Sweetbriar Court

The Group

With a portfolio of 120,000 homes and neighbourhood services reaching 350,000 households nationwide, the Hyde Group stands as one of the UK’s largest and most diverse providers of housing and community services.  

Established in 1967, Hyde strengthen communities, providing housing support for critical sectors, including the Armed Forces, schools, hospitals, and local councils. 

Beyond managing existing homes, Hyde is actively addressing the housing crisis. Collaborating with local authorities, developers, and investors, they pioneer new approaches to deliver more affordable homes. 

The Proposal

Offering 53 one & two-bedroom apartments, Sweetbriar Court sheltered Housing is a specialised residential community designed to support individuals requiring a secure, comfortable living environment with added care and assistance. Located just north of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, the facility offers a safe, inviting and inclusive space for residents to maintain their independence. 

The Technology

Alphatrack Systems (ASL) was commissioned to undertake a full lighting upgrade at the Sweetbriar site. This consisted of lighting in all communal and publicly accessible areas, with emergency lighting and street lighting integrated into the solution.  

ASL installed the SpectoXT system by Philip Payne, using LED fittings throughout, offering both a cost and energy-efficient solution; all lighting installed is ‘smart’ and ‘self-testing.’ This negates the requirement for monthly functional test visits, an annual drain test, and ensures critical systems like emergency lighting are always operational through real-time system reporting. 

All lights were deployed on a mesh network, and connect back to a central hub. This approach offers several advantages: 

1. Enhanced Connectivity: A mesh network allows each fitting to act as a node, relaying data to other fittings and the central hub. This ensures that even if one fitting loses its connection, the network can reroute data through other nodes, creating a more robust and fault-tolerant system. 
2. Scalability: Adding new fittings to the network is seamless, as each new device integrates into the existing mesh without the need for extensive reconfiguration, using Philip Paynes handy programming tool. This makes the system future-proof and easy to expand. 
3. Energy Efficiency: The fittings in-built PIR sensors, coupled with strategic ‘grouping’ of fittings ensures they are only ever on when needed, thus reducing energy consumption.  Additionally, the lighting output available from the new LED fittings means less fittings are required to adequality illuminate a space.  
4. Improved Coverage: The mesh network extends coverage beyond the reach of the central hub by leveraging the relay capabilities of intermediate nodes. 
5. Cost Efficiency: achieved through, significantly reduced energy consumption, reduced engineering visits and 1st line remote fault diagnostics.