Managing Different Types of Streetlights Just Got Easier
By Keith Chinchar
General Manager, Smart Street Lighting
Working with some of the top streetlight managers in the US, I’ve learned how challenging it can be to manage diverse types of streetlights across a city or campus. With disparate functions, locations, and equipment needs, lighting requirements, a citywide network of luminaires has never been easy to control until now. I kept hearing things like, “I like the controls, I like the diagnostics, and I wish I could have this all on decorative lights.”
The release of the UbiCell® UGU will change the way you manage your lighting network. This revolutionary solution packs all the performance and intelligence of UbiCell into a compact, universal device designed to fit any streetlight fixture.
You can now manage an entire network of both cobra head and decorative streetlights on a singular platform, from a singular dashboard that offers not just static data points, but highly accurate remote diagnostics and actionable analytics.
The Challenge of Traditional Streetlights
Streetlights of any kind are incomplete without controls. Overprovisioned to accommodate for a loss of lumens later in life, LEDs need to be dimmed to create consistent output. Fine tuning lights to the right level for the right time and setting is essential to protecting dark skies and driver visibility.
Relying on citizens or patrolling trucks to spot outages is inefficient, expensive, and leads to excessive lighting downtime. Diagnostic capabilities give cities an alternative that improves response times and lighting reliability.
The inefficiencies of unmanaged lighting translate into millions of dollars wasted on energy and maintenance costs that could be better allocated to other essential services. That’s why a Lighting Management System (LMS) is essential.
Where Lighting Management Systems Fall Short
Some basic LMS solutions offer scheduling, dimming, and power outage features but lack the more robust diagnostic capabilities that Ubicquia has brought to the market. Being able to get to the root cause of lighting issues requires a deeper set of capabilities than what typical lighting control manufacturers provide.
We are unique in that we monitor voltage sag and swell on both the line and load side. By separating the control from the driver, the Ubicquia platform investigates different potential issues and pinpoints the source of the problem to help you more quickly and efficiently resolve flickering lights, day burners, and outages.
Say a streetlight pole falls over. With a standard LMS, you receive a power outage notification. Ubicquia is the only provider on the market with last gasp notifications that enable a streetlight to function electronically for 10-40 seconds after power loss. These seconds are critical as they allow the system to process any last alarms and alerts, like a tilt. With the UbiCell’s last gasp notification, you now know not only that the power went out, but that the poll also fell. When directing crews to repair the pole, this information is critical and ultimately reduces the number of truck rolls necessary to get a light back up and functioning.
Another drawback to most LMS providers is the inability to support decorative fixtures. Decorative light fixtures are common in urban areas, neighborhoods, and on higher education campuses. However, most lighting controls on the market today still do not cater to these fixtures’ unique control requirements.
A Revolutionary Solution: The UbiCell UGU
With over 600,000 lighting controls installed across North and Latin America, we have developed a deep understanding of what is needed to achieve the next level of efficiency, cost reduction, and reliability.
This knowledge has been distilled into our latest product, the UbiCell UGU. What makes the UGU uniquely capable of solving the most pressing lighting challenges you face today?
- Utility-Grade Precision is critical to identifying and proactively resolving power issues.
- Deeper Diagnostic Capabilities give you the power to remotely pinpoint problems and resolve them with a single truck roll to maximize uptime and minimize cost.
- A Compact, Universal Design to fit all streetlight types, sizes, configurations and voltages, simplifying inventory management and reducing deployment costs.
- Performance at Scale lets you know you can trust us. Ubicquia has proven to deliver the same lighting quality to some of the largest and most demanding outdoor lighting projects in North America.
The UbiCell UGU represents the most powerful streetlight controller of its size. By offering the same utility-grade precision and diagnostic capabilities as UbiCell in a universally-compatible design, the UbiCell UGU is set to revolutionize the way cities manage their streetlighting.
Keith Chinchar, General Manager, Smart Street Lighting, Ubicquia
As General Manager of Ubicquia’s Smart Streetlighting business, Keith Chinchar is responsible for its solution development, go-to-market strategy and profit and loss. He comes to Ubicquia with over 25 years of experience in engineering, business development, sales, operations, and marketing for IoT devices, control systems, and smart city applications. Keith has overseen hundreds of outdoor lighting projects including some of the largest and most complex in the country. His previous positions include business development at CIMCON, electrical engineering of EV design at Tesla, business development at Encelium, along with various solution engineering roles at Lutron.
