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Cooper Industries Showcases LED-based Fixtures at LightFair
SSLDesign News Staff
May 19, 2009...Cooper Industries, an electronic component and lighting manufacturer of Houston, Texas USA, has introduced several new products in 2009.
One of the company's latest products which was showcased at LightFair, was its outdoor LED fixture line. The fixtures reportedly feature
LED optical systems from its recent acquisition of Illumination Management Solutions, Inc. (IMS). The company says that its newly acquired proprietary LED optical technology was featured in area roadway, decorative area, floodlighting, wall mount and low-level luminaires, which the company plans to commercialize throughout the year.
"Cooper has been a leader in energy-efficient lighting technology for several years, with many industry-leading brands that offer forward-thinking lighting innovation for industrial, commercial and residential spaces," said Cooper CEO Kirk Hachigian. "We are invested in the continued development of LED and energy-efficient lighting technology, and will tirelessly work towards delivering unrivaled lighting solutions to our customers around the world." Company News Release
IST and Lighting Science Group Collaborate on Dimmable LED Products
SSLDesign News Staff
May 19, 2009...IST(Lighting), a developer of LED driver and lighting systems based in the UK, reports that it has established a strategic affiliation with Lighting Science Group Corporation to develop and produce dimmable LED fixtures which utilize its iDrive range of LED drivers.
IST says that in cooperation with Lighting Science Group Corporation, it will be launching the new 45W iDrive MultiDIM mains dimmable LED driver and mains dimmable LED downlight ranges at LightFair International in New York next week.
IST says that its MultiDIM LED driver range is the first among its mains dimmable LED drivers to offer up to 4 current output options from 350mA up to 1000mA. IST claims that it enables LED fixture manufacturers to optimize fixture efficiency and light output, without the need to purchase different drivers.
IST boasts that the MultiDIM dimmable LED driver has efficiencies between 82% and 88%. Other unique features include a loop-in, loop-out AC mains connector enabling the rapid installation and daisy chaining of multiple drivers, as well as the auto-detection of the phase dimming switch method to work seamlessly with both leading-edge and trailing-edge dimmer switches.
Lighting Science Group will also be demonstrating the dimmable DL LED downlight range which utilizes the IST's mains dimmable driver. The DL LED downlight reportedly provides up to 1600 lumens from each downlight and total system efficiencies of up to 60lm/W when driven at 20W.
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Osram Luminaires Paint the Simulated Sky of at The Trafford Centre in Manchester
SSLDesign News Staff
May 14, 2009... The Trafford Centre in Manchester is reportedly one of Europe’s largest indoor shopping malls and has attracted nearly 35 million visitors in 2008. The Centre is a focal point for shopping in Manchester. Osram’s High Power Flood luminaires are used to illuminate ‘The Orient’ part of the mall, which is comprised of a 1,600 seat food court in addition to bars and restaurants. Osram GmbH News Release,
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Osram's LED High Power Flood luminaires have been utilized at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, England. The luminaires are powered by the company's Golden Dragon LED Technology. The lighting takes advantage of dynamic color mixing to create an impression of the sky. The smooth lighting effect reportedly changes color to mimic changing conditions outside.
Future Lighting Solutions Converts Historic Gas Lamps to LEDs
SSLDesign News Staff
May 14, 2009...
Future Lighting Solutions, a solution provider and distributor of Philips Lumileds LEDs, reports that it has converted gas street lamps in Berlin to LEDs. While gas street lamps have long since been replaced in most of the world, certain historic places have kept them in working order to keep the ambience of the time period. Luxeon LED from Philips Lumileds can reportedly replicate the distinctive golden glow of the gas street lamps. According to the company, mercury vapor, or high pressure sodium would not do the trick because of their cooler beam color. Future Lighting Solutions News Release,
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OnSpeX hosts 2009 Lighting for Tomorrow Competition
SSLDesign News Staff
May 14, 2009...OnSpeX, a global supplier of product performance evaluations, inspections, and advisory services for manufacturers and retailers based in Cleveland, Ohio USA, is hosting the judging event for the Lighting for Tomorrow (LFT) competition taking place May 14-15.
The competition is organized by the American Lighting Association (ALA), the U.S. Department of Energy (represented by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), and the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE). It is a design and technology competition organized to increase the market availability of energy-efficient residential lighting fixtures.
The additional purpose of the competition is to increase the marketing, promotion, and sales of such fixtures through retailers and the primary distribution channels for the new construction and renovation markets. OnSpeX News Release
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Commentary & Perspectives...
Light Fair 2009 - Big guys there, quality still tricky to find
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
May 21, 2009...Uh-oh, the big lighting companies showed up with LED lighting!
