Commissioning costs drive shift to fixture-level lighting control

According to a recent report from IHS Technology, increasing emphasis on reducing commissioning costs associated with lighting is promoting the use of more distributed lighting control architectures with fixture-level control. Traditional control panels that apply dimming and switching to an entire zone or series of fixtures are more common and less costly, but fixture-level control simplifies commissioning the lighting system on installation and re-commissioning a space in the future. The disadvantages of fixture-level control are mainly related to its additional cost and technical requirements, and adding fixture-level control will often add to wiring, equipment and installation time. Some new options on the market have overcome the additional wiring and installation costs, by adding wireless controls to each fixture; however, there is a price premium for adding wireless controls to the fixture itself.