The role of smart lighting in commercial buildings

In the past, we always talked about smart buildings, but now this statement is moving in the direction of smart buildings. For smart buildings, we are more inclined to provide in-situ solutions for things in silos, such as lighting, fire protection, and security. But smart buildings are about integration, not just in the field through the Internet of Things, but also in the cloud. Existing data is providing many services that were not available before.

The data provided can be used for preventive maintenance. Now users can identify problems in advance, and even send people to the site with the correct parts before the problem occurs.

Data unlocks the ability to provide services, and these services have always existed, but their full potential has not been fully utilized due to the inaccessibility of data and the inability to view and interact with data quickly and easily. Asset utilization, space utilization, energy, HVAC, safety, air quality, etc. can be integrated into a platform in a remote place, where people can actually use it.

I think the situation we are forced to experience in 2020 has accelerated the growth of smart buildings. COVID-19 has created more mixed work environments, and many people may not return to the office, or even if they do, it will be for different reasons. In the past, 40% of the office was always empty due to employee turnover, but now we will see more people working from home and people reducing office space. Office space will now be an opportunity for buyers, who can have contactless elevators and voice commands.

It has also accelerated the participation of major IT companies, so we see that Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are now actively participating in construction. I think it depends to a large extent on the different needs in our current construction. People expect a better healthy lifestyle, that is, no fluorescent lights or poor air quality. I expect people will relocate buildings in the next few years because people will evaluate their space utilization and possible shortcomings, or find alternative solutions that are more suitable for their employees. I think one of the most important things people will start to take advantage of further is lighting.

Lighting has always existed, but it has always been controlled by the building automation system and is very simple to use. It is more like an on/off, presence detection sensor solution. Now it's much more than that. The connection solutions between all on-site requirements are now brought together as part of the Internet of Things, and data obtained off-site, such as building automation, fire protection, and security, can all be managed off-site.

Lighting can significantly improve people’s well-being-lighting temperature can change throughout the day, which affects people’s mood, their work style, such as productivity. I just read an article by a company in the United States, and the company has done this. Explaining a solution in detail, they said that people no longer have a "2 p.m. headache"-this is usually caused by poor air quality and poor lighting, causing people to feel drowsy and unwell at the end of the day. Lighting has really begun to change people's environment. As customer needs are met, this will prompt real estate companies to upgrade their websites so that new customers can have a smarter building that is connected, sustainable, safe, reliable, and affordable...now for them , Welfare is so important, because for any company, one of the most expensive things is employees. Retaining employees is very important, and lighting plays an important role in it.

This is an excellent opportunity to move forward. We will see the reuse of buildings and ultimately realize smarter cities.

Buildings can become "smarter" through various technologies, including temperature sensors, humidity sensors, security cameras on doors, etc., but lighting is everywhere, so the opportunity to connect through lighting is obvious. It's not as fast as people think. The concept of LiFi is still being researched, but if you can imagine this might be the way you connect to the cloud; this is really a major advancement.

Today, the lights themselves can become smart, which provides more opportunities for home use and further improves people's lifestyles. We also see that the retail industry uses smart lighting to monitor the flow of people, understand the time people spend in certain areas or view certain products, and we also see that space utilization is the core requirement of future architecture.

Lighting is a very important solution. It covers many aspects such as happiness and health. When lighting is properly handled, it can make people sleep better and feel better.

Every building under consideration now uses the word "open". If you have something very closed and traditional that will limit the functionality of the building, then the intelligent lighting control platform must be open, interoperable, and non-protocol. For building automation systems, it took them many years to solve this problem. This change is happening. Who would have thought that we would see the decline of large lighting companies such as Philips and General Electric (GE), as well as the intervention of large IT companies such as Google.

Commercial real estate is an important part of the world's assets and economy. Lighting has become an important part of the solution. "Openness" is very important for this kind of cooperation.