Redwood Systems wants lighting to behave like a broadband network

Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is more power-efficient than your typical incandescent light bulb, but it requires a different type of power setup. That’s where Redwood Systems, a provider of intelligent lighting systems, comes in.

Rather than power lights with typical AC voltage, Redwood Systems wants to put its lights on a “network” — much like a broadband network — to control the lighting and make the lighting systems easier to tune and monitor. Redwood Systems presented its business plan at the GreenBeat 2010 conference in Palo Alto, Calif. today.

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“If you see this as a network system and a power system, that’s makes sense,” said Jeremy Stieglitz, VP of marketing for Redwood System. That’s because a majority of the team came from Cisco where they worked on power efficiency and networking technology.

Simply putting in LED light fixtures won’t allow buildings to capture the energy efficiency that LED lighting can offer, he said. By starting from scratch and re-wiring the lighting system in a building, users can get a deeper level of interaction to save a little more money.

Redwood Systems charges around $3 per square foot to integrate its intelligent lighting system into buildings. The Alumni Center at Stanford University, playing host to GreenBeat 2010 today, would net the company around $1 million, Stieglitz said. The smart lighting setup is already deployed in 15 building installations — including data centers and university campuses.