Chess UK - Mymesh

IASME IoT Cyber Assurance 2025

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 13:02:19 GMT

Extended IASME IoT Cyber Assurance Certification (Level 2)

Security is a key corner stone of the Mymesh system. That is why we engaged as a pioneer with IASME to get externally tested and audited certification 3 years ago. It was a 'nice-to-have' and helped us to underpin the benefits to clients. In the meantime, the government have upped the game and introduced legislation (Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act), that is more stringent. Failure to comply with the act is a criminal offence, so external certification is becoming more and more important. We encourage clients to ask for the evidence.

IASME IoT Cyber certifies internet connected devices against the most important cyber security controls. The certification badge allows clients to verify the security of the device. IoT Cyber Assurance is setup in partnership with Secured by Design (SBD), the official police security initiative, aligned with UK legislation and all of the 13 provisions in the ETSI EN 303 645 standard, extending beyond just the top three required for UK law.

Norwich Community Hospital

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 17:45:25 GMT

The Norwich Community Hospital Willow Therapy Unit is open

Background

Plans for the new Willow Therapy Unit at Norwich Community Hospital, a £19.2m new facility, were lodged with Norwich City Council only last December. Northumberland-headquartered Merit has been appointed by Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) to design and deliver its new 48 bed modular. The multimillion-pound modern facility, which has been designed with sustainability in mind, will be delivered in only 5 months .

The Willow Therapy Unit is open! ⭐

We’re delighted to share with you a selection of our recent professional photos taken on site at the Willow Therapy Unit, Norwich Community Hospital.

This state-of-the-art 48-bed modular ward, which recently welcomed its first patients, is designed to provide essential rehabilitation for patients transitioning from hospitals back to the community.

Our team designed an environment that enhances patient care and staff experience, while also employing sustainable design practices. The unit is Zero Scope 1 Carbon enabled, all-electric and energy efficient.

We're incredibly proud to have worked closely with Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust to deliver this invaluable healthcare facility, which will significantly improve healthcare services in the region and help to alleviate pressure on local acute hospitals.

Challenge

The state-of-the-art facility will include a combination of single and four-bedded bays, as well as treatment areas, an assessment kitchen and self-service café area.

Merit’s expert in-house design team have curated a facility which prioritises ease of access whilst also catering to the footfall requirements of both patients and staff.

Utilising advanced 4D BIM modelling technology and a product-based approach, Merit’s offering is especially suited to meet the current needs of healthcare facilities and with offsite construction manage to deliver the project in a short period of time.

Solution

Using the Mymesh wireless control system makes it easy to design, construct and commission the lighting installation. Functionality will include automatic switching and dimming of lights, integration with the nurse call system and testing and monitoring of emergency lighting.

All lights, sensors and switches are connected in a single wireless network. The absence of a network hierarchy allows for the functionality to be only determined at the final stage of commissioning. Furthermore, it gives maximum flexibility for future changes and expansion

Benefits

The Mymesh system is widely used in Healthcare installations across the NHS and beyond. It delivers improved efficiency, energy saving and a reduces the carbon footprint.

Furthermore, Mymesh allows many benefits beyond lighting, like asset tracking, way finding, legionella L8 compliance, etc.

The flexibility makes Mymesh the smartest choice for controls for hospitals, large and small.

London Business School

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 16:49:53 GMT

London Business School adopts Mymesh for refurbishment of the Plowden Building

Background

Founded in 1964, London Business School (LBS) is widely considered to be one of the foremost business schools in the world. Situated in the iconic Sussex Place on the edge of Regent’s Park, its London campus comprises of 26 main buildings and is home to over 2,000 students from more than 100 different countries.

The Plowden Building stands prominently at the heart of the Sussex Place campus. In 2024/25, it was redeveloped into a vibrant and accessible space to promote collaboration, development and wellbeing. This transformation sets the students up for success, providing more visibility to the support services and helping to dismantle the barriers to access, shaping resilient and brilliant future business leaders.

Challenge

Changing the lighting is a key part of a refurbishment. Lighting plays an important role in the experience in the space and has an important impact on the learning of the people using it. Adding the right lighting control system is an essential part of this.

It does not only impact the energy and carbon performance of the building, but is also a turning point in enabling a smart building. The lighting installation becomes the digital backbone for all kind of services such as air quality monitoring, energy sub-metering, emergency lighting and legionella compliance and space utilisation monitoring.

Solution

London Business School made the decision to go for Mymesh wireless control. It is directly integrated in the new energy efficient LED lighting.

The building is 3D modelled giving a digital copy of the physical space including all lighting elements, sensors and switches. All settings are controlled via easy to maintain profiles giving full insight in how the installation is set-up.

Benefits

The new Mymesh R3 system gives LBS full control of their building via entity profiles for their spaces and the Lumitel dashboard gives full insight via a digital twin of the building. This gives insight in the energy performance, any potential faults and how spaces are being used.

Furthermore, the Mymesh system gives a real-time insight in the usage of the site by giving an overview of areas in presence with an interval of 5 seconds. This will allow further optimisation of the site's energy usage.

Client : London Business School

Electrical contractor : Whitestar

Cabot Circus

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 10:03:06 GMT

Cabot Circus Shopping Centre - Bristol

Background

Cabot Circus is a covered shopping centre in the heart of Bristol city centre. The centre contains shops, offices, a hotel, apartments and a cinema. It is a large area with a total of 139,350 m2 (1,500,000 sq ft) floor space. It opened in September 2008.

Hidden from the public eye is a vast network of corridors and a large underground service yard. This back-of-house area allows all supplies to go to the retail shops unnoticed. The lighting in these areas was still using inefficient and costly conventional fluorescent lighting. Time for an upgrade to improve the lighting levels and safe energy. In line with the strategy of owner Hammerson, the upgrade of the lighting is used to introduce a site-wide Mymesh digital backbone to lay the foundation for a Smart Shopping Centre.

Challenge

The Shopping Centre can be roughly divided in three parts: Front-of-House, Back-of-House and Car parking. The first phase of the project is the Back-of-House. This is a large area of corridors, stairwells, storage, plant rooms and a service yard. The lighting was still conventional Fluorescent, so due an upgrade.

Solution

All the lighting, mainly linear non-corrosive battens and bulkheads, was replaced with a Fagerhult LED luminaire. All luminaires are Mymesh connected, This generates a wireless digital backbone across the estate. Where appropriate microwave sensors were integrated.

A 3D model of the shopping centre was created to give each asset its own X,Y,Z coordinates. This will allow for future location based services.

Apart form controlling the lighting based on high-end trimming, the Mymesh system is also monitoring the emergency lighting. The Lumitel platform instantly gives a report if anything should fail.

Benefits

The energy savings are vast. Most corridors are sparsely used, especially at night. The general light level is calibrated and already generates a saving of 50%. By dimming for absence, there is a further 50% saving at least.

Client : Hammerson

Managing agent : JLL

Consultant : Inform CE

Electrical contractor : Equilux

Luminaire manufacturer : Fagerhult

Circular Lighting Live - 25 September 2025

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 13:43:44 GMT

Circular Lighting Live 2025

After a succesful event in 2024, Mymesh is again a GOLD sponsor for the Circular Lighting Live event.

Wireless technology has many benefits for new buildings, but enables enormous opportunities to reduce both embedded and operational carbon in retrofit projects in existing buildings. Furthermore, it enables efficient and cost effective execution of the project.

Want to learn more? Come and meet us to discuss and listen to Craig Stead talking about the results of Mymesh in Bluewater Shopping Centre.

Circular Lighting Live 2025

Thursday, 25 September 2025

The Minster Building, EC3, London

Event link: https://circularlighting.live/

Tridonic Mymesh ready

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 10:53:26 GMT

Empower your Mymesh installation with innovative hardware

In the fast-moving world of IoT and smart buildings, real innovation happens when advanced software is paired with high-quality, interoperable hardware. The Tridonic Wireless Solution Cooperation provides Mymesh with certified components and customised software integration. This gives them the tools they need to accelerate development and reduce the risk of delivery, enabling them to offer market-ready solutions.

A powerful result of this collaboration is Mymesh Ready developed in partnership with Dutch smart building specialists, Mymesh . At its core are LED drivers from Tridonic featuring integrated Mymesh software , which create a secure, scalable digital backbone in any building - large or small. Once in place, the Mymesh platform can connect with existing Building Management Systems and integrate additional sensors, enabling a true digital twin environment that delivers real-time data insights and long-term operational value.

Mymesh Ready means:

No additional control modules
Instant deployment at scale across luminaires
Unlocking valuable data from within the driver
Enabling seamless wireless mesh backbone for lighting, compliance, occupancy, climate, IAQ, and more

And now, with the flexible licence model, OEMs and partners can accelerate go-to-market plans with certified hardware and proven software – delivering market-ready solutions at pace, with confidence.

Mymesh Ready is more than lighting control – it’s the enabling layer for smart buildings at scale.

GStT - The Core

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:05:26 GMT

St Thomas’ Hospital expands with The Core

Background

A new build block at Guy's and St Thomas', specialising in infant and childcare was built next to the pre-existing Evelina building. With an ever-growing need for infant and antenatal care, catering for over 6500 babies per year, St Thomas' needed to expand. The Core, or ‘DSEC’, located in the heart of St Thomas’, allows GSTT to start with smart building controls in mind, rather than retrofitting to become a part of a smarter world.

Challenge

A brand-new building, replacing an open area, needed to be set-up to be fully future proof. This involved implementing smart controls, smart monitoring and customised settings for a multitude of different use conditions.

The objectives, mainly, were to allow smart monitoring of all assets as well as full smart lighting control with the ability to add more features going forward.

Solution

The Mymesh smart control system was designed throughout the building, monitoring just under 1000 unique assets through the 5-floor new build. All rooms would have one of two Mymesh based smart controls, or in some cases both. The smart PIRs would turn lights on when a person enters the room, and where applicable, would daylight harvest natural light from windows and dim the lights accordingly, so a uniform lux level is created over the room, while utilising as much natural light to save energy. This would then turn the lights off, or to a dimmer state when not in use.

Where a smart switch was based, a user could dim the lights to an appropriate level to match what they believe to be suitable lux levels. As users have different needs, and hospitals cycle users with a higher frequency than almost any other organisation, this was critical to allow a user to obtain the correct light level for their eyes, while not inducing migraines or causing eye strain associated with modern LEDs.

With Mymesh devices spread throughout the building and each asset knowing it’s location, asset tracking has now been established in this building via Mymesh asset tracking protocols. A device publishing on the Mymesh channels tracks its positioning and can be displayed on an app of choice for easy location finding.

The Lumitel dashboard is utilised over this install, so all devices are monitored in real time with energy usage, emergency status, triggers, space utilisation and much more. Via the platform, dynamic lighting control has also been used to maximise energy savings over site.

Benefits

The implementation of smart controls on the new LEDs has achieved massive energy savings as well as ensuring compliance across the whole building. The dimming features of the Mymesh system not only contribute to this energy saving, but also improve the longevity of assets, this has been confirmed by rigorous testing.

The remote monitoring and lighting control allow the reduction of full-time employment required to maintain the building, allowing more time to be spent with other older parts of the hospital.

From the beginning, the use of Mymesh has reduced the through cabling required for the control infrastructure. This has had a large impact on the reduction of carbon usage in the building.

Cascades Swimming Pool

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:45:00 GMT

Gravesend upgrades the lighting in Cascades

Background

With energy costs ever increasing and public places recovering from the COVID shutdowns, lots of publicly accessible places, such as leisure centres and similar, are taking the correct steps to upgrade their lighting for both costing reasons, aesthetics, and compliance reasons.

Challenge

Lighting upgrades in swimming pools have several restrictions associated with them. All pre-existing lighting points have little or no wiggle room in positioning, so like-for-like swap outs with increased lumen outputs aren't always viable. As the levels of light at a swimming pool can be critical to life, as well as comfort, smooth lighting levels have to be achieved without being overbearing or blinding.

Solution

Mymesh allows a tailored approach to each individual light. High-lumen output high bays were fitted throughout the pool, in the same position as each of the replaced devices, and calibrated with Mymesh. Each device was fine-tuned via DALI dimming, so none of the devices were blinding to those who would be swimming while still providing ample light. All the while being energy efficient in comparison to the previous lighting. In addition, the emergency lights in the pool are also now installed with Mymesh, allowing them to be monitored without an onsite engineer being required.

Benefits

As each device could be tailored to the output of light, the same fitting could be used over the whole pool to ensure uniformity from an aesthetic point of view. The swapping of LED would allow vast energy savings while keeping the uniformity and reducing the maintenance costs.

The monitoring of the emergency lights would allow us to ensure compliance, as well as diagnose all faults without the need for an engineer. This, in combination with other factors, ensures maintenance costs are kept to a minimum.

Unipart - NHS Supply Chain

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:24:15 GMT

Unipart - NHS Supply Chain warehouse

Background

NHS Supply Chain is the internal organisation that manages the sourcing, delivery and supply of health care and food products to the NHS and healthcare organisations in England and Wales.. The 152,000 sq ft warehouse in Normanton is operated by Unipart. It is an older building with a conventional, hard-switched lighting installation that had to be upgraded for performance and energy efficiency.

Challenge

The objective of the client was to improve lighting levels, save energy and have automatic testing and monitoring of emergency lighting.

The installation was to be done point-for-point, so no rewiring and creation of new electrical points would be required.

Solution

The Mymesh wireless control system was chosen to provide connectivity across the large building. All the new highbay and lowbay luminaires were equiped with a Mymesh wireless node, avoiding adding control wires in the building. Furthermore, battery-operated Highbay PIR sensors with a 10+ year battery life were used. The placement of the sensors was flexible as no mains connection was required.

Each aisle is now controlled by PIR, so energy can be saved when the area is not being used.

The Lumitel platform offers the possibility to use different light levels at different times of the day. This was the lighting can stay on at a low level when an area is in 'absence' and quickly ramp-up before an operator enters the area. During the evening and weekends the lightlevels can be dimmed further or switched off.

The Lumitel dashboard provides an easy portal for the client to monitor the site for energy consumption, faults and emergency lighting reporting. The operation of the lighting can be changed should the times of the work shifts change.

Benefits

On top of the energy savings achieved by the upgrade from conventional lighting technology to LED, the control element delivers an additional energy saving that positively impacts the operational carbon footprint of the site.

The wireless technology also has a large impact on the embedded carbon as no new and additional wiring was required.

The remote monitoring brings savings for maintenance and for external services for doing monthly and yearly emergency lighting flick tests.

Bluewater Shopping Centre - Smart Toilet areas

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 08:36:47 GMT

Bluewater uses Mymesh to upgrade the Toilet areas to Smart

Background

As shopping centres rejuvenate their customer facing areas, toilets, changing rooms and changing areas are an easy energy saving swap out while enhancing the consumers’ experience and feel of the centre.

Challenge

Public facing areas that are in constant use in shopping centres rarely, if ever, turn off or dim. Older style LEDs were burning more energy than newer style ones, while starting to fail or side burn.

Places with high-potential for dirt, grime or other unclean material requires high light output to ensure that they can be cleaned to a high standard for the general public's use.

Testing and recording results of emergency testing is particularly difficult due to lack of access throughout the day because of usage and privacy rights.

Solution

Upgrading Fluorescent to LED is always an easy energy win. But upgrading older LED to newer LED with smart control can be equally as efficient in reducing power consumption. By fitting these toilets with Mymesh, they can be initially dimmed to reduce their initial output for energy saving throughout the day. This also allows them to be dimmed for dynamic lighting and turned off via a monitoring platform when required.

