FEATURE: LIGHTING CONTROL
witnessed by the emergence of protocols such as OSC and CAN. “All protocols have their
strengths and weaknesses based on the application for which they are being used,” summarises Nagel. “Cost, size, RF channel bandwidth and range all contribute to the trade-offs. For example, in 2003, Control4 chose ZigBee as the wireless protocol for lighting control products. The advantages that ZigBee had over WiFi were its support for a large number of devices; it operates in an RF spectrum available worldwide; and the data bandwidth support that it provides for sending meta- data from lighting and non- lighting devices. “If Control4 only needed to support 10 devices and only shipped in the US, for example, Z-Wave or WiFi might be a better choice. WiFi support for lighting control is gaining interest now, but historically it was problematic due to the limited number of nodes per access point, power consumption, size and range.”
IP: NOT YET PREVALENT, BUT GROWING
But what about IP? Does it have a role to play? Again, it seems that the answer is: “it depends”. “Today, all systems aren’t IP-based, but we have seen growth in this area over the past three years,” notes Neill Nixon, business development manager, lighting for Crestron UK, “driven not only by the introduction of new
legislation, but also because technology has changed and adapted and now offers the market really functional systems. However, this shift goes beyond lighting control. It’s a move to BEMS (building energy management systems) and other services, such as scheduling and room booking – the market addressed by Crestron’s Fusion EM.” “IP technology has the
inherent benefits of broad interoperability, flexibility,
‘Currently, control over
IP is less important in
the commercial market than in the domestic sector’
Peter Coles, Eaton Cooper Controls
large scalability, security and a good choice of debug and management tools from a large supplier community,” says Stephenson. “It also provides the flexibility of distributed networks and many remote access solutions. Control4 embraced an IP-based panellised lighting solution to leverage the benefits of IP. A huge benefit of the Control4 panellised lighting is the ease of installation and flexibility of distributing load panels around the home/business, saving money in wiring costs.” “There are a number of IP- based wireless protocols used in lighting control systems in the market now,” he continues. “They include 6LoWPAN [IPv6 over low- power wireless personal area networks], ZigBee SEP 2 and WiFi. There are many non-IP communication protocols also being used. Some of these are emerging standards, while some are established non-IP standards such as ZigBee HA, Z-Wave, KNX, KNX-RF and Homeplug.” “Currently,” says Coles,
“control over IP is less important in the commercial market than in the domestic
Casa Grande recently installed a range of Crestron technologies at the Vlaemynck Business Centre in Belgium, reducing electricity costs by 80%
sector, where users are starting to look at controlling a number of processes through smart devices like phones and tablets. In the commercial world, some are looking to control lighting through networked computers, but there is still a lot of integration using RS- 232 rather than IP right now.” IP looks as if it will have an
increasingly central role – as with almost every other area of the AV market. But what are the other technologies that can transform the lighting control business? Again: it all depends on the application. For Maarten Engels, the
development of small, solid- state lighting controllers offers great opportunities for lighting projects. “Traditionally,” he notes, “lighting systems had to utilise large control desks designed for on-the-road touring or PC-based systems run on computers that were not designed for 24-hour non- stop use. Now, you can apply small inexpensive solid-state controllers like the CueCore that take up little space, consume hardly any energy and at the same time significantly increase the everyday reliability of the control package.”
Increasingly, as with this keypad from Control4, lighting control is being integrated with other smart home functionality
38 March 2014
WIRELESS AND RF Usage of wireless and RF technologies looks set to increase substantially. “Wireless technology is where the industry is moving,” claims Nixon. “Customers now understand the dramatic savings concerning energy cost and consumption that efficient light sources offer – but business demands have gone one step further by wanting to manage their buildings or premises more effectively, not just managing lighting usage, but also monitoring power, using occupancy to drive
consumption, harvesting daylight and heating room by room, building by building.” “Lighting control has become part and parcel of any automated building design,” echoes Simmonds, “and is crucial because it gives the tenant or owner of the building the ability to make significant energy savings. The evolution of light sources and the adoption of RF controls are going to be two of the major developments that I see having a very strong influence on the world of lighting control in the near future.” Energy saving and eco-
awareness is just one set of factors that is driving the lighting control industry. It’s easy to forget that lighting control is also about creating mood and spectacle – at Olympics ceremonies, at the Eurovision Song Contest, at rock shows around the world – that, as Engels points out, will have no less influence in continuing to drive healthy growth in the marketplace.
www.control4.com www.coopercontrols.co.uk www.crestron.com www.etcconnect.com www.lutron.com www.visualproductions.nl
RESIDENTIAL LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEM MINIMISES WIRING
A 16th century residential property in the UK has deployed Lutron’s Homeworks QS whole-home lighting control system. Given its age, disruption to its fabric needed to be minimised, and this was achieved by using RF technology to connect all of the interior and exterior light sources, keypads, blinds controls and occupancy sensors. The system can be operated remotely, or on-site via Apple iPad and iPhone apps.
Integrator VBK Lighting chose to use one of Lutron’s HomeWorks QS processors on the ground floor of the cottage and another on the second. The ground floor processor was wired to one repeater and the other three
Lutron repeaters were connected wirelessly throughout the cottage and the adjoining barn conversion. By linking the processors wirelessly on the home network and using wireless access points, there was no need for Cat5 cabling runs. Eleven Lutron GRAFIK Eye
QS wireless keypads were then connected throughout the cottage and barn, creating 11 different control points from which to wirelessly manage the 66 circuits. In addition, a range of Lutron’s SeeTouch and SeeTouch International wired keypads and Lutron's wireless Pico remote controls were used throughout, to enable a wide range of pre-programmed scenes to be accessed.
www.installation-international.com
STUDY CASE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68