Internet of Lights Blog

Interview with Ron Sege by Randy Reid, Editor of the Edison Report

Ron Sege, our Chairman and CEO, was interviewed recently by Randy Reid, editor and founder of the Edison Report.  Randy and Ron sat down at the Light + Building conference in Frankfurt, Germany and talked about Echelon, our recent streetlight deployment in Cambridge and the future of lighting controls.  Below find a sneak peek of the Q&A.  If you want to read the entire questions & answers, click here.

Randy:  We saw a press release about a large job in Cambridge. 

Ron:  Cambridge, MA deployed about 5,500 lights, which was a combination of cobraheads for street lighting as well as many decorative luminaires.  We created one system with multiple controllable zones.  In addition to turning on and off, we dim the luminaires for additional savings. The city retrofitted their existing luminaires with LED and deployed Echelon using a combination of wireless and power line carrier communications.  We used wireless on the cobraheads and PLC on the decorative, as our system supports both.  This way no one has to drill holes in the decorative fixtures and add antennas. 

Randy:  If a customer typically saves 50% with LED, how much additional can they save with controls? 

Ron: Typically Echelon will save about an additional 35%. In Cambridge, when the lights turn on at sunset, they start out at about 50% and then the intensity changes at various times during the night based on whether it is a residential area or industrial area.  Also, as the LED output degrades over time, which they do, the city turns the lights up to maintain a constant light level.

Randy: What are your LIGHTFAIR plans in San Diego?

Ron: We are very excited about LIGHTFAIR and we will be exhibiting our Cambridge applications where cobraheads and decorative will be together. We want to show that Echelon allows customers to really connect anything to anything.

 

Echelon and Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center Explore Intelligent Lighting

"Smart Lighting that Thinks" is a phrase coined by Robert F. Karlicek, Jr, director of the The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center  (ERC).  Their overall goals are similar to Echelon's: to promote improved health, productivity, and well-being, while delivering greater energy savings.  Echelon is now a member of the ERC and have begun to explore innovative motion sensing and color tuning technology as well as to develop solid-state lighting systems with advanced functionality.

 

Bellingham, Wash Become a Streetlight Smart City

City streetlight conversion to LED lights is sweeping the globe.  Cities around the world are changing and adding LED streetlights to reduce cost, improve energy efficiency as well as traffic and pedestrian safety.  Bellingham, Wash is a great example of how cities and their lights are become smart cities.   Read the Bellingham and Intelligent Streetlights story.

How to Light a Tunnel for Railways (Subways and Roadways)

Tunnels pose special challenges for lighting and lighting control. When most people think of tunnel lighting, roadway tunnels for vehicles usually come to mind first, but subway tunnels are gaining more attention.

The right lighting and lighting controls can help subway operators save on energy costs and usage, make maintenance easier and less expensive, and improve safety for work crews and aesthetics for passengers. Here are some considerations for designing and installing tunnel lighting control systems, emphasizing subway tunnels, based on real-world lessons learned.

Continue Reading and learn about:

• LED-based solid-stating lighting
• Safety Issues Prompt Tunnel Upgrades
• Real-World Subway Lighting Control Evaluation
• Benefits of Lighting Controls in Tunnels

 

One of the Most Challenging Buildings to Illuminate for Occupant Safety and Security…The Parking Garage

Whether it is a new parking structure or a retrofit, parking garages now have to comply with new energy codes from California (Title 24-2013) and ASHRAE (90.1-2010).  From an energy consumption perspective, parking garages alone account for about 15 percent of a building’s total lighting energy use, according to the National Renewable Energy Labs (2012).  

One feature that sets garage structures apart is the exterior walls. Typically, two walls are exposed to natural light, creating the lighting challenge: what is well lit today could be dangerously dark tomorrow.

Installing LED lighting does significantly alter energy consumption, but for the last mile of cost reduction, the only way to reduce more is by controlling the lights through a smart networked lighting platform.  This holistic view of a lighting installation provides the right tools to adjust and monitor lighting one light at a time to lighting groups to the entire installation.

Check out our new software solution, Lumewave by Echelon CMS, that is designed with the installer and administrator in mind and helps them to create an energy efficient and modern environment for occupants of parking garages.

 

New Upgraded Lighting System Adds Control and Awards for Kimco Realty

At last count, we shop at 47,000 shopping malls (or centers) in the global market. Barring subtle differences in mall descriptions and classifications, the basic categories are dividing into eight descriptors ranging from the Mega Mall — such as the Cevahir Istanbul in Turkey, Europe’s largest — to an open air, strip mall — such as 280 Metro Center in Colma, Calif. — that offers patrons attractive anchor stores including Nordstrom Rack, Marshall's, Pier 1 Imports and Home Depot. 

One key element of a shopping center’s basic infrastructure is good outdoor lighting.  With millions of aging light fixtures ready for upgrade, many shopping centers are taking advantage of this opportunity to upgrade to sophisticated lighting networks that incorporates LED lighting resulting in better light control/monitoring, cost and energy savings, and improved safety.