As the usage of the toilets is tracked, this can tie in with the maintenance and cleaning regime- meaning that the toilets can be cleaned solely on actual usage, rather than random or scheduled intervals, saving FTE cleaner's time.

Benefits

Introducing the ability to perform dynamic lighting on any area allows continuous energy saving. Over time, and throughout the year the lighting can be remotely changed to best suit not only the customer’s needs but the energy requirements or restrictions of that time.

As the emergency lighting contains Mymesh, the lighting and emergency element can be monitored consistently while scheduling the emergency tests to out-of-business-hours to ensure the testing does not affect the usage of the surrounding area. This negates any access issues and massively reduces engineering time.

Norwich hospital

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 10:51:46 GMT

Norwich Community Hospital's new £19.2m wing

Background

Challenge

The state-of-the-art facility will include a combination of single and four-bedded bays, as well as treatment areas, an assessment kitchen and self-service café area.

Merit’s expert in-house design team have curated a facility which prioritises ease of access whilst also catering to the footfall requirements of both patients and staff.

Solution

Benefits

The Mymesh system is widely used in Healthcare installations across the NHS and beyond. It delivers improved efficiency, energy saving and a reduces the carbon footprint.

Furthermore, Mymesh allows many benefits beyond lighting, like asset tracking, way finding, legionella L8 compliance, etc.

The flexibility makes Mymesh the smartest choice for controls for hospitals, large and s

IASME IoT Cyber Assurance Certification

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 19:07:46 GMT

Mymesh successfully extends the IASME IoT Cyber Assurance Certification (Level 2)

IASME IoT Cyber certifies internet connected devices against the most important cyber security controls. The certification badge allows clients to verify the security of the device.

Per 29 April 2024 the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act has come into effect. Failure to comply with the act is a criminal offence, but maybe more importantly, it leaves customers exposed to Cyber Security threats.

IoT Cyber Assurance is setup in partnership with Secured by Design (SBD), the official police security initiative, aligned with UK legislation and all of the 13 provisions in the ETSI EN 303 645 standard, extending beyond just the top three required for UK law.

For our clients it is important that compliance is not only a self-declaration. It is very difficult and complex for most clients to investigate, check and/or challenge it. Mymesh has chosen to underpin compliance with externally audited certification.

Circular Lighting Live - 9 October 2024

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:25:05 GMT

Circular Lighting Live

Mymesh is a sponsor for the Circular Lighting Live event. Come and meet us to discuss the go-to wireless control system to reduce carbon in your building, both embedded and operational.

Circular Lighting Live 2024

Wednesday, Oct 9, 2024, 8:30 AM - 6:30 PM

London

Event link: https://circularlighting.live/

IHEEM Healtcare Estates - 8-9 October 2024

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 13:59:12 GMT

Exciting News...

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be attending the IHEEM Healthcare Estates Conference & Exhibition in Manchester this year on October 8-9th !

Join us at Stand D8 to discover how MyMesh is transforming healthcare environments with smart, scalable lighting and building management solutions.

Whether you’re looking to enhance energy efficiency, improve patient experiences, or streamline facility operations, MyMesh has the innovative solutions you need.

Get a sneak peek at what Mymesh can do for the NHS and healthcare facilities by visiting our Healthcare section . We can’t wait to connect with you and explore how we can collaborate to create smarter, more sustainable healthcare environments.

St Thomas’ Hospital reuses lights and adds intelligence

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 14:40:25 GMT

St Thomas’ Hospital reuses lights and adds intelligence in major upgrade

5 September 2024 In Circular Lighting Report By Ray Molony

The NHS Trust responsible for St Thomas’ Hospital in London has reused and upgraded luminaires on the site.

Trojan Lighting reconditioned ageing fluorescent lights in situ, installing a LED gear tray with a Mymesh intelligent node.

The engineer responsible for the project, engineering site lead David Crane, says the initial reason for keeping the lights in place was because disturbing the metal-integrated ceiling in the hospital’s wards would have been disruptive to patients. ‘We didn’t start out to do a ‘sustainable’ project,’ he told the Circular Lighting Report, ‘so the sustainability is really a side benefit.’

Additionally, the Trust’s interest in the wireless Mymesh system came from Crane’s initial plan to automate the emergency lighting testing and reporting, which was occupying the time of two full-time members of the facilities team.

‘I didn’t want to go a [proprietary] system from a manufacturer because in the public sector we need to have value for money,’ says Crane. ‘What’s good about the Mymesh is that we can use with a luminaire from any manufacturer.’

The medical physics team at St Thomas were initially concerned about radio-frequency interference with clinical equipment but after extensive trials, the technology was approved for use in the hospital.

The upgrade of the outdated luminaires in the wards allowed the engineering team to add intelligence to the gear tray during the work. This gave the NHS Trust additional control, which connected the Mymesh nodes in the lights to occupancy sensors.

‘It’s very flexible so can programme a luminaire to either dim or switch off, depending on where it is in the hospital’

The NHS is rolling out the technology across the extensive St Thomas’s site with plans to extend it to sister facility Guy’s Hospital.

It is also beginning to be used at Lewisham Hospital, where Crane reports that energy savings of 66 per cent have been realised by a combination of LEDs and 1,000 new occupancy sensors.

‘The savings were incredible’ says Crane, who installed energy meters on dedicated lighting power distribution boards three months before the project and monitored it for six months after the project.

• Trojan Lighting and Mymesh are two of the headline backers of Circular Lighting Live 2024, Recolight’s flagship conference and exhibition, which takes place on Wednesday 9 October 2024 at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Free to specifiers, Circular Lighting Live 2024 will feature leading experts, specifiers and policy makers who will share their insights into forthcoming standards and legislation, emerging technologies and new business models. More info: www.circularlighting.live

Picture: Adrian Pingstone/WikiMedia Commons 2004

Berwick hospital

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 10:40:29 GMT

New Berwick Community Hospital

Background

Construction is underway for the Design and build of the long-awaited, new £35million Berwick community Hospital. The new development will provide updated services, a new endoscopy suite to deliver care close to people’s homes, as well as a new GP practice.

This facility is much anticipated by the local community and has been the subject of a 15+ year campaign. At present, the closest hospital for emergency and routine care is some 50 miles away in Ashington, Northumberland.

Challenge

The initial requirements for the hospital include the construction of the main hospital facility, separate energy centre building, hard and soft landscaping and car park construction.

Merit will carry out the construction of the new hospital through highly advanced 4D BIM modelling technology and offsite construction techniques. At least 76% will be offsite manufacture. Any cables and wiring is an additional challenge for the design and construction.

Solution

Wireless control systems are an ideal solution for this construction concept. The only requirement for lighting, sensors and switches is a mains connection. The Mymesh system will automatically form a mesh network once installed, and functionality is solely determined during the commissioning phase, offering maximum flexibility.

The scalability of the Mymesh network means that it is suitable for a site of 1,000 or 10,000 assets.

Benefits

The Mymesh system brings automation to the lighting installation. It improves efficiency, energy saving and a reduced carbon footprint. The experience of Mymesh with large hospital installations makes it the smartest choice for this type of hospital construction. Significant savings on constuction can be achieved due to the flexibility and absence of control wiring.

Furthermore, it delivers a signicant saving on the embedded carbon footprint of the installation.

The plan is that the new hospital will open towards the end of 2024.

Peterborough City Hospital lighting upgrade

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 15:19:30 GMT

Over 19,000 light bulbs to be replaced at Peterborough City Hospital

Over 19,000 lights at Peterborough City Hospital are going to be replaced to help make the building more energy efficient. After a successful bid to the NHS National Energy Efficiency fund , the £3.75 million funding has been awarded for the proposal, which will see all conventional fluorescent switched to the lower energy, longer-lasting LED technology, all connected to the Mymesh wireless control system.

The hospital says this will halve lighting energy costs and carbon dioxide emissions – saving money and the environment.

David Moss, Director of Estates and Facilities for the Trust that runs Peterborough City, Hinchingbrooke and Stamford and Rutland Hospitals, said:

“We are really excited to have been awarded the funding for this project. It will enable us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and our energy bills. This is the first major project in our green plan for all our hospital sites. As we redevelop our Stamford and Hinchingbrooke sites over the next few years, we plan switch to LED lighting there, too. "Our aspiration is to head towards net zero in line with the NHS as a whole.”

With a deadline of just six weeks to survey, design and supply fittings, Trojan has delivered 198 pallets containing 19,000 lighting fixtures and controls.

This new lighting infrastructure will not only provide better lighting, cost savings and energy reduction but will also act as a wireless backbone for other smart building technologies, enabling Peterborough City Hospital to drive forward their innovative transformation, continuing to improve patient care.

Epping Forest Wellness Centre

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:42:28 GMT

New City Fitness is expanding to Epping Forest

Background

New City Fitness is an exciting new venture from New City College. Its facilities in Hackney was used for the London 2012 Olympic Games as a training facility for a variety of countries. The centre has quickly become known as the home of Basketball in London and the UK.

The brand-new state-of-the-art sport and wellness centre in Epping Forest is opening in 2023. The centre will encompass facilities for sport, fitness and wellbeing and will be open to use by College students and the general public. New City College’s Sport and Fitness students will work and train in the centre, located across the road from the College campus.

Challenge

The new facilities are created with a timber structure with a view on using natural materials, textures, patterns and colours. The na tural ventilation and daylighting are optimised which is k ey to the carbon strategy for the project .

The lighting control system is an important factor in managing the efficiency of the building while delivering optimal conditions for the users.

Solution

The Mymesh wireless control system provides a network across the floors of the building. Lighting in the sportshall can easily be controlled from the reception desk.

Rooms are equiped with PIR motion sensors. The battery operated devices with a 10-15 year battery lifetime are ideal by avoiding any wires and conduit on the visually pleasing laminated timber beams.

The rooms where sunlight enters via the large windows are capable of dimming to compensate for the natural light, saving on the energy usage and carbon footprint.

The emergency lighting throughout the building is tested and monitored via the Mymesh system offering compliance and efficiency of the maintenance.

Benefits

The Mymesh system brings automation to the lighting installation. It improves efficiency, energy saving and a reduced carbon footprint. The scalability of the system allows the College to expand to other installations in the future.

The Mymesh system tests and monitors emergency lighting. Reports are provided on the performance of both emergency and general lighting.

"We at New City College are delighted to be working alongside our local community on this exciting project. We believe this beautiful building will be a major asset to our students and the local community in providing brand new facilities for sport, fitness and wellbeing."

Ms. Khan

Principal – Redbridge & Epping Forest Campuses

New City College

Eton College ESAC

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 11:08:15 GMT

Eton College Sports and Aquatic Centre

Background

Eton College stands in the vanguard of educational developments and Sport has been central to the Eton curriculum for some time. A new Eton Sports and Aquatic Centre (ESAC) opened its doors in 2022. It provides a 25m indoor swimming pool, a four court multi-purpose sports hall and associated spectator, changing and administration facilities. The pool incorporates a movable floor to increase flexibility, allowing the pool to be used for swimming, water polo and teaching. The multi-purpose sports hall is designed to become a 200-seat examination hall to facilitate examination use by the school.

The brand new, high-performance facility is set in a historic, landscaped setting to create a grounded building that feels part of Eton’s rich traditions of craftsmanship, and is also an enjoyable, accessible space to use.

Challenge

To minimise the carbon footprint, maximise energy efficiency and create the right environment for the changing requirements of the facilities, a flexible and robust lighting control was needed. This should be capable to expand on the site with future developments and offer flexible control and monitoring.

Solution

All lights across the three floors, including the pool and sports hall were equipped with a Mymesh wireless device. Most lights are controlled using DALI, but the stylish pendants in the spectator area are mains-dimming.

All the areas are typically controlled with PIR sensors. This guarantees that the lights switch-off if there is nobody around. For certain areas, and especially the sport hall, a switch is provided in reception. Different lighting scenes can be selected, for example when the sports hall is used for examination.

Benefits

Having the lighting on an automated system brings great benefits to energy saving. At the same time, the system is flexible for the various uses of the building.

The system is adaptive for future expansion, both for this and future buildings. The Mymesh system can monitor the energy usage and report on emergency lighting and faults, helping facilities management to optimise the maintenance and performance of the site.

St Thomas' plant rooms

Fri, 19 May 2023 08:08:48 GMT

St Thomas' plant rooms emergency monitoring, and evolving smart controls

Background

Expanding the working environments of where the mesh is strong, St Thomas' hospital have upgraded some of their plant rooms and Lift management rooms to a smarter solution.

Challenge

The trust engaged with a contractor in replacing their very dated T8 lift management rooms and adjacent plant rooms to a more energy efficient and smarter alternative. With a combination of frequently moving parts and rapid airflow of differing temperatures; special consideration needed to be taken into account from a control's perspective.

Solution

The first major win was implementing a wide range of LED swap outs with compliant emergency lighting to ensure the areas were well lit, energy efficient and most importantly safe in the event of a power cut. With these areas being building-critical, any loss of light is not acceptable.

To combat the varied environment, a combination of all things smart was utilised. PIRs, motion sensors, microwave sensors, time clocks and volt-free switching were implemented to ensure places were well lit when they were meant to be; and false triggering could not happen- while lights cannot be left on while works are not being done.

Benefits

As with all hospitals, a 24-hour site doesn't stop- so anytime lights can be off while not in use is an immediate positive when it comes to energy consumption. The combination of sensors allows the areas mentioned to be controlled in full, all the while data is fed back to the Lumitel dashboard so the end client can see when the works are taking place, how long they take and where exactly areas are being used. This, in the long term, allows the end client to gauge the frequency of usage as well as the frequency or maintenance for the equipment while simultaneously allowing the devices to self-test and ensure maximum energy savings.

Northumbria University CCE

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 07:00:02 GMT

Northumbria University - City Campus East 1 & 2

Background

The £100 million, award-winning City Campus East development of Northumbria University in Newcastle is the home for the Northumbria Law School (one of the largest law schools in the UK) and the Northumbria School of Design (which covers Industrial, Fashion, Communication and Innovation Design). Its 2 buildings (CCE1 & CCE2) house purpose-built and versatile spaces for conferences, talks, lectures and seminars.

N ow a few years into its lifecycle it was due an upgrade of the approximitaly 8,000 fluorescent light fittings and its wired DALI control system.

Challenge

With 8,000 lights over 2 buildings in operation the replacement and commissioning of a complete installation is not a small task. Most of the work has to be completed during nightly hours, and with leaving each morning a building that is ready to accommodate students. The current DALI system and reporting in the BMS was not always delivering on the expectations, so a different approach was needed.

Solution

The Mymesh wireless control system avoids any need for cabling and wired connections to switches or the central control system. The intelligence is distributed in the network, making it a very robust system. All lighting was replaced with DALI LED fittings with Mymesh 'nodes'. Input devices were used to link to the existing 'retractive' switches, allowing the teachers and students to select the scenes needed in the classrooms and lecture theatres.

The default light level is set at 80%, delivering a 20% additional saving to the LED upgrade, while a higher light level can be manually chosen if required. All rooms work on PIRs, so no energy is unnecessarily wasted if a space is unoccupied. The rooms on the window side benefit of day-light-harvesting by dimming the lighting automatically when sufficient natural light comes into the building.

The system is connected to a Lumitel Dashboard, so the Facilities Management company can monitor any failures and the University can follow the energy usage.

