Smart cities depend on data, data that is often collected using sensors. Such smart sensors are already being used for everything from monitoring traffic and lighting control to measuring air pollution, forecasting weather, and detecting noise levels – to name but a few of the many existing smart sensor applications. But, to leverage their full power, these smart sensors must be completely integrated into a city’s existing infrastructure.
Enter the streetlight.
Already ubiquitous in most cities, the streetlight offers a strategic location for smart sensors. It’s also a secure piece of powered infrastructure available at a low cost.
“When it comes to smart city sensing tasks, nothing beats the streetlight,” says Dee Denteneer, Secretary General of the Zhaga Consortium.
To recognise the most innovative, streetlight-compatible smart city sensors already on the market – and to encourage the development of new ones – the Zhaga Consortium is holding its first ever Smart City Sensor Awards. Zhaga is the global lighting-industry consortium with the mission of standardising the interfaces of components of LED luminaires.
Zhaga-D4i luminaires offer opportunity for smart city sensors
The global awards are open to any smart city sensor that can be installed on a streetlight using the Zhaga Book 18 standard and that is suitable for Zhaga-D4i certification.
Zhaga’s specifications are called Books, with each book defining the interface of one or more components of an LED luminaire. All sensor/communication modules and luminaires designed and certified in accordance with a Zhaga Book will work together as intended, even if they come from different manufacturers. Taken together, the interface specifications established by the Zhaga Books enable an interoperable ecosystem of luminaires and components.
Zhaga Book 18 standardises interfaces for sensors that can be installed on streetlights, while the D4i protocol standardises the communication between the sensors and the luminaires. “Zhaga Book 18 creates the ecosystem of products needed to future-proof luminaires, while the Zhaga-D4i certification provides the trust companies need to get there,” continues Denteneer. “Put them together and we’ve elevated the streetlight from mere lamp to the backbone of tomorrow’s data-driven smart cities.”
Entitled ‘Smart Interface Between Outdoor Luminaires and Sensing/Communication Modules’, Book 18 specifies a streetlight’s mechanical interface, intra-luminaire communication protocol and power budget for a control device. The Book was developed in a liaison between the Zhaga Consortium and the DALI Alliance (DiiA), the organization that manages the DALI lighting protocol.
Zhaga recently published the third edition of Book 18. The new edition allows for architectures that combine an ANSI C136.41 dimming receptacle with a Zhaga receptacle next to the architectures previously specified in previous editions.
“This is good news for those parts of the world that are more comfortable with ANSI/NEMA-based lighting controls, who still want to add Zhaga-D4i based smart city sensors to their streetlights,” notes Kevin Fitzmaurice, Principal of Smart Services at Georgia Power and member of the Smart City Sensor Awards jury evaluating award submissions.
More than 200 families of luminaires from world leading suppliers have been Zhaga-D4i certified. This number will continue to grow as lighting control device manufacturers bring their control devices compatible with Zhaga Book 18 Edition 3 to the market starting in early 2023.
A global trend
Cities and companies around the world are leveraging the power of streetlight-compatible smart city sensors. For example:
- Over the course of the next two years, about 22,000 streetlight fittings in Dortmund, Germany will be changed to Zhaga-D4i certified luminaires.
- Georgia Power, an electric utility headquartered in Atlanta, United States, owns, operates and maintains 930,000 outdoor luminaires. Approximately 40% of those luminaires are roadway/streetlights, with the other 60% being area lighting not related to illuminating roadways.
- In Sydney, Australia, a large group of local governments are deploying 92,000 streetlights with an additional Zhaga interface over the next three years. To take full advantage of this opportunity, the group requires a range of innovative, low cost Zhaga-based sensors with compelling capabilities.
“Not only do the Zhaga Smart City Sensor Awards celebrate the innovative solutions on the market today, they also challenge other manufacturers, innovators and researchers to create the next generation of sensors that will define the smart city of tomorrow,” remarks Dr Jan Paul Baginski, Head of Lighting Services at Dortmund Energy + Water 21 and also a Zhaga Sensor Awards jury member.
“We see the Smart City Sensor Awards as a great way to help us identify excellence in sensors,” adds jury member Graham Mawer, Program Manager of the SSROC Street Lighting Improvement Program in Sydney.
Winners earn international public recognition
Companies, academic institutions, and individuals from around the world are encouraged to submit their smart city sensors for consideration in the following categories: mobility, climate, pollutants, sound, lighting controls, multi-sensors, innovation and research. Participants can apply in one or more categories or submit a multi-sensor with more than one sensing capability.
Each submitted sensor will be judged by a panel of smart city and sensor experts, including city officials, utility companies and industry associations, all of whom have expressed a strong interest in Zhaga-D4i based sensors.
“It is wonderful to see that other standard organizations have the same goal: to ease interoperability in cities,” states Christophe Orceau, Steering Committee Chairman, TALQ Consortium. “The Zhaga Smart Sensor Award is another step towards the transfer of knowledge gained from smart lighting in the past decade to a variety of other smart city applications.”
The winning sensor in each category will receive international public recognition. Not only will the company be able to reference the award in their own marketing materials with a digital badge, they will also get a profile published in leading international lighting media and have their winning sensor promoted on Zhaga’s social media channels and website.
Students and researchers from recognised educational institutions are eligible for a 2000 Euro prize.
All submitted sensors must meet the physical, electrical, and other requirements of Zhaga Book 18 Edition 3. This includes the ability to comply with D4i requirements for luminaire-mounted control devices. Sensors may be designed to communicate directly with an external IoT communications network or via the DALI bus in the luminaire (and ultimately via a luminaire-mounted lighting control).
Sensors must be either an available product that is suitable for Zhaga-D4i certification or, if new, a working prototype needs to be available for demonstration by the submission deadline (those submitting under the Research and Innovation category are exempt from this requirement).
All submissions must be received no later 3 March 2023 at 17:00 CET. Winners will be announced in April 2023.
There is no cost to enter.
For more information and to apply, please visit: https://www.zhagastandard.org/zhaga-smartcitysensor-awards.html/