The Year of LED Industry Transformation: What Efforts Did Philips Lighting Make?

Release date: 2018-01-16Source: arrogantLED networkShare:

Time flies. The new year has arrived. Looking back at the global shopping malls in 2017, the transition from traditional lighting to LED is still progressing steadily, with increasing demand. In contrast to domestic markets, China's LED lighting industry is moving towards deeper integration, and companies with weaker competitiveness are accelerating their transformation.

With the continuous evolution of technology, knowledge about LED lighting is deepening. Beyond basic lighting needs, the connection between lighting and people, the environment, and cities is now being valued. As a leader in the lighting field, Philips Lighting has been conducting cutting-edge research on health concepts, interconnectivity, sustainability, and future innovation, transforming the lighting industry into a digital one and leading another wave of innovation in LED lighting.

Lighting and Health – Promoting Healthy Day Concepts

As LED lighting spreads rapidly, people are increasingly concerned about its health benefits. The LED lighting industry has shifted from focusing on efficiency and cost-saving to emphasizing light quality, health, photobiosafety, and environmental impact. Healthy lighting will become a key requirement for LED lighting in the future. To this end, Philips Lighting continues to improve its products, creating high-quality health-focused lighting fixtures that optimize user vision, mind, and physical sensations, bringing a safe and healthy day and work environment.

The newly released Philips HealWell Tunable Troffer color-tone grille lamp features a full-luminous surface, blending hidden edges, and evenly distributing light colors into the ceiling, creating an efficient and comfortable working environment. Under the control of the HealWell medical lighting system, this grille lamp can change color, adjust brightness, and has a high color rendering index, helping to regulate human physiological functions and aid patient recovery.

In November 2017, Philips Lighting released a global eye health survey report, aiming to raise awareness about eye health. Li Yunhua, global senior vice president of Philips Lighting and general manager of the LED business unit, said, “High-quality lighting not only means longer life but also helps reduce eye strain and promote eye health.”

To this end, Philips Lighting developed a detailed review system—“Comfort” policy. Lighting products certified by this policy provide high-efficiency, long-lasting lighting with a lifespan of at least ten years, ensuring comfortable and natural lighting effects and supporting eye health!

Today, lighting has entered many aspects of daily life, but there is little awareness of its connection to health, especially in underdeveloped areas. In addition to supplying more healthy lighting products, Philips Lighting actively promotes global health initiatives. The “Comfort” policy is a good example of this, showcasing the concern of a global lighting leader for human well-being.

Lighting and the City – Accelerating Smart City Development

With the rapid growth of urban populations, it is estimated that by 2030, 60% of the global population will live in cities. This will bring increasing pressure on resources and the environment. To address this, Philips Lighting has developed a blueprint for lighting and IoT services in smart cities, offering “people-oriented” lighting products, systems, and services. With successful experiences in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Semarang, Philips Lighting is also building smart cities in China.

In March 2017, Philips Lighting announced a collaboration with the China Mobile Research Institute to explore the Cellular-IoT specification for smart city construction. In the Beijing 5G joint innovation center, Philips Lighting’s research team set up a smart interconnected street lighting application based on cellular IoT technology.

China's first near-zero energy demonstration building located at the China Construction Science Research Institute

With the help of Philips Lighting's PoE (Ethernet Power Supply) intelligent connected lighting system, China's first near-zero energy demonstration building has become a high-security, highly interconnected smart home for the future. According to operational data, with the help of Philips Lighting, the lighting energy consumption of the demonstration building was reduced by 75% compared to similar buildings.

In June 2017, the first batch of Philips CityTouch Flex intelligent interconnected road lighting systems were deployed in Changzhou and Kunshan cities in Jiangsu Province. These two cities connected to access 230 and 1,300 sets of Philips LED intelligent street lights to help build the city. The system can connect through existing telecommunications networks (GPRS), as well as support the narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) being promoted.

Philips Lighting and China Telecom Beijing Company reached strategic cooperation

In November 2017, Philips Lighting and China Telecom Beijing Company reached a strategic collaboration, utilizing the products and skills of its intelligent connected lighting category, as well as China Telecom’s next-generation Internet of Things (narrowband IoT, NB-IoT) skills and Tianyi cloud capabilities. The combination of service and work will accelerate the construction of a smart city in China.

While previous collaborations with Xiaomi were more about broadening paths, partnerships with Huawei, China Mobile, and China Telecom show deeper collaboration and ecosystem building by Philips Lighting in the field of IoT technologies. This aligns with its concept of lighting fixtures as nodes in the smart city. Philips Lighting believes that lighting fixtures will be more effective in future smart cities, such as real-time information distribution, traffic intelligence planning, security monitoring, and early warning, rather than just simple lighting needs. From the current process, Philips Lighting is deeply integrated with the vision of a domestic smart city. After continuing to promote the smart connected lighting system, Philips Lighting will also help our smart city to accelerate!

