Redwood Systems Launches First Network-based LED Lighting Technology
Redwood Systems today publicly launches the first network-based technology for LED lighting and building performance systems. This new technology is based on the idea that LED lighting presents a new opportunity to create a unified network-based digital platform for smart buildings, helping building owners and designers reduce energy costs while providing control and automation in commercial lighting never before possible.
“Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and looks to work with like-minded innovative companies. Redwood Systems has the potential for a new and better way to power and control LED lighting that could add significant intelligence to lighting systems and accelerate customer ROI through energy savings and reduced installation costs,” said Gary Trott, vice president of market development of Cree.
Redwood Systems is founded by a team with extensive backgrounds in the design of high-performance networking systems that are deployed in thousands of enterprises worldwide. Leading the company is Dave Leonard, CEO, who was General Manager of Cisco's Ethernet Switching Business Unit and Mark Covaro, CTO and former principal power design engineer for Cisco's widely deployed power-over-Ethernet platform.
“Redwood’s vision is to use LED lighting’s low voltage to power not just lighting, but create a digital network to manage and efficiently optimize lighting, heating, venting, air conditioning, plug loads, window shading, and just about everything else that uses power in a building,” said Leonard. “Using a network-based platform approach, we will deliver smart lighting systems that revolutionize how lights, and buildings, are powered, controlled, and optimized.”
In the 1880s, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company created America’s first direct current (DC) power grid to provide electric light to lower Manhattan. Over time, alternating current (AC) has become the global standard. Redwood returns to using low voltage DC power from LED lighting to deliver not just lighting, but create a digital network to manage and efficiently optimize lighting, heating, venting, air conditioning, plug loads, window shading, and just about everything else that uses power in a building.
"It's no exaggeration to say we use principally the same electric wiring system for our lights today that Edison and Westinghouse invented 125 years ago," said David Gottfried, founder of the U.S. Green Building Council and CEO of the Regenerative Network, for which Redwood Systems is a founding member. "Redwood is pioneering an entirely new way for commercial lighting. Their unified approach has the potential to save a lot of power from lighting and enable two-way building communications."
About Redwood Systems:
Redwood is pioneering an entirely new way to power, communicate and control commercial lighting that will bring unprecedented energy savings and improved building performance. By combining three typically discrete systems (power, communications, sensors) into one low-voltage networked system, Redwood’s platform will make smart buildings vastly simpler, easier, and lower cost to own and operate. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Fremont, California. For more information, visit http://www.redwoodsystems.com
