Havells Spotlight EP 02 Featured Dr. Karsten Ehling Highlighting the Connected Lighting in Professional Spaces

Share It

Havells present ‘Spotlight’ organised by Realty+ Masterclass telecasted their second episode on June 28, 2021. The Guest Speaker Dr. Karsten Ehling, Founding Partner & Managing Director, Lichtvision Germany shared his views on the IoT connected lighting systems and the future of connected lighting. The presentation by Dr Ehling threw light on the macro trends in connected lighting in residential, offices, hospitality and retail and how with changing times Lighting as a Service (LaaS) is gaining prominence. He said, “The lighting infrastructure and future of lighting will be more dependent on IoT solutions. The software enabled lighting controls have been the game changer. Lighting controls are going wireless and sensors in lighting network are gaining prominence.” According to him, lighting is an ideal carrier of all sensing technology. After the presentation, Dr Ehling was joined by Sudeshna Mukhopadhyay, Vice President, Havells India Ltd., an experienced consultant in lighting technology, application, design and end user research in India & Asia Pacific. While, she agreed with the comments by Dr Ehling, she also felt that the pace of development of technology varied from region to region. She said, “The adoption of lighting technology is different in various countries. With rapid infrastructure development in India, government has now moved to using LED lights in public spaces that are also IoT connected and thus energy efficient as they can change poer and temp as per the time of the day.” Dr. Ehling added that indeed there is a strong shift from capital expenditures to operating expense in organizations and therefore the move towards LaaS which is becoming popular in Europe. “Appropriateness of lighting solutions against sustainability and Cradle to Cradle approach for lighting systems are some of the themes, lighting designers are working on now. Software enabled lighting controls are in the trend and energy-efficiency & convenience drivers of ‘On Demand’ solutions.” The hour long session concluded with the guest speakers taking a few questions from the audience and sharing their final thoughts on the subject of ‘Future of connected lighting’. Both the experts agreed that lighting design is no longer just a domain of lighting designer. IT experts, cyber security, and building management professional are all now involved in building the connected systems. The scalability and operating costs are the top issues that need to be addressed along with human centric approach of lighting design. The event ended with a thankyou note from Realty+ to both the speakers and the Havells India for presenting the conference.