in this video we're going to look at five ways that you can bring smart technology to
your garden lighting using these products from the smart plus range by Ledvance
smart lighting technology is an area that's really blowing up in the electrical industry
at the moment and as it's quite a technical subject it's easy to get bogged down in the
control and technical element of it all and forget that electric lighting is not just all about how
it works there's an important element of look and effect involved as well so a good lighting
design that incorporates smart technology needs to be that perfect blend of function and form
now it's worth mentioning here that Ledvance have a number of different systems in their smart
lighting range that operate on either bluetooth wi-fi or zigbee the products in this video are
all from the wi-fi range so let's have a look at some of these products and see how they can
be applied in order to look good and work smart number one take advantage of existing supplies
landscape lighting is kind of habit forming once you've installed a bit suddenly you find yourself
wanting more and more and you want to be able to layer that lighting to give you different effects
now tapping off existing lighting supplies in the garden isn't problematic in itself but if you want
to change what's on at different times for scene setting this can get a little bit tricky we've
got a classic example here we've got these solar powered spike fittings along the front of this
raised area here but they aren't very reliable and there's zero control over whether they come on as
they rely on photo cells to do so now there's a pre-existing supply to this area feeding some
other lighting and electrical items but it's fed off a spur on the inside of the building so
it's an all on or all-off job so i've decided to install these smart plus garden poles from
ledvance to create a similar accented effect as the old solar lights but with the major advantage
that we've got control via the smart plus app now these fittings come in two physical sizes you've
got the standard size and then the smaller version the base unit comes with five fittings pre-wired
together at 500 millimeter intervals and there's an extension option to take you up to a maximum of
eight fittings and to cover the length of this lawn edging i need two lots of eight fittings
now there's two supplies at either end of this retaining wall here one of which is behind this
accessible decking panel so if we get that off we can access at this end and then we've
got another supply under these rather nifty hinge steps at this end so we can access the
supply down there as well so now it's just a matter of pushing them into the gravel
and then connecting them up at either end and you're away and now we connect them to
the advanced smart plus wi-fi up on my phone and voila we've got power from an existing
circuit and control via the app this opens up a whole world of options such as dimming
and even color changing as well there's also some really other cool functions that we'll look at
a little bit later in the video number two take back control now i've installed a couple
of fittings and had a first glimpse at the app it seems like a good opportunity to address one thing
that can make or break a smart system in my eyes and that is the way that we manually control the
lighting now it's great to have the app we'll set up timers we'll create scenes and use the
other functions as well and we can add control from more than one device which is really handy
but sometimes you just want to be able to turn the fittings on and off from one spot and this is
where a lot of smart systems don't quite measure up because any manual control is all via the app
now this fact has actually prevented me from installing certain smart systems in the past
fortunately lead bands have thought about this and provided a remote control that anyone in
the household can use to turn the connected lights on and off quickly and simply if say
their phone isn't charged or it's in use smart sometimes just needs to be
simple and for me this elevates the smart plus range as a viable option number three
use colour change wisely so the next product that we're looking at are these spots that have
the option of installing a spike onto the base of them in order to be inserted into the ground
so i'm going to be using them to illuminate this tree behind me here i'm going to place them in the
ground with one of them quite close to the trunk to send light up the trunk of the tree itself and
then use the others a little bit further away to try and illuminate the foliage now these have the
advantage of being colour changing much like the pole lights that we looked at earlier now when
you look at colour changing it's very easy for it to get a bit out of control and make your garden
start to look like a nightclub now if that's the effect you're aiming for then that's great
but i'd advise you to think about why you want to colour change these spots are great because
as well as colour changing they also have a 3000 kelvin warm white light function which is great
for general illumination however the colour change can be used to create different atmospheres as
well as change according to the seasons in spring you can use a burst of colour to complement the
blossom on the trees here this blossom is kind of a pinky white colour so we can imitate that effect
bear in mind the colour you use doesn't have to be on the vibrant end of the spectrum you can bring
it in a bit to create subtler pastel shades then at the height of summer you can make the colour
more green and in autumn start complementing the changing colour of the leaves with the changing
colour of your light introducing perhaps more orangey tones to the palette so there we go the
wise use of colour can really add depth to the lighting scheme number four make smart secure
