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Revisiting a Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast: The Potential of LiFi
In this article, we looked back at a Get a Grip Lighting podcast episode on LiFi. Michael Colligan and Greg Ehrich discussed their experience on doing a Livestream via LiFi at the Global LiFi Congress 2019. They also discussed the potential of LiFi, the future of lighting, and how it can be sold.
Get A Grip On Lighting Podcasts are hosted by Michael Colligan and Greg Ehrich, who have over 30 years of combined experience in the lighting industry. Michael Colligan is an entrepreneur and inventor. He’s a subject matter expert in commercial and industrial lighting supply, lighting retrofits, and finding recycling streams for hard-to-recycle waste. Greg Ehrich, LC is the former President of the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors (NAILD) and owner of a progressive lighting distributorship.
Below are some of the Podcast conversations. Some of the conversations have been edited by Chuks from LiFi Tech News:
Michael Colligan: “You know, I think it's interesting, this is what I've been telling people, this is a good way to think about, I just turned my cell phone off, there is a good way to think about LiFi. WiFi is like hearing. LiFi is like seeing. So, these are your LiFi receptors. These are your WiFi receptors. So, for example, if you're in your backyard, and you scream loud enough, someone in the front of your house can hear you. But it's kind of weird. And the more the louder you get, the stronger that signal has to be, the less secure it is the further it goes. So, WiFi is like hearing. LiFi is like seeing if you're in your backyard and you're sitting there you can't see somebody at the front of your house. Right. And so, LiFi is innately more secure than WiFi. It's innately faster. And I think eventually it's going to be able to set internet speed records that are going to go beyond the pale of internet like the idea of upload and download and ping speeds, these things are going to be ideas of the past as LiFi emerges, and becomes more and more and more pervasive.”
Greg Ehrich: “Sure, yeah. And we actually recorded one, a LiFi, or a podcast Livestream through LiFi. And I’m not sure we could have done it without standard WiFi.”
Michael Colligan: “So, if you think of WiFi, like hearing and you think of LiFi, like seeing it's not doesn't work that way, but that's a good way of thinking about it. So, the LiFi signal was boom, right there. And the receptor, the receptor was right there below the LiFi thing. And up, it went to the main router and oh, that went to the world. So, you know, it's, it's inherently faster by nature. And I think it's just a matter of time. So you know, you often hear like people say, Oh, humans are slow to adapt to change. And if everybody just changed, everything will be so much better. I think that humans are very sensitive to changing for the better. And I had a conversation with somebody recently about this, and it was on this topic. And he's like, well give me an example of the kind of change you're talking about. And I said, Well, when's the last time you saw a suitcase without wheels on it? Right, so, when I was a kid, all the suitcases in our house had didn't have wheels, and we would go to the airport, we'd be lugging all these suitcases now. Find a suitcase with wheels on it for me, impossible. Can't find one, you go to every airport in the world and 99% of the suitcases have wheels on them. Because when humans see something that's so obviously better. So, obviously better the way to go than this other thing, they will switch and they will switch very quickly. And the other thing will become very minimal, doesn't mean it will disappear completely. But it'll become minimal. I think LiFi is going to eat a lot of WiFi applications now just because it makes so much sense.”
Michael Colligan: “Speed. So, they want it to be the speed in the world of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and, you know, social networking videos and streaming and all this kind of stuff. It just seems to me that WiFi, the shelf date of WiFi is coming up real soon. And it's going to be replaced by LiFi.”
Greg Ehrich: “Yeah, and to break down a little bit about how it works and you know, with our podcasts that were recorded. So, you have to have an internet connection to the light. Number one, the light fixture itself has to have an Ethernet cord going up to it. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I saw. And that's what they told us and then you need a dongle that's basically like a USB stick that has a round receptor, or whatever it may be. It could be square, I guess, but a receptor that the light hits and then that's where the internet comes in through.”
