New HiViz LED Connected Lighting Options for Emergency Vehicles

HiViz LED Lighting has recently announced two lighting products that use connected technology. The products are made for emergency vehicles.

FireTech Omen Warning Lightbar

The FireTech Omen Warning Lightbar is a maintenance-free product that puts an end to a common issue with vehicle lighting: moisture impact. Moisture is one of the two main killers of lighting products on fire apparatus, alongside heat. Like all fixtures from HiViz LED Lighting, two vents on the rear of the housing allow for pressure relief while keeping out moisture.

Unlike older lightbar designs, it’s impossible for the center of the FireTech Omen Lightbar to fill with water. The new design is reminiscent of a bucket without a bottom, with nothing to leak into, allowing water to pass through without getting stuck inside and killing your circuit board.

The design of the lightbar also makes it possible for technicians avoid having to take it apart to maintain. This design focused on sealed external modules that can be configured to be any color in software, which means there is no need to get “inside” to change circuit boards or components.

In the event of physical damage or a defect with a module, it’s as simple as sliding off the exoskeleton and swapping out during the next preventive maintenance repair. There’s no central brain, nowhere for moisture to accumulate, and modules are built out of aluminum which means they’re more durable than the average piece of plastic.

In the system, power is distributed to each individual light module. If a module gets damaged, it will only affect that individual module and can easily be swapped out with no impact to the rest of the lightbar. If you damage the bar, the modular design also allows you to replace a module rather than the whole fixture – reducing cost and the need for spare parts. There will never be a need to take an Omen Warning Lightbar Module apart.

A Command on Demand functionality turns the lightbar and any fixtures with green LEDs on the apparatus to a steady burning green, indicating the command post at incident scenes at the press of a button. See the lightbar at work in the video below.

The FireTech Omen can also adjust itself based on lighting conditions. Each side module of the lightbar has an ambient light sensor. This means the light bar will get two ambient light sensor readings.

The sensors ensure proper light intensity, even in shady areas. The night mode setting is truck-wide, so there is no need to program fixtures individually. Any HiViz Connect fixture on the network will receive the night mode command when it is enabled.

Future-Proofing the Lightbar

The lightbar is also one of HiViz's first product series to be operated using its new HiViz Connect protocol. It allows fixtures to communicate with each other, the internet, and fire apparatus without the need for a central brain. This protocol enables features like Digital Alerting via Safety Cloud (more on that below), intelligent automatic night modes, SoftFlash patterns which ramp smoothly to any intensity, vehicle-to-vehicle sync, and Command on Demand.

The communication protocol makes HiViz's hardware products virtually future-proof as it enables the lighting system to be updated over time.

Feature enhancements and updates can be downloaded and sent to your warning lights without ever having to take them off the truck. This capability is built into all the fixtures, with no expensive central brain box required.

Keep Other Motorists Alerted

HAAS Alert's Safety Cloud is an additional feature available for the Omen Warning Lightbar Module. In retrofit applications, install a HA5 directly onto the warning lightbar’s exoskeleton, connect the interface cable, and immediately connect with the world around you.

When a HAAS Alert device is connected, the lightbar becomes a smart internet-connected beacon which alerts motorists and other first responders of your presence while responding and on scene – regardless of the brand of lights they choose. Adding a HA5 device to your system can enable over-the-air software updates for your fixtures, feature expansions, simple access to setting configurations, and intelligent multi-vehicle lighting controls.

HiViz Connect Guardian Warning Lights

The HiViz Connect (HVC) Guardian Warning Lights are an update to HiViz LED's FireTech Guardian Warning Lights. As mentioned above, the lighting system allows fixtures to communicate with each other, the internet, and fire apparatus without the need for a central brain. Watch the video below for more details on the system.

HiViz Connect also enables the HVC Guardians to receive easy-to-install simple firmware updates without having to remove them from the truck. This can be done easily by connecting to the wired HVC Network, or over a wireless Bluetooth connection after the first update.

During HiViz LED's research phase, fire departments shared that they wanted warning lights and scene lights to complement each other. The HVC Guardians start with the same profile footprint as the company's Guardian and Guardian Elite scene lights. Side by side on an apparatus, they look like an intentionally matched pair.

Added Warning Projection

For off-axis viewing, the HVC Guardians have an innovative optical design positioning a bank of LEDs next to a reflector at the edges of the fixtures so that side-firing LEDs can be illuminated perpendicular to the main lens.

This serves two functions:

• First, it allows the fixture to have a greater-than-180-degree viewing angle, making it more conspicuous to traffic in off axis conditions.
• As a secondary benefit, these LEDs project light from the uniquely shaped reflector onto the paint of the apparatus, creating additional warning projection as well as allowing for a gradual reduction from high-intensity fixture to ambient light levels.

The side-firing LEDs are designed to shut off when the vehicle is driving to prevent causing glare to the driver in their mirrors.  Once the parking brake is set, they engage to start providing additional coverage.

The HVC Guardian Warning Lights feature a full-sized aluminum heat sink, which keeps the lighting fixtures cool, ultimately contributing to the longevity of the fixture. The aluminum heat sink from HiViz is thicker than any other in the industry, with the metal folded in layers almost like an accordion which greatly increases the surface-to-air ratio.

This allows heat to dissipate more efficiently, thereby keeping the fixture cooler and extending the life of the fixture. HiViz LED confirmed the aluminum sink's durability by hanging a nearly 10,000-lb. H1 Hummer from the housing.

Moisture issues are combatted in two ways. First the Nitto TEMISH Vent allows moisture to vent, ensuring no unwanted condensation or water droplets are trapped in the lens. Second, HiViz's innovative crack-proof corners enhance the water prevention efforts of the vent. This is accomplished by designing the housing so that the screws never encounter the lens.

The design prevents over-torquing from damaging the corners of the plastic, which is one of the most common failure modes in traditional warning lights.

No other light fixtures in this class offer safeguards of this nature against both moisture and heat.