Anytime you have a new and disruptive technology, it's handy to take a pause and see what today can really tell you about tomorrow. At the 2009 edition of Light Fair International, there were two main "shockers" we found. True to predictions, this year's event looked more like "solid state Light Fair" than "all types of Light Fair". No shock there, since LED lighting is interesting, new and moving forward. The incumbents are pretty much where they will be for the foreseeable future. The first shocker was that unlike previous years, it was not simple to tell the junk from the quality, although I am fairly confident that 80-90% of it was still junk. The second shocker was that the big lighting companies showed up, and they brought good looking products with them (see shocker #1 regarding "good looking". If you're looking for tacit recommendations or techniques to allow you to discern which products were the quality ones, check back into the last editorial, as well as something like the last year's worth, and you'll have some basic questions and knowledge points to guide you, but the highlights are: Insist on independent LM-79 test reports; compare the product to Energy Star standards; and insist they prove that their LED supplier can generate good LM-80 results. It would also make sense for you to mark your calendar now for the SSL Design Summit series, which includes the New York area in August and the Los Angeles area in October. Sponsors and showcase participants will have to meet our criteria regarding competence and quality-orientation to even be allowed to flash a logo or show a product. (You might get the feeling we're serious about the success of this market, and you're right.)
Regarding that second shock, I must humbly admit that I did not expect the "big guys" to show up this early. Yes, I expected to see them show a product here or there, and enunciate clearly their sincere commitment to developing their LED lighting program, but that it was still a little too early for them to attach their well-regarded brand names for something that was still a bit unproven. How dramatic was the showing? It seems to have been about 16 months or so back that Philips announced it was going to finally enter the North American market for luminaires and fixtures. We're not talking about SSL luminaires and fixtures, but about any and all kinds since they had previously chosen to bypass America and spend their time on all the other world markets. So here we are 16 months later, and there was Philips with 2 or 3 of their brands, including Lightolier and Hadco (courtesy of the Genlyte acquisition), showing good looking SSL product lines. Are they good yet? Despite the quality LED offerings by the Philips Lumileds subsidiary, like all the major lighting companies, I am confident there is a bit of corporate inertia to overcome that will hold them back from the "leading edge" in terms of overall efficacy or design innovation. It's a good bet that the first generation of products will be "competent" rather than "stunning". That's also what we're expecting from Cooper, and Acuity as well.
Is it good enough to win? If history tells us anything (as it typically seems to, if we just shut up and listen rather than continually blabbing on about "the totally new paradigm that has changed the fundamental precepts" kind of thing), then the answer is, "Yes, it's good enough". During the PC revolution, the new paradigm that changed everything was equally in place. No one had PCs on there desk in 1980, and by 1990, most did. In 2006, virtually no one had LED lighting in their office. By 2012, most will and by 2016, we all will. In the PC wave, the big guys were maybe a half-step behind, but it was the IBM-PC that made the business market, not "Atari-PC" or the "Tandy-PC", despite their early moves to put decent examples of PC-ness into people's hands. Hewlett Packard and Texas Instruments, both big in minicomputer market, came and stayed for quite some time. Did some "little guys" make a good showing? Absolutely. Apple led the way as a newcomer that challenged the whole approach that the big guys took, all the way to writing their own operating system (with easier networking and a more stable platform, the OS allowed Apple to sneak into the offices based almost solely on technical performance). Dell followed the big PC guys technically, but set it's sights on revolutionizing the market channel by going direct to the corporate users, and later to the consumer market when the technology became affordable there as well. Seems pretty analogous to what we might expect from the lighting market, with one marked difference. In the minicomputer market, the channels weren't particularly fat. Systems flowed from the factory to the user, with maybe one value-added stop along the way. Off-the-shelf applications hit the VARs pretty hard, further thinning the channels.
In the lighting market, the channels are king. Distributors, reps, specifiers, ESCOs, builders and property developers/managers are all taking cuts above the table, and there may even be a teensy bit going on under the table as well (oops, was that out loud?). The big lighting companies will tell you that makes all the difference, and it will predictably should allow those companies to be successful with more conservative products, sold at higher prices. Many innovative upstarts will tell their investors and customers that this is a "technical revolution" that fundamentally "changes the way the industry will do business". Nope. Remember how e-commerce was going to have us all shopping from our homes inside of 10 years, rendering brick and mortar retailers virtually obsolete other than as product pickup centers. How did that prediction work out here in year 9 of the 10? Will some innovative upstarts make it big? Dell, Apple, and Compaq tell us? You bet! How many? Probably not many, but enough to make it really interesting, and there is plenty of market available to support a lot of niche players in that $20M to $100M range, which is bigger than most pure-play LED lighting companies are right now. When it comes to the consumer market play in the next few years, I would expect a similar story; there just aren't many brands of bulbs in Lowes, Home Depot or Wal-Mart's supplier bin, and I wouldn't expect solid state lighting to be any different. The first-mover with really good replacement lamps will get on the shelves for a while, but once the big lamp/bulb guys' muscles have a product to flex in that channel, the newcomer likely won't find much loyalty and should sell while they have the chance. If you would like to get a broader picture about where the market is and where it is going you need only read our previous editorials.
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