Few people may immediately think of Panasonic when they hear that the company handles lighting for buildings and landscapes, but those who have experience in interior work (including on the order side) for new construction and remodeling can easily understand how large a share Panasonic also holds. A particularly obvious example is that most of the light switches on the walls are made by Panasonic. Panasonic Electric Works (EW) is an operating company of Panasonic that is mainly involved in the lighting and electrical materials business. On November 1, the company began offering a cloud-based lighting production service called “Machi Direction Cloud Yoimakase. We visited Panasonic’s head office in Tokyo to learn more about this new service, which requires no initial installation costs and can be considered a subset of lighting production. Yoimakase” is handled by the Solution Engineering Division, which is part of Panasonic EW, a lighting and electrical equipment and materials company that provides not only product sales, but also solutions to issues that meet the needs of its customers, including lighting. In addition to the delivery of hardware such as systems, they also provide total solutions including maintenance, data analysis, and consulting. We interviewed Mr. Tomonori Sato of the Street Production Service Planning Section, Product and Service Planning Department, Public Entertainment Category, Solution Engineering Division, and Ms. Chikoto Miyamoto, Senior Manager of the Sales Planning Section, Product and Service Planning Department, Solution Engineering Division, for more details.
Light up seasonal events and buildings like a subscription Panasonic EW launched a cloud-based lighting production service called “YOI-en” in October 2022, before the launch of the “Yoimakase” service. Yoimakase” is an easy-to-introduce, zero initial cost, subscription-like lighting production service. Yoimakase” is offered as a service to encourage those who want to stage local nighttime performances but are hesitant to do so due to cost. The monthly fee is divided into a fixed basic fee based on the number of devices installed and adjustment costs, and a pay-as-you-go fee based on lighting hours and production scenes. In addition to simply installing the system, Panasonic EW can also manage the operation of the system, including setting the schedule, monthly operation reviews, monitoring for abnormalities, and monthly reports on your behalf. Although there is a separate flat-rate fee for this service as a “managed service,” the overall concept of the “Yoimakase” service is to comprehensively “leave the nighttime lighting production to us. Yoimakase” utilizes “YOI-en” as a system. The name “YOI-en” is a combination of the image of “Yoi” (sunset) and “En” (connection), and he hopes that “good connections” will be made through the cloud. Mr. Sato said, “We hope to bring out the charm of the city through lighting. By making it a cloud service, we can continuously update the lighting direction, so we can create a town that changes with each visit, creating an impression that makes people want to visit again and again. The big advantage of Yoimakase is that we can easily introduce special staging based on the season or other requests,” he says. It is intended for trial use before installing lighting on a permanent basis or for specific events during the season, and is basically a one-year contract, or two years at the most. However, this does not mean that they cannot be used for a long period of time and can be extended by re-signing a contract. Short-term contracts are also possible, and contracts are relatively flexible, but if the facility is converted to a permanent installation, new equipment will have to be installed separately.
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