Discover some of the biggest challenges with commercial IoT Lighting system design, such as ensuring the system has a prolonged lifecycle and remains safety-critical.
By: Zach Wendt
The Internet of Things has taken nearly every industry by storm, revolutionizing many stagnant industries to be more efficient and effective than ever before. Commercial Lighting is one sector in particular, that's seen monumental strides towards energy efficiency, customizability, and controllability. However, it's particularly challenging to design IoT Lighting systems for the commercial lighting industry. Several characteristics of commercial lighting challenge some of the IoT principles. Let's identify some of the challenges.
IoT Lighting: Lifecycle
Commercial lighting is designed for longevity. In most cases, the system and infrastructure that the lighting system operates on needs to last for well over a decade. In some instances, such as in commercial warehouses, a functional lighting system can remain installed for several decades before being replaced. One of the most considerable challenges with commercial IoT Lighting system design is ensuring the system will be functional, operable, and maintainable for several decades.
Here's an example: The first iteration Phillips Hue (a residential IoT lighting technology) unveiled its first global IoT lighting in 2012, which consisted of a bulb- and bridge-based system. By 2015, they had already introduced a "V2" Bridge, meaning the first iteration of their product offering was bested in just three short years. By 2019, Phillips had announced they'd be ending support for the V1 Bridge, as it didn't technologically allow for the eventual evolution of the Phillips Hue system, and it quickly became obsolete. By 2020, the operation of the bulbs became nearly impossible using the V1 Bridge, and Phillips required users to purchase the V2 bridge to continue to use their services into the future.
While this example is focused on the residential sector, it illustrates how rapidly IoT technology evolves: State-of-the-art technologies can become obsolete in under a decade. Commercial lighting, however, demands that systems last far beyond the reaches of a single decade, thus making the future-proofing of these IoT systems imperative. Phillips Hue also identifies that some technologies outlast others. In their case, the users who had purchased LED bulbs in 2012 were still able to use their bulbs with limited functionality, as the LED lights themselves had outlasted the life of the Wi-Fi and processing systems within the V1 Bridge. This example also indicates that Commercial IoT lighting must be incrementally updatable, even if the system as a larger whole is to remain in place.
IoT Lighting: Safety
Although lighting, especially in commercial settings, can often go unnoticed, it plays a near mission-critical role for various industries. And given the critical need for lighting in some applications, lighting systems must meet a plethora of standards and requirements to guarantee they remain functional in the event of an unwanted circumstance.
Let's take an example: Lighting in a mid-sized commercial underground wine cave. Although a relatively niche industry, wine caves serve a dual function: Storing wine and providing unique experiences for wine-touring guests. However, lighting in caves of any kind can be regarded as a safety-critical system. For wine caves, where the presentation of aesthetics and functionality must be balanced, IoT lighting can provide an elegant yet efficient experience for both owners and tourists. However, cave IoT lighting systems, and any IoT lighting system that serves as the only source of light in a commercial setting, must be redundant and deterministic since their functionality is directly related to user-safety.
A common way of solving this challenge is to enable IoT Lighting to operate both dependently and independently of the IoT-framework that primarily controls it. IoT-frameworks often connect to a central server that processes nearly all the internet functionality of the system. However, safety-critical IoT lighting systems often have a secondary, local server that provides redundant services. This is in the event the central server cannot be reached. The secondary server can provide limited functionality to the system relative to the more capable central server. Still, it can ensure the functionality of the system in the event of a safety incident. The image below illustrates how the independence of a central server can provide system redundancy for an IoT lighting system.
Image 1: Independence of central server, courtesy of led-professional.com
Conclusion
IoT lighting in a commercial setting often requires "fit-to-purpose" or "ad-hoc" design principles, as there are a variety of unique design challenges associated with a single system's application. However, the benefits of using IoT Lighting are ample, and utilizing the technology can often drive operational costs down and increase the lighting experience overall. Companies worldwide seeking to bolster their in-store experience -- such as retail magnate Target -- are turning to IoT Lighting Control Systems to improve their lighting systems capabilities, save energy, and modernize their infrastructure.