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Digi-Key Corporation to Distribute Products From Seoul Semiconductor
LIGHTimes News Staff
March 9, 2010...Digi-Key an international electronics distributor and Seoul Semiconductor, an LED product developer and supplier, have entered into a global distribution agreement. Digi-Key will now distribute the full range of Seoul Semiconductor’s products, from the smallest DC LED to the company's AC LED, Acriche. Products stocked by Digi-Key are available for purchase on Digi-Key’s global websites. Additionally, these products are slated to be featured in future print and online catalogs.
“With technology breakthroughs increasing brightness, or lumens per watt, at lower price points, the interest in LEDs continues to grow dramatically,” said Dave Doherty, Digi-Key’s vice president of semiconductor product. “With products such as Seoul Semiconductor’s Acriche AC LED, we are confident a global partnership will benefit our customers.”
An official of Seoul Semiconductor, said, “The Digi-Key Lighting Partners Program will link our customers to the entire eco-system surrounding the LED, helping them get to market faster.”
Seoul Semiconductor News Releae
Premier Special Event Venue Gets Renaissance Lighting Color-Changing LED Technology
SSLighting Design News Staff
March 5, 2010...Elite Palace, one of New York’s premier corporate meeting and special event venues, hopes to set a new standard for advanced special effects lighting. The venue installed a color-changing solid-state LED technology from Virginia-based Renaissance Lighting. Opened less than two years ago, Elite Palace has already gained a solid reputation for its “intelligent lighting”, especially the many integrated color-changing lighting fixtures. The lighting color can be changed to match everything from the mood of a milestone event like an anniversary to the subtle colors of bridesmaid dresses at a wedding celebration or the coloration of a logo at a corporate event.
Renaissance Lighting News Release
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Meyda Custom Lighting Creates Custom Victorian Chandelier for Traverse City Opera House
SSLighting Design News Staff
March 5, 2010...Dr. Timothy Hanley and his wife Sally chose to donate a chandelier to the Traverse City Opera House as part of a major restoration project. The Traverse City Opera House was the first public building in Traverse City to feature electric lighting. The opera house, which was built in the 1890s in downtown Traverse City, is now a cultural hub in the area.
Meyda Custom Lighting of Yorkville, New York was contacted to custom design and manufacture a one-of-a-kind fixture. Meyda Custom Lighting is a Meyda Tiffany company and a leading manufacturer and designer of custom lighting and decor.
The original Victorian-style chandelier, which featured Vienna glass globes powered by gas, was lost long ago. No images of the fixture were available. The new chandelier was based on a conceptual design prepared by the opera house's restoration architects, Quinn-Evans of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The design represents an historic interpretation of lighting fixtures that were in use in the late nineteenth century.
Meyda Custom Lighting News Release
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Clean Light Green Light and Evergreen LED Receive IP Licenses from ilumisys for LED Fluorescent Tube Replacements
SSLighting Design News Staff
March 5, 2010...Ilumisys of Troy, Michigan, a producer of LED-based lighting,
reports that it has granted a license for its patents on LED fluorescent tube replacements to Clean Light Green Light, based in Mt. Clemens, Michigan and Evergreen LED of Westmoreland, New Hampshire.
The licensing agreement stipulates that Clean Light Green Light and Evergreen LED will pay royalties to ilumisys in exchange for rights to manufacture and sell products covered by Altair’s patent portfolio.
“Being a licensee complements our commitment to offering our customers high quality LED lighting technology while opening up a true partnership with ilumisys relative to its intellectual property,” said David McKinney, CEO of Clean Light Green Light. “The LED industry is growing at a rapid pace, and we are fortunate to be at the center of this dynamic industry in Michigan.”
ilumisys News Release
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Philips Appoints First Chief Design Officer for Lighting
SSLighting Design News Staff
March 5, 2010...For the first time Royal Philips Electronics has appointed a chief design officer for lighting to unify the company's overall design efforts for lighting.
The company indicated that the creation of the new position was a further step in elevating the role of design in the company. Philips recognized that design is a key factor of brand differentiation and a significant source of competitive advantage. The company announced that Rogier van der Heide will be appointed in the newly created position of Chief Design Officer for Philips Lighting. The role of Chief Design Officer has already been established within the Philips Consumer Lifestyle and Healthcare Sectors.
