Spotlight On
Tell us more about why you chose BLE as the basis for your wireless lighting control system.
Lehtimäki and I knew about BLE from our time at the Nokia Research Centre, where the standard was born, originally known as Wibree. It later became part of the Bluetooth standard. Our aim at Casambi was to develop a BLE wireless network to create a control system able to send messages around a building without needing a conventional router at its heart. The other big advantage of BLE today is
that it’s the only low-power radio technology that you’ll find in all consumer smart devices, from tablets and smartphones to smart watches and other smart wearables. This means it’s the perfect basis for a smart lighting, because most people already own a device capable of controlling such a system using BLE. As a result of these two things, there’s no need for a gateway device, which would otherwise be an additional cost, complication and a single point of failure for the whole system. Our BLE solution is much more robust.
What has the response to your BLE-based lighting control system been, and what does the future hold for Casambi?
As events unfolded at Nokia, the idea blossomed and I decided to see if I could be successful as an entrepreneur by setting up Casambi. That was six years ago and we’re here today, thriving!
Why has adoption of smart lighting been slow until this point, and why do you believe Casambi’s control platform will change this?
Lighting is ripe for transformation by the smart IoT revolution. But as you say, smart lighting is often poorly understood and hasn’t been widely deployed. A big reason for this is that numerous wireless standards and protocols have been used – many product makers, scheme specifiers and installers haven’t wanted to commit to a particular technology. This is because technologies such as classic Bluetooth, Wi- Fi, ZigBee or even proprietary solutions don’t meet all the needs of wireless lighting systems. To enable smart lighting to really take hold, you need a technology that’s simple to understand, install, set up and use. What’s more, it must be interoperable, dependable, able to scale and future-proof. We saw an opportunity to use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to tick all these boxes.
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We were the first to launch the first commercial BLE-based mesh network as a lighting control solution, which has given us a significant edge over the competition. I’d say we’re three years ahead, based on when we were launching the sorts of products that others are launching now. The secret is our software: this is what’s enabled us to get ahead and stay ahead, because there are no shortcuts when it comes to development. Once you’re in front in the software stakes, you’re in a very strong position. Our system is interoperable and can
receive enhancements and firmware updates over-the-air, meaning customers, product developers and system installers see it as a genuinely future-proof solution. For lighting fixture manufacturers, interoperability is a huge draw, and Casambi enables it. Consequently, more than 200 original equipment manufacturers have built our technology into their LED bulbs, LED engines, drivers, luminaires and switches. It’s an incredibly exciting time for Casambi: we’ve had two rounds of funding from Angel investors and continue to reinvest our profits to drive further business growth. If we keep innovating the way we have and continue to lead the way in smart lighting control, we believe we can become a household name and the de facto standard when it comes to operating smart lighting systems.
www.casambi.com Components in Electronics May 2017 31
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