Sinclair Digital introduced AGILE-CORE, an all-direct-current (DC) connected lighting system at Realcomm 2023 on June 13. When announcing the system, Sinclair Digital said AGILE-CORE “provides the highest energy efficiency and offers a total cost of ownership comparable to AC line voltage lighting for warehouses, big box stores, and other building types.”
It’s a system of modular, plug-and-play solutions for lighting and IT-based digital connectivity that combines fault managed power (FMP), Power over Ethernet (PoE), and Luum.io’s PoE technology, called X-PoE, to deliver power and data over long distances using low-voltage wiring methodologies. “The system offers per-port granular energy reporting, reduces maintenance with fewer failure points, and uses less copper and rare-earth materials than traditional AC line voltage lighting systems,” Sinclair Digital said.
AGILE-CORE features a FMP distribution system that remotely power Luum network switches; those switches either deliver standard IEEE 802.3bt PoE to connected devices or identify a passive X-PoE connector to provide 120W of power per Luum X-PoE port, without the need for an external driver. The system comprises a rack-based headend for power transmission and centralized control, along with one or more remote Building Infrastructure Termination System (BITS) compact racks.
BITS racks terminate low-voltage cabling infrastructure for lighting and other IT devices such as surveillance cameras and wireless access points. Each BITS rack supports high-bay lighting for approximately 10,000 square feet of space. High-bay lights directly connected via X-PoE connectors are controlled internally by the network switch to enable typical lighting control functions (on/off/dim) per channel. Depending on the wattage of a fixture, one or more lights connected to a switch’s X-PoE port can be daisy-chained to fully use the per-port power budget.
Sinclair Digital and Luum are collaborating with several lighting manufacturers to produce 25,000-lumen high-bay light fixtures that can be powered and controlled from a single X-PoE switch port, providing a high-bay fixture efficiency of 218.2 lm/W. A total system efficiency of approximately 95% is possible, Sinclair Digital said. The company also pointed out that as a value-added reseller with expertise in design/build installation, it will provide packaged AGILE-CORE systems to electrical contractors, lighting agents, and specifiers.