NuLEDs

The following article was published by Inbuilding Magazine on September 20, 2017.

The Next Wave

NuLEDs aims to make buildings smarter and seamlessly connected with its PoE lighting systems.

By Bianca Herron

Chris and Lisa Isaacson founded NuLEDs in 2011. With their backgrounds in low-voltage LED lighting and control technology, and design engineering, the Isaacsons combined their talents to create a diverse technology company.

Today, NuLEDs is a leader in power-over-ethernet (PoE) lighting systems aimed at making buildings smarter and seamlessly connected.

The Carlsbad, Calif.-based company is an innovator in LED lighting systems, developing serially interfaced, low voltage controllers, and IT-based LED lighting systems.

A big break for NuLEDs came in 2011 when Cisco approached them to develop this technology. In January of 2012, NuLEDs delivered the first PoE lighting system to Cisco that could be both powered and controlled from an ethernet network. Chief Business Development Officer Lisa Isaacson says the lighting and electrical industry has never been the same since, and the company is excited to play a part in it.

“Initially, we thought people would be skeptical,” she says. “However, when we first started talking about it to electrical and lighting companies, everyone said it made sense. We’ve been watching the company and the technology grow ever since.”

NuLEDs has customers across the nation and globally, including in London, Scotland and Dubai. Isaacson attributes the company’s growth to multiple partnerships with Cisco and other large electrical and lighting manufacturers including Eaton, USLED, and Deco Lighting.

“It has certainly changed the way lighting is installed and controlled,” she says. “Most of the major lighting companies have come on board, and have either developed their own power-over-ethernet lighting module, or partnered with companies like NuLEDs to offer their lighting product line of PoE-ready fixture.”

NuLEDs’ system is designed around its module, the SPICEbox™, (Single Packet Illumination Control Environment) which converts PoE power to drive LEDs and sensors. “The internet of things is all about sensors,” Isaacson says. “So as more sensors become available you can plug them into the nearest SPICEbox™, upgrade your firmware and then add more intelligence to your building.”

She notes that running additional wires and adding new sensors aren’t necessary, which helps eliminate installation costs. “The category five or category six cable can send both power and data to LEDs,” she explains. “The hardware costs are a bit more expensive because you are buying the Ethernet switches and modules; however, it’s offset by the installation savings.”

Innovation On Purpose

Although NuLEDs’ goal is to create “really intelligent” buildings, it goes beyond lighting, Isaacson insists. “Lighting is a great backbone to build on because it’s everywhere,” she says. “However, we’re also powering other low-voltage loads beyond lighting that are all a part of the building system.”

Ultimately, it’s about getting a building to communicate directly through the sensors – to all of the loads – to create the most efficient and intelligent building possible, she adds. “My vision is to continue partnering with companies that have building systems within a building that are low voltage, including HVAC systems,” Isaacson explains. “We’re powering ceiling fans and window actuators now, and they’re all on our network and controlled through network protocol.”

One of NuLEDs recent projects is set up so that skylights open at night to let in fresh air. “The customer won’t have to turn on the air conditioner as early in the morning she says. “They also are implementing kelvin-tunable lights. This system runs through a circadian rhythm cycle throughout the day, and the sensors change the brightness levels.”

Not only can each LED lamp be controlled and monitored separately, but occupancy sensors can also turn off the lights when no one is in the space. Colored LEDs can also be controlled on the network to create effects. By using red, green and blue LEDs combined at different brightness levels, more than 16 million colors can be created, Isaacson notes.

“All of our controllers are 4-channel systems or more,” she says. “We have multiple channels so customers can create RGB [red, green, blue] or kelvin-tunable loads. We now have projects utilizing RGB lighting to mimic the sky. In an indoor environment, we’re re-creating the sunrise and sunset. So the lights will turn orange in the evening, for example.”

She adds that the IT-based lighting system industry is developing rapidly, and NuLEDs is excited to be a part of it. “I think there’s a great opportunity for networking companies and networking entrepreneurs to get into this space and be able to take on, manage and support these projects from cradle to the grave,” Isaacson concludes. “This is great technology, and we’re super fans of it.”

The Cisco implementation at The Sinclair Marriott Hotel in Fort Worth, TX makes use of NuLEDs SPICEbox™ devices to connect and manage the PoE devices on the network in this digital building.

Power management company Eaton today announced a collaboration with NuLEDs, aimed at making buildings smarter and seamlessly securely connected. The two companies will go to market with a joint product offering including Eaton’s complete portfolio of PoE-enabled light-emitting diode (LED) luminaires and NuLEDs’ drivers, software, sensors and keypads.

The collaboration has already been active in delivering several projects with Eaton’s PoE-enabled Metalux Encounter^™ luminaire featuring WaveStream^™ LED technology and NuLEDs’ Single Packet Illumination Control Environment solution. The lighting network will include NuLEDs’ NuSPICE^™ protocol, allowing for simple communication to its sensors, wall controllers and other devices on the network. Both buildings will include NuLEDs’ PoE modules, the SpiceBox™, which converts PoE power to drive LEDs and sensors.