Implicit in the creation of the new position is the acknowledgement that competitive and efficient lighting (especially that using LEDs) requires a lighting design that goes way beyond the incandescent bulb in form and function.
“Lighting design can explore new and unique ways that lighting can meet people’s needs and aspirations through form, function and emotion. Rogier’s work has shown that he truly understands how to simply enhance people’s lives with light. By bringing Rogier into the design leadership of the company we are strengthening our commitment to the field of lighting design and becoming a better partner for our customers,” said Stefano Marzano, CEO Philips Design and Chief Design Officer for Philips.
Rogier van der Heide will begin his new position as Chief Design Officer for Philips Lighting, beginning on March 1, 2010. Rogier has twenty years of experience designing innovative and creative lighting solutions. He is internationally recognized as one of the leading architectural lighting design specialists and has been awarded many of the industry’s most prestigious awards and accolades, including the Lighting Designer of the Year Award 1998, the International Association of Lighting Design Radiance Award in 2005 and the International Lighting Design Award of Excellence in 2005 and 2006. Until recently, he served as director at Arup and global business leader lighting design of Arup Lighting.
“The role of Chief Design Officer has been installed in Philips Lighting to strengthen our dialogue with stakeholders by offering a new voice that speaks the same language of innovation as many of our customers and partners. Through this appointment we are able to further integrate design in our business creation processes and people-led innovation. We are thrilled to have Rogier join and bring his strong experience in lighting and architectural design,” added Rudy Provoost, CEO Philips Lighting. Royal Philips Electronics News Release
iSuppli Predicts LED Shortage in 2010
LIGHTimes News Staff
March 2, 2010...iSuppli Corporation warns that the global supply of LEDs is facing a shortage in 2010. The company further warns that the year may end in acute undersupply unless production capacity is increased. The company says that in 2009 consumption of LEDs reached 63 billion units, up from 57 billion in 2008.
iSuppli estimates that the overall LED consumption for 2009 came
"dangerously close" to the industry’s total capacity of 75 billion units. The company says that many LED manufacturers were operating at nearly 100 percent utilization levels.
“It is clear that demand is outstripping supply,” said Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst for wireless research at iSuppli. “With LED market growth forecasted to rise by double-digit percentages for at least the next three years—including 2010—a drastic undersupply situation could occur this year unless additional capacity is brought online to meet the increased demand.”
LED -backlit LCD TVs are demanding more and more LEDs.
iSuppli points out that unlike notebooks, which typically use 50 LEDs, or monitors, which employ about 100 LEDs, LCD-TVs on average consume anywhere from 300 to 500 LEDs per panel. Additionally, the company notes that LEDs used for backlighting of LCD-TVs demanding a high level of uniformity. Therefore, iSuppli says that the main impact of the shortage will be on LEDs for LCD TV panels. iSuppli News Release
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Lighting Science Group and Senergy USA Enter Nationwide Marketing & Supply Agreement
SSLighting Design News Staff
March 2, 2010...Lighting Science Group Corporation of Satellite Beach, Florida USA, has entered into a nationwide marketing and supply agreement with Senergy USA, LLC, a provider of turnkey municipal lighting solutions. The companies reportedly plan to coordinate marketing and supply efforts to American cities, counties and towns. Under the terms of the agreement, Senergy will utilize the Lighting Science Prolific series of roadway luminaires to replace inefficient high pressure sodium cobra head street lights.
Lighting Science group contends that its Prolific LED street lights supplied by Senergy USA, generate immediate cost savings, and improve aesthetics, safety, and reliability. Senergy reportedly vets, finances, and ensures long-term performance for innovative products including LEDs, communication devices, and Smart Grid. Senergy says it works closely with municipalities to achieve immediate and growing cost and energy savings and improved lighting.
Lighting Science Group News Release
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Seesmart LED and L.A. Lighting Partner to Offer Complete LED Lamp and Luminaire Solution
SSLighting Design News Staff
March 2, 2010...Seesmart, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of SSL technology, announced that it has partnered with Los Angeles Lighting, a commercial lighting company based in Los Angeles, CA. The company's contend that the partnership will allow them to provide the only ETL listed and approved complete LED luminaires.
