TRILUX Partner With Smart Building Specialist Wtech

Arnsberg, July 2021 – Future-proof properties have a powerful building management system that brings together, monitors and controls all trades. In order to simplify the integration of lighting into the hardware and software infrastructure of digitalised buildings, TRILUX is in-vesting in the IT expert wtec. The company specialises in building automation and IT infra-structure. One innovative solution in the portfolio is smartengine technology, with which the complete lighting network can be implemented via the data cabling and seamlessly integrated into the building management system. This makes complex building infrastructures obsolete and lays the foundation for individual Human Centric Smart Lighting that combines maximum efficiency with user orientation.

The progressive digitalization and networking of all trades in a building offers enormous advantages, especially through precise communication and coordination among each other. The spectrum ranges from the coordination of lighting and sun protection to the automated preparation of a meeting room (light, temperature, media) as soon as it is booked in the IT system. Up to now, however, most of the trades have acted separately from each other and had to be integrated into a higher-level building control system at great expense. With an investment of a total of 25.1 percent in wtec, a subsidiary of the largest German real estate developer Zech, TRILUX is further expanding its competence in the area of IT infrastructure and building automation and strengthening its position as a provider of holistic room and building solutions.

With smartengine technology, the company offers a solution with which lighting can be implemented completely via data cabling. The classic RJ-45 data cable handles both the power supply to the lu-minaires via the network and the data communication via IP. Corresponding solutions reduce the hardware-related installation effort enormously and can also be integrated and controlled in the build-ing management system without complex adaptations. In addition, the installation of smartengine technology significantly improves the ecological footprint and the CO2 balance of a building.

Implementing the lighting via the data cable offers a clever alternative to the classic method, which requires five-core cabling – three phases for power supply, two for DALI control. For example, the luminaires themselves no longer require any ballasts; installation is simply done by latching the RJ-45 cable into the central data cabling. In addition, the luminaires all communicate via the IP protocol and can thus be integrated directly into the building management system without interface adaptations. Particularly in newly planned office buildings, the digitalisation and automation of the trades plays a central role. Through the integration of IoT system modules, lighting will increasingly take on tasks “beyond lighting” in the future, which go beyond the classic lighting tasks. “The lighting network acts as a flexible technology carrier that is responsible for communication and control of the other trades, thus becoming the backbone of digitalisation,” explains Joachim Geiger, CSO at TRILUX. “Future proof lighting provides high-quality and efficient light – and at the same time makes the room and building smart,” said Geiger. The TRILUX lighting portfolio is already fit for the digital future thanks to “Smart Lighting Ready” and can also be implemented quickly and easily as an IP- and PoE-based solution.

“The IP conversion or secure internet use of building data is the logical and necessary step towards more customer benefits. We are pleased that with TRILUX as a technology leader we have a strong partner at our side for our growth and our path to a technological standard,” says Dr. Frank Schmitt, Managing Director at wtec and General Manager Smart Buildings at the Zech Group. The fact that the technology concept as well as the cooperation works perfectly has already been impressively demonstrated by wtec and TRILUX – among others with the Handwerkerhaus in Bremen, a four-storey timber hybrid building that was erected in the record time of only 10 days.