Fulham Acquisition of Smart Lighting Control Creator Continues European Expansion

Fulham Co. Inc. has announced the acquisition of the assets of partner company Control Network Solutions (CNS) , the UK-based creator of the elitedali smart lighting control and management system. This transaction continues Fulham’s European expansion.

Fulham has been developing its relationship with CNS for over a year and utilizing CNS’s elitedali to help its partners provide smart lighting control systems.

Based on the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) lighting communications standard, elitedali simplifies installation, commissioning, and control of lighting systems. Enhancing Building Management Systems (BMS) and Edge Control devices, elitedali provides control over individual LED fixtures, including reducing input current, managing output to optimize useful life, adjusting lighting to dim at a constant level, and adjusting power output to accommodate different light sources.

With this acquisition, Fulham can offer a DALI and web-based, convergent smart lighting solution to meet demand from customers worldwide. For Fulham customers in Europe and India, CNS’s smart lighting platform meets the need for DALI-based lighting control solutions.

“We developed LED lighting components that are programmable so luminaire manufacturers can customize solid-state lighting products in a customer-valued way. With the acquisition of CNS, we now have the remaining components needed to move from clever to smart lighting products – communications and control system software,” says Bob Howard-Anderson, Fulham CEO. “elitedali technology aligns with our vision of standards-based smart lighting controls and allows us to meet customer demand for DALI-enabled lighting solutions based upon multi-vendor choice, flexibility and real-time device data for analytics, and lays the foundation for the coming of smart lighting.”

Mike Welch, founder of CNS, will continue with Fulham as vice president, Controls Business Development. In his new role, Welch will continue to support more than 40 elitedali resellers worldwide and help shape Fulham’s lighting strategy as well as smart lighting products and solutions.

The elitedali solution is based on the Niagara software framework from Tridium, an independent business entity of Honeywell International. Niagara is used by OEMs and resellers to craft building, data center and smart city management systems.

“We are excited to be able to leverage Fulham’s global brand and resources to accelerate the market reach of elitedali,” says Welch. “Becoming a part of Fulham will allow us to provide more support for our growing Niagara Community Partners, enabling them to participate in larger lighting control projects.”

Fulham already incorporates DALI support into a variety of its LED driver products, including the programmable WorkHorse LED drivers and the company’s Lumo series of European LED drivers. Fulham offers CNS partners direct access to DALI-compatible driver products through Fulham’s global network of distributors, and works with a network of OEM luminaire manufacturers that incorporate the company’s DALI drivers.