Xicato and Legrand Smart Controls Collaboration at Kreon’s Tech-Forward Headquarters

Xicato, Legrand and Kreon combined their expertise to design a highly flexible, energy efficient smart building with the ability to create personalized spaces for their employees. Freed from traditional rigid wired and centralized controls systems, the Xicato Bluetooth Mesh controls system including Xicato’s intelligent drivers afforded the flexibility needed for Legrand’s Vantage system to create an environment for employees that delivered customized spaces with the utmost ease of use. Located in Belgium and exhibiting the finest in light fixtures, Kreon’s headquarters and showroom elicit the ultimate in design and personal comfort.

“We knew what we wanted but couldn’t have gotten there without the open nature of Xicato’s API. Now we have a combination of products that work best for Kreon, all working together wirelessly, yet another compliment to the beautiful design.”

- Bart Stuyven, VP Development and Science, Legrand

The Challenge and Solution

Kreon and Legrand’s Vantage team have worked together before so they were up to the challenge of finding a technical solution that could deliver upon the project specifications. Kreon saw light control as a key requirement for their new headquarters and showroom. The light control system had to offer their employees the ability to personalize their environments as well as provide flexibility and reliability at the same time for the showroom to quickly adapt to new configurations. The customization and adaptability requirements brought them to Xicato, well-known for their quality solutions in both lighting and advanced controls. Leveraging Xicato’s gateway (XIG) with open API and Bluetooth mesh wireless controls, Legrand developed a software driver to pass commands to Xicato’s XIM smart light modules and smart drivers (XID) and allow light management through touch screen control from Legrand Equinox displays within each office. The Xicato gateway communicates the commands to the Xicato XIMs, a smart light module with outstanding light quality, and XIDs, wirelessly thru Bluetooth mesh, to drive various light sources from both Xicato and 3rd party vendors per individual luminaire requirements.

Xicato’s Bluetooth mesh scalability also meant there was no practical limit to meet the requirements of the installation now or in future should the need for reconfiguration and expansion arise. With a combination of sensors to detect light and movement, set schedules and personal choices, employees can now choose various light levels, music volumes, temperatures, and shade levels that meet their individual needs. Additionally, the showroom requirements are easily met with ease of reconfiguration to add or change products, create custom scenes with reliable controls—all with a user interface that offers a feature set they are used to.

Xicato’s Controls Provides Ease of Integration

As the smart building industry has evolved so has the concept of the smart office space. The primary benefits are that it gives employers a competitive advantage by increasing productivity and satisfaction of employees while offering smarter energy management capabilities. A barrier to the smart office space is often the complexity involved due to the integration requirements between many building systems. The Kreon project did not have this issue. Despite the sophisticated light and controls environment requested by Kreon, the project took just over two days to complete due to the flexibility and ease of integration between Legrand Vantage and Xicato’s Bluetooth mesh system, along with other third-party building systems. Overall, the collaboration between the three organizations resulted in a personalized, healthy, reconfigurable building environment with a pleasing aesthetic design that Kreon employees enjoy every day while providing energy savings for years to come.

Installation:

Kreon Headquarters & Showroom in Belgium

Xicato Product Used:

Xicato XIM Smart light modules, XID Smart LED drivers, XIG BLE mesh Gateway

Application:

Smart Buildings, Smart Offices, Smart Homes

Controls & Lighting Design:

Legrand/Vantage & Kreon

Luminaire Type:

Spot, down and track lights

Lights:

Xicato XIM and 3rd party