The TALQ Consortium has published Version 2.7.0 of its Smart City Protocol, marking a significant alignment milestone between three of the outdoor lighting industry’s most prominent interoperability frameworks. Released in February 2026, the updated specification introduces joint profiles developed in coordination with the DALI Alliance and the Zhaga Consortium, tightening the integration between device-level control standards and network management software across multi-vendor street lighting deployments.
Why Converging Three Standards Matters for Cities
Until now, municipalities deploying connected street lighting had to navigate a fragmented standards landscape. DALI’s D4i protocol governs luminaire-level intelligence and data collection inside the fixture. Zhaga defines the mechanical and electrical interfaces that make hardware components interchangeable between manufacturers. TALQ, meanwhile, operates at the software layer, standardizing how Central Management Software (CMS) communicates with Outdoor Device Networks (ODN) from different vendors.
Version 2.7.0 effectively stitches these layers together. The new specification introduces two mandatory profiles, a luminaire profile and a sensor profile, that map D4i-originated data attributes directly into the TALQ data model. By embedding Zhaga’s interface definitions alongside DALI’s digital lighting protocol within the TALQ framework, the update creates a clearer data pipeline from the physical lamp fixture all the way up to the city-level management platform.
Mandatory Profiles Aim to Reduce Integration Uncertainty
A notable design choice in the 2.7.0 release is the decision to make all functionalities within the new profiles compulsory. Previous certification approaches sometimes allowed partial implementation, which could lead to inconsistent behavior when products from different vendors were combined in the same network. The mandatory structure means that any device certified against these profiles must support the full scope of defined functions, removing ambiguity for system integrators and procurement teams.
This approach directly addresses a recurring pain point in municipal smart lighting tenders. Cities that have invested in multi-vendor architectures have often encountered interoperability gaps when certified products implement different subsets of a standard. By eliminating optional features within the new DALI D4i profiles, the consortium is effectively raising the certification floor, providing cities with greater assurance that products will behave predictably across mixed-technology networks.
Tighter Gateway Requirements for Lighting Control
Beyond the joint DALI D4i and Zhaga integration, Version 2.7.0 also enforces stricter functional requirements for gateways implementing the TALQ Lighting Profile. Specifically, both lamp actuator and lamp monitor capabilities are now mandatory for gateways, a requirement that previously applied only to CMS platforms. Earlier certification rules allowed gateways to qualify with just one of these two functions, creating potential gaps in lighting control and monitoring capabilities.
The alignment of gateway and CMS requirements is a practical improvement for field operations. A gateway that can actuate (control brightness, scheduling) but not monitor (track energy consumption, detect failures) provides an incomplete picture of the lighting network. Closing this gap strengthens the reliability of TALQ-certified systems for utilities and municipal operators managing thousands of luminaire endpoints.
Vendor-Defined Events Open Controlled Flexibility
The third significant change in this release introduces support for vendor-defined events, extending a pattern the consortium had already established for vendor-defined attributes. This allows manufacturers to build proprietary functionality, such as custom alerts, diagnostics, or operational triggers, on top of the standardized framework without breaking compatibility with the broader TALQ ecosystem.
This capability addresses a practical tension in standards-based markets. While standardization is essential for interoperability, manufacturers also need room to innovate and differentiate their products. The structured approach to vendor extensions allows companies to offer unique features while remaining fully certifiable under the TALQ protocol, maintaining the open ecosystem municipalities rely on to avoid vendor lock-in.
Growing Certification Ecosystem Backs Market Demand
The protocol update arrives at a time of sustained growth for the TALQ certification program. As of October 2025, the consortium reported 74 certified products, comprising 31 CMS platforms and 43 gateways, from 47 different vendors globally. The consortium’s membership has also expanded to 82 companies, reflecting increasing demand from manufacturers seeking to participate in public tenders that require open-standard compliance.
The growth trajectory is significant in the context of Europe’s ongoing municipal lighting modernization programs, where NextGenerationEU-funded projects across Spain, France, Italy, and other member states are driving large-scale LED street lighting replacements. Many of these tenders now explicitly require TALQ compliance as a condition for avoiding proprietary lock-in, a trend that has accelerated adoption of the standard over the past two years.
Open Specification Lowers Barriers to Adoption
As with previous versions, the 2.7.0 specification is publicly available at no cost through the consortium’s GitHub repository, defined using the OpenAPI Specification (OAS) for RESTful APIs with JSON data exchange. This open-access model has been a deliberate strategy since the consortium made the protocol public in 2021, aiming to lower implementation barriers and accelerate the pace at which new vendors can integrate the standard into their products.
The use of widely adopted web development frameworks, RESTful architecture over TCP/IP and HTTPS, continues to distinguish TALQ from more proprietary or hardware-specific communication protocols. For software development teams at lighting manufacturers, the practical consequence is shorter integration timelines and reduced development risk when building CMS or gateway products.
What This Means for Municipal Procurement
For city procurement teams and lighting consultants, the 2.7.0 release reinforces the case for specifying TALQ certification in public tenders. The tighter integration with DALI D4i and Zhaga means that municipalities no longer need to separately evaluate compatibility across these three standard ecosystems, a certified TALQ 2.7.0 product implicitly meets the joint profile requirements. The TALQ Consortium also offers a model tender document in seven languages, providing municipalities with ready-to-use specification language for procurement processes.
The broader trajectory points toward a maturing outdoor lighting market where interoperability is increasingly non-negotiable. As cities invest in long-lifecycle infrastructure, street lighting networks typically operate for 15 to 25 years, the ability to swap out software or hardware components from different vendors without rebuilding the entire system is not just a technical preference but a fiscal imperative.
Related Coverage on Kurrant
For a practical look at how interoperability standards shape real-world deployments, see Kurrant’s coverage of Madeira’s island-wide smart street lighting project, which incorporated TALQ requirements into its technical specifications. Additional context on proprietary versus open-standard approaches in smart city infrastructure is available in Kurrant’s original piece examining whether proprietary solutions delay smart city development.
