WHEN IT COMES TO NETWORKED lighting controls, adoption in the commercial building market has been inhibited by complexity, high cost, and lack of standardization and interoperability, according to the DesignLights Consortium.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) introduced new specifications in September 2023 with the goal of enabling true multivendor interoperability and mainstream acceptance. Called Bluetooth NLC, these specifications layer atop previous standards Bluetooth Mesh (2017) and Bluetooth LE (2010) to offer the first fullstack standard for wireless lighting control.
“Prior to Bluetooth NLC, a fullstack standard for wireless lighting control did not exist, limiting global mainstream adoption and preventing the market from reaching its full potential,” said Damon Barnes, director of Technical Marketing, Bluetooth SIG. “We anticipate that Bluetooth NLC will help accelerate commercial wireless lighting control adoption in the coming years.”
“The goal has always been to deliver a wireless networked lighting control system that simply works—and works very reliably,” added Szymon Slupik, president/CTO of Silvair.
Wireless Lighting Control
Networked lighting control systems are intelligent (computing-based) systems in which devices communicate within a network to enact control strategies and potentially generate useful building data. They promise three key benefits: high energy savings achieved by robust and detailed responsiveness to changes in a space, improved occupant experience through flexibility and detailed responsiveness, and improved building operations by leveraging data to achieve better space utilization and other outcomes.
In such a system, connectivity may be achieved via dedicated control wiring (wired), radio waves over a dedicated frequency (wireless), or a hybrid of the two. Lighting control devices can be managed either locally or at the building or even the enterprise level.
Wireless offers the advantage of greater design flexibility, as devices can be placed where needed and moved—particularly useful in spaces where wiring installation is costly or prohibitive. It also offers economy in deployment, as wiring installation is avoided, and the ability to more easily change or add to the system.
According to ABI Research (January 2023), these advantages will help drive adoption of commercial wireless lighting controls on a trajectory that may see them permanently eclipse wired system shipments starting in 2027. The firm projected global shipments of wireless lighting controls to grow rapidly from 2022 to 2027 at a CAGR of 115%.
Bluetooth NLC
In a wireless networked lighting control system, three layers work together to deliver a solution: the radio layer that defines how devices send data over radio frequencies, the communication layer that defines how they communicate, and the device layer that defines roles and responsibilities for different device types. Each layer may separately be based on a proprietary (specific manufacturer) or standardized approach.
Bluetooth NLC adds standard specifications for the device layer atop Bluetooth Mesh (communication layer) and Bluetooth LE (radio layer).
These specifications standardize responsibilities and features for six initial device roles: Occupancy Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Energy Monitor, Scene Selector, Dimming Control, and Lightness Controller.
“This makes it much easier for hardware manufacturers to design their products, as they have precise recipes to follow,” explained Slupik. “Bluetooth NLC also mandates many device features that were optional before. So overall, it means the devices claiming Bluetooth NLC compliance are more uniform and thus more interoperable.”
Bluetooth NLC establishes a true global wireless standard that frees buyers and installers from vendor lock-in and gives them confidence that lighting components from different vendors will work seamlessly with one another.
—DAMON BARNES, Bluetooth SIG
These roles may be combined in the same device, such as a Bluetooth NLC-compliant occupancy sensor with a DALI/D4i port that combines the roles of Occupancy Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Lightness Controller, and Energy Monitoring—with the latter role aggregating energy data provided by the D4i drivers and forwarding it over the mesh network. Theoretically, a device could combine all six roles.
“With the new NLC standard, a designer could use any complying manufacturer’s device interchangeably and get the same behavior,” said Stephen Zhou, executive vice president, McWong International. “So, for example, every occupancy sensor in a Bluetooth NLC network will behave exactly the same regardless of which company produced it.”
With more than 40,000 Bluetooth SIG members shipping 5 billion Bluetooth-enabled products per year, Bluetooth NLC is likely to be incorporated into forthcoming new products. Security is prioritized across the product’s life, from manufacturing to disposal. Bluetooth NLC devices are fully discoverable, meaning a phone app can manage all devices on the network, find out what they are and other characteristics regardless of who made them, and then program sequences of operations (SOO). This enables commissioning of a multivendor lighting control system. A remote provisioning feature enables facilitation of SOO setup and future changes.
Zhou added, “Distributors can partner with different vendors if those devices from the vendors are Bluetooth NLC qualified. This will provide distributors with a broader choice of products.”
Standardization Benefits
Drawing on more than 25 years of experience with previous Bluetooth standards, Bluetooth NLC was developed to deliver three major benefits.
True multivendor interoperability tops the list, as this was the primary goal for the standard. “Bluetooth NLC establishes a true global wireless standard that frees buyers and installers from vendor lock-in and gives them confidence that lighting components from different vendors will work seamlessly with one another,” Barnes said.
Another major benefit is ease of deployment. “Lighting practitioners will benefit from being able to rely on a single body of knowledge for a networked lighting control system,” said Zhou. “With Bluetooth NLC, the practitioner no longer needs to learn—or refresh their understanding of—different proprietary systems on a continuous basis. Regardless of manufacturer choices for network components, the practitioner will be certain of how the system will behave. This will be a significant time savings, given the amount of work that goes into design. Much of that work can be leveraged from one project to another.”
“Bluetooth NLC offers a set of very clearly defined functionalities, so a specifier may just specify Bluetooth NLC without a need to require particular products from particular vendors,” Slupik said. “This gives a lot of flexibility to choose products based on form factor, price, support options, etc.”
The third major benefit is scalability. “The ideal lighting control system is often one that can start small and then scale in both functionality and size as spaces and layouts inevitably change and evolve,” Barnes pointed out. “Bluetooth NLC features a decentralized architecture that distributes control to all end devices, removing the need for centralized controllers and allowing Bluetooth NLC lighting systems to be more easily reconfigurable and far more extensible than other wireless lighting control options.”
Overall, standardization provides multivendor interoperability and simplifies deployment, addressing two major inhibitors to adoption of networked lighting controls. As such, Bluetooth NLC is expected to expand the market for networked lighting, including into small and medium-sized as well as large commercial buildings.
As manufacturers begin to introduce Bluetooth NLC-qualified products, distributors may benefit by becoming familiar with the standard. They can also explore providing value-added services to contractors and other customers with education and technical support.
Originally posted on TED Magazine