5 minutes with…. Daan Smans - CEDES
Can you tell us about your business, when it was formed and what you do?
At CEDES we are committed to progress the flow of people and goods through advancements that matter. As a technology company, CEDES has been at the forefront of lift and other building-related technology developments since 1986, holding 200+ patens across 43 patent families. In the lift industry you typically find our solutions there where measurements and detection are best served in a contactless manner, such as safeguarding the lift doors or determining the absolute positioning of the lift cabin. Core to our technology stack are opto-electronic –such as through-beam– and range-finding –such as Time-of-Flight– sensing technology.
Since a few years we are also pushing boundaries in the domain of sensor fusion technologies, about which we have written, published, and presented a number of papers. Essentially, sensor fusion leverages data taken directly at the source from multiple different sensors working in parallel. This provides a richer, more versatile data set that enables a more physics-based data science approach than more conventional approaches using the controller-interface. Besides analysing the equipment’s physical health state, our combined tech-stack provides insights into traffic patterns of people and other objects. This opens up new possibilities for lift users and operators alike, and more fundamentally the role of the lift beyond carrying people and goods up and down.
How many times have you exhibited or attended the Lift & Escalator Symposium?
This will be our fourth consecutive year presenting a paper, and we’re excited for the opportunity to exhibit for the first time this year.
Why is it an important event for you to attend?
The Lift & Escalator Symposium provides a great platform to showcase innovation and exchange between academia and industry professionals with a passion for anything and everything about lifts. For us, exchanging knowledge and new insights is both an honour and a privilege. It is our chance to give back to the global lift community that we so deeply care about.
What would you say are the key themes you’re seeing with customers this year?
First and foremost, the continuing decline of skilled professionals offset against an ever-growing lift installed base makes it ever harder for lift maintenance providers to keep equipment in good shape. Given that this trend is here to stay, tackling this challenge necessitates a fundamental shift in thinking on how we approach lift maintenance. Although my position on this is by some seen as somewhat controversial, I believe that we have no choice but to reduce the maintenance effort on a per lift basis. However, I also believe that this cannot be at the expense of the quality of service. Although not mutually exclusive, this is less about efficiency and more about most effectively utilizing the available hands. The key here is to know where and when maintenance is needed. The concept of condition-based maintenance is not new and has been adopted in other maintenance-heavy industries such as aviation and automotive long ago. When looking at these other industries, we see a striking constant: technology does not and cannot replace professionals, but it most certainly can be an aid to work smarter – we already work hard enough!
Another major theme this year is the publication of the new EN81:76 which has a key focus on using lifts for the evacuation of persons with disabilities, for example in the case of fire. In practical terms, the EN 81-76:2025 matters because it bridges a crucial gap: it turns the concept of using lifts for evacuation from an innovative idea into a codified, accepted practice. This gives project teams a solid technical foundation to include evacuation lifts as part of a holistic fire strategy, and it gives approval authorities confidence that such designs are backed by a recognised standard. In any evacuation scenario, communication is an absolutely critical element. Efficient evacuation procedures rely not only on physical escape routes but also on the clarity and reliability of communication between rescue personnel and those being evacuated. Providing clear, prioritized, and immediate voice communication during an evacuation is essential for protecting lives and ensuring responders can coordinate their efforts across large or complex buildings.
While we’re on the subject of lift communication, we see an increasing awareness and sense of urgency to move away from legacy analogue technologies such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) as well as older generations of mobile connectivity such as 2G and 3G respectively. For example, BT is urging businesses to migrate away from the PSTN to All-IP by the end of December 2025 to safeguard their services, well before the final shutdown of the network in January 20271. The sunsetting of older generation mobile technologies is going more gradual, but is consistent nevertheless. Meanwhile the sunsetting of 3G has already been ongoing for years, mainly to boost available bandwidth for 4G and 5G networks. The sunsetting of 2G has been postponed several times as many legacy machine-to-machine applications such as vending machines, security systems, and so forth, still rely on this technology. However, as older equipment is wearing out and becoming obsolete, it really is just a matter of time until 2G is also no more. These changes are also greatly affecting lift phones, as much of the current installed base still relies on these legacy technologies. When switching to All-IP communication, lift operators and service providers should also consider improving accessibility in the process too. The additional benefit of All-IP technology is the possibility to incorporate video and digital text-messaging as well, which makes a significant difference for especially the hearing-impaired.
The last theme that we see gaining increasing traction with customers is the adoption of 3D capable detection technologies. These have been mainstream for some time now across the Atlantic in the US and Canada following a code change in 2019. Essentially, the current lift door detection requirements are limited to detecting objects in the door opening. By adding 3D capability, you can detect approaching lift passengers in front of the lift. This improves user convenience and safety. Despite 3D capabilities not being codified on this side of the Atlantic, we see a growing interest from lift operators.
1 https://business.bt.com/insights/uk-pstn-switch-off/
What can delegates expect to see on your stand?
We’re excited to showcase how we help solve everyday problems for lift operators and service providers. For example, through our latest Object-Recognition-based solutions. Among other things, object recognition enables the lift’s dispatcher to take in passenger traffic data in real time thus becoming dynamic to each unique situation. But we won’t be alone on our stand: we will be joined by our partner 2N who will be demonstrating their latest EN 81-76 compliant lift voice solution.
What would you say to anyone who hasn’t attended? Why should they visit?
The lift industry is in the middle of a major transition, driven by both demographic changes and technological innovation. Throughout the years, the Lift & Escalator Symposium has been at the forefront of such developments as it brings together academia and industry professionals for meaningful exchanges. All said and done, it’s definitely the place to be for lift geeks like myself.
Which sessions are you looking forward to the most?
This year’s event has a great line-up covering various topics. I’m especially curious to hear from partners with whom we are working closely on new solutions – Pavel Kotek from 2N with “Lift evacuation communications“ and “80%: Lift traffic design’s most misunderstood number” by Dr Richard Peters.
