To demonstrate to our customers how quickly and simply Location Based Services can be realised, we implemented the entire range at our TRILUX Light Campus in Amersfoort.

Be it in logistics for monitoring commodity flows or in marketing for location-based offers: Location Based Services provide enormous potential for innovation and growth. With TRILUX, companies can utilise the opportunities offered by Location Based Services in a quick and simple way. And all that with minimum effort and entirely without risk. Our networked IoT luminaires form a high-performance infrastructure to which customised Location Based Services can be added. This means maximum flexibility and future-safety for our customers.

Power supply and interface – lighting as an infrastructure

The principle of Location Based Services is quite simple: A permanently installed beacon continuously emits a Bluetooth signal in the low-energy range. Mobile end devices such as smartphones can calculate the receiver’s position based on said signal and trigger various application and target group specific actions in an app on this basis, e.g. location-based special offers or tourist information. Our lighting network represents the solution to a common problem in implementation: it provides the necessary power for operating the beacons. In addition, the luminaires provide a standardised IoT interface, e.g. for beacons, Bluetooth controllers or other IoT devices. In short: With our networked IoT luminaires, Location Based Services can be implemented without complicated and expensive interventions in building fabrics.

Indoor Navigation – Finding everything indoors

One classic Location Based Service is indoor positioning & navigation. In closed buildings, the GPS signal is often so weak that it cannot be used for navigation. Indoor navigation provides a solution to that. In the navigation app, a digital building floor plan is stored which marks the exact positions of all beacons. Each beacon emits a unique digital fingerprint. Once a user enters the emission range of a beacon, the app on the user’s smartphone recognises the beacon which emits the signal. By means of triangulation – in which the signal strengths of several beacons are considered for exact positioning – the location can be determined precisely within a 2-meter range. Via the floor plan, the app can now navigate the user to any destination within the navigation area. TRILUX in Amersfoort takes this one step further: Once employees share their location in the TRILUX app, colleagues can find them anywhere in the building via indoor navigation.

Amersfoort – a location which sets the standards

Besides indoor navigation, proximity marketing, asset tracking and data visualisation aka heat mapping were also implemented in Amersfoort. The implementation of the beacon technology, including planning, only took 2 weeks. A total of 50 beacons and 5 beacon controllers were integrated into the lighting – and the “World of TRILUX” app was enhanced with the corresponding features. And Amersfoort is only the beginning. Further projects are currently being planned and implemented at other locations.