Benefits

Each building has 1 large Mymesh wireless mesh network, using only 1 Gateway to connect to the Cloud services. This makes the system very scalable and adaptive for the future.

The energy savings from the LED upgrade are significant, further enhanced by automatic dimming and switching off. Furthermore, the savings can be monitored via real-time reporting.

The maintenance department has a tool for first-time fixing. If any failures occur, the system will inform them what the type of failure is and where, allowing the engineer to go directly to the right location with the right tools and hardware. Typically before the employee or student fully realises.

Message from Simac

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 16:38:44 GMT

Message from Eric van Schagen, CEO Simac

Did you know that Mymesh is backed by Simac B.V., a multi-million pound, family owned technology company? Let us give you a bit of background... and a personal message from the CEO.

Background Simac

Simac, a family business with a rich history, is mainly active in the Benelux and Central Europe. In short, we supply and maintain high-quality technology at medium and large organizations to improve business processes. In total, more than 1400 people work at Simac, spread over branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, England and the Czech Republic.

Simac has a holding structure. Operating companies, the Simac companies, with a wide range of solutions, products and services are located under the flag of Simac Techniek NV. The solutions that the Simac companies offer can be divided into two areas:

Information Technology

We provide a wide range of IT services with a focus on the design, implementation and management of IT infrastructures and the design, construction and delivery of industry-specific and solution-related applications.

Smart Solutions

We offer highly specialized technology solutions for various niche markets.

One-pager

Click on the graph on the right to get a 1-page overview about the Simac Group.

Follow-me / Proof-of-Concept

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 09:52:13 GMT

'Working' light control with employee tag

The background

The greenhouse horticulture sector is evolving rapidly with new techniques ensuring optimum crop growth and energy consumption reduction. Vitarom Neurath , a grower in North Rhine-Westphalia, is an innovator using the latest technologies. The Smart LED Grow Light solution by Mymesh provides a sustainable balance between yield and energy consumption in greenhouses. This brings autonomous growing with plant sensor technology and AI applications within reach.

The challenge

During the day, the intensity of red light in greenhouses is automatically adjusted to the needs of the crop. This ensures an optimal light recipe. However, in semi darkness or in the dark, it creates

less comfortable working conditions and
it is difficult for employees (pickers) to estimate the colour (ripeness) of a tomato.

As a result, employees will also pick green, unripe tomatoes which leads to production losses. Time for a solution!

Proof of Concept

Mymesh successfully established a Proof of Concept where the aim was to improve the working conditions and to enable employees to properly estimate the ripeness.

In the Proof of Concept, the lighting in a radius around the employee is switched from red to white based on the location of the Mymesh employee tag. This allows the employee to work during twilight hours and in the dark in a white-lit environment and to properly estimate whether a tomato is ripe or not. As soon as the picker walks on, the colour of the lighting fixtures (outside the radius) will turn back to red.

The technology

The lighting control is based on a physical tag carried by the employee. The tag determines the employee’s location in relation to the fixtures that have a fixed location in the Mymesh network. Using a pre-set setpoint, the Mymesh network can temporarily change the colour of the surrounding fixtures to white, in a certain radius, making motion sensors obsolete.

Other applications

Location-based lighting control can also be beneficial in sectors other than greenhouse farming where staff members walk through a (large) building. We already see demand for this solution for order pickers in, for instance, logistics distribution centres (mezzanines). The set point can also be configured in such a way that it not only changes the colour, but also:

turns the light on and off,
adjusts the lighting intensity
sends track & trace information to a dashboard.

The light follows you...

Nationwide Retailer

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 09:00:04 GMT

Saving energy in retail

Background

With over 600 sites UK wide, this retailer has taken a nation-wide approach to net 0 carbon by 2040. With the vast number of sites, rewiring every site is not an option, so utilising a wireless solution to assist achieving this is the best, and cheapest option.

Challenge

Most stores consist of long trunking lights daisy-chaining together to form a long continuous light over an aisle. During shopping hours, a continuous, unchanging, light level is required store-wise but during non-operational hours and during stocking hours, adjustable, presence/absence levels can be utilised. The exact lux levels for both are unknown to achieve the best balance between required lighting and energy saving methods.

Solution

Using the flexibility of the Mesh, the trunking chains have been connected to a uBLC via a dali-bus to ensure all lights have the ability to dim if needed. Remote PIRs powered by batteries, where appropriate, and daylight harvesting sensors are throughout the site, all connected with one another and connected to a gateway and a 4DI. The 4DI is linked so that during working hours, all fittings are set to an appropriate light level for that particular site- and when out of these hours, can be put into night time/stocking mode. This mode allows devices to be dimmed, off, or staggered to allow light when needed, but not maximum lux so sufficient light can be used for stocking while being energy conscious. These levels can be adjusted remotely by the ethernet gateway to achieve high-end trimming.

Benefits

As the retail market cannot close, installation of the wireless solution, and the ability to change settings remotely, means that install happens over one evening outside of working hours so does not impact trading at all.

The introduction of working hours/stocking hours in the lights means a drastic saving of energy with running devices at less than 100%, while keeping some off that are not needed.

Utilisation of the dali-bus means install happens quickly via contractors and the ease of commissioning, and the productivity of the installation teams, keeps the install and commissioning stages simple and efficient.

The client reports that the current overall savings for the stores is around £4.2 million annually. And this is with about half of the stores converted. A very quick pay-back.

Bluewater front of house

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 09:00:00 GMT

Bluewater front of house: RGBW

Background

With the Back of house completely mapped with the Mymesh solution, the next logical step was to start the front of house as well. With a healthy balance of aesthetic lighting and functional lighting, with emergency integrated throughout, the Front of house has stated its journey to be fully Mymesh powered.

Challenge

As with most sites, BMS systems start to degrade and require maintenance or replacing. In addition to this, complaint lighting and more energy efficient alternatives require attention to ensure the front of house is not only complaint, but visually attractive to shoppers to make the site more enjoyable.

As both were being replaced at the same time, this opened up an opportunity for Mymesh to be both the BMS and an attractive lighting solution to be tailored year-round.

Solution

Taking any BMS out, and replacing this with calendar/schedular controls with the Mymesh solution, the front of house Palm tree lights are now completely flexible to how Bluewater wishes. With RGBW dali control for the decorative lights, and cool white dimmable for the tree section, the dynamic control the Mymesh solution allows creates reliable control for this area of lighting.

The integration of the emergencies in the palm trees also allow the front of house emergencies to be monitored and controlled to maintain compliance, making the following of BS5266 easier.

Benefits

Customising the lighting throughout the year to match events, holidays or promotions is now easier, with integration via the Lumitel platform.

Each device can be changed independently, both in terms of colour and brightness to match what is needed; such as red and green for Christmas, red white and blue for a coronation of patriotic event or all one colour to match an event such as Valentine's day.

The calendar control, with dali and not on the BMS, means that if the lighting wished to be changed live, it can be without messing with any circuits or switch boards.

The emergencies being monitored, as well as the general health of the devices, means that maintenance costs are down as well as engineer's time being saved on testing or diagnosing.

Lewisham Hospital Maternity Ward

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:00:04 GMT

Lewisham Hospital Maternity Ward, Wash rooms and adjoining areas

Background

To start their journey into smart buildings, Lewisham Hospital have undergone upgraded from T8 to Smart LED lighting in some key areas, with a current full site upgrade's completion date for the late 2020's.

Challenge

With high traffic areas of sensitive nature, it's important to ensure sufficient lighting levels for both safety and comfort. With failing T8 and T5 technology, as well as severe man hours invested into diagnosing and replacing emergency fittings, a better solution was needed. Concentrating on desked areas, meeting rooms and conference rooms, a variety of hold times and switching parameters would need to be invested in to make sure each room works as required.

Solution

Swapping the old T8/T5 with more appropriate dali dimmable smart panels, with integrated emergency allowed an initial energy saving, while proving ample lux levels over the rooms. With the introduction of wired PIRs and 4CS switching allowed correct controls to be widespread over these sites. Lux levels of each fitting were acclimatised so that 500 lux could be achieved at desk level. In meeting rooms, a combination of the 4CS and PIR allows the room to lit when occupied, dimmed when needed via the switch, and then turned off via PIR timeout ensuring adequate light levels are there when needed at all times, and then turned off when not.

Benefits

High traffic areas where previously fittings were on all day long, at 100%, now have off time as well as dimmed time, meaning a lot of energy saved.

With the newly added dimmable settings, meeting rooms can now be adjusted for presentations or conferences, making the environment more suitable.

In addition to the energy saving, maintenance time is also saved with the integrated EMs being monitored and diagnosed by the Lumitel platform.

10 Brindleyplace nears completion

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 09:00:00 GMT

10 Brindleyplace (Birmingham) nears completion

The project

10 Brindleyplace, a 210,000 sq ft of high-quality grade A office, with a focus on the pillars of technology, wellness and sustainability. With a focus on three pillars of technology, sustainability and wellness, 10 Brindleyplace will be the first

Fitwell accredited office in Birmingham - a standard that measures occupant health and wellbeing. It will also be the first workspace in Birmingham to house a uniquely designed bouldering experience.

Mymesh wireless control

The lighting in the building is connected in one large wireless mesh network. The scalability and robustness of Mymesh provides the perfect solutions to connect 3,000 to 4,000 lights across 15 floors. Mymesh switches the lights on when needed, off when not needed. Further energy saving is achieved by dimming the lighting when there is enough sun light entering the building through the large glass facade.

The system provides further value with offering an integrated solution for the emergency lighting. With approximately 1,000 emergency lights, the monthly function test and yearly 3 hour duration test is a labour intensive job if carried out in the conventional way.

Commissioning

The commission ing engineers of Mymesh have now spend over a week on-site to commissioning the lighting on all the floors and stairwells. In the back office the result is integrated in the Lumitel Cloud platform.

The platform proves to be a great help for the contractor and sub-contractors with trouble-shooting the usual challenges with projects of this size.

Next steps

The date set for the hand-over is planned for May 2023. Mymesh needs to finalise the last sections of the top floors, half of the stairwells, the exterior roof areas and the basement areas.

Looking forward to the end-result.

Brent Cross' Smart Multi-story car park

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 18:36:47 GMT

Brent Cross' Smart Multi-story car park with adjoining stairs and lift lobbies

Background

Having a true historic accolade of being able to claim to be the first large enclosed shopping centre in the UK, Brent Cross shopping centre has added 'smart building' to their impressive resume, with their newly upgraded car parks and surrounding areas.

Challenge

With constant use, and old cabling infrastructure and energy pricing only increasing; the car parks and staircases would need to be upgraded to a more efficient and smarter model.

Consideration would need to be taken into account for sensor plans, as well as implementing a control plan that works during the day with high traffic, as well as during the night with less frequent traffic. Areas would need to be on a certain times, and off when lighting levels are adequate with natural light. It was apparent that this would not be a 'one size fits all' project.

Solution

Brent Cross worked with Harpers, the contractors, for installation of almost 2500 brand new LED fittings of varying types; including vapor seals, high bays, bulkheads, running men and more.

With the varied needs of areas, it was decided that some areas would be on a designed PIR plan, some areas would run off of astro-clock parameters and some areas would be switching only.

Completely dynamic and adaptive lighting controls were implemented so that during working hours, presence of 70% and absence of 10% would be present and night time, for cleaners, security and late-leaving workers would have 50% presence with 0% absence for the car parks. This maximises energy savings while taking into account the 'comfort' of the lighting to encourage shoppers to display the car park as safe.

Areas with ample daylight were placed on astro-clock timings so that when the light from natural sources started to dip, the high bays and other fittings would make the difference up to allow users to have sufficient lighting levels.

Zoning was implemented in the car parks, staircases and all areas where this would show a benefit to minimise the fittings on when needed, further reducing energy needs. Over-ride switches were also supplied in the event of safety emergencies or similar which puts every fitting to 100%.

All emergencies are monitored via the Lumitel platform, and allow full testing to occur when needed with a full log of the fitting's history.

Benefits

Utilising the dynamic lighting system means that devices change their behaviours during the day to match the changing needs of them throughout the day. With decreasing or increasing lighting levels from natural sources, the system itself changed to maximise energy saving while still providing what is needed.

Emergency monitoring and general health monitoring of all devices, via Lumitel, rapidly decreases maintenance costs and labour needs for the engineering department as well as completes the feedback loop to allow the user to know how the site is being used.

LV Offices Bournemouth

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 09:00:02 GMT

'simple' Smart fix for LV Offices in Bournemouth

Background

With a failing BMS system, LV required an alternative to turn lights off and on when required to avoid 24/7 burning hours of all their LED fittings.

Challenge

Unlike other sites, the LEDs in place have to stay. Although these were not dali, that doesn't mean the Mymesh can't integrate and work well. With limited circuits available, the majority of which ae taken up already for the fittings themselves, power to wired sensors could be an issue.

Multiple entrances and walkways to areas are apparent over site as well.

Solution

Taking the devices off of the BMS wiring and any contactors, Harpers utilised the Mymesh Relay to replace the BMS. The fittings were isolated into their circuits via the relay, so rather than all lights on/off via BMS, individual circuits now determine what is on or off.

Battery powered PIRs were strategically placed throughout the floor, ensuring sufficient coverage for the offices.

Benefits

With the new system in place, energy savings could be seen straight away with the ability for the fittings to turn off. Furthermore, due to the zoning, only areas with traffic are on, with the remaining areas off until needed.

Clifton Suspension Bridge Mock-up

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Clifton Suspension Bridge lighting project

Background

The historic Clifton Suspension bridge required modernising from a lighting standpoint, from temperamental dated fittings to new RGBW devices. The project is planned to be completed in 2024, and is currently in mock-up stage.

Challenge

As with any older building, let alone one opened in 1864, older technologies of lights and similar that have been installed eventually fail and fall behind the times. The challenge here involves implementing on an interesting topology all the while allowing the bridge to modernise with RGBW devices, or varying control parameters built to last.

Solution

To achieve the best lighting control, a mix of Dali and DMX was implemented. This allowes a more eclectic range of lighting manufactures and lights to be available. With the topology of the bridge, and the infrequent suitable positioning of Mymesh devices, the Tango aerial has been utilised maximising range and connection, while using the limited places available.

An independent lighting control package and software was developed to allow transitional scheduling with a repeating feature to allow the bridge to be displayed for a variety of events in a variety of colours, 16,777,216 to be precise.

Benefits

The new DMX devices allow the mesh to speak a variety of languages allowing all fittings on site to be in sync with one another when needed- or work independently when required. The implementation of the Tango allows more flexibility and less wiring work when it comes to establishing the mesh throughout the bridge.

With the implementation of the mesh, when it comes to fault finding and diagnosing any faults- it becomes much easier to repair and fix first time. With wired alternatives, the chance of finding the exact element of a circuit requiring the attention needed is significantly reduced.

The scheduling will allow the bridge to be themed in colours when required, and remotely turn off lights when possible, to maximise energy savings over the year, and turn lights on when required for safety reasons.

Innovative climate control

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 12:17:02 GMT

Innovative climate control with Mymesh

Climate control technology in traditional ceilings still leave much to be desired. Innovative solutions can bring major benefits to building managers and users. The Mymesh control system can deliver wireless and automatic control of climate installations for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). And it is all integrated with the wireless lighting control system.

How does it work?

