DALI is an established and widely used standard for lighting control in professional or public buildings. The technology of DALI roots back to well before the 2000s. The functionalities required for wired control of luminaires were described in the DALI standard from the very beginning. The DALI-2 extension standardised the connection of switches and control elements and improved interoperability between individual manufacturers. To ensure future relevance of the DALI standard a wireless alternative to the wired connection of DALI elements is missing. Although the overhead involved to wire a new lighting systemn for DALI is relatively low, the cost of retrofitting existing lighting is considerably driven up by the cables and their installation.
Dali+ vs. Zigbee
The newly introduced DALI+ standard opens up the possibility of utilising the strengths of the DALI standard on the one hand, but also exploit future-proof network technologies at the same time. Wireless connections can be used as well as IP-based media. Communication technologies such as Bluetooth, VEmesh, Distributed PLC bus and User datagram protocol (UDP) are already explicitly covered in the first edition of the DALI+ standard. This was published by the Digital Illumination Alliance as IEC 62386-104:2019. This also clarifies how Thread can be used by DALI+. This clearly distinguishes the DALI+ standard from the Zigbee standard, which never really managed to gain a foothold in the professional environment. The standard describes how DALI commands are distributed in a network; the interfaces to the control system are not described; manufacturer-specific solutions or Matter can be used here. The latter in the form of Matter-to-DALI bridges.
The consequences of the new DALI+ standard
Firstly, it strengthens the role of DALI-2 for control gears. This is because DALI+ simply describes an additional way of communication for the classic DALI-2 commands. Whether, for example, the wireless interface is retrofitted or is an integral part of the ballast is then no longer relevant. The same applies to control devices. Although it is to be expected that fully integrated solutions are more attractive for aesthetic reasons. Most changes will occur with lighting controllers also known as application controllers, as these are the interface between the DALI world and a multitude of other systems for intelligentl buildings (e.g. BACNet or KNX). It is precisely at this point that the DALI standard opens up to more intelligent lighting control systems that enable close integration with other aspects of building control.
Summary
To summarise, the following can be said. The DALI+ standard is an extension of the successful DALI standards that fits harmoniously into the existing rules, it simplifies the integration of DALI devices into more complex and comprehensive building automation solutions and emphasises that DALI will continue to be a contemporary and relevant standard.