OpenAIS consortium

OpenAIS is dedicated to developing components and standards to connect all luminaires to the Internet. This ‘Internet of Lights’ represents a huge change in the industry that can only be addressed by a Consortium like that of OpenAIS, which represents the entire value chain and includes the major players in the field. Signify (formerly known as Philips Lighting) and Zumtobel, two of the three largest European lighting companies, represent the lighting industry within the project, while other big players in lighting will be represented in the OpenAIS Advisory Board. ARM, Imtech and NXP are frontrunners in IoT technology. Johnson Controls is part of the consortium to bring in the relevant application expertise.

The consortium further consists of 2 academic partners: Eindhoven University of Technology and TNO-ESI. The Consortium as a whole represents the entire range of vendors, installers and customers. In the end an ecosystem of components and services will be created, all compatible with the defined system architecture and with open interfaces. Due to the interchangeability of components within this ecosystem, all parties in the value chain will have multiple suppliers, leading to trust and cost reductions.

OpenAIS prepares the EU lighting industry to successfully supply products for offices in 2020. Requirements for offices and public buildings will evolve; in 2020 they will be quite different from today. Two aspects drive this process, viz., technological advances, and changes in working habits and regulations. These two aspects are at the heart of the project’s challenges.