The New Year is all about delivering the best experience on many levels. Whether constructing or renovating a restaurant, hotel, office or hospital facility, lighting controls are an essential component necessary to achieve this. For commercial spaces in 2017, it's no longer about just meeting energy and building codes. Delivering the best experience means taking a holistic approach to meet various lighting requirements. In addition to meeting code, lighting must take into account the occupant and user experience (e.g. the facility manager or installer) as well as high performance and sustainability goals. 

Make it Simple. Lighting is now more complex than ever. But that doesn't mean the various interfaces, tools, and touch screens to create, program, or manage various lighting scenes have to be. Interfaces like the Vantage Controls Equinox touch panels and keypads, provide a sleek yet simple and smart tablet type navigation experience. Also, providing remote control of lighting and shades from smartphone and tablet apps provides greater convenience. Equinox includes several widgets that allow users to create and set scenes and timed events, to set shades or blinds to open and lower at specific times, and more. In a restaurant, this could be breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktail hour, or for a hotel staff it could mean lighting that signals tasks such as Turn Down or Make Up Room. 

Be More Productive. Spend less time on the job with the right solutions that are easy to install, configure, operate, and service. Lighting control systems have come a long way. Advancements in technology and connectivity have created a plug-and-play environment, which contribute to enhanced productivity and a better user experience. Solutions like the Wattstopper Digital Lighting Management platform come with a suite of plug together devices such as room controllers, occupancy sensors, daylighting sensors, and wall switches that work together with management tools to automatically coordinate control of lighting and plug loads. 

Get Integrated. Integrated solutions and systems provide opportunities to increase energy efficiency, building optimization, and user convenience. Integrating shade control creates entirely new experiences for both users and occupants. Hotel staff, for example, can customize both systems from a simple interface to take advantage of natural light in the lobby during the day and then automatically switch to active lighting after sundown at the touch of just one button. 

Buildings now require more than just simple standalone controls, but controls that can be integrated with other systems, and provide the owner with the data that will help them run their buildings successfully and profitably. Today a growing number of commercial projects require building management systems (BMS) to be capable of interfacing via BACnet/IP. Industry professionals can easily meet this requirement with products like the InFusion Controller. 

Prepare for New Requirements. Lighting is more dynamic than ever, so a controls platform must be able to adapt to contemporary and future project requirements such as high precision dimming, IoT and human centric lighting systems, as well as complexities like LED relay and color control. Circadian rhythm, color control, and task tuning are emerging as specification requirements with growing opportunities in healthcare, higher education, retail, and residential sectors. The industry is learning more about how lighting can positively affect occupants through daylighting, dimming, and color tuning to promote well-being, productivity, healing and relaxation - something we can all use in the New Year!

Legrand | www.legrand.us