LED Smart Lighting — The Underestimated "Door Opener" of the IoT Era

　　The smart lighting megatrend is clear, with bright prospects ahead. Through the Taiwan International Lighting Show, the Frankfurt Light+Building Fair, and this Guangzhou Lighting Fair, we can see that smart lighting has become the focus of the industry. More and more companies are incorporating smart lighting applications and control systems into their lighting solutions to maintain their competitive edge in the market. Against the backdrop of the rapid development of the IoT, smart lighting has reached the tipping point for explosive growth. In the smart luminaire segment, many manufacturers have already introduced LED fixtures that support dimming, color tuning, or wireless control via Wi-Fi and other technologies. Regarding network protocols, Osram, Philips, Toshiba, GE and others have all officially adopted ZigBee technology to connect home lighting products and controllers, which has spurred the emergence of ZigBee-based smart lighting products in the North American market. Smart bulb maker LIFX has just raised USD 12 million in funding, led by Sequoia Capital, which will be used to step up competition with Philips' smart bulb Hue. This is also the first new hardware company Sequoia has invested in recently. We believe smart lighting represents a valuable opportunity for LED companies to break free from the trap of low-end price competition, and will become a key part of the smart home in the future, with a bright outlook.

　　Smart lighting refers to a platform that uses advanced computer, embedded system and network communication technologies to connect various light sources in lighting circuits through a network for centralized control. On one hand, smart lighting provides users with more convenient means to manage lighting devices – for example, through infrared remote controls, smart switches, sensors, telephones, the Internet or voice recognition to control lighting devices, and can even execute scene operations to link multiple luminaires and devices into coordinated actions. On the other hand, the various lighting devices within a smart lighting system can communicate with each other; without user instructions, they can interact and operate in response to different states, delivering maximum efficiency, convenience, comfort and safety to users. Compared with conventional lighting, smart lighting not only retains traditional lighting functions, providing a comfortable, safe, refined and pleasant lighting environment, it also transforms from its original passive, static structure into an active, intelligent tool that provides comprehensive information interaction, helps the lighting system maintain smooth information exchange with the outside world, optimizes people's lifestyles, helps them schedule their time effectively, enhances the modernization of buildings, and even saves money on various energy costs.

　　The core of a smart lighting system lies in intelligent sensing and on-demand lighting. When no one is present, the system automatically adjusts to a dimmed state; when people are present, it intelligently brightens. It can also adjust the warmth or coolness of the light according to the ambient temperature and automatically regulate the indoor lighting environment to achieve "on-demand lighting," reducing light waste and creating a pleasant, comfortable indoor environment. In summer, the light source automatically adjusts to cool tones, making people feel cool; in winter, it adjusts to warm tones, making people feel warm. In addition, LED luminaires are inherently well suited to smart lighting applications. The future development of the smart lighting industry will greatly promote the penetration rate of LED lighting. With their high efficiency, dimming capability, convenient remote control and long lifespan, LEDs enable dimmable luminaires to be more efficient and more cost-effective. The application of LED luminaires makes deep dimming, programmable performance, spectrum control and environmental integration within smart lighting systems a reality.

　　Smart lighting will transform the LED lighting industry from a capital equipment model to a service model, increasing the added value of products. Smart lighting requires additional control modules and apps, expanding manufacturers' market space. We believe that smart lighting provides LED companies with an excellent entry point into mobile internet, and represents an epoch-making opportunity. Smart lighting will prompt traditional lighting fixture companies to strengthen cooperation with mobile internet companies. Lighting will become an indispensable part of the future large-scale Internet of Things, and will be integrated with various fields such as healthcare, energy, services, video, and communications. The development of the Internet of Things and smart homes will also provide LED smart lighting with greater room for development and innovation.