‘Smart’ is used to describe how many devices today can connect to the internet, from phones and watches to televisions and refrigerators. Undoubtedly, this increased capability has made our lives easier, more efficient and changed our expectations.

However, what does it mean when ‘smart’ is applied on a much grander scale—like a building? What a smart building can or should do may vary depending on the individual or organization’s experience in this fast developing market, but this is our high level understanding of a smart building today:

Just like a smart phone or smart TV, a smart building has evolved dramatically in terms of capabilities and practical business use cases that use data to reimagine what is possible in a workplace. Let’s briefly examine what a smart building can deliver.

How do you realize the promise of a smart building? 
Since data is at the heart of what makes a building smart, consider lighting. Lighting is ubiquitous everywhere people work, gather and interact. The rapid advancements in LED technology includes tremendous gains in energy efficiency as well as the potential to transform lighting infrastructures into information pathways. These newly created conduits for information have the capacity to collect, share and analyze data, offering insight into new capabilities such as space optimization and enhanced employee experience.

The real estate world is a perfect microcosm for this. With technology that exists today, every fixture in your building is capable of producing better light, using less energy, while providing smart insights designed to improve the comfort, utilization and attractiveness of your space.

What is Power over Ethernet (PoE) Lighting? 
LED lighting can also be connected, making it an ideal enabler of smart buildings. One proven technology used to connect lighting is Power over Ethernet, or PoE lighting. With PoE, both power and data can be delivered over a single standard Ethernet cable. In addition, the lighting system is merged with the building’s IT system, either as a shared or dedicated network (as decided by the building’s IT managers).

Like a computer, each luminaire has a unique IP address and can be individually monitored and managed. PoE based connected lighting makes integration of data, monitoring, and management of the lighting system fast and easy—delivering value beyond just lighting.

Unique benefits of a connected PoE system for building owners and users are:

• Low cost, low voltage, easy installation; no need to run line voltage wiring to the luminaires
• High bandwidth data transmission
• Each luminaire can be identified, managed and controlled from various IT platforms.
• Deep energy savings of up to 80% realized
• Advanced sensor capabilities such as people counting, occupancy, daylight and temperature
• Real-time data provides actionable insights to improve enterprise operational efficiency
• Personal control via users’ smartphones allowing employees to control the space to their liking
• Way-finding location based services such as indoor navigation via visible light communication
• Pay for services as needed—such as cleaning—for only those meeting rooms used that day
• Open API allows easy integration with other building operations such as HVAC, security, badging and many more

How does PoE Lighting work in a building? 

It all starts with a luminaire which houses a smart sensor. Just as human sensory organs contain receptors that gather information about the surrounding environment, these embedded smart sensors gather data related to the dynamics of their space—be it the analogous occupancy count and patterns or variability of ambient light and temperature levels. There are numerous possibilities on the type of data being collected by these smart sensors.

But all this data needs to be channeled safely to the right place. A PoE technology enabled switch acts as an interface for this routine. It’s the heart of the system providing the necessary energy (power) to the luminaires, a high bandwidth and secured pathway for the data to be shared and merged with the building’s IT system.

On the other hand, a Gateway acts as a network bridge or area controller providing logical segmentation of PoE and other lighting devices. It handles the routing of all messages in the system, linking multiple subnetworks together.

Finally, the lighting data server is a storage and analytics processing warehouse, which—upon request via the front end software—generates an analytical snapshot of the requested information.

• What is the business case? 
• Increase operational savings: The Edge building in Amsterdam, one of the smartest and greenest buildings in the world, is now the cheapest office in the world for Deloitte. Their current annual savings are $3.8m/year compared to the previous location.
• Increase space utilization: Deloitte has added nearly 1,000 workers to the space and dramatically reduced square feet per employee.
• Attract and retain talent: They have “…four times more applicants than before the building was renovated,” according to developer OVG.
• Increase productivity: With location based meeting room scheduling and wayfinding features, time waste and frustration is dramatically reduced, resulting in happier, more productive employees.

The evolving workforce wants to work in more innovative, more sustainable and more productive buildings. Today’s technology will enable building owners & managers to achieve just that.

Smart Lighting is one of the key systems are influencing the design and implementation of smart buildings and will be one of the topics presented at Realcomm | IBcon 2017 on June 14-15 in San Diego.