Lighting Cluster ‘Luce in illaieneto’ connects lighting professionals to the building industry and to city administrators

Lighting Cluster ‘Luce in Veneto’ organized two dissemination and networking events: on May 19 for a group of 150 attenders (lighting companies, lighting professionals, architects and municipality administrators) in the Villa Marcello in Levada di Piombino Dese; and on May 20 for a group of 100 attenders (lighting professionals, architects and city administrators) in the Museo Civico of Bassano del Grappa—both in the Venice region.

Both events comprised of a series of presentations and ample opportunities for informal networking and matchmaking. The goal of both events was to share key findings from the SSL-erate project with professionals of the lighting, the building industry and city administrators—and to create and strengthen collaboration between these domains.

The meeting on May 19 in Villa Marcello focused on collaboration between the lighting industry and the building industry. Andrea Voltolina, President of Luce in Veneto, and Alfonso Mayer, President of the Federation of Architects of Venice  welcomed the participants. Next, Alberto Sozza, Vice-president of Luce in Veneto, presented the new Regional Innovation Cluster ‘Venetian Smart Lighting’. After that followed a series of presentations. Pramod Bhusal, of Aalto University (Finland), an SSL-erate project partner, talked about the non-visual effects of light, e.g., the influence of blue and yellow light on people’s sleep-wake cycles, and their mood and emotions. Next, Peter Bracke, of the Light&Lighting Laboratory of KU Leuven (Belgium), also an SSL-erate project partner, gave a presentation on colour rendition and a new metric for colour rendition that can be used for diverse light sources and applications. Finally, Roberto Corradini, an independent lighting designer, shared his vision on promoting collaboration between lighting designers and people in the building industry.

In the evening, there was a Guerrilla Lighting event, which involved groups of people walking around outside in the dusk, carrying high-tech torches, and pointing bright beams of coloured light at various details of the beautiful architecture of the Villa Marcello. After that followed a dinner, during which the Venetian Smart Lighting Awards were granted to companies for classical design, for modern design, for special use, for domotica and for innovation.

The next morning, Giovanni Cunico, Innovation Councilor of the Municipality of Bassano del Grappa, and Alberto Sozza, of Luce in Veneto, welcomed the participants to the Museo Civico of Bassano. This meeting, on May 20, focused on the perspective of cities and applications of innovative lighting. Nikita Junagade, of LUCI Association, a network of 70 cities, both large and small, and 40 associated members (companies, lighting designers and architects, universities, etc.), gave a presentation on Smart Lighting for Smart Cities. Nikita presented examples from Glasgow, Seoul, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Lyon, and practical recommendations for city administrators, based on these cities’ experiences. Next, Alberto Corò, of Padova Municipality, discussed Padova’s ambitions to be a Smart City, a Connected City. Alberto gave practical examples of integrating various services of the city, regarding lighting, traffic and safety, by using state-of-the-art, intelligent sensor networks. The overall goals are to promote sustainability, to safe energy and to optimize the city’s services for its citizens. Then followed a presentation by Marc Fontoynont, of Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark, about cost models and innovation in lighting applications. Marc talked about reducing costs, e.g., over the entire life-span of a LED light source, and improving energy efficiency, e.g., by combing LED lighting with photovoltaic systems, and the associated business opportunities. Marc also represented Cluster Lumière, one of the partners in the SSL:-erate project.

There were also presentations by companies involved in the Business Development Experiments, facilitated by ‘Luce in Veneto’, as part of the SSL-erate project. These are examples of successful Open Innovation, in which companies and customers and knowledge institutes collaborate during product and business development. Sergio Macchioni, of Hikari srl, and Luca Bellotto, of Heliv Group srl, talked about Lighting Surface, which they developed in collaboration with Metalco Spa and with the Bassano Municipality, as a launching customer. Lighting Surface is a new technology that uses a transparent, nano-tech varnish to create innovative lighting and signaling on transparent glass or plastic surfaces, e.g., for bus stops (see case study). Additionally, Cipriano Padovan, of Fairwind srl, and Loriano Scattolin, of Arte Light srl, talked about the Hygienizing Lamp, which they jointly developed, also in collaboration with the University of Padua. The Hygienizing Lamp uses UV-LEDs or UV-fluo to sanitize the air, thus preventing airborne diseases, e.g., in waiting rooms of hospitals or dental clinics; the Hygienizing Lamp produces healthy light and healthy air.

Before lunch, the people from these companies participated in a discussion on success factors for ‘Open Innovation’, and lessons learnt from their projects (more on Open Innovation). After lunch, they participated in a workshop led by Wim Vanhaverbeke, of Hassalt University, Belgium, and Marc Steen, of TNO, The Netherlands, to discuss the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’. This strategy helps companies to create new business opportunities by focusing on customers’ (latent) needs, and thus creating new markets—instead of competing in markets that are already crowded by competitors (a ‘Red Ocean’). A Blue Ocean Strategy can be especially valuable for companies in the lighting industry, which is highly competitive, e.g., with diminishing margins. A ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ can be combined with an ‘Open Innovation’ approach, to promote collaboration between companies in new business development.