Full Stack

Last week's Strategies in Light Europe, colocated with Lux Live 2016, brought fierce discussions on the future of wireless lighting. One very evident trend was Bluetooth Low Energy, showcased by several companies (including us), each proposing their proprietary mesh network based on the Bluetooth LE standard.

The voice of the lighting industry has been clear: "Give us an interoperable, full stack solution that works. Wireless audio has had it for years. Why wireless lighting cannot have the same?".

Could not agree more, and believe me, this is my personal priority, leading the Bluetooth Mesh Working Group: unite and deliver. It is also our mission at Silvair: make wireless lighting fly! And we know and completely understand why a full stack, open, standards - compliant solution is the only answer.

I have been repeating this for years, stressing the importance of the application layer, as well as the "Layer-0". Yes, the full stack is 8 layers, not 7. Yes the industry needs the full stack to take off. Yes we understand that and are delivering.

Pundits will say why a new application layer? Ain't what we have elsewhere good enough. It ain't. Lighting today is going far beyond lighting. Wireless lighting control is just a first service delivered by a wireless lighting network. Predictive maintenance, occupancy analytics, climate control, proximity and location services naturally come after. The added value of these services approaches 10x the value of energy savings that are result of a smart lighting control system alone. This is a silver bullet, but needs a full stack networking standard to fly.