“Partnering with L.A. Lighting gives us the ability to provide the very best lighting fixture technology to our clients in a variety of forms and fashions to integrate with our LED lighting products,” said Raymond Sjolseth, President of Seesmart LED. “Our mutual commitment to quality and manufacturing in the USA will enable Seesmart LED and L.A. Lighting to be at the center of the dynamic and rapidly growing LED industry.”
“We are pleased to have Seesmart LED as a valued business partner offering quality, dependable and efficient LED light products at a variety of pricing value points,” said Bill Shapiro, President of L.A. Lighting.
Seesmart News Release
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Commentary & Perspectives...
Breaking SSL barriers... and ratting out the fiends
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
March 5, 2010..."Records are made to be broken," quotes the old adage, and it is never more true in vibrant technology areas such as LED lighting. Two of solid state lighting's 'technology barriers' have recently been broken with a recent announcement from Cree of lab results for 200+ lumen-per-watt (lm/w) from a power LED, and from BetaLED with new 100 lm/w exterior soffit luminaires. While barriers may be just a another number, they also have significance to humans because they build belief. In some cases, it's belief that a particular task really can be accomplished. Sir Edmund Hillary succeeded at climbing Mt. Everest, and now about 150 people reach the summit of that mountain each year. In other cases, it demonstrates that a barrier is not a physical one, but a mental one. The four minute mile was deemed by many to be "unbreakable" due to human physiology. "Not enough capacity to absorb oxygen, and it's simply too long a span to maintain that anaerobic condition," was a common argument. Then in May of 1954, Roger Bannister broke the barrier. While that was a huge accomplishment, even more stunning was that it was broken a second time by Bannister's closest competitor, John Landy, just six weeks later. This wasn't a one-off miracle performance. The barrier wasn't a physical barrier, but a psychological one. In classic "did it second" form, Landy took the approach that "it wasn't really a barrier" at all and contended that, “It has nothing to do with psychology," he was quoted as saying. "It was just a matter of having the right runners at the right level of training and the right set of circumstances." Meanwhile the "barrier" had stood and been argued-over for over decades, while human physiology hadn't gotten better. People had simply been training to get as close to the 4 minute mile as possible, but not necessarily to get under it. Once the "barrier" was broken, perceptions changed to "how much below it can we get. Once there were at least two believers", 9 or 10 managed the feat in the next 24 months with the new records continuing to be set 18 more times from 1955 to 2000!)
It wasn't that long ago when some were suggesting that 200 lm/watt would be close to all we could expect out of a power LED source, and I remember charts showing LED efficacy showing a real asymptote kicking in around that 200 lm/w. The DOE's LED lighting roadmap has actually been adjusted at least once to reflect the efficacy growth curve exceeding the time frames that the industry originally expected. When asked for some thoughts on "the barrier", Cree's New Business Development Director, Mark McClear commented that, "By hitting that mark, I think it has been pretty clearly demonstrated that there is still more room to grow. Breaking this 'barrier' clearly establishes LEDs as the most energy-efficient artificial light source." Cree has been very reliable about turning "lab results" into production-available products in a12 to 18-month time frame.
The second recent accomplishment was breaking that 100 lm/w "barrier" at the luminaire level. I suspect that Beta isn't the first to claim the accomplishment, but I do know that they have been one of the consistent performers in the exterior SSL lighting space, and are probably the most visible brand in that segment. And if they said it, that we can expect it is true. While 100 lm/w doesn't suddenly shift the business case in comparison to 96 or 98, it is easy to recognize that "more than 100" is something that the industry can latch onto in order to stake claim to offering the highest efficacy solutions. “Our achievement of reaching over 100 lumens-per-watt delivered in outdoor LED luminaires demonstrates the advantages of LED technology over HID,” said Christopher Ruud, president of BetaLED, a division of Ruud Lighting.
