I am planning to mount smart downlights recessed in a ceiling that is held up in the middle by a large steel beam. Half of the lights will be on one side of the beam, and half on the other side. The beam, also known as a rolled steel joist (RSJ) or universal column (UC), has a ‘web’ of 7mm thick steel plate which blocks any direct line of sight between the bulbs in the two halves of the roof.
My concern is that this 7mm steel plate might affect the ‘mesh network’ formed between the smart bulbs. Before finishing the build out and finding out the hard way that things don’t work, I’d like to know, does anyone here have experience of a scenario similar to this?
The ceiling bulbs will all be in the same horizontal plane, and the steel beam too. Is there some way I can have a device in a different plane (e.g. at worktop / counter ievel) that can act a repeater in the mesh for devices on either side of the beam? Could this be a simple battery operated ‘remote switch’ or would it have to have a constant power-supply. Can a remote-switch device repeat, or would it have to be another bulb? Would this be a bottleneck and cause delays in response to commands sent to bulb groups? Should this be a reason to consider or avoid any specific RF technology (such as Zigbee, ‘wifi’, 6LoWPAN, etc) that the bulbs should use.
I welcome input from anyone who has overcome issues like this themselves. Thanks