it has opened two new lighting innovation centers. And in one of the few IoT end-user testimonials, a guarded BMW executive appeared in a video pre-recorded by lighting vendor Aurora to laud the potential that smart lighting could help enhance the retail experience in automobile showrooms.

But there were many themes that ran through the lively two days on the IoT stage. Among them: Security and privacy remains a big concern; the question of who owns the data collected by smart lights can be contentious, as Rick Jacobs of user CBRE noted; the industry is still sorting out a preponderance of wireless and wired protocols that can be confounding in some cases but handy in others – the emergence of a mesh standard for Bluetooth has excited a number of people; the IoT has the potential to turn traditional building management systems on their head; progressive lighting designers are now factoring the IoT into their work to go along with style and ambience; and more.

Another theme that recurred: IT companies could serve as friendly partners, or they could potentially play the role of foe and take over business territory previously considered the domain of lighting companies. Gooee’s Salt, for one, believes partnerships are the way to go.

“The IoT is not something you can construct on your own,” he said. “It requires putting together multiple people to make something like this happen. From deployment to adoption, you need a whole mixture of people. And that’s really what the idea is of this arena here today. You have installers, designers, engineers, communications companies, server companies. You see a lot of different people here you wouldn’t typically see at a lighting show. I believe that demonstrates how a change is happening in how lighting is being perceived within the built environment. And it really is an infrastructure element, rather than something that just provides illumination.”

Whether vendors seek the peace pipe of partnerships, or don flak jackets to stake out territory on their own, most everyone agreed that a potential bonanza is in store. Peter Brogan, head of research and insights at the British Institute of Facilities Management, said the facilities management market in the UK alone is around £12 billion (around $17 billion), and that data-related technologies could help that swell tenfold. Brogan dusted off an old quote from American engineer W. Edwards Deming, reputed to have said in the 1950s, “In God we trust, all others must bring data.”

Thus, Gooee was on hand with a dozen or so partners including its new minority owner Evrythng – a cloud software provider – as well energy broker Utilitywise, which itself leads a team consisting of data storage company Dell EMC and cellphone giant Vodafone.

Contributing editor Mark Halper was camped out at the IoT Arena, moderating the discussions and presentations over the two days. When he wasn’t busy firing his own questions, or fielding insightful queries from the audience, he was able to snap a few pictures of the pundits, who together told the unfolding story of the IoT of lighting as seen here.