One such mall that has updated its lighting system to Lumewave by Echelon, is the before mentioned, 280 Metro Center.  The center’s owner, Kimco Realty Corporation, recently received three awards for the upgrade from the Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) Campaign for Lighting.  (see full news release) 

Kimco owns approximately 745 leasable shopping establishments across 39 states plus Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Chile.  Kimco is noted as North America’s largest publicly traded owner and operator of neighborhood and community shopping centers.

The 280 Metro Center shopping center upgraded its parking area to Lumewave by Echelon wireless lighting control system that provides two-way communication via a central gateway device and cellular modem. Lumewave is engineered to provide a highly efficient and flexible solution for monitoring parking lot lighting.  The installation is comprised of 79 high-performance 217 Watt LED area fixtures equipped with passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors along with 0-10V dimmable drivers with a Lumewave wireless lighting control node fitted to each fixture. The benefits the center received from the wireless control solution include:

-  Additional savings of approximately 30 percent, compared to dusk-to-dawn operation through late-night scheduled dimming and motion-activated control

- Fixture-level control system enhances safety and security at the center due to the motion sensing that can actively deter unwanted activity

- Fault detection notifications from the system can help reduce maintenance inspection costs and can aid the resolution of any lighting outages more quickly.

The winner is: For parking area lighting upgrade, Kimco won the “Best Use of Lighting Controls at a Single Facility”, “Greatest Absolute Number of Facility Upgrades” and “Largest Absolute Area of Facility Upgrades.”

Congratulations to our customer, Kimco!

Echelon’s 2014: A Year of Progress and New Potential

It’s that time again! As the year draws to a close, it seems fitting to review Echelon’s progress and achievements during 2014.

Spoiler alert:

Our decisions and actions this past year helped propel the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to the level of general awareness, while positioning Echelon to enjoy a happy 2015. 

 

Here are a few highlights from last year:

Partnerships and More

• We greatly expanded our presence in outdoor lighting with the acquisition of Lumewave Inc., an established outdoor lighting control system provider with a strong track record in the U.S.
• Echelon signed a major distribution agreement with Digi-Key, the industry leader in electronic component selection, availability, and delivery. Digi-Key is now distributing our portfolio of products—chips, modules, routers, and software—worldwide (except Japan) for the IIoT market.
• We sold our grid operations to S&T AG, a publicly traded European IT systems provider with an existing focus on smart energy products and services. The sale lets us focus all our resources on becoming a key enabler in the IIoT.

Products

• We introduced and demonstrated the building industry’s first multiprotocol system-on-chip (SoC), the FT 6050 system—part of Echelon’s IzoT™ platform for the IIoT. This single-chip provides reliable, cost-effective, flexible wired IP-based connectivity for communities of devices, designed to speed migration from legacy control networks to the IIoT.
• We also introduced our FT 6000 Evaluation and Development Kit (EVK), aimed at developers who are creating, testing, and deploying devices and control applications for the IIoT.
• We hosted demonstrations of our advanced lighting control technologies, including ‘follow-me,’ or adaptive, outdoor lighting solutions.
• In conjunction with Xicato, we demonstrated a proof of concept (PoC) for Lighting 2.0: the convergence of networking, building automation, and lighting technologies.
• We made 8 million additional IIoT connections in 2014, based on our chip sales.

People

• Sohrab Modi joined Echelon as our chief technology officer (CTO), replacing the recently retired Robert Dolin. Sohrab previously held technology vice president positions with Huawei, Sun Microsystems, and Novell.
• With the acquisition of Lumewave, we welcomed Mark Keating, Lumewave’s former chief executive, as our new director of product management.
• Echelon CEO and Chairman Ron Sege was named to the advisory board of McRock Capital, a venture firm that invests exclusively in IIoT companies.
• Ron Sege was also inducted into the Junior Achievement (JA) of Northern California Business Hall of Fame.

Events

• Echelon exhibited and demonstrated at major industry shows, including Light + Building in Germany; LIGHTFAIR International in Las Vegas; Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition in China; AHR Expo in New York; and embedded world Conference and Exhibition in Germany.
• Echelon representatives spoke at a number of conferences during 2014, including the Internet of Things Global Summit at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.; the inaugural Internet of Things Developers Conference (IoT DevCon) in Santa Clara, California; the Connected Cloud Summit IoT Forum in Boston; the IHS Industrial Automation Conference in London; IBcon (Intelligent Buildings Conference) in Las Vegas; TiEcon in Silicon Valley, California; the McRock IIoT Symposium in Montreal; Mobility 2014 in Paris; and CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.

