The DALI Alliance has extended its highly successful DALI-2 certification program to include control gear for self-contained emergency lighting. Focused on device interoperability, DALI-2 certification is built on open, international standards.

DALI emergency lighting is widely used as a robust and reliable solution that meets safety-critical requirements in buildings throughout the world. The DALI protocol enables integrated, digital control systems that combine illumination and emergency lighting. DALI-2 Emergency further extends interoperability of lighting-control devices and facilitates integration with building management systems, which can access DALI control and querying capabilities including automated testing and reporting.

“While the industry has enjoyed the benefits of DALI emergency lighting for many years, the introduction of DALI-2 Emergency is a huge step forward,” says Paul Drosihn. “For DALI-2, the level of testing has increased dramatically, and the results are independently verified. This means that the industry can have a great deal of confidence in the interoperability of certified DALI-2 devices.”

DALI-2 Emergency certification requires the product to successfully pass a rigorous and comprehensive set of tests based on the international standard IEC 62386. The DALI Alliance independently verifies the test results, and then lists each certified product in its online product database (www.dali-alliance.org/products), providing public traceability. The first certified DALI-2 Emergency devices, which are entitled to use the DALI-2 logo, are expected very soon.

“As a manufacturer participating in its development, we have witnessed DALI becoming widely established as a robust and trusted basis for digital control of the complete lighting system environment,” said Richard Beesley, chief technology officer of Mackwell. “With the introduction of DALI-2 certification for emergency devices, we are pleased that this brings updates to the protocol that remain perfectly aligned with the safety-critical requirements of emergency lighting.”