Boston-based retail indoor location company ByteLight announced on Thursday that it has inked a partnership with General Electric to usher in the wave of next-generation light fixtures.
ByteLight will embed its Bluetooth LE-powered indoor location technology into GE’s energy efficient LED Luminaire-IS Series lights, allowing them to be compatible with the much buzzed-about beacons and other in-store mobile engagement platforms. Retailers will then have the ability to get the precise spots of their shoppers using ByteLight’s opt-in application. Whereas beacons only work with iPhone 4S models and later versions, and newer Android devices, ByteLight and GE’s solution works with any and all Android and iOS phones equipped with a camera.
The result: Retailers get all the benefit of Bluetooth LE beacons right in their lights, without having to purchase and install actual beacons.
“The value proposition for LED lighting is becoming less about illumination and more about innovative applications and services that digital light enables,” said Dan Ryan, CEO and Co-Founder of ByteLight, in a statement. “We’re excited to work with GE to help reinvent LED lighting into a platform for indoor-location services that will revolutionize the in-store shopping experience and make LEDs play a strategic role in the connected retail experience.”
Given GE’s reach, there’s big potential for ByteLight. The specific GE light integrated with the local startup’s technology is the same product that Walmart just agreed to roll out in their stores around the world. The superstore isn’t a customer yet, however.
ByteLight and GE will unveil the partnership and new product at the Lightfair International in Las Vegas next week.
