A Conversation with Lunera’s Tom Quinn at LightFair 2018

Last week, MarketScale paid a visit to the annual LightFair conference in Chicago. With over 500 exhibitors and over 200 accredited courses, this experience is one of the most beneficial for companies looking to improve and expand on all kinds of structural and utility needs. Among the drove of vendors showing off their companies’ latest advancements in the industry is Lunera, an IoT infrastructure company that, according to their website, “provides an ambient compute platform to connect billions of devices to the cloud.”

MarketScale had the opportunity to speak with Tom Quinn, VP of Sales and Marketing of the company, to hear more about the strides Lunera is making in the lighting industry.

What Lunera looks forward to most at LFI is introducing new technologies to not only the end consumer—but to channel partners. Lunera was selected as one of the top ten “must see” technologies at LightFair this year with its new, cutting-edge lighting control system. Quinn stated that the main challenge for Lunera is solving the lighting control issues for existing buildings in the most efficient way possible.

The challenge for penetrating existing buildings involves three important elements– making their systems affordable, simple to deploy, and minimally disruptive to the existing infrastructure. What Lunera has done is develop a technology directly embedded into the endcap of a T8 lamp that deploys lighting control functions powered through a Bluetooth and cloud-connected “open standards” system.

This kind of creativity is a direct result of being headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, according to Quinn. Using the energy built around the startup mentality and aggressive approaches to innovation, as well as the diversity of skill sets within the company, has proven to be a true catalyst for Lunera’s innovative product developments.

Quinn also emphasizes the importance of “solving for scale”. Lunera has moved beyond standard proprietary business models and turned towards a “big picture” mindset by focusing more on technological platforms and providing a scalable, inclusive business model, enabling for some incredible technology that will be produced as a result.