Read the full article here.

The following post was written by Lois I. Hutchinson and was originally published at lightshowwest.com, and features NuLEDs and its products.

Power over Ethernet (PoE) could disrupt the lighting industry more than the LED ever has. By powering lighting with Ethernet switches and inexpensive Cat 5 or 6 cable, instead of hazardous 120V electrical systems, PoE threatens to move lighting from the electrician’s realm into IT. Lighting is everywhere in a building, and major IT players are poised to exploit the lighting layout and collect information for multiple building systems onto a single IP network. Beyond sensors and switches informing a standalone lighting control system, a network of security, phone, and other building systems coordinate to make buildings truly connected. PoE lighting can leverage investments in IT infrastructure and deliver greater energy efficiency, particularly in HVAC, plus a more personalized experience for the occupant.

By connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) on a hardwired, intelligent platform, PoE powers, controls and receives data back from devices and sensors throughout the building. This highly granular data on ambient conditions and occupant behavior provide insight for improved building management, maintenance and usage. Hyperconnected people and systems can enable personalized environments, including circadian lighting control schemes, to enhance comfort, productivity and safety.

The Edge, in Amsterdam, is the result of a partnership between OVG Real Estate, Philips and the main tenant, Deloitte. PoE lighting throughout the building provides facility managers with an integrated view of the building’s occupancy patterns and energy usage. Via an app on their smartphones, employees can adjust the temperature and the brightness of the light above their desk, supporting workplace productivity.

The building telephone and security industries have already weathered the transition to PoE. And like most modern devices, LEDs are inherently dc, so installation is greatly simplified by eliminating the separate power and control wiring. Analyzing ROI, Philips claims that PoE lighting achieves an 87.5 percent reduction in connections to mains power. Cabling company Siemon estimates a 75 percent reduction in connection costs, plus 20 to 25 percent energy savings achieved by converting ac to dc power at the panel rather than at individual powered devices (PDs). Without line-voltage connections, light fixtures and sensors can be more easily added, reconfigured and upgraded. Some recommend leaving a quarter of PoE ports unused on an initial install.

Adding wattage

The IEEE 802.3af and 802.3at standards made low-power PoE devices like IP phones, Wi-Fi access points and security cameras possible. Today, more than 25W of 48V dc power brings LED lighting into the field. The upcoming approval of IEEE 802.3bt (or PoE++, expected to be ratified in 2016 or 2017) will allow up to 100W (minus losses) of plug-and-play networking without the strict conduit regulations required for line-voltage installations. IEEE 802.3bt is designed specifically for the IoT, transmitting data and power over all four pairs with a 10 Giabit Ethernet protocol (10GBASE-T).

This schematic from NuLEDs shows a UPS system backing up a complete lighting system.

The IEEE standards treat LED luminaires more like the delicate electronics they are. Power will not flow to the device until after a handshake is performed and the PD’s needs are calibrated. There is a tiny arc when PoE is physically disconnected, but overall the low voltage is much safer. If the Ethernet switch reboots, the current power continues to flow. A UPS attached to the router powers emergency lighting, so zones can be configured through the software platform; and can be dimmed to bare minimums when an extended outage is predicted.

“PoE is progressively getting cheaper, and with PoE++ you’re talking about 72 watts: that really changes things,” said Joe Williams, director for distributor sales at Versa Technology, Inc. “As the power increases and the prices go down, I think that that barrier of entry, pricing, is going to go away.” Versatek works with integrator-installers who are experienced with IT. “The electricians tend to, when they get to that communications closet, they just stop. Not that they’re stuck in their ways, it’s just something that they really haven’t had much exposure to,” Williams said. “We’ve got a couple of small regional electricians that are starting to use PoE more and more – not necessarily for lighting… That blurs the line between being an electrician and being an IT guy. For the most part, our experience with big electrical firms: [PoE lighting]is not really on their radar.”

Opening the office

In February, IT powerhouse Cisco launched the Digital Ceiling alliance, along with Philips Lighting, Cree and Eaton, among others. NuLEDs partnered with Cisco in 2012 and has numerous PoE lighting installations across the country. “It’s been a long process, but a very interesting and fun process, to watch this whole ecosystem emerge through the combination of the efficiency increases of LED lighting and the power increases of Ethernet-delivered Cat 5 cabling power,” said Lisa L. Isaacson, chief business development officer at NuLEDs. “There’s even fixtures being developed that are 200 lumens per watt. So you’re ending up with this efficiency increase in the LED lighting space that makes a compelling story. We’re at the point now where we can put two light fixtures on one Ethernet port and still control them separately through addressable channels.”

The Cisco Customer Briefing Center in Manhattan is illuminated with POE lighting from NuLEDs. Here, two-by-two LED troffers contain RGB ColorBeacons for visual communication.

