ABB and Zumtobel advance smart buildings

  • October 9, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson
Lighting plant at the Zumtobel Group headquarters in Dornbirn, Austria.

ABB has partnered Austrian professional lighting firm Zumtobel to advance smart building and industrial applications.

The collaboration is set to create added value for commercial, industrial and institutional sectors by offering integrated, smart options for sustainable buildings.

The collaboration will leverage both companies’ expertise in lighting, building automation and electrification. It will focus on integrating Zumtobel’s lighting management systems with ABB’s building automation. The combined expertise is expected to create more efficient, sustainable and user-friendly smart building environments.

The two companies will help accelerate the adoption of sensor-based lighting that enables businesses to optimise energy efficiency and increase occupant comfort and the effectiveness of HVAC control.

Both companies aim to drive innovations based on the developments in using DC technology in full-scale industrial applications. The use of DC technology is intended to support a resource-saving society by delivering several benefits for a modern industrial power grid: efficient integration of renewable energy, lower resource consumption, reduced feed-in power, stable grids and an open system for users. Both companies are active members of the Open Direct Current Alliance (ODCA, at odca.zvei.org).

“Our partnership approach enables us to better address innovation, standardisation and sustainability and continue to pioneer new technologies,” said Lucy Han, executive vice president at ABB. “Standardisation, through KNX, Matter and Thread, is particularly important in assuring ease of use for customers because, alongside the rapid growth of the sector, we must drive simplicity. Technologies in commercial buildings need to talk to each other and, by combining our strengths with partners like Zumtobel, we can offer customers more comprehensive innovations for smart buildings and industrial applications.”

Key aspects of the partnership include the joint development of integrated smart buildings, especially around Zumtobel’s Litecom lighting system (www.zumtobel.com/com-en/products/litecom.html) and continuous-row Tecton DC luminaire (www.zumtobel.com/com-en/products/tecton.html) and ABB’s DC protection devices as well as its ABB I-Bus KNX system (new.abb.com/low-voltage/products/building-automation/product-range/abb-i-bus-knx).

“Collaborating with ABB allows us to expand our building management offering around sensor-based lighting, especially in Dali and KNX applications,” said Oliver Vogler, senior vice president at Zumtobel. “Together, we can drive innovation in the rapidly evolving fields of smart buildings and smart energy.”

The companies will also explore cooperation opportunities in prefabricated buildings and emerging technology standards such as the cross-manufacturer connection standard Matter and the network protocol Thread.

Building on over 140 years of experience, Sweden-based ABB (www.abb.com) has more than 105,000 employees. ABB Electrification (go.abb/electrification) has more than 50,000 employees across 100 countries. Zumtobel (z.lighting) is based in Dornbirn in the Vorarlberg region of Austria.