Individual and secure campus lighting

Royal Holloway is a college of the University of London in Egham, about 20 miles from the center of London. The college has three faculties, 18 academic departments and around 9,000 students from more than 100 countries. Since March 2018 the excellent academic reputation of the college has been complemented by a brilliant innovative motion-controlled outdoor campus lighting system. City-Light Plus LED streetlights from Siteco and Tvilight CitySense Plus sensors together provide greater safety, greater security and optimum energy efficiency – entirely wireless with no complex and costly data cabling between the individual lights.

Students, lecturers and college staff are often on campus at Royal Holloway until late into the evening. One of the defining features of the extensive park-like site with its lecture halls, canteen and student accommodation is its tree-lined paths. Bright and reliable outdoor lighting ensures optimum illumination of these paths and therefore the necessary levels of safety and security. Innovative City-Light Plus LED luminaires from Siteco have been installed in almost all areas of the campus. The first luminaires to be fitted with CitySense Plus sensors were the ones in the park, along the road and along the footpaths in front of the main buildings. Equipping the luminaires with Tvilight CitySense Plus motion sensors was a quick and simple way to provide an efficient demand-led lighting control solution. The motion sensors help the college reduce its energy requirements in off-peak times. A positive side-effect is that the low light levels reduce light pollution, which is beneficial for nature.

The central Tvilight gateway controls up to 200 light points. Tvilight lighting control is set so that the LED luminaires are switched on at twilight at 10 percent light output. When movement and presence are detected the lighting is faded up to between 50 percent and 100 percent depending on the location. The two adjacent luminaires are also automatically faded up. If no new movement is detected the light output of these luminaires is returned to the predefined minimum level after a hold time of 30 seconds. Luminaire control using data cables to be laid at the campus would have been extremely complex and costly. Wireless lighting control is therefore the ideal solution, particularly for renovating old installations. What’s more, all the luminaires are linked in a mesh network thanks to the Tvilight lighting control system, which means that all the light points communicate not only with the gateway but also notify their neighboring luminaires whenever they detect movement. The motion sensor can therefore immediately switch on other luminaires in the wireless network. This system architecture enables the lights to be activated much faster than is the case with other wireless systems in which communication among the light points always has to go through a gateway.

The entire lighting system is configured and managed via Tvilight CityManager software. The motion sensors, the dimming profiles of the luminaires (e.g. dimming level and dimming duration) and the way in which individual luminaires respond to the motion sensors are all defined in the software. Users can adjust all the settings via this web application and maintain an overview on a smartphone, tablet or PC. The reliable CitySense Plus sensor has been developed for tough outdoor applications and for demand-led adaptive lighting. It adapts the brightness of the luminaires to the presence of pedestrians, cyclists or vehicles in a freely definable response profile, and reliably filters out interference from small animals, swaying tree branches and the like. The partnership between Siteco and Tvilight provides the basis for energy-saving park and street lighting with smart connected light. The combination of adaptive lighting solutions, sensors and wireless network technology enables installations to be demand-based, energy-efficient and low-maintenance.