Current Launches Standalone Fixture Controls
Current Lighting introduced Daintree ONE, a system of standalone fixture controls with integrated sensors. The platform is designed to be scalable, allowing for simple room-based control that can later be upgraded to a fully-networked building-wide system without replacing hardware.
The Daintree ONE system enters a market moving towards integrated and intelligent building systems, where lighting acts as a backbone for broader IoT applications. Its design, allowing a shift from standalone to networked control, addresses a key barrier to adoption by mitigating the initial investment risk and future-proofing the hardware against evolving building automation strategies. This scalability is critical as lighting control moves beyond simple on/off commands. The Daintree platform, when fully networked, can integrate with building management systems (BMS) via protocols like BACnet, enabling holistic control over HVAC and other systems based on occupancy data gathered by the lighting sensors. This level of integration is a core tenet of modern building automation, aiming to optimize energy consumption and occupant comfort comprehensively. The emphasis on fixture-integrated sensors aligns with the push for human-centric lighting, which requires granular data to adapt color temperature and intensity. Technologies like tunable white lighting rely on such systems to mimic natural daylight patterns, which can help regulate occupants' circadian rhythms. This biological approach to lighting is increasingly codified in standards like the WELL Building Standard, which uses metrics like Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML) to quantify light's impact on human health. Architectural and design publications like Dezeen and ArchDaily frequently showcase projects that leverage smart lighting for both aesthetic and wellness purposes. The ability of a system like Daintree ONE to eventually support tunable white and other dynamic lighting effects makes it relevant to designers aiming for certifications or simply seeking to create healthier indoor environments, a topic consistently covered in lighting-specific media like *arc* and *mondo* arc. From a product design perspective, the modularity of Daintree ONE reflects a broader trend towards a circular economy in the lighting industry. By allowing for software upgrades instead of hardware replacement, the system extends the product's usable life, a core principle of sustainable design that reduces waste and the environmental impact determined at the design stage. The underlying communication protocol for many advanced lighting control systems is DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface), or its latest iteration, DALI-2. This open standard ensures interoperability between components from different manufacturers, a crucial factor for specifiers and designers who want to avoid being locked into a single proprietary ecosystem. Current's strategic positioning with Daintree ONE follows its acquisition of Daintree Networks in 2016, which was a clear move to bolster its capabilities in wireless controls and building automation. This history, combined with subsequent acquisitions like Hubbell's C&I lighting business, has expanded Current's portfolio to compete with other major players like Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) and Acuity Brands in the integrated lighting and controls space.
