The Zigbee Alliance and the Digital Illumination Interface Alliance (DiiA), the organisation for DALI lighting control, are working together to bring further standardisation and system interoperability to IoT-based luminaires in the smart lighting space.
The pair said the collaboration will help realise the benefits of combining wired DALI lighting-control with wireless Zigbee-based IoT networks. They are working on a gateway specification to support a forthcoming certification programme.
“The blending of reliable, cost-effective, low-power Zigbee technologies with DALI’s proven digital lighting control gives users a best-in-class combination for intelligent illumination systems,” they said in a statement.
Paul Drosihn, general manager at the DiiA, commented: “Our liaison with the Zigbee Alliance is part of DiiA’s commitment to address different options for combining wireless communication links with DALI lighting control. Developing specifications and testing requirements for gateways between Zigbee ecosystems and wired DALI networks will ensure interoperability that’s backed by certification.”
Tobin Richardson, president and chief at the Zigbee Alliance, said: “The intersection of wired and wireless is where industry can work better together during this IoT transition to benefit those invested in both technology camps as well as consumers as they embrace connected devices.”
He added: “Pairing DiiA’s wired control solutions with Zigbee brings more choice to markets that rely on these technologies for various use cases and as a springboard for future innovation.”
DiiA members include Acuity Brands, Eaton, Osram, Pansonic, Siemens, Signify, Silvair, and Telensa, among others. The alliance is driving the adoption of DALI-2, the latest version of the DALI protocol. Its D4i certification programme seeks to bring standardisation to intra-luminaire DALI.
The Zigbee Alliance has many of the same members, plus the likes of Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, Ikea, Legrand, NXP, Schneider Electric, ST Micro, and Texas Instruments as board members.
The number of certified Zigbee IoT products and platforms in the market for smart homes and cities has passed 3,000, according to the Zigbee Alliance. The alliance’s certification programme seeks to establish quality standards and levels of interoperability among Zigbee products for product developers, service providers, and customers.
The group is coordinating efforts to make smart home and IoT products easier to develop, deploy, and sell across ecosystems. A new All Hubs Initiative, driven by a Zigbee Alliance workgroup, is working to improve interoperability between IoT devices and major consumer and commercial platforms.
Check out the new editorial report from Enterprise IoT Insights, part of the new Digital Industry Solutions series, on smart lighting. The report, ‘Smart Lighting as a Platform – for Buildings and Cities’, is available to download for free from here.
