By: Signify
The city of Veghel needed a lighting solution that would bring back commerce to the city centre and make the town a more desirable leisure destination.
“It’s great that the lighting is different every single day. The possibilities are endless.”
– Jan-Hein Opherij, Town Centre Manager for Veghel
Veghel was experiencing extremely high turnover in the local shops and restaurants in its city square. The majority of residents shopped in the larger surrounding towns and the declining foot traffic was leading to a failing city centre.
Veghel’s city council knew they had to do something unique to differentiate Veghel and restore its appeal to revive local commerce. A welcoming and vibrant city centre would draw more citizens into experience the city’s restaurants and unique independent shops.
The city needed a partner to help facilitate a collaboration with the many stakeholders involved – the city council, the town centre management, architects and lighting designers – to outline a vision that would reinvent Veghel’s pedestrian-centric city centre. The proposed design, which was reflective of the people and personality of Veghel, was an engaging experience that used integrated LED lighting technology and Interact Landmark software. The city launched an initial pilot with positive results—a total of 22 stores, a combination of new and previous proprietors, opened their doors in response to town centre’s regeneration.
Building on this success, the city council expanded the unique design experience to its two main shopping streets. The physical design was updated to provide lighting that could be both functional and create dynamic lighting shows that could be paired with sound or music. The new luminaires incorporated Philips iColor Flex LMX LED strings with Interact Landmark lighting management software and reflected the architecture of the area and the city’s personality.
Residents and vendors requested that the new lighting change on a frequent basis so even people who shopped every day could look forward to seeing something new. The emphasis was to make daily activities and everyday tasks into a more enjoyable experience and not just use the lighting for holidays and special events. Interact Landmark software includes special lighting and sound algorithms to generate light content that will always vary slightly and never repeat in the same sequence. The software management platform enables content to be scheduled in advance or to be changed quickly in response to the city’s rhythms.
To help support content management for the city centre and encourage the local businesses to create, test, plan, and execute the dynamic lighting and sound experiences, Interact Landmark also offers an experience platform consisting of technology and services. This platform provides city centre users with the ability to integrate the lighting experience with things like social media and other promotional platforms.
The Veghel Interact Landmark project has been very successful. Residents are coming back and enjoying the city again.
Interact is Signify’s portfolio of connected lighting software applications for the Internet of Things (IoT) that delivers data-driven insights and services to the users and managers of illuminated spaces. Visit Interact-lighting.com to learn more.
