Written by Karl Fazakerley- Product Manager, Device Connections

A smart city is the re-development of an area or city using data and communication technologies to enhance the performance and quality of services such as energy, connectivity, transportation, utilities and others.  The adoption of smart applications can provide a range of benefits for residents, from public safety to health and transportation.  One such area is lighting and how this fits within the IoT world.

Up to now, the most important driver for lighting has been to improve energy efficiency and reduce cost. Both LED lighting and IoT (Internet of Things) device technologies are in the early-adopter phase of their respective lifecycles.  The technologies underlying them are relatively mature, but it is only recently that a surge in demand to connect the technologies has emerged, and this coincides with the smart city trends we are now seeing which allows us to deliver new capabilities.

Hearing loss is a common physical condition, so using IoT devices we can connect the alarms, the doorbells, the smoke detectors and the door locks to an IoT network.  Combine with a LED lighting network, this opens the door to many benefits.  You can apply colour changes and flashing lights to notify users when an alarm is going off, when something in the kitchen needs attention, when there is someone at the door, and even when there is an emergency and smart displays can direct you to exit points within a building.

It is likely that the transition to a general adoption of these two technologies is intimately intertwined and Phoenix Contact UK has solutions for varying applications from on board LED connectors, connectivity for data and signal solutions, to IoT ready control systems that connect the lighting systems to the wider IoT Networks, we have it all.

Please check out our website for our solutions for lighting systems

Contact Karl on 07919 005153 or email kfazakerley@phoenixcontact.com