Intelligent Buildings If walls could talk
Bluetooth celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and here, Martin Woolley, Technical Program Manager at Bluetooth SIG, explains how the technology is poised to play a central role in the design of brighter, more intelligent buildings.
T
he relationship between buildings and the people who use them every day has changed dramatically. While
cost savings and running an efficient building remain the primary drivers for smarter innovation and design in buildings, the wellness and comfort of the people who inhabit them are also significant factors. New technologies such as intelligent lighting,
are poised to play a key role in this evolution. Not only can it deliver a positive and cost-efficient building environment, but more importantly it has the potential to act as a natural connectivity platform and “conversation” grid for wireless building services.
Illuminating the way forward With billions of lights in homes and offices around the world, imagine the scope for the humble light to be transformed into an intelligent system that doesn’t simply illuminate an environment, but also serves as a pathway for information, navigation and services. The range of use cases extend beyond the
ability to automatically control lighting levels. This might include, regulating the room temperature, providing navigation or even tracking assets in large manufacturing facilities, for instance.
The advantages of connecting devices and sensors to the lighting systems are clear: lights tend to be permanently powered and can be found at multiple points in most places. Without a doubt, the use of wired lighting will disappear in the Smart Building of the future. The cost of materials and labour needed to install and commission wired lighting is high. While the more aesthetic appeal of cleaner walls with less wiring running though it is an obvious advantage. As wireless lighting systems feature more
prominently, the lights become natural controllers and communicators across multiple types of devices within a building. If you then start to think of wireless lighting as an application platform, then the relationship
between lights and other devices gives building planners and managers the ability to operate a grid that’s flexible and agile enough to respond to any changes in demand from end users. In the simplest sense, lights will become the
ultimate intelligent communicators. They become empowered to make decisions for themselves such as dimming artificial lights on sunnier days, and at the same time become the control centre for adjusting temperatures because the noon sunlight might have warmed up the environment for two hours. An intelligent wireless lighting system also needs to be able to tell humans or other
machine controllers what to do. For instance, when a device requires maintenance or reports on energy consumption. In the case of the sunny room example, the lighting grid prompts the temperature regulator to reduce the heating levels to maintain the natural warmth.
Seamless and secure connectivity The IoT revolution has highlighted the ability for unprecedented connectivity between multiple devices and “things”. According to Gartner – this year alone there will be 8.4 billion connected “things” in the world, almost half of these, ABI Research forecasts, will be Bluetooth devices.
In the simplest sense, lights will become the ultimate intelligent
communicators. They become empowered to make decisions for themselves such as dimming artificial lights on sunnier days, and at the same time become the control centre for adjusting temperatures because the noon sunlight might have warmed up the environment for two hours.
48 | electrical wholesalerOctober 2018
www.ewnews.co.uk Factory
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