let's come back from the dizzy heights of form that we've just been looking at and consider some
function now this is a floodlight that's designed to be mounted on a property as a security device
however the security offers goes further than simply scaring intruders away with a burst of
light and actually incorporates a security camera which could seriously help to improve
the security of your property it's got the usual adjustable settings for a flood light as well as
the option to record footage when the sensor is triggered it can record this to an sd card or to
cloud storage and you'll receive a notification on your phone when the sensor is triggered
this can be deactivated if you'd rather it also features the option to trigger a siren
when movement is detected and can also be used as an intercom to allow you to have a friendly chat
with any potential intruders before you decide to release the hounds and of course it can all
be controlled via the app including accessing the camera and intercom this fitting for me really
sums up the potential to be found in smart systems it goes beyond just wireless switching and starts
to really bring simplicity to what may previously have been a daunting area of installation work
allowing electricians to harness the power of smart number five explore your options
speaking of harnessing the power of smart don't be afraid to dig deeper into the menus in the app
and see how they can be used i'm going to give you one example here this area in front of the
driveway gets really dark and the street lights are miles away now if you reverse onto the drive
it's almost impossible to see what's going on behind you at night so i've decided to install
this pole cube fitting at the edge of the driveway here to cast some light onto the drive now there
is a taller version of this fitting available but i quite like this low one because it means that
as i'm reversing i'll be able to see by the light that it casts without the source being too bright
in the rear view mirror now obviously it's going to be a nuisance to turn it on via the app every
time i rock up at home in the dark so i'm going to use that clever option that i referred to earlier
you'll find it in the routines menu here at the bottom of the screen and then go to automation and
add automation then we need to add a condition now the condition that i'm interested in
is when location changes because i want the light to come on when i get home so tapping that will
give us the option to leave or arrive so i'm going to select arrive and then it allows me
to use this map to decide where the condition will be triggered i can zoom in and out to change the
radius that the effect will take place in zooming right in will trigger the condition when i arrive
within 100 meters of home perfect for the light coming on as i enter the area where i live then
i select what i want that condition to trigger in this case it's run the device pressing that
allows me to select the pole cube fitting and then i can decide exactly what i want it to do
so i want it to turn on with a white light at full brightness although i could dim that down
if i want or even perhaps select a color intensity and brightness for it to be instead it might be
worth tweaking that to create a nice romantic red on the occasions when me and mrs r are returning
from date night we'll stick with the white for now now obviously i don't want this happening if i
come home during daylight or being on all the time that i'm at home so there's a couple of ways that
we can avoid this happening the easiest way is to change the effective period of the routine at
the bottom of the screen here where we'll change it to night now it may ask us to select the area
that we're in as well so that it knows when sunset is we can even give this routine a name if we want
we'll say honey i'm home and then we'll press the tick at the top of the screen and we're good to go
all that's left now is to give it a test okay so i've left the camera running on the driveway and
i've driven a little way away from home and what should happen now is that as i approach the house
the pole cube fitting should illuminate so i'm coming to
the area where i set that boundary previously so hopefully sometime around now that fitting
is turning on and then as i come round the bottom of where i live here and approach the house
it's a bit windy but as i get to the house now hopefully what should happen
is that light should be on and it should be in a position to help me reverse onto the
driveway i've got a camera in the back recording what's going on behind us so let's have a look
and yes it's on and look at that that is so much better than it used to be i'm not sure
how well the camera is picking that up but that is making life so much easier with that light
just being reflected round and pulled on the ground and helping me find my way back giving
me something just to guide me which is fantastic so there we go nice and easy we're on the driveway
just a couple of tweaks to a couple of simple settings once you know what you're doing and there
you go we've got geolocation working properly so there we go we've seen five ways that smart
can ease the installation of landscape lighting and improve the customer's ongoing experience
we think this system is really easy to use and has some unique features and also fittings that
are a little more innovative and different and to be honest we've barely scratched the surface
of the ledvance smart plus range in terms of its functionality and also the available devices and
fittings but as always we want to hear from you have you dipped your toe in the water of smart
lighting yet and is the ledvance range likely to prompt you to do so please leave your thoughts
and questions in the comments section below and as always thank you very much for watching