Santander Leicester, UK

A plug-in controls upgrade has transformed the lighting control system at the 30,000 sq.m headquarters of Alliance and Leicester (now Santander) from 1990s technology into latest integrated technology.

The complex of five buildings and data centre was equipped in the 1990s with a Delmatic system which provided flexible control of lighting throughout the office areas as well as in the circulation and public areas.

The client was happy with the performance and reliability of the Delmatic system but was keen to benefit from the latest advances in control technology including distributed intelligence.  A pilot project was carried out in one building during 2009 to assess the benefits of upgrading the system to latest open-protocol, distributed-intelligence technology.  Delmatic supplied plug-in upgrade cards which were inserted into the original control modules without any changes to the original hardware or wiring.  Inserting the plug-in cards converted the old-technology system into a fully addressable lighting management network with graphical monitoring and supervision through animated head-end software.

Good experience with the upgraded system and the minimal installation works involved in the upgrade process resulted in a decision being made to upgrade the system throughout the remaining five buildings. 

Stephen Woodnutt, Managing Director of Delmatic comments “the project is testimony to the robustness and longevity of life that can be expected from a Delmatic system and also demonstrates our commitment to sustainability by maximising the re-use of hardware and cabling when converting from one era of technology to another."