Innovative measurement technology, such as the Mymesh TriSensor, detects the number of people and measures the room temperature. A consequence of a higher occupancy may be that the preset temperature (set point) is exceeded. So cooling of the room is needed!

The Mymesh actuator module receives a signal from the TriSensor and controls the HVAC equipment. The variable air volume (VAV) valve controller provides extra air (based on occupancy rate) and an electronic 6-way control valve cools the room.

Mymesh automatically ventilates and cools (or heats) the room until the preset temperature set-point is reached again.

The benefits of an innovative ceiling with Mymesh

The control zones are able to function automatically as a local and stand-alone control system. Each control zone has its own set-point and is able to regulate the temperature independent from any other room or control zone. The set-point is set by the Mymesh Cloud Edge Server or the building management system (BMS).

The wireless Mymesh control system makes the control cabling superfluous and the installation design becomes simpler. Mymesh integrates the ceiling renovation (climate ceiling) with the lighting installation.

Furthermore, an App allows users to change settings, like room temperature and lighting via their smartphone. This eliminates switches and panels from the building design.

Nottinghamshire Police Headquarters

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 10:16:33 GMT

A bat friendly car park

Background

As part of the ambitious project to construct a new three storey building on the site of the existing Police headquarters at Sherwood Lodge in Arnold that will be now home to both Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Challenge

The contractor Gleeds called upon LPS to develop a lighting scheme for a new access road, car parking, woodland footpaths, and a new parade square in front of the new building.

Careful consideration was required as the new circular access road was located close to established woodland and we had to ensure that the lighting had little impact on the wildlife, especially bats.

Solution

The roadways and car park lighting was designed with 50w Keno lantern on 6 metres columns and Nivo bollards were used to light the footpath through the wooded area. Both luminaires have excellent directional control with no direct upward light to keep any light pollution to minimum.

To protect wildlife a Warm White LED colour temperature. Futhermore, All the column luminaires also installed with a Mymesh lighting node and wireless PIR sensors, which enable the site to be split into 5 different zones. The luminaires are set to dim to 10% after 10 minutes if no motion was detected from pedestrians or vehicles.

Benefits

The site is in operation 24/7, but the Mymesh set-up enables the site to find the optimum between having light when needed, save energy and protect wildlife.

Adrian Franks, Project Manager of Electract commented:

“We’ve been very happy with LPS once again. Who have lived up to their name and provided an excellent product and solution to the issues relating to wooded area and the need for a wireless control system. The system has been commissioned and is working effectively. We shall definitely call upon their expertise and professionalism again on other projects.”

IASME Cyber Assurance Case study

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 17:09:51 GMT

IOT CYBER ASSURANCE LEVEL 2 CASE STUDY WITH MYMESH WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY (AUDITED)

Among the first to achieve the IASME IoT Cyber Assurance Level 2 (audited) certification was Chess with Mymesh, their smart building enabling wireless technology.

The IoT Cyber schemes certify internet connected devices against the most important security controls and demonstrates commitment to best practice security. The level 2 version of the scheme provides a level of certification above the verified assessment level, providing independent 3rd party testing and certification.

Director of Chess, Jasper Hijink spoke to us about their Secure-by-Design approach. With a keen interest in raising the bar within the industry, he found the process of third party security review and discussion of particular value.

Cyber security Assessor, Gary Wills from https://www.forti5.tech/ put Mymesh through its paces (from a security standpoint). He tested the Mymesh wireless control system which consists of the Mymesh Network (actuators, sensors), the ethernet gateway, the cloud server (Edge42) and the Bluetooth gateway (commissioning device). As part of the audit, Gary checked the documentation, interviewed Chess, and checked and tested the device physically. Gary says, “The mentality at Chess for cyber is the kind of security you might expect in a bank! Every 10 seconds the encryption keys are changing, so there would be no time to hack it. If you try and take a look at what’s on the chip, it automatically wipes itself, so the physical aspects as well as the software aspects have a high level of security.”

Chess Wise is a Dutch company, with headquarters in the Netherlands and a sales office in the UK. Director, Jasper Hijink describes the company as a start up that has been starting for nearly 20 years until the market caught up.

Originally, the founders foresaw the immense potential of wireless infrastructures yet didn’t have the technology available at that time. Today, however, after decades of development, Mymesh offers professional locations from hospitals to warehouses to car parks, secure, reliable, and scalable smart building solutions.

Jasper Hijink:

Chess has its background in the banking industry and that is perhaps where the company’s incredible focus on security comes from. They have used the secure by design principle from the very start with a vision for a secure smart building where everything connects and can be managed together for a reasonable cost. Such a system had to be wireless of course and extremely scaleable. We started with the lighting, because that is basically the low hanging fruit from a pay-back perspective and the most common entry point into the building’s network.

In the assessment process, we were asked questions about our security, for example, Do you provide a simple and clear method for the user to change their password or security credentials (such as keys or identifiers)?

We answered ‘no’ as we don’t use a password in the network; Mymesh uses secure keys that change 10 times per second, protecting both the communication and the hardware with no user involvement.

Our ‘no’ answer equated to a non-compliance in the assessment, so in the interview, we had to explain that we basically don’t have it because we don’t need it. Our security is on the next level. We deliberately don’t use passwords in our network and users don’t have access on site, so it is impossible to access a Mymesh network just with a commissioning device. If we need to grant access for commissioning, it is given via a remote security server that can give the keys and authentication directly.

Many smart systems can be compared to the way a Bluetooth speaker works in your home, in the sense that if you’ve got a friend visiting and the friends wants to hook up to the speaker to play some of their music, there’s no way that you can get them off the speaker again once they have finished because the control happens from the phone and not from the speaker. In our systems, we control the speaker, so to speak, we control who retains access to the system.

How did you hear about the scheme? What was the motivation?

We heard about the scheme because we were working with a couple of clients that asked for external certification, most notably for a large transport contract.

We usually do large scale installations, for example Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation trust which includes about 36 buildings where every light needs to have Mymesh onboard. We also do quite a few large sites, the biggest one is Bluewater shopping centre down in Dartford where we use Mymesh to make the entire mall smart and adaptive.

The IASME IoT certification and the feedback from our Assessor, Gary, was useful to share with other customers to demonstrate what we are doing. External certification certainly reassures clients that you have a secure system that has been audited by a third party. I hope that more and more customers will start to ask for this, as many don’t have the knowledge to go into a detailed discussion.

We would like to work together to raise the bar in the industry.

Gary Wills:

The unique network protocol of Mymesh certified to the Assurance level 2 of the scheme which means that its security aligns with all of the 13 ETSI security requirements plus the data privacy requirements.

Why would you need such security measures on lights? Is this a bit of overkill?

If someone was to break into the system that the lights are connected to. they could start to communicate with the hub and the cloud and then potentially access other information. These devices need to be both physically secure as well as electronically secure to the extent they could even be installed somewhere high risk like a prison or a government building in Cheltenham and criminals would not be able to gain unauthorised access.

Jasper:

What would be your advice to other manufacturers of IoT devices?

We need to jointly raise the bar for security in wireless systems. This will give confidence to the market that that it is okay to work with wireless systems. I also think that together we need to educate the market about what security is all about. It is not limited to encryption of the communication, I think security is a lot wider. It’s about encryption of the hardware, about authentication, it’s about commissioning, and of course, the weakest link is still people; the user.

It would be great if we could have an IoT certification scheme endorsed by the government, so certification becomes almost a requirement for public and private sector. My advice to the private sector is that if they use products with an Assurance level 2 certification in this IoT scheme, it will cover what they need to have in place to make sure that they are doing the right things.

Vitarom Neurath

Tue, 10 May 2022 21:05:32 GMT

Smart LED grow lights in Horticulture

About Vitarom Neurath

Located deep in the west of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), the greenhouse built in 2011 is the most modern of Vitarom. Tomatoes (six varieties) and cucumbers of the highest quality grow here in a perfect environment. At Vitarom, tasty, regional vegetables are grown all year round. As an innovative producer, Vitarom ensures that the high-quality products arrive fresh-packed at the customers, because healthy food should not be a luxury!

Imagine a world where growers are able to obtain insights and control over the crops’ lighting so that greenhouses and vertical farming applications can optimise the light recipe and optimise crop growth in the most economically profitable way.

With LED grow lights horticulture enters a new era of sustainable solutions for managed crop growth. Optimising the light intensity using the Mymesh wireless light control system, using both daylight and LED grow lights, the system lifetime will be increased, the energy consumption and CO2 emissions reduced. Wireless light control is by far the simplest way to add advanced control functionality to existing and new installations as it minimises the need for new control cabling. With Mymesh there is no limitation in the amount of groups or the number of grow lights in a group or network.

For a large greenhouse (160.000m2) in Grevenbroich, Germany (nearby Dusseldorf) with thousands of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce produced everyday, Vitarom Neurath was seeking for new lighting technology that would be able to dim their lights in their greenhouse. Approximately 3,200 fixtures delivered by Tungsram (Hungary) are commissioned and controlled by the Mymesh wireless light control system.

Each grow light fixture has a Mymesh Micro-BLC Industrial wireless controller mounted on top of the fixture to control both LED drivers. The 3,200 fixtures are divided in seven groups so that it is possible to control sections of the greenhouse. Every group can be dimmed to meet the right amount of light for the crops in the greenhouse with a click of a mouse button. How cool is that?

Behind the scenes a special climate control computer communicates with our Mymesh Modbus Server interface module. This Modbus server is installed in range with the Mymesh network and receives commands from the climate computer. This connection makes it possible to use external computers or other devices to connect with the Mymesh network.

An interesting article on Mymesh and Horticulture lighting appeared in HortiDaily on 10 May 2022.

LightSim shortlisted for the Digital Construction Awards 2022

Tue, 10 May 2022 14:11:46 GMT

CELEBRATING INNOVATION & TECH IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The Digital Construction Award s will celebrate the most pioneering projects, teams, and individuals championing innovation and technology in the built environment, whether at the bleeding edge of technology and digitalisation or exploring digital technologies and processes for the first time. We want to share and recognise the incredible efforts from across the sector in driving our industry forward.

The awards are open to the entire industry. Run in partnership with Digital Construction Week, BIMplus, Construction Management and the Chartered Institute of Building. With 13 prestigious categories to enter, this is your chance to showcase the outstanding work you’ve been doing over the past 12 months.

LightSIM Controls App© by Hoare Lea is shortlisted in the Category " DIGITAL INNOVATION IN DESIGN ".

LightSIM Controls App© seamlessly integrates with Mymesh. The lighting design that you create and change on your screen is uploaded into the actual installation at the push of a button. The first project to boast this functionality is LTS Architects .

The winners of the category will be presented on the evening of 12th July at the Digital Construction Awards themselves.

IoT Security Assured GOLD

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 20:07:08 GMT

Mymesh achieves GOLD level for IASME Iot Security Assured scheme

We are very proud that we passed the assessment for the IOT Security Assured programme with level GOLD. Very important to us as security is our top priority. Our Secure-by-Design approach, resulting in a banking style security of network and devices pays off. And not only for us, even more for our clients.

The Scheme

The IoT Security Assured scheme was developed by IASME to provide an essential opportunity for manufacturers to improve the security of their internet-connected devices and to show they are compliant with best-practice security. The scheme has been designed specifically to be accessible to smaller organisations, micro-businesses and start-ups alongside more established manufacturers.

The IoT Security Assured scheme is aligned with the ETSI technical standard for IoT security, EN 303 645, and with the proposed UK IoT security legislation and guidance. It is also mapped to the IoTSF Security Compliance Framework. The Gold level is aligned with the ETSI mandatory requirements as well as all the additional ETSI recommended requirements and Data Protection provisions.

About IASME

IASME work alongside a network of over 250 Certification Bodies across the UK and Crown Dependencies to help certify organisations of all sizes in both cyber security and counter fraud. IASME is committed to helping businesses improve their cyber security, risk management and good governance through an effective and accessible range of certifications.

Tripolis-Park

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 08:57:57 GMT

A window to a brighter future

About Tripolis Park

An eco-conscious campus built to stimulate the mind. Defining a new vision for today’s workforce, right in the heart of Amsterdam.

Tripolis-Park is a high-performance office space of 50,000 m2, with cutting-edge standards in sustainability, wellbeing and technology. An eco-conscious campus built to stimulate the mind. Defining a new vision to create the optimal environment for individuals and businesses to thrive of Uber and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.

Sustainability

With a `BREEAM-NL Outstanding' certification, Tripolis-Park is among the most sustainable buildings in the Netherlands. These top sustainability standards reduce running costs, and provide occupants with a highly desirable working environment.

Wellbeing

Awarded a 'Well Platinum' certification, the public gardens and private roof parks make Tripolis-Park an oasis of greenery. The natural environment, combined with bustling on-site amenities, makes a significant contribution to the physical, mental and social wellbeing of its occupants.

Technology

With state-of-the-art, future-proof technology Tripolis-Park manages to dovetail space and facilities perfectly with the needs of its occupants. This reduces the little frictions that take you out of the moment. Not as an afterthought, but by design.

The project

Sustainability, health and safety are central to the development of the new generation of smart buildings. The applied innovative sensor technology measures all environmental variables such as room temperature, movement, occupancy, light and relative humidity. Mymesh realizes a fully integrated control of the biodynamic (HCL) lighting and the indoor climate, whereby a link in the cloud has been realized for climate control. Together with the Mymesh wireless digital infrastructure, these applications form the backbone for sustainable building automation.

Bluetooth beaconing localization technology is applied for a smart Room Control App for smartphone that allows the user to control only the room he is in. The Mymesh data infrastructure will also be connected to various cloud applications for Smart Maintenance and Productivity apps from third parties.

Tripolis-Park is being carried out in close collaboration with the client Flow Development and the partners Trilux, HC RT, De Bosman Bedrijven and Schneider Electric.

For more information see: www.tripolis-park.com

Vanderlande Industries

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 08:49:52 GMT

Energy saving with smart lighting: Vanderlande Industries, Veghel (NL)

About Vanderlande

Vanderlande is the global market leader for future-proof logistic process automation at airports. The company is also a leading supplier of process automation solutions for warehouses and in the parcel market.

The project

As part of the ISO50.001 Energy Management certification, Vanderlande continuously strives for energy savings. During the past years, the new production hall and the existing halls have been equipped in various phases with LED lighting and a Mymesh automatic light control system based on motion detection and daylight harvesting.

The analysis of the energy consumption of the lighting shows that the additional energy savings due to an automatic light control amount to 46%. A wonderful result.

West Lancashire Borough Council

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 14:56:02 GMT

West Lancashire Borough Council

and Solarcrown Commercial

Solarcrown Commercial and West Lancashire Borough Council (WLBC) have worked together on many environmental projects over the past decade. Together they continue to deliver imaginative and challenging solutions to reduce the cost and impact of energy use across the various buildings and infrastructures of the Council.

Every project has been delivered with the specific task of reducing the cost of heating, lighting, and the environmental impact of its commercial and residential property portfolio. This includes offices, service depots, sheltered accommodation, high rise and general residences.

Most recently, projects and technologies focusing on energy management have been adopted and delivered by the teams responsible for maintenance and statutory compliance. The changing technologies of wireless integration, remote interrogation and reporting have further enhanced the energy and cost saving nature of specific projects, whilst providing real time evidence of maintenance and testing regimes without the need for costly manual intervention.

Regular and standardized reporting of carbon savings, energy cost comparison, and statutory maintenance performance are shared with all stakeholders on a common platform.