Isaacson explained that NuLEDs often uses four-channel control of RGBW LED arrays to provide tunable white light. “We can tie in with an astronomical timeclock, so we can have an office space or a school space go through a Kelvin shift throughout the day to mimic the circadian rhythm of the outdoor daylight.”

In addition, networked PoE lighting enables

• Demand side management/load shedding
• Personal controls to set preferred settings, enhancing user satisfaction
• More granular occupancy controls and daylight harvesting
• Highly flexible scheduling
• Positions and connections for a myriad of sensors: temperature, CO2, humidity, seismic, vacancy, methane, video, etc., etc.
• The ability to monitor luminaires to detect outages and operational anomalies
• Measurement and verification (M&V) of energy savings for each luminaire and sensor on the system
• The use of colored light for wayfinding
• The use of colored light to influence purchasing or other behavior
• Visible light communication (VLC) for personalized communications to the occupant (uses a smart device with camera), including wayfinding
• VLC for occupant control of the immediate environment using a smart device
• The use of telemetry and analytics to save energy and optimize space utilization
• Lighting as a service

“The way that building systems are constructed today, they’re silos,” Luis Suau, solutions architect/technical for Cisco Systems’s Internet of Everything Vertical Solutions Group said in awebinar. “They operate independent of each other. Through IoT and infrastructure convergence we’re able to bring all of those systems together, using the same infrastructure, which of course lowers the cost.”

Philips partnered with retailer Carrefour in Lille, France, to provide visible light communications (VLC). LED lighting transmits signals to shoppers’ smartphones to help them navigate and find promotions across the 7,800 sq mshop floor.

He describes the perfect storm of technologies enabling telecommuting, mobile devices and the empowerment of employees collaborating in small working groups. “There’s a synergy between LED lighting and digitization in buildings, and so the ability to converge building infrastructures to provide power and control via the network is really a trend that’s enabling the Digital Ceiling. And all this is now possible not only through LEDs coming into the digital ceiling, but it’ also enabled by IoT technology…. The cost of processors and communications has gotten to a level where it’s cheap enough to put into every kind of thing you can imagine.”

The resurgence of the open office approach to collaborative workspaces is taken a step further by workspaces with no assigned offices or seating, called “office hoteling.” “When[Cisco employees] badge in, then the lights come on in that office. They come on to whatever Kelvin temperature they want; they come on to whatever dim level. And once they’ve badged in they gain access to their space though their smart devices,” Isaacson said. A badge swipe can be replaced with an RFID tag or Bluetooth-equipped personal device or wearable.

“Not since Edison invented the light bulb have we had such a dramatic shift in the way we light spaces. LED was the enabler and catalyst of this shift. But switching to a low-voltage networked lighting system is so different from traditional lighting,” she added. “2016 is going to be a great year for this. It’s going to be the year of the shift, I believe.”

The following post was originally published at facilitiesnet.

Cisco has introduced a new Building Internet of Things solution, the Digital Ceiling, a Power over Ethernet (PoE) network that enables the convergence of building systems including lighting, heating, cooling, sensors, and other actuators.

All of these work together to increase efficiency, lower costs, and enable unique user experiences. The net-net: creation of buildings that are not only smart, but also connected, secure, and easy to manage.

Digital Ceiling is based on an optimized Cisco IP network that includes enhanced switches that enable lighting and building automation to run on a converged IP network. Features like Perpetual Power over Ethernet (PoE), Fast Boot, Smart Install, and software for sensor integration (including motion, light, temperature, infrared, and humidity) are also included.

Digital Ceiling leverages dramatic gains in LED technology. LED costs are dropping 12 percent year over year, said Tony Shakib, vice president of the IoT verticals business unit of Cisco in a virtual roundtable. Meanwhile, LED power efficiency is improving by 20 percent annually, he said. Today, as more building services are moving to IP networks, LEDs can be powered by those same IP networks.

The partner community supporting Digital Ceiling currently includes Cree, Philips, Johnson Controls, Eaton, nuLEDs, and nine others.

A new Information Exchange provides Digital Ceiling with open and secure communication. This eases interoperability among devices, sensors, and actuators. It enables more efficient communication over CoAP — a standards-based IoT protocol.

Mobile County (Alabama) Public Schools plan to use Digital Ceilings to enhance student achievement and improve security by providing lighting for early warning and fire detection, while reducing operating costs.

“Mobile County Public Schools is working toward blending lighting with intuitive technology to personalize learning environments and deliver more value than we’d ever imagined,” said David K. Akridge, executive manager, information technology, for the school system, in the virtual roundtable. “Beyond high-performance energy efficiency, we now have the ability to tune the color of our lighting to create custom, comfortable classrooms.”

Digital Ceiling is one of three new solutions in Cisco’s Digital Solutions portfolio. The other two are Customer Experience (which aims to deliver a better experience, as well as to measure and optimize on each customer interaction) and Workforce Experience (using face-to-face collaboration and conferencing, this offer is made up of standardized room types that allow you to set to your preference and then roll out). The new digital solutions are based on validated designs and use cases. Orderable as one solution, they bring together hardware, software, and services.