What is DALI Lighting / DALI-2 Lighting?
Why choose DALI?
Beyond controlling lights, using DALI as a technological foundation provides value for decades: in data, in flexibility, and in protected investment.
01
Actionable data
Every DALI device reports back on energy use, operating hours, and faults, in real time.
Outcome: Facility teams fix failures before occupants notice, plan maintenance instead of reacting, and feed lighting data straight into energy and ESG reporting.
02
Strong connectivity
As an open standard, DALI integrates with BMS, HVAC, blinds, and security instead of locking lighting into a silo.
Outcome: A DALI-based system contributes directly to a building’s Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) under the EU’s revised EPBD, and helps meet similar regulations in other regions.
03
Easy upgrades
DALI-2 is backwards compatible, so new sensors, functionality, and luminaires join the existing infrastructure. No rip-and-replace.
Outcome: The investment made today stays valid for decades, and specifiers never design a client into a dead end.
What DALI-2 means to you
DALI-2 is an independently verified standard designed to make lighting systems more interoperable, more flexible, and safer to specify long-term.
The DALI-2 logo can only be used on products tested and certified by the DALI Alliance. That verification replaces vendor self-declaration and removes a common source of compatibility risk.
Every DALI-2 certified product from every certified manufacturer is listed on the DALI Alliance website. You can mix and match components from different vendors and be confident that they’ll work together.
Whether a project needs wired, wireless, or a mix, DALI-2 is the same standard underneath, so specification decisions don’t lock you into a single installation approach.
DALI-2 works alongside existing DALI installations, so new builds and retrofits share the same standard without obsoleting equipment already on site.
DALI and DALI-2: What changed
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|---|---|---|
| Control Devices (Sensors/Switches) | Not standardised. Proprietary manufacturer variants only. | Fully standardised. Mix sensors and switches from different vendors without compatibility risk. |
| Interoperability Testing | Self-certified by vendors. Frequent compatibility conflicts. | Independently verified by the DALI Alliance. Certified products are tested to work together. |
| Data & Diagnostics | Basic error reporting (lamp failure, general fault). | Rich operational data: energy monitoring, asset data, and operating hours, ready for BMS and ESG reporting. |
| Backwards Compatibility | N/A (original standard). | Works alongside existing DALI installations. Upgrade in stages instead of rip-and-replace. |
For a complete technical comparison, visit the official DALI Alliance website.
DALI in action
From one of the world’s largest airports to a youth club three floors underground, see how the same open standard adapts to very different briefs.
Istanbul Airport
300,000 fixtures, one connected system
Istanbul Airport handles over 70 million passengers a year across 76.5 million m² of terminals, runways, and retail. Every one of its 300,000+ lighting fixtures runs on Helvar’s DALI control system, monitored through the airport’s BMS to track energy use in real time and flag faults the moment they happen. Daylight harvesting keeps artificial light in step with the sun across the vast terminal, and just five Helvar component types manage the entire estate.
University of Bath
A 15-year partnership powering Net Zero 2040
What started in 2008 as a small trial to automate emergency lighting testing has grown into a campus-wide DALI-2 platform managing over 100,000 devices across lecture halls, libraries, residences, and sports facilities. Early installations delivered 30% energy savings; today, Helvar Insights turns that same infrastructure into a data source for the University’s Net Zero 2040 strategy, revealing how spaces are actually used so the estate can be optimised rather than expanded.
Immanuelskyrkan Youth Club
Big-project capability, small-project scale
Three floors below Stockholm’s Immanuelskyrkan church, a disused swimming pool has been reborn as a youth hub with a music studio, workshop, kitchen, and a multi-room built inside the old pool basin itself. With no daylight to work with, Sweco’s designers used Tunable White to mimic the rhythm of natural light and DMX-controlled RGBW to transform the pool basin’s mood on demand, all managed by a single Helvar Imagine 950 controller on one DALI-2 loop.
Why Helvar for DALI?
DALI isn’t just a standard that we’ve adopted. We’ve been shaping it from the inside for decades, and today still sit on the DALI Alliance board of directors, helping drive how it evolves.
100+ years of expertise
Founding member of the DALI Alliance
Thousands of DALI projects worldwide
“Intelligent buildings are not created by adding more technology; they are created by choosing technologies that evolve together to continually improve the experience of the people who use them.
That’s why I believe open standards like DALI aren’t simply the best choice for lighting, they’re the foundation of buildings that remain adaptable, valuable and truly intelligent for decades.”
Alan Jackson, Lighting Director
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is DALI-2 backwards compatible with DALI?
Yes. DALI-2 devices are designed to work alongside existing DALI installations, so systems can be upgraded in stages rather than replaced. This is one of the reasons DALI has become the default choice for future-proofing lighting infrastructure: the investment made today stays valid as new sensors, controllers, and luminaires are added over time. The DALI Alliance publishes the certification and compatibility rules in full.
Does DALI reduce wiring and installation cost?
Compared to traditional analogue lighting control (0–10V or mains-switched circuits), yes. DALI uses a two-wire bus that connects up to 64 devices per line without polarity constraints, and control gear and devices share the same wiring. That typically means fewer cable runs, less containment, and faster commissioning, particularly on projects where lighting zones are likely to change over the building’s lifetime. On mixed or larger installations, the savings compound over time as re-zoning is done in software rather than in the ceiling void.
Do I need DALI-2 certified products?
For new specifications, we recommend it. DALI-2 certification is verified by the DALI Alliance (DiiA) rather than self-declared, which means certified products from different manufacturers are tested to work together. In practice this reduces integration risk on multi-vendor projects and makes it easier to swap or add products years later. Uncertified products may work, but they carry the compatibility risk DALI-2 was created to solve.
Can DALI integrate with BMS, HVAC, and other building systems?
Yes, and this is one of its defining strengths. DALI is an open standard, so lighting doesn’t have to sit in its own silo. Through gateways and standard protocols, DALI-based systems exchange data with BMS platforms, HVAC, blinds, security, and cloud services, feeding energy monitoring, occupancy analytics, and predictive maintenance. This is what makes DALI a foundation for Smart Readiness rather than just a lighting protocol, as seen at Istanbul Airport where DALI lighting talks to the airport’s wider BMS across 300,000 fixtures.
What is DALI control gear?
Control gear is the hardware directly connected to light sources, LED drivers, ballasts, and similar devices. Think of it as the muscle of the lighting network: it receives commands and translates them into physical actions like turning a light on, dimming it, or adjusting colour temperature. It can also report back on status, confirming dimming levels or flagging lamp failures. The original DALI standard was designed for control gear only; DALI-2 extends the same rigour to control devices.
What are DALI control devices?
Control devices manage the logic and user inputs of a lighting system, the brains of the network. They include input devices (button panels, presence sensors, light sensors) and application controllers. Input devices gather environmental data and user interactions, application controllers process that data, decide what should happen, and send instructions to the control gear. Unlike DALI, DALI-2 fully standardises control devices, so a sensor from one vendor works predictably with a controller from another.