PoE Lighting: The next big thing in Internet of Things (IoT).
For the past several months the Matrix team has been researching PoE lighting.
From our research we’ve developed a short list of benefits – the 3 C’s of PoE lighting. These benefits represent just some of the IoT possibilities that could impact a vast number of people in some pretty profound ways:
Cost
Cost reduction, from the use of PoE lighting, is the result of two main factors:
- LED lights are less costly to operate than traditional lighting
- Ethernet cable is less costly to install than traditional electrical cable
Control
PoE lighting allows homeowners and business owners to control color and usage, which is important because:
- by controlling the color of light you can positively affect human well-being and productivity
- by controlling light usage, for example on/off based on time of day, you can positively affect the environment and energy costs
Communication
PoE lighting allows people to use lighting as a communication tool. For example, in the event of a security breech your lighting can flicker 3 times communicating to all office workers that an intruder is in the building and to lock their doors and stay quiet.
Scenerio: PoE Lighting in Healthcare
Here is a simple healthcare example. Let’s imagine PoE lighting across an entire regional hospital.
Patient Rooms: you could install PoE lighting that is set to a playlist of varying color schemes throughout the day, automatically adjusting to the various phases of sunlight throughout the day. Depending on the patient case, you may even prescribe the color of the light source to aid in patient recovery and their specific diagnosis.
Hallway: you might install PoE lighting that mirrored the nurse call function, whereby the light outside a patient room blinked when the patient was in need of assistance.
Supply Closet: where occupancy is infrequent, you might install a motion sensor on the door that triggers the light to come on when a person enters and turns off when a person leaves.
Basement: you might have water sensors on the floor in discrete locations that detect flood waters or major spills that could alert the staff by flashing all of the overhead hallway lights.
If you think of each light as a connected Internet device, you can quickly see that the possibilities are endless for how you control your vast array of lighting sources. Additionally, if you consider all of the various sensors being developed for the detection of events from water, vibration, air pressure, temperature, motion etc. you can realize how to connect and automate lighting in a host of new and beneficial ways.
Imagine now that there is a master control panel as well as data store for all of these connected sensors and lighting sources. This would allow people to orchestrate the lighting and other devices and systems to better care for patients, create more productive work environments, reduce cost and many other profound impacts.
LEDs Magazine ‘“Digital SSL’s mega disruptor will be Power over Ethernet”
If you’d like to read more about PoE lighting I believe you will find the article from LEDs Magazine interesting. You will need to subscribe to the online version of the magazine to view the article (I promise I have no affiliation with the magazine, it was just a good article that was shared with me by a colleague).
Matrix Integration Can Help
If you’d like to engage the Matrix team to explore ways we can help you get started down the path of PoE lighting, please contact us. I’m happy to report that we’ve partnered with companies like Platformatics, an Indiana-based startup focused on developing a platform for Internet of Things. We’re also working with CBMC, Inc., an Indiana-based national commercial lighting firm that has been engineering and installing LED lighting solutions for years. We’ve also partnered for 20+ years with networking manufactures such as Cisco, HP, Hubbell and others who provide the certified Ethernet networking cables and PoE networking switches that support an overall PoE lighting solution.