Hopefully what will be memorable here is that the 100 lm/w mark is being achieved
'on the target'. As Ruud explained, “Lumen-per-watt ratings on traditional
lamp sources are misleading because they don’t account for inefficiencies
of the ballast, reflector or lens. Lamp manufacturers have claimed 100 lumens-per-watt
with conventional light sources but this was not a measure of total lumens exiting
the product. While HID technologies reached the 100 lumens-per-watt mark
at the lamp, i.e. bare source, the light output was not directed in a useable
fashion. Up to 40 percent of the bare lamp’s output can be lost to
ballast, reflector and lens inefficiencies. BetaLED integrates LED chip
technology with optical performance and an optimized fixture design to maximize
light output at the source and on target. This delivered, targeted-lumen output
is the most efficacious luminaire to date, and further proof that an LED is
the most efficient light source in the industry."
I think Mark summed it up nicely with a thought on the ultimate relevance, outside
of this or that number. "Raising the performance bar in brightness and
efficacy is really about economics. Each advance in LED performance lowers LED
lighting product costs, opens new markets and applications and brings the LED
Lighting Revolution to more and more people." The performance continues
to march forward regardless, but I believe the fact that these 'barriers' have
been broken will really lock into people's minds that "LED lighting can
do it".
Time to start calling out the violators?
In my marketing life, I have never been one to focus others' attention too much on what the competition is doing, generally preferring to simply "outperform and ignore them" rather than make more direct accusations of their exaggerations or 'specsmanship'. That admittedly colors my thinking to create some distaste on those that might take a different approach. But things have changed, I believe. For the LED lighting market, as LED efficacies come up, new entrants are better able to claim that their luminaire, or their "integral replacement lamp" if it is an LED bulb or LED tube type of design, is a cost effective replacement for an incandescent, fluorescent or HID source. The specs make the case, and while in the past, if a company was claiming 50 lm/w but only putting out 40, it didn't really matter all that much since no rational decision maker was going to choose their solution compared to a fluorescent or HID incumbent except in a few specialized cases. Generally, when you have a specialized case, extra diligence is required and the truth will be uncovered in short order. A bad apple doesn't have to ruin the whole bushel in most of those real-world circumstances.
But as LEDs really do become recognized as the most efficacious source out there, the risk to the industry is increasing. The decision maker sees enough luminaires from reliable suppliers to be putting out 80 lm/w and more, so it starts to sink in that such performance isn't the special case that it once was. As their guard comes down, so does their risk aversion and skepticism. They test a few top notch suppliers, and find those suppliers are meeting the specs they claim. "Looks like the claims are reliable," they say to themselves. Then along comes a supplier whose name has been out there, and who is claiming a spec along the lines of what the decision maker has seen, with the addition that the "new guy" is showing a substantial cost savings. Makes sense... the two progress curves are "increased performance at the same price" and "similar performance at a lower price" especially from lower-overhead and potentially more agile new entrants. Problem is, the manufacture is lying, or using inferior materials, and with the decision maker's guard down, it may not be discovered until hundreds of units are installed (especially if they are replacement lamps). The industry gets a black eye.
So what should be do? Our suggestion is that maybe it's time to reset the industry's "politeness meter" to be oriented towards protecting the customers, and start calling out the blatant violators. At least one resource for that is in the Energy Star realm. Recently, we even let one slip through, as a company that signed up as an Energy Star "partner" projected the story that it was due to its product performance. "Partner" says "we want to support the Energy Star program" not "we have Energy Star qualified products". And Energy Star is pretty clear on its policies. "Partner" can't be used to imply the products are Energy Star approved, whether the mistake is made intentionally or not. There's no fine print about it either. Personally, I think the Energy Star "brand" is well enough established that the use of the phrase "partner" should be scaled back to include only those companies that have at least one product that is actually certified for the mark. They may have other products that aren't there yet, or for which a category doesn't exist, but having at least one would probably take us 90% of the way towards eliminating the problem, both because ignorance would not be an excuse, and because violation of how "partner' is used would put the company at jeopardy of losing their Energy Star approval on a product that they invested effort in getting the mark attached to. We are advocating that violators be reported. If you see what you believe to be the improper use of the Energy Star Partner mark, or see claims of an LED replacement lamp as being "Energy Star qualified" (the specs don't kick in until August), you can and should report them to ssl@energystar.gov.
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