Ki. transforms Christmas lighting control with remote CMS scheduling

The Challenge

Onchan’s much-loved Night of Light event marks the start of the festive season every year — a community celebration featuring moonlit boat rides, live performances, an outdoor Christmas cinema, and a visit from Santa himself. But the showstopper everyone comes for is the switching on of the Christmas lights.

Until now, though, managing Onchan’s festive lighting had been far from simple.

For years, it meant a time-consuming and manual process. Operatives had to visit every column and feeder pillar across Main Road and Governors Road on the night of switch-on, and again after the season to activate and isolate decorations.

Some lighting features relied on individual time clocks and isolators within columns, while others were grouped by location. This led to high labour costs, inconsistent schedules, and increased risk of errors and faults. Maintenance was challenging, and troubleshooting was slow, with limited visibility into system performance.

With an aging street lighting stock and rising costs, Onchan District Commissioners wanted a smarter, more efficient way to manage their festive displays.

The Solution
As part of a wider investment in modern infrastructure, Onchan sought a CMS that could control both everyday street lighting and decorative features. Ki., Lucy Zodion’s smart city platform, was chosen for its value, ease of use, and excellent support.

The project began with the installation of a Ki. gateway and nodes across the village. To enable remote control of festive lighting, a switch box housing a 7-pin NEMA socket was developed in collaboration with ODC and fitted with a dedicated Ki. node. This gave Onchan full scheduling control via the Ki. dashboard, with separate timed profiles for decorative lighting and photocell control for standard columns.

Implementation was quick and intuitive, with Lucy Zodion providing support to ensure seamless integration and usability. The result: a flexible, reliable lighting system that can adapt to seasonal needs without manual intervention.

The Impact
The upgraded lighting system was successfully tested during a short trial ahead of the official switch-on event. The trial confirmed the system’s performance, giving Onchan confidence in its reliability and ease of use, helping to ensure that this year’s festive celebrations would run smoothly.

Now, Onchan’s festive lighting scheme is smarter, safer, and simpler to manage:

  • Lower costs – No need for manual switch-on/switch-off site visits
  • Improved efficiency – Real-time remote scheduling and energy monitoring
  • Consistent performance – All features activate simultaneously and reliably
  • Faster issue resolution – Troubleshooting and fault reports from one platform
  • Reduced error risk – No more manual clock programming

The Future
Encouraged by the results, Onchan plans to expand the use of Ki. beyond festive lighting. The Local Authority is exploring smart applications such as gully and public waste bin monitoring to help target limited resources where they’re most needed.

Ryan Forgie, District Surveyor from Onchan District Commissioners comments:
“Switching to Ki. has given us full control of our festive lighting from one place. It’s reduced labour, improved efficiency, and made our lighting scheme much easier to manage. We’re now looking at other ways smart city technology can support our services.”