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Weekend 2-3rd December 2017

End of the year…
We are into the last few weeks of the year and as usual they are pretty hectic as many clients and activities want to round up the year and get ready for 2018. By all accounts next year is shaping up to be a very exciting one. We are at the start of what I am perceiving as a big shake up for the lighting industry.

Light as a Service and the IoT
The two biggest emerging trends that we are noticing right now are Light as a Service and Lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT). The world around us is changing rapidly and will have a direct impact on lour lighting industry and very likely our lighting design profession. First of all, the fact that the world is moving towards a service driven economy with the likes of Uber taxi’s and AirBnB accommodation as example. Uber does not own the taxi’s nor the drivers, they provide the platform for you to get in touch and book affordable transportation. Likewise, AirBnB does not own the accommodation, they provide the platform for you to find suitable accommodation…it’s called a service and happens within the wireless world of the internet. Light as a Service combined with the Internet of Things is potentially a life changing development for lighting designers …where do we fit in, how do we remain relevant in the lighting industry as other “things” are gradually invading our lighting design space? These are questions that we will need to address, questions I present to my audience when I talk about the future of lighting design and to which I do not yet have a good answer.

The biggest question in my opinion is how do we keep lighting design profession relevant and objective in a service driven industry, who should be the provider of the services and where is the lighting designer in this structure? Lighting manufacturers like Philips are positioning themselves as the go-to company to provide these services. They have already set up Philips Capital to allow them to finance the lighting installation (as the idea of Light as a Service is that the client/ end user has zero capital investment, other than a monthly “usage fee”) and are reportedly in advanced discussions with Amazon as the service provision platform. While Philips has indicated to me that they will still use lighting designers to determine where and what lighting to propose, I see a major issue with the approach…a client would get the best Philips approach, not necessarily the best lighting solution!

With the internet of things moving up the hierarchy of importance, data collection, control and management is quickly becoming the number one priority. In other words, new buildings (or even renovations) will now first need to decide what kind of data infrastructure they will need for their building! Therefore, the question of who will design the lighting infra structure is moving further down the line! If data providers start to dictate the location of the lighting points and even what kind of lighting fixture, lighting designers will quickly become irrelevant!

GOOEE
But wait! This does not need to be the case…One of the fastest rising stars in this service providing lighting industries is GOOEE, in my opinion the GOOGLE of lighting (I think they may even have chosen the name for this reason…). Using the cloud and anything wireless, the GOOEE platform offers the most elaborate data infra structure that not only includes room and usage data collection, but also all relevant lighting data measurement, control and management. It is an open platform (contrary to what specific lighting manufacturers are offering) that allows any luminaire and any control protocol (DALI/ DMX/0-10V/etc.) to be used.

This sounds really good, and most of all it would provide the necessary opportunity to include the lighting designer as the gate keeper and watchdog to assure compliance to lighting standards and but most of all to provide that independent and professional lighting design advise! In my opinion therefore GOOEE is the ideal platform and company to provide Light as a Service, since it is an open platform, will allow us to connect to the internet of things as they use light-as-a-host and most of all provide our clients with the best possible professional data and lighting solution.

See for more info: www.gooee.com

Have a great weekend

 

02. December 2017 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: light watch, lighting and sustainability, lighting and the economy, lighting design, lighting design practice, lighting of the future, lighting standards | Leave a comment

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