Frequently Asked Questions

What control systems do you recommend?

The important thing about any building technology is that it shouldn’t be a proprietary product that handcuffs you to a single manufacturer for the life of the system. For lighting control we would always advise DALI. DALI-2 for a conventional wired system, or DALI+ for a wireless one. At time of writing, DALI is the only lighting control standard for New Zealand. A system must be DALI in order to be compliant with building standards. As DALI is an open protocol you can choose from multiple manufacturers, with all certified DALI products communicating with each other, regardless of who made them.

Cloud-based systems are great for maintenance, but is security an issue?

The cloud-based product we promote is zencontrols. This is not some kind of embedded Linx system that would be capable of remote code execution. The zencontrol firmware runs directly on the hardware.  This means the device is only capable of running lighting control related functions.

A common security concern is Telnet or SSH-based attack vectors. The zencontrol system is immune to these as there is no Telnet or SSH service running on the controller. Additionally, all zencontrol software and firmware is designed and developed in-house in Brisbane, Australia. It is hosted only on the Sydney clusters of Amazon AWS servers so security is really not an issue.

Additionally DALI+ (wireless) uses security layers provided by the underlying protocol, with additional application-layer security features for DALI+ with Thread.

You can have confidence in the security of building technology systems that are DALI-2 and/or DALI+ certified.

Is DALI+ compatible with DALI-2?

Absolutely. The new Part 104 Changes & Additions specification supports bridges, which allow wired DALI-2 devices and luminaires to access the DALI+ network.

More information about DALI+ can be found on the DALI Alliance site.

Why do DALI-2 and DALI+ products need to be certified?

Certification means the products have been tested for DALI-2 and/or DALI+ compliance by an independent certifier. The product is then listed with all other compliant DALI-2/DALI+ products on the DALI Alliance directory. When certified products are used you can have confidence in the interoperability of products from different suppliers within your system currently, and for any future upgrades.

Can you help us work out what's required?

We are very happy to assist in whatever way we can.

There is a resource library on our website that provides building technology/lighting control information, videos, drawings etc specifically for consultants, electrical contractors, facility managers, third party integrators and end-users.

Additionally, if you have a specific query or need some extra help, just give us a call. We work New Zealand wide, so it doesn’t matter where you, or your project, is located.