DÜSSELDORF, Jan. 22, 2021 - The year 2021 started directly with the AI+IoT Business Conference Europe. Instead of a one-day event, it is divided into 10 special events, each with a regional focus. The conference kicked off with Italy on January 19, 2021. With the theme "Italy - Game Breaker for Smart Lighting", it provides outlook and insight into the Italian smart lighting market by the Italian industry leaders.

A smart home system comprises sensors, actuators, safety and security devices, and health devices (air sanitizers, other appliances). Examples of sensors are occupancy sensors, temperature sensors, intrusion detectors, and gas sensors. The actuators are mainly relaying actuators to control electrical loads and appliances. Still, there are also sirens, lighting devices, and other electrical devices that embed a radio transceiver. The system's functions regard home automation, security and safety alarm system, climate control, and wellness. Inside homes, color lights are emerging as a component of wellness connected to the concept of "human-centric lighting" defined in the last years by the European lighting manufacturers associations. The application fields are small systems, composed of less than 100 units, installed in homes and small commercial environments and offices.

While seeing the increased demand for smart lighting, at the same time, more and more companies detect the Italian market as one of the most important markets. For example, for Tuya Smart, a leading IoT development platform, Italy is top 3 in activation and activated devices in Europe, based on the Tuya platform's data. During the last couple of years, the IoT sector's market value has been experiencing steady growth in Italy.

Despite many companies and industries suffering from the COVID-19 in 2020, surprisingly, the smart home market is growing faster than ever. Based on the data from the Tuya Platform, the Italy market has increased 150% in the whole year, the activation device is top 3 in Europe, including 70% for smart lighting and electrical devices, 12% for smart home appliances; security kits, sensors, smart health deceives are booming as well.

For 2020, in general, consumer electronics are affected by COVID-19 while stores have been closed, manufacturing plants have been shut down, and shipping has been adversely impacted at the beginning. While the majority of Tuya partner's smart home business is growing 3 times or even more, especially for smart lighting. Today the theme of smart lighting remains too often an interest of those who work in lighting.

Gianni Borelli from Beghelli Group defines clear aspects as the future of lighting. For him, a smart lighting system should be based on a pool of luminaries, each one embedding:

● A dimmable driver controlling the power and the corresponding emitted luminous flux from approximately 1% to 100%

● A low power radio transceiver for wireless data communication, to enable remote control of each luminaire

● A light sensor measuring the reflected light from the floor and/or from the environment, enabling the independent self-dimming function of luminaries or groups

● An automatic light controller which continuously adjusts the power of the fixture to maintain the light at the desired level determined by the setpoint

● A patented automatic regulator which automatically self-calibrates the luminaries to guarantee the defined illumination conditions at any time also when the environment geometry is being modified by the ongoing human activities

● An energy meter which enables the measurement of the power and energy consumed by each single luminaire

IoT Air Sanitizers

Since the advent of COVID-19, Beghelli Group has recently added a family of air sanitizers specifically designed to fight the virus and effectively reduce the spread of the infection. Many models integrate IoT devices based on Wi-Fi communication capability to enable their remote control.

The SanificaAria air sterilizers are special devices using ultraviolet light, which is confined inside the devices, with no possible harm for the users, for the ambient air's disinfection. The air is conveyed into the disinfection chamber by some fans. All microorganisms are deactivated by the UVC light at 254nm. Each SanificaAria device is Wi-Fi connected by a Tuya radio module to enable its remote control through the IoT platform's functions. Thus, it is possible to set on, off, and define the fans working speed, either manually or automatically, at different times of the day or link the working state of the device to special events like weather conditions or astronomic timing.

Lighting as Part of a Complete Ecosystem Solution

Emanuele Monti, Vice General Manager of Kon.El.Co. S.p.A., who has launched the smart home product line "HeySmart" in 2018, detects lighting as a core part of a complete solution, next to video-surveillance and automation. A solution comprehensive of a well-defined and complete ecosystem for the end-user. To do so, the benefit lies in combining different brands of the own-brand family, such as ON Light for all lighting products, ISnatch for Hi-Tech products, and GBC for products about automation. Now offering almost 50 products, such as cameras, lighting devices such as led strips, and all kinds of bulbs, offer smart plugs, smart multi-plugs, and IR controllers in the automation sector.

And the demand in the smart home category is constantly increasing, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Monti certainly declared that 2020 had been the year in which the HeySmart project has established its position in the market, reaching today over 40,000 registered devices within the App. More than 30,000 only during this year, which are very significant numbers. About 30,000 devices are constantly connected and active. But the smart home market in Italy is just at its beginning, as Monti projected a growth curve, from now to the end of 2021, to reach over 70,000 devices in the market, actively and constantly connected. The previous are significant numbers for the smart home sector.

Particularly, thanks to KonElCo's data analysis, they see that the path to reach the full smart home market's limitations is still long. There are products that the end-users still understand with difficulties, misinterpreting them and missing their potential. Indeed, data shows that almost 50% of the devices regard lighting products.

More information and registration link: https://www.tuya.com/event/abc/eur