The following examples offer an insight to the commitment and achievements of both Solarcrown Commercial and West Lancashire Borough Council in their partnership to improve the performance and sustainability of all their property stock making them “Greener and Safer” for all.

Pilot energy reduction strategy.

Solarcrown Commercial offered a desk top survey and solution for consideration as part of an energy reduction strategy for the legacy lighting schemes at selected CAT 2 sheltered housing properties. Solarcrown Commercial’s lighting upgrade solution projected carbon and energy savings to the energy and environmental team at WLBC. In addition to the energy considerations areas of noncompliance were also highlighted to the estates team after survey, with particular reference to the current Emergency Lighting regulation – BS5266.

With the current focus on fire and evacuation strategy as a result of the numerous reports and recommendations from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the subject of compliance was at the top of the agenda for WLBC’s estates team. It was considered that any investment in the general lighting scheme should also include a review of the emergency lighting system.

Solarcrown Commercial presented a fully addressable lighting and emergency lighting system as a solution to meet the challenges of both energy saving and statutory compliance. Working with a wireless mesh network system called Mymesh, Solarcrown Commercial were able to offer an installation of a wireless solution that took control of the lighting and emergency lighting with a facility for monitoring and reporting, accessed remotely from a cloud based dashboard.

The proposal for a trial project at a single CAT 2 Scheme was accepted and further to a successful 6 month statistical review was extended to a further, 3 x Cat 2 Sheltered Schemes, 64 x Communal Low Rise Blocks, WLBC Derby Street Head Office and Robert Hodge Waste Management Warehouse and offices.

Intelligent lighting Scheme for Category 2 – warden supported self-contained accommodation for the less active elderly, which includes the full range of communal facilities.

The initial requirements from WLBC was for the provision of a retrofit lighting scheme to provide quantifiable energy and carbon savings. The majority of the current lighting scheme was at the end of its useful life, difficult to maintain and of very poor environmental performance. The solution from Solarcrown Commercial included the provision of ultra-low energy LED lighting products, lighting controls for automation, and emergency lighting for statutory compliance. (Initial surveys revealed significant non-compliance issues in the emergency lighting provision, with potential risk to life and safety).

Initial survey and considerations for potential saving and improvements identified the following issues:

Testing of all lighting products is a manual task performed by in-house maintenance teams or approved subcontractors at a significant cost to the council.
Lighting in the communal areas was inefficient and at the end of useful life.
Communal area lighting was on 24 hrs per day at 100% illumination.
Lighting could not be managed without risk to the residents.
Emergency lighting did not comply with current CIBSE and British Standards particularly BS5266.

The Solarcrown Commercial solution included replacement of all fittings on a point for point basis, and the provision of additional emergency lighting fittings for compliance. A control and monitoring system, Mymesh, was provided for management and reporting. Every luminaire, switch, and sensor was Mymesh enabled with each device making up a self-healing wireless mesh network across the building.

The Mymesh control system allows the grouping and control of areas such as corridors, toilets etc., and dimming and scene setting in areas such as lounges and reading rooms. Every area was provided with PIR sensors, and where required there were additional switches to allow manual control.

Corridor lighting has day and night settings. The control system includes an internal time clock and 4DI interface which enables the corridors to dim down to 20% when unoccupied. When presence is detected, they increase to 100% in day time. During the night, these levels change to 10% and 50% respectively to further increase energy savings during night time hours. Areas such as kitchens and lounges dim to 1% when unoccupied, and increase to 100% when presence is detected.

Residents are never faced with the risk of walking into a completely dark space.

The lighting controls were linked to the fire alarm system. In normal circumstances the emergency exit signs are switched off, unless the fire alarm is activated, or if there is a power cut. All general lighting is activated on receipt of a fire alarm to assist with evacuation plans.

Numerous other safety measures were also provided. These include overriding switches for the lighting controls in wardens offices, and for emergency use to turn all luminaires onto 100% regardless of whether PIRs or other settings are activated. Useful if there was an incident requiring attendance of the emergency services.

The Mymesh system performs monitoring and testing of the general lighting system with information provided on status and condition of luminaires, sensors and switches and allows the confirmation of practical use profiles and energy consumption statistics. The Mymesh system also performs all of the tests required by BS5266 on the emergency lighting system.

“This testing regime satisfies WLBC’s legal requirement to test all of their emergency lighting in accordance with BS5266, with results logged and kept readily available for the fire officer when required. This ensures the emergency lighting systems are compliant and operational for the intended 3 hour duration required in an emergency”.

The energy performance and condition reporting of all fittings is monitored, recorded and reported to all stakeholders on a monthly basis. This entire process is carried out without the need for costly manual intervention and the further carbon burden of vehicle attendance for simple condition reporting and testing functions, whilst necessary repairs can be planned and prepared for with fault diagnosis and correct component identification.

The initial design calculations and real time performance data on the 1st pilot location confirmed the following spectacular results

Intelligent lighting Scheme for Low Rise Residential Accommodation Blocks

In addition to the Cat 2 buildings WLBC also have over 400 low rise blocks. These generally consist of 6 or 8 flats off a communal stairwell. WLBC have identified as a result of preventative maintenance works a number of common services that require urgent attention including retrofit general lighting and the addition of emergency lighting. None of the blocks were provided with emergency lighting and were therefore deemed at risk further to a fire safety risk assessment.

Solarcrown Commercial surveyed and designed a solution that introduced ultra-low energy LED lighting to common areas and the addition of emergency lighting into each stairwell in accordance with CIBSE and British Standards particularly BS5266. Similarly to the Cat 2 properties, Solarcrown Commercial's lighting solution integrated the wireless Mymesh monitoring and control functions. However, on this occasion they restricted the Mymesh product to the emergency lighting fittings to reduce the capital cost of the project.

Mymesh lighting controls were included in each emergency luminaire to enable each device to form a self-healing wireless mesh network across each individual building and more significantly across the remaining 64 buildings included in the first phase of the refurbishment works. In addition to the standard controls each stairwell is dimmed down to 10% when the stairwell is unoccupied and increased to 100% when activated and a dawn/dusk setting prevents maximum output when there is sufficient daylight, therefore maximizing energy savings.

The initial design calculations and survey data predict the following savings as a result of the LED upgrade and controls across the 64 pilot locations.

Intelligent lighting Scheme for WLBC Derby Street Head Office

The initial requirements from WLBC was for the provision of a retrofit lighting scheme to their own headquarters. The aim was to provide quantifiable energy and carbon savings, and to improve the overall look, design and user experience of the offices. The existing lighting scheme was aging and of very poor environmental performance. Solarcrown Commercial's solution included:

Provision of ultra-low energy LED lighting products
Lighting controls for automation
Emergency lighting for statutory compliance.

Initial surveys revealed significant non compliances in the emergency lighting provision, with potential risk to life and safety.

The Solarcrown Commercial solution also included linear decorative suspended lighting that is glare compliant for use in office environments, PIR sensors that switch on the lighting when offices are occupied, and also dim with daylight to maintain required lux levels when natural daylight is present.

In addition to sensors there are also switches in each office to offer manual override and dimming, as well as scene setting where presentation screens are present. General areas were fitted with UGR TPA rated LED 600 x 600 Panels, and several large open plan office areas were split into predetermined zones with PIR control and switches for manual over ride. Corridor lighting was provided with day and night settings to dim down to 20% when unoccupied, and increase to 100% when presence is detected. During night times, these levels change to 10% and then to 50% respectively to further increase energy savings. The control and monitoring system, Mymesh was also included for management and reporting. Every luminaire, switch and sensor was Mymesh enabled with each device making up a self-healing wireless mesh network across the building.

As with the Cat 2 buildings the Mymesh system enables the energy performance and condition reporting of all fittings with data monitored, recorded and reported to all stakeholders regularly. This process is carried out without the need for costly manual intervention and the further carbon burden of vehicle attendance for simple condition reporting and testing functions, whilst necessary repairs can be planned and prepared for.

The initial design calculations and real time performance data on the Derby Street HQ confirmed the following spectacular results

Intelligent lighting Scheme for Robert Hodge Waste Recycling Centre

The initial requirements from WLBC was for the provision of a retrofit lighting scheme to their waste recycling facility that would provide both, quantifiable energy and carbon savings and to significantly increased the work place lux levels. The existing lux levels were proving to be inadequate for the tasks being performed in critical areas and had the potential to impact on a safe and ambient working environment.

The solution from Solarcrown Commercial had to contend with the main waste management facility that was a particularly challenging environment and would require careful consideration when specifying the type of fittings and method of installation. Due to the height of the facility and the hazardous environment including heavy traffic and airborne contamination, the installation of IP66 LED High Bay lighting incorporating emergency back up would be required to meet the demands of BS5266. One of the goals was to reduce the potential for maintenance and re-lamping in areas that would require expensive access equipment and out of hours working.

The Solarcrown Commercial solution included antistatic diffusers for the IP 66 LED lights for use in the main waste building with the largest areas split into zones with PIR control and settings including day time dimming down to 20% when unoccupied, and night time and weekend settings with all devices switched off during zero occupancy.

Mymesh was also included for management and reporting. Every luminaire, switch and sensor was Mymesh enabled with each device making up a self-healing wireless mesh network across the building.

The initial design calculations and real time performance data on the Robert Hodge Waste Recycling Centre confirmed the following spectacular results

Conclusion

What began as a pilot energy and carbon reduction project has successfully developed into an integrated intelligent environmental and statutory compliance solution. Differing requirements from various stakeholders now have a common platform for interrogation and confirmation of objectives, ranging from carbon savings, financial benefits and health and safety compliance. Solarcrown and West Lancashire Borough Council have been able to collaborate, to bring innovative designs, technically and financially sound models and demonstrate a proof of return on investment.

When reviewed under the current demanding energy market the statistics will only improve year on year.

And even with a modest rate for each kWh saved the annual savings on energy would exceed £50,000 every year.

Bluewater Back of House and Service Yards

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:32:58 GMT

Bluewater Service yards and back of house monitoring and controls.

Background

Extending its journey in becoming the smartest and most energy efficient shopping centre in the world, Bluewater Shopping Centre has upgraded their Back of house and Service yards to an intelligent solution.

With miles of back of house corridors, their smart journey has become literal.

Challenge

With energy inefficient luminaires, scattering the corridors with fluorescent T8 lighting, and emergency lighting due an upgrade; a retrofit LED solution was an ideal solution to be implemented to swap like-for-like over the site. Due to the high foot traffic of store clerks and employees throughout the corridors, sufficient light levels would be needed when an individual was there, but a reduced level when there is no-one to reach higher energy saving levels.

Solution

With our trusted partner, Harpers, almost 1500 Mymesh devices have been rolled out throughout the site in Bulkheads, running men, standard industrial luminaires and integrated emergency version. All with Dali drivers, allowing Mymesh to control every fitting, and monitor all emergencies.

With Multi Sensors dotted around at entrances to back of house, outside shops, on staircases and doorways- full dimming could be implemented allowing maximum energy saving throughout the day; ensuring safe levels of light when in use, and lowered levels when not.

Furthermore, with Lumitel control circadian cycles have been implemented. Nighttime levels are treated separately to save even more energy.

Benefits

With high footfall, and integrated emergency fittings- Bluewater can now review usage with the Lumitel platform, as well as monitor emergency luminaires ensuring compliance. The integration with Mymesh and Lumitel allows high flexibility in usage and dramatic energy saving. Monitoring of standard and emergency luminaires, as well as control devices can be linked creating work tickets when exceptions occur; making fix first time engineering to occur.

Westfield Stratford nears completion

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 15:43:17 GMT

Months of work brings the end near for Westfield Stratford - phase I

Years of preparation, months of co-ordination and weeks of commissioning, but we are getting close to complete this phase of Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre.

In phase I all the back-of-house lighting was changed from (in general) conventional 58W fluorescents to 25W LED luminaires. Each light had a sensor and a Mymesh module on board to create a large wireless mesh network. Based on presence detection lamps dim and switch to deliver maximum energy saving to the client. Furthermore, all emergency lighting is tested and monitored for compliance.

The last couple of days commissioning are planned in, and the dashboard is being worked on in the back office. Exciting to see it all come together in the next couple of weeks.

Interview: The future of Lighting Control

admin@mymesh.co.uk (Richard Whitbread) — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:09:46 GMT

The Future of Lighting Control

(published as a BLOG on Prime Light website)

Lighting controls have become commonplace in many commercial environments over the last few years as businesses have switched on to the cost and eco-benefits of energy efficiency. But is there more scope for these products? Where is this market heading next? And if you’re a building manager, what are the key considerations you need to make when looking at smart tech?

To answer these questions we grilled Richard Whitbread, UK Co-Director at wireless infrastructure provider, Mymesh, for some expert insight.

Can you explain what a ‘wireless infrastructure’ is and tell us a bit more about Mymesh?

Mymesh started in the 1980’s as an industrial internet of things. It’s a robust radio-agnostic protocol that provides a wireless infrastructure. What this means in real terms is that it enables machines to talk to each other on any wireless frequency, including 2.4 GHz and 868 MHz, so they can work together as a centrally controlled network. To date this protocol has been primarily used for lighting controls as it’s the obvious place to utilise it; you’ll always have lights, they’re tucked away in a ceiling and have a constant source of power – so they make the perfect network. But the protocol has much broader uses and can in fact transform your building into a smart building.

What insight can you give us into the future of lighting controls?

To be honest, it’s much more about smart buildings these days, but with lighting controls as the backbone. Lighting controls are always going to be important as around 90% of buildings need one. But if you put a lighting control system in, then you can improve the intelligence of your building in so many other ways. You’ll not only have this efficient lighting network, but you can then add in things like air quality sensors, leak detection, daylight harvesting, automatic blinds, and much more. There are so many devices being brought to market to work on these networks, the future opportunities are limitless. Essentially if you’ve got a sensor and you can give us a signal, we can put it on our network.

So, there’s a real benefit for building owners?

It’s a real sweet spot for building owners. They often don’t realise that by putting a lighting control system in, you actually get a building control system for free. You’re essentially future-proofing your building.

With increasing cybercrime, isn’t security a big concern when it comes to lighting controls and smart building networks?

Security is a massive concern for out customers as imagine being responsible for a major shopping centre or hospital and someone hacks your system, turns off the lights and plunges everywhere into darkness. It could prove lethal! We have developed Mymesh to be a highly secure protocol, with our security keys rotating 10 times every second. Security keys essentially allow devices to talk to other devices on the network. So, if a hacker grabs the security key, by the time they’ve done anything else with it it’s changed 10 times by the next second. My biggest piece of advice for anyone considering a smart building solution is to check out the security. I know of other lighting protocols on the market that say, “you only need a phone line to programme it”. Well, that’s great, but so does anyone else!

What trends are you currently seeing in terms of customer demands for lighting controls?

Wireless lighting control is obviously a key one people are interested in as it just gives your so much flexibility when you don’t have to install cabling around your building. We’re also seeing a large volume of calls on emergency light monitoring. Due to the regulatory requirements, people are keen to limit their risk and increase efficiency, so the fact you can automate your testing and receive a report each week is a very attractive prospect.

And what trends are you seeing on the wider smart building tech?

As a result of COVID there’s a huge demand for a ‘people-counting' capability to plug into the protocol and we’ve just designed a solution for this. I think this will be a real area for growth as people return to workplaces where businesses will be challenged on air handling units and how much air comes into a space. ‘People-counting’ for spaces, rather than just monitoring occupancy is going to be an increasing area of focus for building managers.

