IS DALI FAST?

Yes, DALI is fast ( When used Correctly).  This is a question we have received a few times now, but normally it comes from people not understanding DALI correctly. 

Firstly, the baud rate of DALI is slower than the baud rate of protocols like DMX ( which is used for show lighting), but DMX needs to be fast as it is a channel based system, while DALI is a group based system. This means that if I needed to turn the lighting on for a room of 20 light fittings using DMX I would need to send 20 separate commands, while with DALI I would be required to send only one command. In this instance, DMX would need to be 20x faster to turn on the same 20 light fittings within the same period.

Secondly DALI can send up to 50 commands per second. Considering that each DALI Network has only a maximum of 64 devices attached, and that each network in a building runs in parallel, this effectively means that its 50 commands per second for each DALI bus/network in the building.

To put the DALI speed into perspective, even if these 64 light fittings on a DALI bus were a part of 16 different rooms, we could turn each room on/off and back on again ( all 16 rooms individually) in less than 1 second. Realistically when have you ever wanted to do this, or even achieve this faster in a commercial application?The correct answer is DALI is fast for its application.

Why would you use DMX?

DMX has its place, Normally Show or entertainment lighting, where each light fitting is required to be more dynamic. This control is channel based, and its designed for the show application not commercial lighting.

We have noticed some control manufactures would like to use DMX as their previous approaches (ie 1-10V and DSI systems) are also channel based systems and therefore their control implementation in the past was channel based, not group based.

More-so, DALI provides the full control solution, such as florescent ballasts, Led Controllers, Emergency, Switches, Sensors, relays etc and is supported by all Major lighting manufactures, whereas DMX has a limited range for commercial lighting. DALI features are tailored towards commercial and home lighting, whereas DMX has been tailored towards show lighting. In essence a well informed person would not use DMX for commercial lighting in lieu of DALI.