Connections

• In keeping with Echelon’s single-minded focus on the IIoT, we rebranded Echelon and launched a new website in October. The effort was led by Wendy Toth, Echelon’s chief marketing officer.
• We initiated an ongoing segment of the Echelon blog called ‘IIoT Talks,’ wide-ranging Q&A-style conversations between industry luminaries and Echelon about the IIoT market. IIoT Talks participants in 2014 included Chris Rommel, executive vice president of the market intelligence firm VDC Research; Patrick Moorhead, founder, president & principal analyst, and Paul Teich, CTO and senior analyst, of Moor Insights & Strategy; Scott MacDonald, co-founder of McRock Capital; Loring Wirbel, senior analyst at The Linley Group and senior editor of Networking Report; Bill Morelli, associate director of M2M and IoT at IHS Technology; Jeffrey Kaplan, managing director of the strategic consulting company THINKstrategies; Jesse Foote, senior research analyst for the market research firm Navigant Research; Menko Deroos, CEO and co-founder of the innovative lighting company Xicato; and David Stephenson, a leading IoT strategist.
• For some of the IIoT Talks conversations, Echelon CEO Ron Sege builds on the questions and answers by providing his own commentary, insight, advice, and other thoughts in an IIoT Talks Dialogue series.
• Echelon executives had by-lined articles, opinion pieces, and guest blog posts published in a wide range of high-quality industry and technical publications, including EETimes, Embedded.com, Lux Review, Photonics, Consulting Specifying Engineer, Design News, Control Engineering, the Industrial Ethernet Book, LonWorks magazine, Embedded Computing Design, and Automated Buildings.
• Echelon sponsored and participated in a number of well-attended webinars during the year, focusing primarily on outdoor lighting.

Clearly, it was a busy and productive year for Echelon. We look forward to 2015 invigorated, focused, and excited about building upon our 25 years of control networking leadership to help shape the exciting world of the IIoT.

And we wish you all an equally rewarding and successful year ahead.

Meet Mark Keating, New to Echelon from Lumewave

When Echelon acquired wireless outdoor lighting control system company Lumewave this past August, it also acquired a new director of product management: Mark Keating, Lumewave’s former chief executive.

Mark Keating

With more than 30 years of experience in electronic product development and management, Keating brings to Echelon expertise in radio frequency (RF) and wired lighting control. In his new role, Keating will introduce Lumewave customers to Echelon’s control networking technologies.

Echelon is in the process of incorporating Lumewave’s North American sales channels into its international channel, which will bring Lumewave’s individual lighting controllers, gateways, and management and maintenance software to a worldwide market for street lighting and for enterprise and commercial outdoor lighting.

Under Keating’s leadership, Lumewave outdoor lighting products are installed at:

• University of California at Davis, Irvine
• University of California at Santa Barbara
• California State University at Fullerton
• City of San Francisco
• VacaValley (Calif.) Hospital  

According to the California State Partnership for Energy Efficient Demonstrations, Lumewave’s products save energy, cut electricity and maintenance costs, and enhances safety and aesthetics.

The acquisition of Lumewave enriches the Echelon product portfolio and sales channels in outdoor lighting control, says CEO Ron Sege. “Lumewave’s products, combined with Echelon’s own, will give our customers tremendous flexibility in controlling their outdoor lighting assets.”

Before Keating joined Lumewave as president in 2010, he spent 10 years as an executive of the facilities management company Onity, a unit of United Technologies. In 2002, Onity acquired Senercomm, where Keating had been president and CTO.  

 Welcome, Mark!

IIoT Venture Firm McRock Names CEO Sege to Advisory Board

McRock Capital, the Toronto venture firm that invests exclusively in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) companies, has appointed Echelon CEO Ron Sege to its Advisory Board.

“Ron has led some of the most transformative high-growth technology companies during his impressive career. His passion and industry knowledge is an incredible asset to McRock as we partner with entrepreneurs to build world-class technology companies in the Industrial Internet sector,” said Whitney Rockley, co-founder and managing director of McRock Capital.  “Ron understands the massive opportunity around the IIoT and the importance of partnerships and alliances as the physical and digital collide in Industrial markets.”

Ron Sege, Echelon CEO

Board members provide business guidance and mentoring to McRock’s IIoT portfolio companies.

Sege is the sixth member of the McRock Capital Advisory Board. The other members are Marzio Pozzuoli, founder and former CEO of RUGGEDCOM, part of Siemens; Harry Zarek, Founder and CEO of Compugen Inc.; Peter Williams, CTO for IBM's Big Green Innovations Incubator; Mike Fister, CEO of Enecsys; and Peter Van Deventer, co-founder and managing partner of Integrity Global Management.

More information about McRock Capital is available at www.mcrockcapital.com.

 

IIoT Technology Topic of Panel at London IHS Conference

Sohrab Modi, Echelon’s new CTO, will be one of two speakers on a panel entitled “Current Enabling Technologies & Challenges of the Internet of Things,” the IHS Industrial Automation Conference in London later this month. 

Modi and Eddie Lee, director of global vertical industry marketing at Moxa, will provide insight about networking devices in the industrial environment.

Bill Morelli, IHS associate director - Internet of Things, will moderate the panel presentations and follow-up discussion on how suppliers and users can benefit from adopting an Industrial IoT (IIoT) strategy.

More information about the Oct. 23-24 conference is available on the IHS website.

You may also like:

• Interview with Bill Morelli of IHS, IIoT Talks, part 1 and part 2 blog posts
• Sohrab Modi joins Echelon as CTO blog post