W-DALI lights up Akershus Fortress

The Akershus Fortress project demonstrates the true power of wireless lighting control for historical buildings and complex outdoor environments.

Akershus Fortress is one of Norway’s most important cultural landmarks. Over 700 years old, it’s a historic symbol and a defining feature of the Oslo skyline. When Forsvarsbygg (the Norwegian Defense Estates Agency) set out to renew the exterior lighting, they faced a difficult challenge: how to modernize the system without disturbing the protected site.

The answer? A fully wireless lighting control solution, powered by LumenRadio’s W-DALI technology.

Geir Sire runs Lyskontroll, a Norwegian company focusing on lighting control and system integration.

“The brief was to renew the exterior lighting system at Akershus which included a lot of old sodium fixtures with only basic on/off functionality,” explains Geir. “We needed better precision, energy efficiency and control, while respecting the site’s heritage.”

These heritage constraints meant a cabled solution was out of the question.

“Akershus Fortress is a historic monument and installing cables can require drilling, digging or attaching fixtures to walls. For a protected site like this, the construction required for new control cables would damage centuries-old stonework and exposed wiring would interfere with the historic appearance.”

66 W-DALI nodes divided into five subnets were required to control all the exterior lighting around the fortress – a total of 236 luminaires.

“I was surprised how easy the installation was,” recalls Geir. “It became mostly plug-and-play, as the nodes already knew their settings and network configuration. This saved us a great amount of time – the electricians simply mounted the nodes with no technical configuration required on-site.”

The result is a dramatic visual transformation. The new lighting highlights towers, walls and mountainsides with precision, revealing textures and tones never before visible at night. The Blue Tower now glows with its signature blue accent, while warm tones bring depth to the surrounding stone structures.