Schréder EXEDRA Sense wins two awards in 2026
Schréder EXEDRA Sense has received two awards for innovation in Australia, while Alex McCarthy, the developer of the SENSE ONE sensor technology that underpins the service, was named Young Achiever at the 2026 Lighting Industry Excellence Awards.
Schréder EXEDRA Sense was honoured with an Australian Good Design Award in the Product Design Commercial and Industrial category at a ceremony in Sydney on 9 October. These awards recognise design excellence and innovation across a wide range of disciplines, with entries being assessed by an independent jury of Australian and international experts.
Schréder EXEDRA Sense also won Most Innovative Product at the 2026 Lighting Industry Excellence Awards on 15 October. Organised by Lighting Council Australia, the awards celebrate achievement across the Australian lighting industry. Alex McCarthy, who developed the SENSE ONE sensor technology, was also named Young Achiever at the same event.
Helping cities gain more value from their lighting infrastructure
Schréder EXEDRA Sense helps cities understand how public spaces are used and how urban conditions change. By combining connected sensing technology with Schréder's lighting infrastructure and digital capabilities, the service provides insights into traffic flows, environmental conditions, crowd movements and parking occupancy.
At its core is SENSE ONE, an Edge-AI sensor platform that processes data locally and is designed to protect privacy by avoiding the collection of personally identifiable information.
Schréder EXEDRA Sense uses existing lighting infrastructure to offer cities a practical way to gather urban intelligence without the need for multiple independent sensor systems. These insights can inform better decision-making and help cities respond to their evolving needs.
The awards recognise the innovative thinking behind this approach, as well as its potential to increase the value of lighting infrastructure beyond illumination.
The Australian Good Design jury praised the platform's approach to privacy and infrastructure reuse.
The Jury was particularly impressed by the privacy-by-design architecture, which processes data locally and avoids collecting personally identifiable information, demonstrating a maturity of approach rarely seen in this category. By leveraging existing poles rather than requiring new infrastructure, the system offers cities a genuinely low-disruption pathway to smarter urban management.
Australian Good Design Jury
Turning urban data into practical benefits
Schréder EXEDRA Sense is deployed in more than 20 cities across Europe, Australia and New Zealand, helping local authorities gain insights tailored to their needs.
In Logan, Australia, the service is used to monitor vehicle speeds and count pedestrians and vehicles, providing valuable data to support road safety improvements. In Oeiras, Portugal, the city council uses it to monitor crowd movements and air quality, offering citizens real-time information on parking availability.
These applications show how existing lighting infrastructure can support a wider range of urban services, helping cities to make informed decisions and improve the management of public spaces.
Recognising the people behind innovation
Alex McCarthy's Young Achiever award adds a personal dimension to the recognition. As the creator of SENSE ONE, Alex has turned an innovative idea into technology that supports smarter urban management.
Together, these awards highlight how technical innovation and individual expertise can help cities make better use of their infrastructure and respond to the evolving needs of their communities.
At Schréder, this means looking beyond illumination to help customers find new ways to use their lighting infrastructure and create lasting value for the people they serve.