Philips taking light beyond illumination

Philips Lighting has announced a new global partnership with Vodafone to drive widespread adoption of wireless connected street lighting across the world.

The Philips CityTouch street lighting management system will use Vodafone’s machine-to-machine (M2M) network to connect individual light points. Every connected street lamp will contain a Vodafone M2M SIM.

City authorities can then monitor and manage lighting through the Philips CityTouch system while engineers will be able to check performance, identify faults and control the lighting remotely.

Philips said it will allow city authorities to create an infrastructure that is easily scalable and able to support other smart city applications in the future.

“Just less than 12% of the world’s street lights are LED and less than 2% are connected. We are at the start of a new era which will see highly energy-efficient connected street lighting become the backbone of most smart cities,” Philips Lighting SVP, Head of Strategy and Marketing Bill Bien said.

“Robust, reliable wireless connectivity will help make this happen, linking streetlights with sensors, devices and management systems. By partnering with Vodafone we can work together to take light beyond illumination, helping to make cities more energy efficient, more liveable and giving people an increased sense of safety.”

The company said to date it has installed 530 systems in 33 countries, providing high-quality light, energy savings and operational cost savings that will help “form a digital backbone for smart cities”.

Philips has also unveiled Philips DigiStreet, which it says is the first LED streetlight that is futureproofed with slots for sensors and wireless connectivity.

The company is also currently showcasing its connected lighting systems designed for the home, office, shop and street at Light + Building 2016, the international trade show running in Frankfurt this week.

Originally published here.