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The organization that oversees Bluetooth wireless communication protocols at long last issued a standard today that extends Bluetooth's physical range, a move that could help open commercial and industrial market opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT) lighting.
After at least two years of internal wrangling and difficult technology choices, the Kirkland, WA-based Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) ratified a means to mesh together Bluetooth beacons, allowing them to hand off instructions to each other. The move effectively boosts Bluetooth's reach far beyond the 30 ft that is typical for the Bluetooth that consumers commonly use to share things like audio files among smartphone, computers, tables, TVs, and other devices.
“We just completed a several-year effort of completing a set of specifications that define a standardized approach for creating true industrial-grade mesh networking solutions using Bluetooth technology,” Bluetooth SIG vice president of marketing Ken Kolderup said in a phone interview with LEDs Magazine. “Now there's a standard way that defines how mesh networking gets done on Bluetooth, so that all the vendors can now create interoperable solutions.”
The mesh standard applies across all possible commercial, industrial, and residential information technology uses. The lighting industry is one group in particular that is welcoming the move. As LEDs has been reporting for some time, mesh could help buoy IoT lighting, making it more likely that smart lights can cover large areas of retail stores, warehouse, commercial offices, and other locations. Smart lights can engage shoppers on retail floors, can track assets and inventory in shops and warehouses, can adjust building management systems or readjust their own light settings, can advise facility managers on how to reassign space, and support many other data-oriented processes.
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