How easy is it to bolt these additional smart building solutions into the network?

With Mymesh it’s incredibly easy as the protocol’s already there, so you have an existing network in the building. You simply get power to the new sensor and drag it onto the network using an iPad. We’re working with lots of partners who are adopting our protocol on their hardware, so there will be loads more options in the future.

What considerations do people need to have when considering lighting and smart building controls?

I guess there are three main considerations when it comes to smart tech. The top priority must be security. The second is the ease at which you can change something on your network. You don’t want to be beholden to a company that are going to charge you for every little modification you want to make, as the cost of an engineer will almost certainly prohibit any changes and negate any cost-benefit. Whereas if you can do it yourself in 30 seconds, you’ll just get it done and you’ll constantly evolve the intelligence of your building. The Mymesh protocol works through an app, so you literally log on and make the change there and then. The final consideration is to ensure you’re considering future-proofing. Can the infrastructure you’re considering easily bolt additional capabilities on in the future?

Prime Light is the main partner and distributor of Mymesh in the UK for lighting manufacturers. Prime Light can offer any help, advice, or guidance on the protocol or specifically on lighting controls. Please visit www.primelight.co.uk .

Mymesh Quick Starter Seminar

Wed, 26 May 2021 09:11:42 GMT

Chess UK presents a series of seminars

Chess UK presents a series of seminars to explain the working of Mymesh wireless technology in a concise way. Available to everyone, but focused on end-users and integrators that want to work with Mymesh to create a Smart installation, from lighting control, emergency lighting monitoring to creating the Smart Building of the future. In 13 sessions we cover the key elements of our four pillars:

Secure
Scalable
Robust
Adaptive

Robert Hodge Waste Recycling

Mon, 24 May 2021 10:39:45 GMT

Monitor & Control at height

Background

The Robert Hodge Centre in Skelmersdale is the central transfer point for waste recycling in the borough of West Lancashire. The site has offices, a service yard and a large hall where the recycling waste is brought in and separated for transport to different destinations. The site is owned and operated by West Lancashire Borough Council .

Challenge

The Robert Hodge site was purpose built and was in the centre of the environmental improvements for recycling in the borough. After years of service, a make-over for the lighting (and offices) on the site was due. The conventional HID lighting in the hall could not achieve the light levels desired and the emergency lighting proved to be more and more expensive to maintain. As the hall is in operation full time, a refurbishment needs to be planned efficiently.

Solution

The Mymesh wireless solution is used widely by the council. It was an easy choice to include the Robert Hodge Centre in the roll-out. Monthly and yearly testing of the emergency lighting can now be carried out from remote. Furthermore, the site is controlled by sensors so no energy is wasted on lighting the space when there is no activity.

The system, being wireless, made the upgrade an easy installation, as the wiring did not require any changes. It was a one-for-one swap. Wireless technology can be tricky in industrial environments, with the large distances and lots of metal structures, but the robust element of Mymesh makes it the ideal solution.

Benefits

The upgrade to LED delivered significant savings while increasing the light levels to more than double of the old installation. Adding the lighting control with presence sensors added another significant saving to this. This helps the Council to achieve its challenging carbon footprint reduction targets.

The automatic testing and reporting on the emergency lighting offers a significant saving on the maintenance while ensuring a compliant working environment.

West Lancashire Social Housing

Mon, 17 May 2021 09:00:03 GMT

Emergency Lighting is the driver for Mymesh roll-out in social housing

Background

West Lancashire Borough Council , or West Lancs for friends, is a district in Lancashire, and the home of around 100,000 people. The two main towns are Ormskirk and Skelmersdale. West Lancs already has quite a few council offices and buildings, including care homes on the Mymesh system.

The Council has now embarked on a roll-out of Mymesh across their Social Housing estates with the main objective to test and monitor the emergency lighting. This can be sheltered accommodation, individual houses or apartment blocks.

Challenge

West Lancs has several hundreds of blocks in their portfolio that they rent out. As the council the responsibility is theirs to maintain the properties and guarantee that they are safe. The lighting, and more specifically the emergency lighting, is an important part of that. The Standards dictate that the Emergency Lighting must undergo a monthly Function test, and yearly Duration test (lasting 3 hours). There is a significant maintenance operation associated with this to ensure that this is executed and reported. Apart from the cost, there is the matter of compliance. How to ensure that this is done?

Solution

The Mymesh system is the solution to this challenge. The system has emergency testing and reporting in place. The DALI emergency inverters perform the Function and Duration test and report back the result via the mesh network. This is then aggregated in the Cloud solution and automatically pushed to the client in a monthly report. Furthermore, the system will give information on performance like “Battery Charge level”, Emergency Operation and faults.

Each light is equipped with a DALI emergency, Mymesh node and a microwave sensor. The LED fittings are dimmed based on presence for energy saving and resident comfort. The Mymesh system takes care of the rest.

Benefits

West Lancs does not have to pay monthly visits to each of the hundreds of blocks anymore. The results are delivered automatically to the inbox. A site visit is only required in case of failures, which are reported via the system. Furthermore, the information of number of discharges, battery charge level will enable a predictive maintenance schedule for battery replacement when the time comes.

For 1 housing block this can be done manually, but when you manage hundreds it gets more challenging.

Campden Hill Lawn Tennis Club

Thu, 13 May 2021 13:11:36 GMT

Refurbished lighting with Mymesh wireless controls

Background

Founded in 1884, just seven years after the first Wimbledon Championships, the Campden Hill Lawn Tennis Club (CHLTC) is situated on Campden Hill in Kensington, London. The club is owned by and run for the benefit of its membership of about 1,600 people, ranging from juniors to veterans.

The club has 12 courts, which used to be all hard surface outdoor courts. In 2002, the Club was extensively refurbished and these were turned into six indoor and six outdoor courts. The Club now boasts one of the best tennis club facilities in the heart of London.

Challenge

In 2016 the original low-energy fluorescent design in the tennis hall was replaced by a new LED installation from IKON Design and a lighting control system. Unfortunately, the control system started to fail and was no longer supported as the manufacturer went out of business. There was a clear need for (too early) replacement. However, this does give the opportunity to look at the system in a broader sense. Apart from the tennis hall, there are 6 outdoor courts, a clubhouse, changing rooms and office space. There is a monthly and yearly charge for monitoring the emergency lighting.

Would it be possible to refurbish and be ready for the future?

Solution

Chess worked together with Hoare Lea to design a Mymesh solution for the tennis hall that is capable of expanding to control and monitor all the other facilities as well. The old controllers in the light fittings were replaced with a small wireless module, and the bulky central unit in the central control cabinet was replaced with a small interface and some key-switches.

During the commissioning the light levels on the courts were calibrated to meet class I (750lux average) for matches and class II (500lux average) for training. For each Court the lights are triggered by movement detectors, while a central clock will dim and then switch the lights off after closing.

Benefits

The Mymesh installation works based on a local clock, PIRs and key-switches for override and to switch the installation between class I and II. For most of the time, there will be no need for intervention, and the system will work on its own. The system gives the club control over the desired lighting levels depending on the use of the courts, while saving maximum energy when not in use.

The system is monitored via an internet connection. In the near future functionality will be implemented to control the lighting levels on the individual courts and monitor the usage.

Next stage of the implementation could consist of the other areas of the site, like the outdoor courts, the club house and offices. The exact functionality is being discussed. Monitoring the emergency lighting is almost a no-brainer, but it could certainly also be worthwhile monitoring the air quality levels, interfacing with the intruder alarm and other systems.

Chess - Truphone partnership

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 10:03:50 GMT

Chess partners with Truphone to roll out IoT Connectivity across its Smart Building Solutions

Using its proprietary network protocol, Chess makes professional environments smart by distributing a wireless network through a location via its Smart wireless infrastructure. This way, an unlimited number of sensors can be added to analyse, control and manage these mechanics in the cloud. From today, Chess will begin using Truphone ’s state-of-the-art SIM technology to seamlessly transfer this data to the internet. Truphone’s connectivity services work from the moment they are switched on. No complicated activation process, no wordy manual, just connectivity from the touch of a button.

Chess will utilise Truphone’s IoT network for its Mymesh product line. With Mymesh , users can choose from a wide variety of methods to connect, manage and control thousands of devices simultaneously.

The initial roll-out will take place in Chess’ key markets in the UK, France and the Netherlands, with the opportunity to scale with Truphone’s new ‘Pay As You Grow’ pricing plan. This feature is designed for maximum flexibility and works especially well for customers, like Chess, whose usage in different countries is often varied and unpredictable. Truphone uses a post-paid model which covers 175 countries around the world with access to 400 mobile networks . This means Chess is never without coverage. Safety, scalability and reliability are key drivers for Chess. Truphone’s connectivity runs using fallback technology, which ensures there are no drops in service. If one connection fails, it simply connects them to another. It’s a simple idea that adds robust reliability to Chess’ platform.

The Truphone network supports 2G, 3G, 4G and CAT-M1/LTE-M worldwide – all with a single SIM card – and gives every customer access to its IoT Connectivity Management platform .

Truphone’s simple, scalable IoT plans simplify the connectivity process, so Chess can focus on what it does best—developing its smart business technology.

Ralph Steffens, CEO at Truphone said: “ The IoT still suffers from an image problem. It is seen across multiple industries as a luxury—and a complicated one at that. But this is far from the reality. Here at Truphone, we know that in order to reach the full potential of the IoT, it needs to be simple to use, manage and implement. And that’s exactly what we offer. Partnering with like-minded companies like Chess who share our vision in making the world smarter through connectivity brings us a step closer to mass IoT adoption and experiencing the true potential of this technology. ”

Siebren de Vries, CTO at Chess said: “ With Mymesh, we deliver powerful smart buildings around the world. Our clients rely on Mymesh because of its secure, scalable and reliable characteristics. With Truphone, we found a connectivity partner that underlines our vision through their technology and solidifies our service to our clients."

About Truphone

Truphone believes that connectivity can be easier, smarter and more efficient. Since 2006, we have built state of the art SIM software, intuitive management platforms and a powerful global network to make this a reality.

Every day, our technicians engineer better connections between things, people and business to make the world smarter. Headquartered in London, we have 15 offices across four continents and continue to expand globally. To learn more, visit www.truphone.com .

About Chess

In over 20 years, Chess developed Mymesh, a network protocol that is capable of making the biggest and most complex professional locations smart. It does so by wirelessly connecting and managing an unlimited amount of devices throughout a location. Today, Mymesh is globally used by market-leaders to optimise their performances with advanced business intelligence. To learn more, visit mymesh.co.uk .

ScotRail Station

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 19:30:15 GMT

Scotrail installs Mymesh as a model station

ScotRail is embarking on a journey to make their stations smarter. Controlling the lighting automatically, and monitoring for faults and emergency testing will make the maintenance more efficient. The client chose to upgrade the lighting with luminaires from Designplan. The IK15 rated luminaires are ultimately suitable for the challenging environment. All the lighting on platforms, concourse area and ticket office was upgraded and brought onto 1 mesh wireless network.

The Mymesh installation automatically controls the lighting based on a local time clock. Personnel can override this with key-switches if they need to. The emergency lighting is automatically tested for a monthly function test, and yearly duration test, where the system provides centralised reporting.

Having the testing and reporting automated over the many stations will bring significant improvement in the efficiency of the maintenance and will guarantee compliance.

Merry Xmas and a healty 2021

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 12:51:35 GMT

Best wishes to all

2020 was a turbulent year for all of us. The global pandemic hit hard, and our thoughts are with all people that lost loved ones due to Covid, and also with everybody that experienced lots of stress because of losing jobs, work and having their livelihood turned upside down.

2020 should have been a year of great excitement. Chess UK was initiated, lots of projects in the pipeline and great times ahead. To be honest, it has not been a bad year at all. Despite some projects being postponed or cancelled altogether, many others went ahead and 2020 still put us solidly on the wireless map in the UK market. And, although the setting was different than expected, we enjoyed every minute of it.

What will 2021 bring? I guess nobody really knows, but we wish for prosperity, good business, fun and so on, but most importantly we wish all our customers, suppliers, partners and competitors a healthy new year.

Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year.

The Chess UK team.

Dutch heritage: Christmas song

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 12:30:19 GMT

Flappie... in English

The Mymesh systems has its roots in the Netherlands. With Christmas on the doorstep we want to share with you a Dutch Christmas song; a classic. A tear and a laugh, the original performed in 1978 by comedian Youp van 't Hek: Flappie. Now translated and performed in English by Todd Rundgren.

Merry Christmas!

( the Dutch version )

Cygnet Leisure Centre

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:40:35 GMT

Haloprism on Mymesh steroids

Background

Gravesham Community Leisure Limited ( GCLL ) was established in 1999 and operates on a not for profit basis. It is there for all for the benefit of the local communities it serves. There are three locations: Cascades, Cygnet and Swanscombe. Facilities include exercise facilities, swimming lessons, mindfulness, relaxation and nutrition advice.

Initial project was to improve the sports hall. It is designed for a multitude of sports such as basketball, netball, football, badminton, fencing etc.

Challenge

The lighting at the leisure centre was conventional technology and was not the best anymore with roughly 6 fittings not working. and the rest average at best. The LED upgrade made a massive difference. With a focus on carbon emissions and energy efficiency, it was time to upgrade the installation to the latest technology. With part of the lamps failing the need for a change was urgent. At the same time there was a wish to improve the quality of light.

Solution

It was beyond discussion that the installation would be upgraded to LED. Nevertheless, there is a wide choice on the market. Holophane Haloprism luminaires were used for the high performance ‘volumetric’ lighting; it produces very high levels in the vertical plane, making it ideal for sports activities. At the same time is the glare reduced by using frosted prismatic glass.

To avoid the lights being on 24/7 (as was often the case with the old HID installation) a control system was required. Simple on/off was an option, but as various activities require different light levels, a more advanced solution was opted for.

The Mymesh wireless control system was integrated in each luminaire, and the space is covered with PIR for movement detection. The system switches automatically to 50% brightness and will time out after 15 minutes of absence. A remote switch can override the automatic system and set the lighting to 4 different scenes (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%).

The wireless sensors and switches are battery operated. This makes it extremely easy for installation, and the 10 to 15 year battery life all but eliminates maintenance.

Benefits

The upgraded lighting increases the light levels and improves the vertical visual performance, all while saving energy compared to the old installation. Further reductions of the carbon foot print are achieved by automatically controlling the installation. The override enables the user to select the right light level for the activity.

Furthermore, the scalability of the system makes it easy to implement the planned future lighting upgrades in other areas in the building.

Why every smart building starts with an infrastructure

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 09:30:02 GMT

Why every smart building starts with an infrastructure

Joost Toornend (Chess Marketing) gave an online lecture about the full concept of Smart Buildings. In the webinar, Joost explained what ‘Smart’ is, where the technology is heading and why infrastructures play an essential role in the construction of such buildings.

Bits, Bricks & Behaviour

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:52:48 GMT

Re-defining the Smart Building

On the 12th of November, the annual Bits, Bricks & Behaviour conference will take place once again.

Siebren de Vries (our founder and CTO), will take the stage to redefine the definition of ‘Smart Building’ together with Frank Bakker (Beveco Gebouwautomatisering B.V.), Dominic Meyrick (Hoare Lea) and Jasper Schuurmans (Mapiq).

All parties will share their vision for the future of ‘Smart Buildings’.