Greg Ehrich: “Definitely. So, they were unveiling that and I think of right around that time of that conference, so I think their plans are starting to do that. And then it's going to eventually get rolled out, we had a number of talks with people on-site there. And really, there's not a lot of action in the US yet on it for whatever reason, but Europe is really getting active in it. And like you said, I think it's just a matter of time, some of the costs are still a little high.”
Michael Colligan: “I think the dongle was like 200 bucks.”
Greg Ehrich: “Well, the dongle but the light fixture, I think it was a light fixture and the dongle together was over 1000 bucks. And you know, that's a little much to have. But if you don't move, and you have one spot and you want high internet speed, maybe it's worth 1000 bucks to put over your head.”
Greg Ehrich: “I think the fact that you always need to be seen by the light is the downfall to it. But you know, if you're talking in an office environment, or commercial business, you always are going to have a light above you. Or you should always have a light above you.”
Michael Colligan: “Yeah, but they have ultraviolet ones too, right? They have ultraviolet LiFi, right? So it doesn't need to always need visible light.”
Michael Colligan: “But I think actually, that we're only touching, we're just beginning to understand how light waves of light can be used as a communication tool. Right now just beginning to understand that it may be WiFi and light and all this sort of stuff is really just a basic energy source that we can tap into at some point and manipulate and use and this is how we're going to travel across the universe.
Podcast Recording
You can also listen to the podcast in full at the following link:
Li-Fi Conference 2022
The Li-Fi Conference 2022 Edition was a great success. Li Fi Tech News will very soon write articles on the topics treated at the Conference.
What is LiFi?
LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).
VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.
How does LiFi work?
LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.
When an electrical current goes through to a LED light bulb, a stream of light (photons) emits from the lamp. LED bulbs are semiconductor devices, which means that the brightness of the light flowing through them can change at extremely high speeds. The signal is sent by modulating the light at different rates. The signal can then be received by a detector that interprets the changes in light intensity (the signal) as data. Also when the LED is ON, you transmit a digital 1, and when it is OFF, you transmit a 0.
LiFi Benefits
The primary benefits of LiFi are as follows:
• Security: Provides entirely secure access. Where there is no light there is no data.
• Safety: Does not produce electromagnetic radiation and does not interfere with existing electronic systems.
• Localisation: Allows localisation due to the small coverage area of LiFi access point - localisation can be used for very precise asset tracking.
• Data density: Provides ubiquitous high-speed wireless access that offers substantially greater data density (data rate per unit area) than RF through high bandwidth reuse.
Credit to Oledcomm
LiFi Applications
LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:
Credit to pureLiFi
LiFi Systems Reviews by LiFi Tech News
OLEDCOMM LIFIMAX KIT REVIEW - ONE YEAR IN
We reviewed the LiFiMax kit produced by the leading French LiFi company Oledcomm. We bought this LiFi kit system at the end of 2020. After over a year of use, we decided to write a review of this LiFi system. We looked briefly at the profile of Oledcomm, a brief history of the LiFiMax system, the Kit box contents, some testing and performance results of this LiFi system, the customer experience and our own verdict (the good and the bad points) of the LiFiMax kit.
You can read the review on this link:
https://www.lifitn.com/blog/lifimaxreview
SIGNIFY TRULIFI 6002.1 STARTER KIT SYSTEM REVIEW
We also reviewed the Trulifi 6002.1 starter kit produced by Signify, the world leader in lighting for professionals, consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. We got this LiFi kit system with the help of PCDSI and Signify around August 2021. In a similar fashion done with our previous review of the LiFiMax kit a few months ago, we will look briefly at the profile of Signify, a brief history of the Trulifi 6002.1 kit, the Kit box contents, some testing and performance results of this LiFi system, the customer experience and our own verdict (the good points and the bad points) of the Trulifi 6002.1 kit.
You can read the review on this link:
https://www.lifitn.com/blog/trulifi6002review
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