Guest post by Blane Goettle, EVP for mwConnect
Being in the lighting and controls industry for the past 27 years, I’ve internalized to a high degree that there are few constants. One is change, and the other, that the more things change, the greater the need for connection. As true as that is for our industry, it’s also true for individual companies, including my own, mwConnect—which began its own history in 1984 as McWong International.
After all, who could have predicted back in 1984 that ballasts would go the way of the dinosaur, that the occupancy sensor would shrink to the size of a quarter, and that an individual could tune their personal lighting to a specific color! Equally unimaginable was achieving the seemingly unattainable goal for connected, intelligent lighting responsive to building occupants. But all these things have happened, and the timeframes of change continue to compress.
Closer to home, McWong began its journey with two remarkable founders: Margaret Wong and Dr. David McFarland, filling a need for reliable trading relationships between the US and China for electrical products, machinery and environmental technology and equipment. From that beginning, McWong kept pace with the changing lighting and controls industry, debuting its first sensors and controls in 2011. Then, with the advent of LED lighting and its penetration into the marketplace as the default light source, the McWong team began to pursue the new opportunities associated with digitally addressable light sources. It was in these early years of developing our wireless controls offering – even with our first Bluetooth LE products – that the vision for true interoperability began to take shape.
Well, it’s been a few more years but we are approaching ever closer to that destination, both as a company and as an industry. Stakeholders at all levels are beginning to recognize this value created when multiple technology platforms and diverse products from multiple vendors can interoperate seamlessly through the power of global interoperable standards: Bluetooth NLC, DALI D4i, Zhaga and open APIs.
In the past several months, true milestones of change have been achieved. For the industry, with the publication of the newest Bluetooth® specification for networked lighting control or NLC, in September 2023. Shortly after that, in October 2023, McWong reached a milestone of its own, being named a winner in the DOE’s L Prize Prototype Phase for an entry founded on interoperable standards.
In 2024, we’ve committed even more fully to both a culture of change and one of interoperability with a rebrand of our company. On its 40th anniversary as an American company in the lighting industry, our company is embracing a new identity—mwConnect™—that we believe expresses not only who we are as a company but signals the core value we hold, that of connections. Whether it’s connecting different technology solutions via our commitment to interoperability or connecting our past with our future, we’re here for it and continue to be encouraged that the industry is as well.
We also see the industry beginning to harness more of the potential of networked lighting controls. Benefits can be as far ranging as supporting Dark Sky initiatives while simultaneously improving safety, to enabling human centric lighting, exploring the possibilities of replicating natural light patterns, adjusting color temperatures throughout the day to support circadian rhythms and improving overall well-being. Controls that support this focus, with dynamic color tuning, allowing users to create environments that promote focus, relaxation, or productivity. Or innovators exploring the opportunities for utilizing advanced controls in ‘beyond lighting’ functions, such as occupancy monitoring, space usage, even beaconing for disaster recovery efforts.
Connecting our collective past as an industry to the potential of efforts like these with the tools interoperable standards offer seems like a fantastic way to embrace most fully who we are now!
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