You can sign up here: https://event.webinarjam.com/register/178/ko5l8uqy

(The registration is in Dutch but our Talk will be in English)

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust goes Smart

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 15:11:00 GMT

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust goes Smart

With a 1.7 b£ turnover, 18,000 staff, 2.6 million patient contacts, and 6,500 babies born every year, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trus t (GStT) in London is one of the biggest NHS hospital trusts in the United Kingdom. It has multiple sites and a many-fold of buildings, and an estimated 65,000 luminaires. And it’s now going smart!

GStT started the roll-out during the 2020 lock-down period and has a plan to upgrade the lighting and emergency lighting over the next few years. Each light will join the Mymesh network. Although the lighting is an important element, it is not just about the lighting. GStT interests go a step further; yes, they integrate different types of sensors and actuators, but the key interest is more advanced.

A hospital has a lot of equipment that is used in many locations. Apart from being expensive, they are just required to do the job. Lost equipment makes the hospital very inefficient. This is why GStT has a strong interest for Asset Tracking. Which is just what Mymesh delivers to the Smart Building of the future.

Featuring in DARC magazine

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 09:44:20 GMT

Mymesh features in an Article in DARC Magazine

We are proud to have teamed up with Hoare Lea to create an intuitive lighting solution for LTS Architects. This month issue of DARC Magazine features an article by Dominic Meyrick on the application of the LightSim app in the new London office ( page 104 ).

Scenes can be created in a rendered virtual copy of the building and uploaded into the real building via the wireless Mymesh control installation.

Great to see what light can do. Let us know if you want to experience it yourself.

Chess on LuxLive 2020

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 06:45:02 GMT

Chess UK will be a virtual exhibitor on LuxLive 2020

Chess is now present on LuxLive as an exhibitor for the last 5 years. Last year this was concluded with a LuxAward for best Emergency Product of the year. Despite LuxLive not happening in the flesh this year, we will still be exhibiting on the online event "LuxLive Digital Festival."

Please come and see us on 11 & 12 November 2020.

Harper Green School

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 19:28:18 GMT

New built installs Mymesh to be future proof

Background

Harper Green School was opened officially in 1927 as a new Central School. Since that time many changes have taken place in its size, population and purpose. Currently it has a capacity of 1,400 pupils and is spread out of several blocks. Harper Green School is playing a major role in Farnworth in particular and Bolton in general as an education institution and a focal point in the community.

Harper Green School is part of Leverhulme Academy Church Of England And Community Trust , together with Rivington and Blackrod High School with 1900 pupils.

Challenge

The lighting and emergency lighting in all the buildings needs to be upgraded. Upgrading to LED will bring an significant step, but by using time-based lighting levels, presence detection and day-light harvesting the energy bill can be reduced further and the carbon footprint of the organisation minimised. Furthermore, the school (and the academy) see that Smart building trends could help the school in the future. It would be ideal if asset tracking would allow them to keep an eye out for all the iPad. A Smart Building could geo-fence them to a certain location.

Solution

LDL Lighting , as a local lighting manufacturer, is working closely with the school on a upgrade programme for their buildings across all sites. The first installation is a new built, two floor block with 10 classrooms, offices, individual rooms and circulation areas. The Mymesh system was used to connect all lighting, emergency lighting and sensors wirelessly. Furthermore, an ethernet connection interfaces with the Cloud and provides Monitoring and reporting on energy, faults and emergency lighting testing.

Benefits

The Mymesh system connects all 236 lights, 58 sensors and 16 switches in one wireless mesh network. The wireless connection enables cost savings in the newly built installation by making all the control wiring unnecessary. The interface to the fire alarm and burglar alarm system will instantly switch all lights to 100% in case of an emergency, providing additional safety and security.

As a next step the Smart Building opportunities will be explored. Air quality monitoring and asset tracking are options on the table.

21 October: WEBINAR on Smart Building Design

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 09:02:11 GMT

WEBINAR on Smart Building Design

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Wednesday 21 October, 11am

Wireless technology is a hot topic, and with the success of our wireless control solution Mymesh, we thought it would be a great time to pick up on all things SMART.

Whether you're interested in how Mymesh can transform your building, or would like to hear more about the effortless installation; register today via the link .

Delivered to you by a partnership between Prime Light and Chess UK.

Watch the recording:

14/15 Oct: online conference INTERSCT20

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 20:19:11 GMT

Online kickoff consortium for secure Internet of Things

From the Dutch consumer association to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, from Siemens to TNO and from Brainport to TU/e: some 45 companies (including Chess Wise via Simac Techniek), knowledge institutions and civil society organizations will be joining forces over the next eight years to ensure the security of the Internet of Things. The online conference INTERSCT20, run by coordinator TU/e, will mark the start on October 14 and 15th of this public-private partnership, which is being supported by NWO with over eight million euros.

The conference is being held entirely online. The program also provides for panel discussions and parallel sessions, which will take the form of workshops, on the various topics. Participation via Zoom is free of charge, but registration is required.

More info: https://www.cursor.tue.nl/en/news/2020/oktober/week-1/online-kickoff-consortium-for-secure-internet-of-things/

Quantum Technology

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 08:45:02 GMT

Quantum computing and encryption

Is Quantum Computing the next disruptive wave? Probably, possibly... Google compared their current activities to the Wright Brothers taking their first flight... it is only the first step.

Quantum computing makes use of principles of quantum physics that particles can be in 2 places at the same time... where conventional computer bits can be on or off, Quoits can be both the same time. Did I lose you already? Well, the result is that a Quantum computer can do very complex calculations very quickly. This will have a massive impact on security, as it can potentially crack current encryption methods easily.

But, as well as using Quantum technology to crack encryption, you could also use it for quantum-encryption. But, as with the Wright Brothers, the technology for their first flight was not capable to support mass-holiday-migration during the summer months, and the same goes for Quantum Computers. We still have little while to go.

However, it is surprising with technology how little changes in 2 years, and how different the world looks after 10.

How it works - Emergency lighting

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 12:39:24 GMT

Another How-it-Works: Emergency Lighting

Can your system monitor Emergency Lighting? What does it monitor? How does it work?

Emergency lighting is quite high on the agenda for many of our clients. Therefore we put together an overview of the norms, requirements, different testing and how Mymesh puts you in control of compliance. From testing, to monitoring and predictive maintenance.

This can help you make your buildings compliant, but more importantly keep the occupants safe.

Visit our How-it-Works page to find out more.

Cyber attack claims first death

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 07:26:26 GMT

First death claimed by cyber attack on hospital

Cyber criminals managed to disable computer systems at Düsseldorf University Hospital last week. Doctors were forced to transfer a patient to another hospital. However, the patient was in a critical condition and died during the 19 mile drive.

This would be the first known case of a life being lost as a result of a hack. Cyber attack threats are getting more and more serious with dozens of high profile cases so far this year.

This sad case emphasises the urgent need for secure systems in both the public and private sector. With buildings getting Smarter by connecting systems and devices, the need for a clear security strategy from the start is paramount.

Security needs to be guaranteed by design, not by bolting something on afterwards. A "Secure-by-Design" approach leaves no back-doors. In our view the only reliable technological foundation for a Smart building.

Source BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54204356

Healthcare and Cyber security

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 09:43:57 GMT

Funding boost to help healthcare suppliers improve cyber security

Funding boost to help healthcare suppliers improve cyber security. The move comes after the National Cyber Security Centre ( NCSC ) identified a heightened cyber threat to the UK health sector in relation to the pandemic.

Despite good progress in recent years, almost half of all businesses (46 per cent) suffered a cyber breach or attack in the last 12 months, with one in three per cent (32 per cent) experiencing them at least once a week, according to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020.

Back to the office

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 09:52:39 GMT

Back to school... back to the office?

Most schools are up and running again this week. Does it mean that we are all going back to the office as well?

At the moment a lot of people are still working from home, but continental Europe shows that there is a good chance that most people might be back in a few weeks . Working-from-home offers great benefits for both employer and employee, especially if your home setting is well suited (space, 'tools', quietness). However, the benefits of the office also should not be underestimated. Social interaction, learning, the accidental meeting at the coffee machine.

As with most things, it is probably about finding the right mix. And it is likely to have an impact on 'office-life'. The purpose of the office is changing, and at Chess we foresee that making your office Smart will help with this. A Smart office is more adaptable and will interact with the 'users'. Smart booking of office space and desks, asset tracking, indoor positioning and monitoring of the space can deliver a better employee environment while optimising the use and efficiency of the building.

Round Table DGBC

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:10:31 GMT

Mymesh Round Table Discussion - Dutch Green Building Society

Wim Hogenhout, sales manager at Chess, is joined by Jan Kadijk of the Dutch Green Building Council (DGBC), the organisation that drives the sustainability within for the built environment and BREEAM within the Netherlands.

In this conversation, we will be talking about their strong vision and the importance of sustainability. Also, Wim couldn't withstand the urge to ask Jan about his personal vision regarding Smart Buildings.

De DGBC op Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dutc...

Watch on Youtube, including English subtitles:

Emergency lighting monitoring

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 10:37:12 GMT

Monitoring of emergency lighting is vital

BBC News reports that The Market Village Company Limited, the operator of Aberdeen Market, has been fined £80,000 after admitting safety failures that led to the death of a pensioner at the site. A 80 year old resident was found at the bottom of a fire escape stairwell at the indoor market in June 2018. An investigation found the Market Village Company Ltd failed to maintain the lighting in the stairwell. The company pleaded guilty to a contravention of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005.

This sad case could have been prevented by a proper control & monitoring system like Mymesh.

The main driver for a lot of clients to implement the Mymesh wireless control system is monitoring emergency lighting to guarantee compliance with the norms. This is a trend we see across many different markets.

Furthermore, cost savings are being achieved by not having to manually perform and check the monthly Functional and yearly Duration Tests. And it also brings the opportunity to do preventive (or predictive) maintenance for the batteries, making the business case even more attractive.

By taking firm and smart action the company could have saved a fine, but more importantly a human life.

Fatal vulnerabilities in Thunderbolt

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 19:14:37 GMT

TU/e security researchers find fatal vulnerabilities in Thunderbolt

source: https://www.cursor.tue.nl/en/news/2020/mei/week-2/tue-security-researchers-find-fatal-vulnerabilities-in-thunderbolt/

A TU/e master student has found fatal flaws in the security of Thunderbolt, a popular technology to quickly transfer data to and from a computer. The research shows that a hacker can easily get around the protections put in place to prevent malicious attacks.

Access through Thunderbolt should be protected by cryptography, preventing all but the best-funded adversaries from getting unauthorized access. “However”, says master student Björn Ruytenberg (department of Mathematics and Computer Science), "to my surprise there was essentially nothing resembling modern cryptography. The little I found I could easily break or bypass."

Ruytenberg found seven vulnerabilities in Intel’s design and developed nine realistic scenarios (collectively known as Thunderspy ) for how these could be exploited by a malicious party. All the attacker needs is five minutes alone with the computer, a screwdriver, and some easily portable hardware. Once they are in, they can read and copy all data, even if the drive is encrypted and the computer is locked or set to sleep. Thunderspy is also stealthy: it leaves no traces of the attack.

The TU/e research team contacted Intel about the findings in February. The company has since confirmed the vulnerabilities.

So, wired connection might give a false sense of security. Proper encryption of both communication and hardware is essential to cyber-security, The robust approach is following the principle of ‘secure-by-design’; start with security, then build the system, and not the other way around...

Guys' and St. Thomas decides for Mymesh

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 19:01:17 GMT

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust goes Smart

Chess UK worked together with Guy's and St Thomas to define what a future Smart Hospital would mean. As we often say, it starts with the lighting, but it is not about the lighting. The Trust decided to roll-out Mymesh across their estates. As we are talking about 10,000's of light points, this will be a project that will run for the next few years.

We organised a successful 'private webinar' for the Trust to kick-start the deployment of Mymesh as the wireless control system across the organisation. These large deployments require a secure, scalable and robust system that is adaptive to not only control the lighting today, but to also support their Smart buildings in the future. For example: to roll-out indoor positioning, asset tracking and location based services.

Are you interested in a customised webinar for your organisation? Give us a shout!

Gravesham Council offices

admin@mymesh.co.uk (Richard Whitbread) — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:01:26 GMT

Upgrade of lighting across offices and car parks

About

Gravesham is a local government district in the north-west of Kent, England. The offices are based in Gravesend, a city on the bank of the river Thames. Gravesham was formed in 1974 as a result of a merger of other municipalities. Gravesend merged with Northfleet Urban District and part of Strood Rural District.

Challenge

The lighting in the parking garage of Gravesham was due for replacement. In this renovation project, the existing lighting has been replaced by new lighting. The new lighting also had to have a light control system.

Solution

It was decided to use Mymesh because it allowed them to easily implement light control with motion detection and remote monitoring for emergency lighting.

In case of an emergency, the present fire detection system triggers Mymesh to automatically set itself in calamity mode; To override all settings and increase light-output to 100%.

Benefits

The combination of the latest technology in LED lighting, combined with the wireless controls of Mymesh brought energy savings of more than 70%. But more importantly, all emergency lighting is monitored and the reporting on Function and Duration Test results make sure the council is compliant with the latest regulations.

Chess UK

Thu, 14 May 2020 14:17:16 GMT

Joining forces enables smart lighting market to accelerate

Following recent successes in delivering large scale, connected lighting projects across multiple verticals, 8point3LED and Lux-it have joined forces to launch a new company – Chess Wise Limited, known as Chess UK – a company dedicated to delivering Mymesh, a world-class, wireless technology for smart lighting solutions and beyond.

Under an exclusive distribution agreement from Chess Wise BV, the Dutch founders of Mymesh, combined with two years of developing new services together for the UK market, Chess UK is well placed to support clients seeking to embrace smart lighting and client looking to embrace smart building services.

Chess UK, brings together the capabilities of 8point3LED, known for securing large smart lighting projects such as Bluewater Shopping Centre, with 10,000 fixtures and Westfield (Stratford), with 4,500 fixtures; and Lux-it, known for supporting lighting OEMs with lighting technology and management consultancy to develop, evolve and

deliver strategies to embrace developing technologies such as wireless connectivity

Recently recognised at Lux 2019 and winning Emergency Product of the Year, defines the strength of the newly formed partnership and the underlying capabilities of Mymesh. Combined with recent project success with clients such as the NHS, Land Securities, URW and a number of Local Authorities, Chess UK has already enabled a number of both OEMs and Solution Providers to leverage the technical and commercial benefits of Mymesh.

Steve Williams, Chief Engineer, Bluewater Shopping Centre stated, ‘ We have already deployed over 4,500 connected light fittings in the last 12 months, with another 5,500  to be installed over the next 10 months. The benefits are already clear, such as improved insights leading to more energy savings and efficiencies from the cloud-based emergency light testing and reporting. With the scalability of the system means we can look to roll the solution across our wider estate .’

With a number of UK businesses already signed up as part of the Mymesh Certified Dealership network, Chess UK continues to support them on a range of programmes whilst assisting businesses who are seeking to embrace the possibilities that Mymesh can deliver as part of a smart building programme.

Warren Thornton, Contracts Director at GA Harpers, responsible for the turnkey of the project at Bluewater Shopping centre commented, ‘We embarked on the journey with Mymesh 18 months ago, resulting in us attending the Academy Training Day and becoming a Mymesh Certified Dealer. The deployment and commissioning of Mymesh systems is a core part of our business – it has proven to be simple to install, commission and support.’

