by Brianna Crandall — May 14, 2018 — The IoT-Ready Alliance, an alliance of leading lighting, building management, and Internet of Things (IoT) companies and organizations just introduced its first specification, The IoT-Ready Interface Specification V1.0. The new standard defines a socket that allows any type of IoT sensor or control module to connect seamlessly to a luminaire or other building system, ensuring all new LED lighting fixtures can be shipped with a standard socket to easily add intelligent IoT sensors to the fixture after the fixture has been installed.
The new standard is network-protocol independent, which enables IoT-Ready-compliant products to utilize any networking protocol, either wired or wireless, and is suitable for all light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and building control networks.
Enlighted CEO Joe Costello stated:
The Interface Specification is a very important first step by the IoT-Ready Alliance to make the installation of IoT technology in luminaires easy today, and in the future. We are announcing our 5th generation sensor at Lightfair International and it will be IoT-Ready Interface Specification compliant. We are also committed to ensuring all future sensors meet IoT-Ready standards. We look forward to collaborating with the member companies to develop new technologies to speed the adoption of LED lighting and enable smarter buildings.
Karl Jónsson, chief commercial officer, Tridonic, added:
The Alliance has come a long way and in just one year, we have not only developed the IoT-Ready Interface Specification, but Tridonic is introducing the first IoT-Ready LED driver based on the Specification and available for purchase today. For Tridonic, as an IoT solutions provider with deep experience in lighting and new player in the US, our goal is to bring real differentiating value to the industry. We can accomplish this through our collaborations with the IoT-Ready members. We look forward to creating additional products based on the IoT-Ready Specification for the US marketplace.
Evan Petridis, chair of the IoT-Ready Alliance Technical Committee, said:
We’re very pleased that our collaborative environment and focus on results has enabled us to converge on a robust specification so quickly. The specification achieves our design goals of broad industry support, extensibility, low-cost, and simplicity of implementation. In working with a range of companies from the lighting, lighting-control and IoT industries, I’ve seen what we can accomplish when we focus on results instead of defending industry turf. Now that our first specification is published and products are on the market, we look forward to working together with other technical standards bodies in the lighting, building management, and IoT spaces to ensure a single set of coherent standards worldwide.
Key benefits of adopting the IoT-Ready standard
- Specifies all interface elements: mechanical, electrical and software
- Provides a complete family of interoperable solutions to smart building IoT interface problems
- Allows in-field retrofit, replacements and upgrades without disassembly
- Specification is developed under a royalty-free license
- Works with any network protocol including Thread, BLE, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, IP/Ethernet etc.
- Is backwards compatible with legacy lighting controls
- Can be implemented with traditional lighting controls until IoT is needed
- Provides a low-cost option to future-proof luminaires or other system components in buildings
- Suitable for a range of applications, from simple low-cost lighting control to high-end IoT sensing
First new IoT-ready products based on the new specification
Alliance co-founders Tridonic and Enlighted announced their first products based on the new specification at Lightfair International in Chicago, Illinois. Tridonic showcased the first IoT-Ready LED driver interacting with several systems such as its net4more and including Enlighted’s IoT Solution for smart buildings. Enlighted presented the Enlighted Sensor based on the new standard. Both the Tridonic IoT-Ready LED driver and Enlighted IoT-Ready sensor are available for purchase.
