Istanbul Airport

Istanbul, Turkey

The Istanbul Airport is a Helvar mega-project, and currently is one of the largest lighting control projects in the world.

Situated between Europe and Asia, Istanbul Airport acts as a hub for over 90 million passengers every year, and with an area as large as this, it’s vital to monitor and reduce energy usage as much as possible. The central hub features a tailor-made Helvar solution which allows the users to monitor the entire site; including the ATC Tower, Terminal Buildings and car parks, all while communicating with the other systems in order to share data, identify failures and regulate energy usage.

In 2015, the construction of Istanbul’s New Airport started to take shape, the airport has been designed to create a unique, spacious and environmentally friendly environment for its estimated 200 million passing passengers. The design and inspiration of the architecture has been drawn from its surrounding influences of Turkish-Islamic culture and heritage. 

The first phase included the construction of three independent runways and taxiways, the apron, terminal building, air traffic, communication and meteorology systems.

The first terminal building covers an area of 1.3 million m2 and at the time, was the biggest terminal building under one roof, serving around 30 million passengers per year. Istanbul’s new Airport opened in Spring 2019, and held the title of the largest airport constructed from scratch, with 76.5 million square meters of area. 

100,000 m2 of space is home to retail stores and food services available to passengers travelling through the airport. The space is currently one of the largest duty-free zones in the world, with more than 400 national and international brands. 

Istanbul’s new airport is supported with a fully automated DALI lighting control system by Helvar using the DALI standard (EN32386) lighting protocol. Elekon, Helvar’s Turkish distributor known for their experience of large lighting installations, are managing the installation of Helvar’s lighting control system. 

Using Helvar’s two standard open protocols such as DALI and TCP/ IP, Helvar can communicate with DALI luminaires, sensor and control panels via automation cable, saving a considerable amount of installation and commissioning time. The lighting controls at the airport are monitored via a BMS system which measures the energy efficiency of Helvar’s lighting system, and highlights lighting faults in real time to ensure maximum uptime. 

With an area as large as this, it’s vital to monitor and reduce energy usage as much as possible, so additional features such as daylight harvesting are in place to ensure that lights are not in use when the right level of natural light is available. 

There are over 300,000 lighting fixtures across the Istanbul airport, which combine to create near-natural light throughout the airport – this is not only vital for the 40,000 staff who work across the airport, but it’s also important for the millions of passengers who pass through the gates – lighting controls which create a welcoming and comfortable experience for when you need it most. 

There are over 300,000 lighting fixtures across the airport, and only five types of Helvar components are required to ensure all of these fixtures are working at optimum performance – routers, relay units, sensors, user interfaces and the Niagara software. Lighting at this airport is not only vital for the 40,000 staff, but it’s also important for the millions of passengers, in order to provide a welcoming and comfortable experience where the lighting used is as close to natural daylight as possible.

Istanbul, Turkey