As IoT continues to make a dramatic impact on the way buildings and even cities are managed and operated, the opportunity for wireless technology has never been greater and lighting is seen by many as the first building blocks.

Han Bak, CEO of Chess Wise BV, said ‘ The lighting industry is undergoing another transformational change – as it did with the introduction of LED – where wireless lighting control and importantly the data backhaul and subsequent insights for businesses, will see increasing demand for lighting manufacture agnostic solutions that are scalable, secure, resilient and importantly adaptive enabling new services for the future. We are excited about the UK market and Chess UK provides an excellent platform on which to recognise these business opportunities. ’

Bluewater Guildhall

Thu, 14 May 2020 12:56:29 GMT

Front of house in Bluewater

About

One of the UK’s biggest shopping centres has become one of the most intelligent shopping and leisure destinations in the world following the installation of a new state-of-the-art (lighting) control system.

Located in Stone, Kent, Bluewater is amongst the UK’s largest shopping centres with over 330 shops within 155,700m2 of space and over 13,000 parking spaces. After careful research, Mymesh was the protocol of choice to make the entire mall smart and adaptive.

Challenge

Bluewater wanted to create an atmosphere by 'paining' the ceiling with coloured light. For flexibility reasons this had to be controlled remotely.

Solution

In addition to the Bluewater parking, Mymesh was installed in the Bluewater Guildhall in to remotely control 145 RGBW lights, provided by ACDC lighting – part of the Zumtobel group. Before all lighting controllers where delivered, Chess successfully tested the DALI Type 8 fixtures with Mymesh controllers and remote control functionality.

The 145 fixtures were installed by G.A. Harper Ltd. and on the 22nd of November 2019, after all the nodes were commissioned, Chess remotely set all colours at the Bluewater Guildhall, right from our HQ in the Netherlands. A unique event concerning the amount of RGBW lights that were simultaneously controlled.

Benefits

For Valentines day, the colour was set to pink but any colour can be picked to create the right ambience.

"It was a joy to work with Bluewater on this project"

Louise, Chess UK

Bluewater Car park

Tue, 12 May 2020 12:59:06 GMT

Mymesh in Bluewater

Background

Challenge

The car parks in Bluewater are spread out around the shopping centre, with approx. 700 lights per floor and 3 floors per car park building, and several buildings per 'colour' code. Very large indeed. Not only did Bluewater want to monitor the emergency lighting, the lighting needed to be controlled based on presence detection with different set-points during the day, evening and a night. the The scale of the operation is significant, and to manage this scale in a robust way is a challenge with most control systems.

Solution

Bluewater has several state-of-the-art parkings to ensure a safe and comfortable experience for its visitors. Mymesh made every light smart, creating a robust and secure data-infrastructure to further develop products and features for the location. This allows the vicinity to operate completely autonomous and sensor-based. In order to stay sustainable during a 24h cycle, all lights are automatically dimmed back to 20% – based on motion detection, when the parking is not in use.

Benefits

Mymesh emergency does this all automatically, saving a lot of resources for the organisation whilst ensuring they stay compliant with the latest regulations. This application received a prestigious LuxAward for being the best emergency lighting product of 2019.

In an ongoing 3 year program, all 8,000 luminaires will be replaced by smart variants. The status at the end of 2019 – 3000 luminaires replaced.

"One of the implementations of this system is the automatic self-test of emergency lighting. In order to remain compliant, emergency lights need to be periodically tested. These tests need to then be logged.”

Ashley Bateup, Director of Chess UK

Gravesend Pier

Tue, 12 May 2020 12:59:06 GMT

Gravend Pier

Background

Gravesend is a beautiful ancient port city on the south bank of the River Thames, at the east side of London. As it is close to the diocese of Rochester, it was appointed as the centre of the Borough of Gravesham.

Due to its locations, Gravesend has had strong strategic importance throughout maritime and communication history. As it was a gateway to the rest of the UK through water, it houses the oldest cast-iron pier in the world.

Challenge

There are 20 lights on the pier at Gravesend. The lamps were due for replacement.

Solutions

Instead of having the lamps replaced, the existing lamps have been retrofitted. The existing fixtures have been retained and now have a new LED module. The LED module consists of general lighting and emergency lighting. The emergency lighting is equipped with Mymesh for remote monitoring via Lumitel AST.

Lumitel® AST is a cloud-connected, wireless Emergency automated self-test solution, negating the burden and overhead of manual inspection of emergency lighting. We are very proud to announce that Lumitel AST Powered by Mymesh won The Lux Award in the category for Emergency Lighting product of the year 2019.

Benefits

Better insights
Controlled lighting
Reduced energy consumption
Increase life-span of lighting installation
Adaptive lighting

"A beautiful landmark in the town, standing out even more with dynamic lighting control"

Richard Whitbread, Director, Chess UK

Danlers introduces Mymesh range

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:42:10 GMT

A range of PIR/lux sensors for every environment, directly on Mymesh

DANLERS Limited is a family owned UK company with a rich heritage of designing and manufacturing innovative, high quality, energy saving, electronic controls from their offices and factory in Chippenham, Wiltshire. The focus of the portfolio is around sensors for the lighting industry, like PIRs and lux sensors. They have a strong customer base with installers and lighting manufacturers.

To expand the ecosystem of Mymesh a co-operation was initiated between Danlers and Chess. This resulted in a portfolio of PIR presence and lux sensors that have the Mymesh technology on board. Just connect them to the mains power and they can join the Mymesh network in the building.

Danlers has a wide range of sensors for different environments, like office, industrial and external. Furthermore, the first environmental sensor, monitoring CO2/humidity/temperature, is already available and is popular with many clients that want to transform their building to a Smart environment. Have a glance at the full Danlers portfolio .

Next on the list is a range of switches that will be available soon.

LTS Architects London office

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 13:46:17 GMT

Mymesh for new LTS Architects London office

Background

Consultancy firm Hoare Lea was tasked to design the lighting for the new London office for LTS Architects in London, located on 66 Wentworth Street. The office is a modern design, with lots of exposed 'industrial' features (pipes, concrete, recycled 'plaster' board. It has two floors with open plan office areas, meeting rooms and communal areas including a kitchen.

Challenge

The lighting design approach is all about enhancing the space, reducing contrast and using RGB features to create pleasant background scenes. With concrete ceilings and exposed mechanics, the clutter has to be minimal.

Solution

For the lighting control the Mymesh system was selected. The wireless technology makes it very easy to install without complex wiring. The battery operated sensors and switches makes placement on concrete and exposed ceilings very easy. The lighting is operated based on PIR presence detection. To manage large contrast to the minimum for visual comfort, the light is kept at a comfortable background level during absence with RGB features giving coloured accents. Where natural light pours in, the lighting is dimmed with day light harvesting for the main areas. The meeting rooms have different scenes that can be selected by the users. The system is connected to the Cloud via an ethernet gateway.

Benefits

The thrilling element is the future developments; the site is a test-bed to develop a user-friendly LightSIM Controls App© by Hoare Lea, that allows the the user to design and pre-view scenes for different areas and upload them to the network with the push of a button. This can be tailored for various applications like offices, hospitals or retail applications.

Wireless LED lighting with Helvar Freedom

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 13:57:07 GMT

Wireless LED lighting with Helvar Freedom

Helvar’s Freedom luminaire components offer a completely new way to connect into wireless lighting. Helvar Freedom is a wireless lighting concept, where one LED driver works with several compatible wireless ecosystems. Helvar’s Freedom offers luminaire manufacturer’s the possibility to connect Helvar LED drivers to Mymesh by Chess.

More info: https://helvar.com/luminaire-components/wireless-led/

Marlborough Court Care Home

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 13:59:05 GMT

Lighting control and monitoring of all communal spaces

Background

The council that owns Marlborough Court is upgrading the lighting across all their 20+ care homes. The key driver behind this is bringing the emergency lighting to the next level of compliance. Both with the number of emergency fittings and the servicing. The monitoring (monthly functional and yearly duration test) is costly and a lot of work. Furthermore, the lighting is on 24/7, every day of the year. As most corridors are deserted most of the time, it is using up more energy than necessary.

Challenge

All the fittings in the communal areas (corridors, stairwells, storage rooms) and offices were upgraded to LED fittings. Due to the nature of this site more than 1 in 2 fittings is self-contained emergency. Together with the lighting manufacturer we designed a Mymesh lighting control system to control the lighting based on time triggers and presence detectors, and to monitor the emergency lighting.

Solution

Different light levels for day and night were specified. All corridors and rooms were equipped with battery-operated PIR presence detectors. The batteries have a 10+ year lifetime and save significantly on the installation cost as no mains- wiring is required. Furthermore, the installation was linked with the fire-alarm system; in case of an alarm all the lighting in the complete building will switch to 100%.

Benefits

The residents noted that the lighting is so much better and they love the interaction with actually being present. "Always wondered why all the lighting was on all day and all night. A waste of money" said a 90-year old resident. "This is so much better".

And the council is very pleased with the performance; both with the monitoring of the emergency lighting and the reduced energy consumption. "The upgrade of the lighting with the Mymesh control system delivers a 89% energy saving. This is the first of many to come" according to the council.

" Always wondered why all the lighting was on all day and all night. A waste of money. This is so much better "

90-year old resident, Marlborough Court

Winner LuxAwards 2019

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 13:53:13 GMT

Winner: Lumitel® AST Powered by Mymesh – Chess Wise

Lumitel®, powered by Mymesh, is a market first in delivering a secure and scalable wireless IoT platform designed to deliver end-to-end emergency lighting automated self test. Leveraging DALI standards and Mymesh, a self organising, wireless mesh backbone, Mymesh can connect up to 10,000 devices on any single network without any additional wiring or infrastructure, meaning that buildings of any size can be deployed without complicated planning, infrastructure or disruption. Every emergency light is mapped onto a digital twin of the building - showing the asset location, related contextual data and real time data on emergency status in accordance with BS-5266.

Green houses

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 13:01:55 GMT

Mymesh for greenhouses

After completing several trial installations, Chess now installed the first large(r) scale wireless Mymesh lighting control system for a greenhouse: a 1,000 m², with a few more to go in the next few weeks.

The pay-back of lighting controls in greenhouses is still a complex topic. Because of a very low energy price (the growers have their own powerplant), the energy saving is in terms of money is minor. Furthermore, the CO2 produced is required to grow the plants.

So, what is driving the growers to adopt lighting controls is yield improvement. Together with researchers from the university the relation of managing lighting (light levels and colours) on the growth of the plants throughout the life-cycle.

City of Stadskanaal

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 14:24:53 GMT

How Stadskanaal became the darkest Dutch city

Background

Europe counts over 91 million street lights. These lights make up for the biggest Government expenditure on energy consumption with a European estimate of over over 10 billion euros a year. With smart lighting, a safe, comfortable and sustainable environment is possible while becoming very efficient.

By dimming the public lighting based on actual demand, our public lighting networks can save up to 60% energy. The smart infrastructure also reduces maintenance costs of up to 30%. Smart cities are the future which we create today.

Challenge

Stadskanaal is a city and municipality in Groningen, a province in the North-Eastern part of the Netherlands. When the municipality decided to replace all street lighting for new energy-efficient LED they chose to include smart light control. This enabled the service provider to remotely monitor all individual lights and maintain them accordingly.

Solution

Chess and Luminext joined forces to create a Scalable, Robust and Secure Smart-City infrastructure and dashboard. Chess provided the hardware where Luminext delivered the software to manage the whole network via their specialised dashboard; Luminizer .

Benefits

A total of 5000 street lights were wirelessly connected in a network area of 100 square. kilometre. -the biggest Mymesh network by surface. The remote control works via a special dimming scheme editor on the Lumizer platform to adjust the city-wide light levels.

Better insights
Controlled lighting
Reduced energy consumption
Increase life-span of lighting installation
Adaptive lighting

Chemelot

Wed, 15 May 2019 10:36:57 GMT

A challenging environment for wireless controls

Background

Within chemistry, there are continual developments. Chemicals are improved, the production is different and more sustainable, waste chemicals are reused, processes get greened. These are all ingredients for renewal, sustainability, progress, and change. This, of course, also counts for Chemelot.

Chemelot is more than just an industrial park. It is a unique chemical and materials community that ensures accelerated business growth through the open exchange of ideas. Chemelot has been planned around one central idea: to bring together the knowledge and skills normally found only in major organizations, and to apply these within a flexible community of small and large chemical businesses, radically changing the view of the chemical industry.

Challenge

In this industry, it is fairly normal that lights burn 24 hours a day due to safety and security. The downside of this modus operandi is that costs on maintenance and energy consumption are high. Chemelot wanted a sustainable improvement and decided to turn every light into a smart light hence making the industrial site smart.

Solution

Chess’ partner Luminext provided Luminizer, their management system for outdoor light management, to control and manage the plant. Underneath the surface, Mymesh hardware was used to connect every light and to deliver the right data to Luminzer.

Benefits

Chemelot will enjoy 15 years of a sustainable lighting installation that works efficiently and properly. Thanks to Luminizer and Mymesh, all the smart ATEX-certified lights automatically adjust to the environment’s amount of light, saving Chemelot a lot on energy consumption and maintenance for the next 15 years.

Better insights
Controlled lighting
Reduced energy consumption
Increase life-span of lighting installation
Adaptive lighting

60 Acts of kindness

admin@mymesh.co.uk (Richard Whitbread) — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 08:26:56 GMT

Good acts and brilliant cooperation: new lights to Bournemouth’s MS Centre

In cooperation with ENSTO , Timeless BS Ltd and 8point3 LED Ltd , Chess donated a new lighting solution to Bournemouth’s Multiple Sclerosis Centre. The good act not only created a better serving and a more versatile space but also brought savings in the future electricity bills. Ensto UK’s organized good act was a concrete example of how electricity can help us in everyday situations and make our lives better.

Multiple sclerosis, or MS-disease, is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system, limiting mobility and performance. The Bournemouth MS Centre provides a social environment for sufferers to meet and receive treatment for the condition whilst taking part in organized activities. The subject is close to the hearts of some of Ensto's employees, as they are close to MS sufferers.

The main hall’s inefficient and energy-hungry lights had to go early this December, as Ensto installed 15 new DL6X6 Dali LED Flat Panel fittings in the main hall. The work completed with a wireless lighting control system from Chess Wise via 8point3 LED Ltd and the all-new QiNKT Twin Cable connector system. The installation of the fittings was completed by our partnering contractor Timeless BS Ltd who also ensured the wiring was up to the latest regulations as the building is quite old.

The hall is a true multi-purpose space, used for eating, bingo, handicraft, movie-nights and parties. Having a dimmable system will allow the lighting levels to be set to meet each and every event in a more appropriate manner. The clients of the MS Centre were awestruck by the speed of the installation and the change the new lights brought – it seems like a totally new place!

The centre is self-funding and only receives income from its members, fundraising events and charitable donations. With Ensto’s and its partners' donation, the Bournemouth MS Centre got a new lighting solution and a smaller electricity bill in the future.

“We were blown away by the support of the companies involved,” says Anne Cheek, a frequent visitor of Bournemouth’s MS Centre, putting into words the feelings of the whole community.

”There is a marked difference in the lighting and we look forward to the efficacies reducing our energy consumption over the coming months and years. I would like to thank Ensto UK Ltd, Timeless BS Ltd and 8point3 LED Ltd for their kind act supporting our charity,” continues Rod Slip, the Chairman of Bournemouth MS Centre.