Schréder joins LoRa Alliance to help drive Smart City Deployments

Schréder, the leading independent outdoor lighting manufacturer in the world, has joined the LoRa Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation committed to the LoRaWAN protocol - the leading open global standard for secure, carrier-grade Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity.

The ubiquity of street lighting in cities makes it a natural partner to smart city connectivity. This announcement demonstrates Schréder’s commitment to the LoRa Alliance open standard for the connectivity of street lighting to other IoT devices - facilitating smart city development. Schréder created the Shuffle, the first IoT-connected lighting column on the market to incorporate wireless connectivity, electric vehicle charging, public address systems and CCTV, as well as LED lighting.

Schréder joins more than 500 companies, including IBM, Cisco, HP, Foxconn, Semtech and Sagemcom as members of the LoRa Alliance. The LoRa Alliance is committed to facilitating connectivity via the LoRaWAN standard of wireless communications to enable large scale IoT projects to be deployed.

Nicolas Keutgen, chief innovation officer at Schréder, comments: “As the one constant within the urban environment, lighting networks have a critical role to play in developing the smart city of the future. Schréder supports towns and cities to establish open, interoperable platforms by providing easy-to-integrate infrastructure that not only brings operational benefits but also improves the quality of life for citizens. Joining the LoRa Alliance ensures that our lighting products can be effectively connected to other IoT applications. LoRaWAN networks will be crucial to the effective roll out of these applications across many of the world’s major cities and as a member, we will continue to pioneer connected solutions to benefit this developing industry.”

IoT applications are already being deployed to further reduce the carbon footprint of LED lighting solutions; including dimming of lighting during quiet periods and using Passive Infra-red (PIR) sensors to adjust lighting to suit the changing circumstances of the surrounding environment. Future deployments will include congestion management, priority for emergency services, smarter crowd control and reducing air pollution.