It could be hard to pin down the exact origins of the smart home industry, but a strong case could be made the market’s beginnings trace back to 1959 when Lutron introduced lighting dimmers.
Joel Spira, co-founder of Lutron, told CE Pro back in 2010 that after several months of trial-and-error experimenting he eventually figured out a circuit design that would go on to revolutionize the way people illuminate home spaces.
“I put it into the circuit and ‘bang,’ it died. I was a little vexed by this, so I didn’t do anything for the whole day trying to figure out what I did wrong,” recalled Spira to CE Pro.
“So, the next day I tried it again and after an hour it died. There were six solid months during which every day I burned out a $300 transistor. But I only burned out one a day because we couldn’t afford any more.”
Spira’s tenacity would go on to ignite what is today the growing smart home industry and looking back at those early days of lighting dimmers Ed Blair, president of Lutron Electronics, states that Lutron’s co-founder, knew he was on to something that was impactful, but he likely wouldn’t have guessed just how important his invention would become.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
“If we went back and asked and asked Joel Spira, he probably couldn’t have envisioned what lighting control would be become,” suggests Blair. “He did have a hunch of what lighting dimmers would become. It was a new concept and the emotion the product created provided an indication of he was on to something.”
According to Blair, Lutron’s development of whole-house lighting control systems dates back to the 1980s. By 1990 the company introduced its NeTwork whole-home lighting control system and a few years later in 1993 the company launched its Serena motorized shading system, and its more advanced GRAFIK Eye solution, which became a popular means to control lighting in environments such as home theaters.
Later, as the 1990s were winding down, Lutron announced its two-way, RF-based RadioRA whole-house lighting control system 1997.
“That learning and being a pioneer of the smart home is something we’ve carried over this 30-year period,” says Blair.
“The other carry over from the standalone dimmer was quality. When we developed the radio products we needed supreme reliability with the wireless connectivity. There were some powerline products, but they weren’t reliable product. Even when we were operating Clear Connect an RF protocol, was inherence to FCC specification and that is how we were able to ensure wireless communication.”
Nowadays, if someone were to poke around the Lutron facilities, they may find older lighting dimmers that utilize the original designs of that early product. He goes on say however, that like everything else driven by modern technologies, dimmers have evolved to keep up with the latest market demands.
“Over the years the products have evolved. How do you dim a fluorescent light, or a compact fluorescent back in the early 2000s. The development of these lighting products has caused an evolution,” notes Blair.
“The original dimmer had around 20 components, and today lighting dimmers probably have over 100 components and they include a microprocessor with software which was never required with the original products. The Caseta line would probably have more than or closer to 200 components, the Diva is the starting point and that has around 100 components, and it is the number one dimmer in the world.”
Taking what it has learned from the evolution of its lighting dimmers, Lutron’s president explains the company learned a couple of key points that fosters its product development. Blair explains that over the years the company learned how products could impact the environments were living in, and Lutron learned how it can enhance those environments to make those home environments more comfortable for occupants.
This was exemplified in a move that foreshadowed arguably the biggest trend in the smart home industry over the past several years when Lutron in 2018 acquired the advanced lighting fixture company Ketra.
At the time Blair commented, “Clearly, making light sources is very new for Lutron. It is going to make a big difference for our dealers.” Today, looking back on the acquisition of Ketra, Blair stresses that owning the Ketra brand enables the company to have complete autonomy over the home environment.
“I think, the acquisition of Ketra, and the evolution of technology six years ago, was a necessary element of Lutron being able to control the visual environment to produce elegant and pleasant lighting environments,” he asserts.
“We’ve gone far with automated shading we had the ability to bring natural lighting into the home and take it out. So, for us to truly control and create the complete environment we needed to control and create magical spaces we needed to control the entire lighting proposition.”
Addressing the current smart home market, where lighting dimmers and lighting control fit into the landscape, Blair says the market is still in its early phase of development. Stepping back to take a big-picture perspective of the smart home industry and lighting specifically, he emphasizes the opportunities for integrators to grow their revenues through lighting will continue to increase over time.
With lighting dimmers as the starting point, modern smart home system sales that include lighting control and lighting fixtures could potentially increase over the next several years. Blair contends lighting systems’ smart home penetration is still at a low level.
He says that while Lutron doesn’t subscribe to specific benefits derived from interior lighting such as the option of offering circadian lighting, the total overall benefit these solutions provide simply equate to delivering the ability to create more comfortable home environments.
“We see this [lighting control] as a huge opportunity for the entire industry. As I mentioned, while they are successful, they are relatively low in adoption, including luxury homes. The category of lighting control continues to broaden—today we sell a lot of sensors for occupancy—and we sell other intelligent solutions,” adds Blair.
“We try to make sure we have everything for the ultra-luxury to mid-mass market. In the shading category we are looking to provide everything from Palladium to Triathlon Select that offers a limited number of fabrics. We are helping dealers and consumers to get started into these new categories. One of the biggest impediments for integrators is the fear of starting. Once an integrator does his first job with RadioRA or shades, they tend to do more products.”
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