Lutron Offers New Commercial Building Wireless Lighting Controls

James R. Dukart

Lighting controls manufacturer Lutron Electronics has debuted a new wireless lighting controls system called Vive — aimed squarely at the nation’s commercial and educa-tional office space.

Vive, Lutron says, includes a family of simple and scalable solutions, ranging from sim-ple area switching and occupancy sensing to individual wireless control on each fixture, connected via wireless hub for central control and monitoring.

A key feature of Vive is its app-based software interoperability, designed to run on any smartphone, tablet or PC. The company claims Vive can be installed and operating up to 70 percent faster than wired systems, with minimal disruption to building occupants.

The system’s software also reduces maintenance time, by automatically locating the nearest sensors and controls on any device. Thus, energy management staff can monitor remotely from a centralized location — say, for instance, a facilities management office or building on a college campus — or take their smart phone or tablet into a specific building, office or classroom to adjust, troubleshoot or monitor controls in that particular space.

Vive sensors are designed to work with existing lamps, meaning retrofits can sometimes be done simply by installing the software and sensors, without the need for ladders, lifts and contractors to re-wire or install new fixtures. A further advantage is that Vive allows for on-the-fly lighting controls changes called for by building churn or space re-use such as a former office space becoming retail floorspace, with different lighting needs.

Vive became available for spec early in 2016 and will begin shipping in October 2016.