Lighting and the Environment – Sustainable Development Ideas Continue

Energy conservation and emission reduction have become a global topic, and various countries have introduced relevant policies. Globally, lighting alone accounts for over 20% of total electricity consumption. Making lighting fixtures more energy-efficient has become an important issue. In this context, Philips Lighting has committed that by 2020, 80% of its operating income will come from renewable products, systems, and services, and it will sell more than 2 billion LED bulbs worldwide. Continuous improvement itself can continue to regulate and complete the company’s carbon-neutral operations by 2020. This is a requirement for its own development and a detailed performance of Philips Lighting’s commitment to sustainable development and social responsibility.

By the end of 2016, Philips Lighting had reduced its carbon emissions by 39% and achieved a renewable energy utilization rate of 67%. During this time, Philips Lighting delivered 628 million LED bulbs, helping to reduce 15 million tons of CO2 emissions. Philips Lighting invests 5% of its annual sales in R&D, with 80% of the investment spent on innovation.

In 2017, Philips Lighting CEO Eric Rondolat announced during a recent visit to China that the company expected to achieve carbon neutrality in Greater China by the end of 2017. To meet this goal, Philips Lighting had already prepared in our shopping malls. It is understood that in 2016, Philips Lighting's carbon emissions in China decreased by 37%, renewable energy utilization reached 36%, and 91% of data recovery was completed, with zero waste landfill in production bases continuing to be promoted.

In June 2017, as an important step to promote the concept of sustainable development, Philips Lighting launched the “Elite Planner Growth Plan” in China, aiming to build a platform for sharing common sense among planners and improving lighting planning in China. It will stimulate cross-border innovation and continue to plan ideas, reshape the city with lights, and reconcile with the environment, nature, and health, and the city and the future.

In addition, Philips Lighting is pushing smart connected lighting technologies globally to enter more homes, offices, and urban spaces. In addition to bringing more energy-efficient lighting, further exploring the environmental and economic benefits of lighting. It is estimated that by 2020, smart connected LED lighting products, systems, and services could affect economic benefits of up to about 12 billion euros. This fund can be invested in other areas to promote the global economy to continue.

Although LED lighting is now well known, there are still many traditional lighting lamps to be replaced around the world, and LED lighting is considered an ideal choice for energy saving and emission reduction. To this end, as a global lighting leader, Philips Lighting was the first to propose a vision that can continue to be carried out and actively participate in it, driving companies to look at the industry's development from a broader perspective. As the primary cost of global power generation, lighting professionals bear the burden of energy saving and emission reduction, and Philips Lighting is pushing this process with practical actions and skill innovation.

Lighting and the Future – Leading New Digital Innovation

After experiencing product function improvements, lighting has also ushered in a new round of innovation. The next battlefield and the future will be the era of smart connectivity. Qiu Qihong, Global Chief Lieutenant of Philips Lighting, believes: “The lighting profession is relatively stable, and once every few years there is a technological innovation, but each time there is a technological innovation, it is a revolution of previous technologies. When lighting goes to LED, the LED happens to be geared toward digitalization, and the lighting profession is also rapidly entering the IoT. Philips' policy is to achieve all new lighting products to be connected by 2020 and fully explore the value behind the data.”

Lighting career quickly enters IoT

In November 2017, Philips Lighting and Baidu signed a cooperation agreement. Baidu’s new generation of dialogue AI operating system DuerOS will seamlessly interface with Philips’ “Friends of Hue” (Friends of Hue). Sridhar Kumaraswamy, head of global affairs for Philips Lighting Home Lighting Systems, said, “The Philips ‘show’ system will rely on DuerOS to seamlessly interface with various smart devices and applications to accelerate the development of smart connected lighting in the IoT era. Use more scenarios and applications to make progress and use the convenience.”

We all know that the connection of all things is just the way, and the data behind it is the point of greater value. Intelligent lighting systems are no exception. With the rapid development of smart homes and smart cities, the lighting system is expected to be integrated into more applications, and the resulting data will bring fundamental changes to the future. In addition, the introduction of AI skills will maximize the value of lighting data, bringing new technological innovations, and Philips Lighting is leading the innovation. After completing the lighting products, Philips Lighting will bring more possibilities and imagination to the IoT era. This is the innovation and advancement of the lighting industry, and it is the continued pursuit of Philips Lighting in the future of technology.