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Royal Adelaide Hospital

“The quality assured by Philips Dynalite enabled us to meet and exceed all the requirements of the hospital’s day-to-day operations and the additional needs of a tier-1 disaster recovery facility.”

Greg Hodby
Chief Executive Officer, Nilsen Networks

The Challenge

First opened in 2017, the hospital is considered a beacon of innovation and world-class care within the Australian healthcare sector.

The hospital has an 800-bed capacity with 100% single occupancy rooms, and an additional 100 day beds, 40 technical suites, eight emergency (operating) suites, and a variety of specialized units for both treatment and medical research.

RAH offers a broad range of services and specialized wards, each with unique lighting control requirements. Therefore, a flexible system that can be tailored to suit the needs of each department was preferred.

The chosen lighting solution should also promote circadian health and create a healing environment for occupants. Finally, any lighting design should assist in the achievement of a Green Star rating.

  • Scalable

    The Dynalite system was integrated into the university’s expansive campus. The modularity of the system allows the lighting control system to grow and evolve with the university’s ongoing expansion through a centralised control platform.

  • Innovative

    The project integrates Dynalite with multiple third-party systems, including the Q-Sys control system for audio-visual management, the university’s Building Management System (BMS), and a fire alarm relay. This integration creates a unified ecosystem that not only streamlines building operations but also enhances safety and energy management.

  • Sustainable

    The Dynalite system is a critical part of the university’s efforts to reduce energy consumption. The system’s energy-efficient features, such as automated scheduling, daylight harvesting, and occupancy sensors, ensure that lighting is used only when necessary, contributing to the university’s broader sustainability goals.

The Solution

Nilsen Networks oversaw the design and delivery of this project, connecting RAH with its preferred lighting control solution, Philips Dynalite.

With over 100 years of continuous service within the electrical industry, Nilsen has an outstanding reputation for providing its customers with reliable, high-quality lighting control installations.

Nilsen leveraged Philips Dynalite to control over 45,000 DALI light fittings and 8,000 emergency fittings throughout the 9 story, 247,000m2 facility.

The luminaires and control devices feed into Philips Dynalite’s headend software, System Manager, where RAH staff can gain valuable insights about building performance, check occupancy patterns, schedule emergency lighting tests, and more.

Dynamic lighting that grows with your facility

The layout of clinics and wards within RAH change regularly to reflect the evolving needs of the community. As such, Nilsen installed a digitally addressable DALI system that can be reconfigured quickly and affordably as required.

Philips Dynalite enhances the benefits of DALI by mapping each universe onto the much larger DyNet address pool. This links multiple DALI universes together, allowing them to behave as a single, coherent lighting system.

The Dynalite system also supports 96 scenes per area, a vast improvement on DALI’s 16-scene limitation. Its advanced scheduling features enable smooth transitions between scenes in response to the time of day and year, or other network events. Occupants can also make manual ramping adjustments to the colour temperature and luminance independently.

Lighting that puts people first

The emotional and physical needs of patients, their families and healthcare workers were kept at the forefront of this project. Natural light was leveraged to create a pleasant environment for occupants and support circadian health. This was supplemented with tunable white LEDs that can change colour temperature throughout the day to mimic natural daylight.

Each patient room comes equipped with an Antumbra user interface to enable intuitive control over the patient’s environment. The lighting scenes create a homely ambience which reduces the anxiety often associated with a hospital stay.

Lighting in other areas such as the nurse’s station and operating theatres have been tailored to balance the requirements of patients and staff alike. Any preset scene can be quickly overridden by staff, bringing the room to full brightness in the case of an emergency.

Setting the green standard

Paired with Philips LED luminaires, the Dynalite system was able to achieve a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions and help RAH achieve a 4 Star Green Star rating and a Healthcare Design v1 rating. This makes RAH the largest and most technically complex Green Star project in Australia.

This was achieved through a combination of occupancy detection and day light harvesting strategies, and integration with third-party systems such as BMS and HVAC.

“This project is testament to the power of lighting control to contribute to a smart and healthful medical environment.”

Jon Welch
Project Manager, Nilsen Networks

Conclusion

Nilsen successfully deployed an advanced lighting control system to support RAH in its environmental and patient-care objectives.

A world-class combination of intelligent software, reliable hardware, and sustainable luminaires make RAH a prime example of the ability of lighting control to create smart hospitals.

The automation of lighting scenes creates a touchless environment that can respond intuitively to occupant needs, whilst the flexibility of Dynalite’s digital addressing enables each space to take on a new function at a moment’s notice.

Expertly installed by Nilsen Networks, the care and attention to detail displayed throughout this project have resulted in fantastic project outcomes that will continue to benefit the community for years to come.

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