March 27, 2015 – AIM Altitude has developed a system that could further enhance the ambience in premium cabins. The autonomous lighting dimmer (ALD) is for use in first and business class cabins to enable LED feature lighting to be automatically dimmed to match the cabin environment, without requiring a connection to either the aircraft IFE system or cabin mood lighting system.
The ALD system can accept discrete on/off inputs or can be used with the company’s Light Sensor unit to automatically follow the intensity of the aircraft manufacturers’ cabin lighting system. According to the company, ALDs can also used to control autonomous feature lights in first and business class monuments and in illuminated bulkhead feature panels (illustrated above in a British Airways A380 first class cabin). The ALD provides user-definable controlled dimming, with over 4,500 incremental steps.
John Heath, group design and technical director at AIM Altitude, explained, “AIM designed and developed the very first mood lighting to be used on passenger aircraft. It has now become in important way for airlines to provide differentiation and to set the atmosphere for their passengers. Being autonomous, our ALD system provides airlines with great flexibility to add ambience to specific areas of the aircraft and to manage the cabin environment as required.”
AIM Altitude says that the ALD is unique in having electromagnetic emissions that meet the stringent requirements of Boeing 787, Airbus A380 and A350 aircraft for LED cabin lighting in line-fit applications. The ALD is currently qualified for monument, bulkhead feature panel and premium seat applications in the Boeing 787-8 and 787-9, for bulkhead feature panel and seat applications in Airbus A380 aircraft, and for premium seat applications in Airbus A350 aircraft.
The ALD is a single channel, single color, 28V DC dimmer, and is able to power and control up to 2.5 amps (70 watts) of DC LED lights. This is sufficient, for example, for up to 12m of white LED strip lights, with no connection to the aircraft lighting system.
AIM Altitude submitted a UK patent application for the ALD in 2014 and has also applied to protection in the rest of the EU and the USA.
