Overview
The street and roadway lighting market is experiencing an unprecedented shift. Due to heightened competition and supplier consolidation, outdoor lighting for cities and towns have become increasingly commoditized. In addition, energy savings is remaining a huge driver when selecting outdoor lighting solutions. According to the UN, 68% of the total world population will live in urban areas by 2050. With urban centers expanding and becoming denser, cities are under even more pressures to reduce lighting cost, which account for 30-50% of their energy bills.
On the other hand, there is a tremendous potential for roadway lighting manufacturers as thousands of smart city projects are being deployed across the globe to enhance urban security, elevate the citizen experience using the latest technologies, and attract new citizens. Unfortunately, many lighting manufacturers are still trying to grasp exactly how to seize this opportunity to cater to the true needs and visions of urban development projects.
One manufacturer that bucks this market latency, is Lumca.
Approach
Lumca has never considered itself as a lighting manufacturer per se. The company has always had a vision of lighting life—using lighting infrastructure, urban furniture and innovative technologies as a reflection of a city’s commitment to its citizens’ needs and means to increase the value of its neighbourhoods. Since the very beginning, Lumca also believed that outdoor lighting can be lucrative real estate for cash-strapped cities looking to generate additional revenues.
Lumca’s approach to designing lighting solutions comes from this unwavering vision. That is why it has always fostered working on custom projects to push the design and technology envelope further. The team co-creates new outdoor lighting solutions with clients who share Lumca’s dedication to enhancing the citizen experience. In addition, it works with multiple partners to remain as technology-agnostic as possible. For Lumca, this strategy ensures that clients benefit from lighting solutions that are completely in line with their needs.
For example, Lumca’s Smart Pole, the first in the industry to integrate advanced technologies with a sleek and aesthetically pleasing design ethos, originated from a client that was looking to eliminate unsightly straps that, back in the day, were used to affix parking signs and cameras to light poles.
Another case in point? Lumca’s recent market-bending launch of its new Urban-Cozy lighting solutions. These new lights bring the coziness of indoor light fixtures to warm outdoor LED lights for a wide array of applications. The product category is changing the way people view outdoor lighting, by not only offering great energy savings but also visual comfort that is appeasing for citizens and visitors alike.
We collaborate with our clients to develop lighting solutions that address very specific problems. In fact, these problems open up unbelievable opportunities for urban development projects. As we talk with clients, we soon realize that our expertise can help them overcome a lot more than the initial reason why they contacted us.”
Dennis Dion
Lumca’s Co-President
“When you take a step back, conventional outdoor lighting was a one-trick pony: it just lit streets for about 8 hours each day. At Lumca, we started asking ourselves what could our lighting solutions possibly achieve with the other 16 hours? That’s when our creativity kicks in as we continue to develop innovations that will be mainstream in the foreseeable future.”
Luc Fortin
Lumca’s Product Designer
Conclusion
To stay in the lighting game, you have to be ahead of the game. While other manufacturers tend to take a cookie-cutter-like approach to lighting design, Lumca considers that outdoor lights are the starting points—not the endpoints—to true urban development innovation. Most ideas come from the very problems customers face today; yet they tend to come to fruition a few years down the road as cities adopt new technologies and better define visions for their communities. Lumca’s success stems from taking the wildest ideas from its work with clients and making them a reality.
“Years ago, we showed clients that we could incorporate USB ports to our light poles so that citizens could charge their phones. Today, we’re working on projects to add 5G connectivity and drone landing platforms to our Smart Poles. It takes grit to develop lighting solutions that are made for the future. And Lumca has had that grit from day one.”
Dennis Dion
Lumca’s Co-President
