IN THE SPOTLIGHT TODAY: Wednesday, May 6
Tradeshow hours are 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
- Presented by Dean Brockob and Steven Peterson, this seminar presents a humorous review of lighting applications gone bad - showing a wide range of shortcomings. Beware of products used outside their intended application. Beware of products that don't quite perform they way they said they would. Examples include: - misuse of a product, unusual product failures, forgetting to plan ahead for landscape growth. Attendees will learn:
1. 53 reasons why you should consider using a lighting consultant. Many of these applications are reminders of how those with little lighting experience can mess up a project. Some expertise could prevent many of these botched jobs! "Good architecture can easily be ruined by poor lighting." - David L. DiLaura
2. Beware of the VE! These "alternates" and "equals" might seem like good ideas initially. But perhaps 2 years down the road, the owner might show a little buyer’s remorse. Maybe it wasn't quite as "equal" as we had hoped.
3. Beware of the weather and the environment. Sometimes products look fantastic in the dry conference room on the clean conference table. But rain, humidity, dirt, bugs, and even elk can mess up your lighting system.
Another feature on the trade show floor is LED University, located in the Cyber Café (Booth #3145), where attendees will find a series of hands-on product demonstrations. The Wednesday schedule is as follows:
10:30 am: Inside LED chips and how they make light, presented by Cree
11:30 am: Selecting and specifying betaLED luminaires, presented by betaLED
12:30 pm & 4:30 pm: Implementing Carmanah solar LED lighting technology in your environment, presented by Carmanah
1:30 pm. & 5:30 pm: Integrating Echelon lighting controls with LED technology
2:30 pm: How to evaluate Cree LEDs on performance characteristics, presented by Cree
3:30 pm: Longevity and thermal management in betaLED luminaires, presented by betaLED
REFLECTIONS AND REFRACTIONS: Tuesday, May 5
Awards:After an excellent creative audio-visual retrospect of the 20 years of LIGHTFAIR, the LFI Innovation Awards (LIA) got off to a great start with the humorous repartee of Gary Dulanski, who along with Mark Roush MC’ed the event in the best theatrical flare.
No sooner was the awards presentation underway than the award for the "Research, Publications, Software, Unique Applications" category was given as a Judges Citation Award ("special recognition of an innovative product at the judges’ discretion") to the IES for LM-80-08 Approved Method for Measuring Lumen Maintenance of LED Light Sources. Accepting the Award for the IES was Rita Harrold, IES Director, Education and Technical Development/Technology. Bravo and kudos, Rita and IES, we have come along way in the technology and standards development with the thoughtful assistance, drive, participation and wisdom of the IES and especially Rita herself!
Then, if that wasn’t enough to congratulate the advancement of LED technology and the market, each and every award went to an LED product. The 2009 LIA winners can be found here.
Tradeshow:
During a famine, Marie Antoinette was alleged to have said, “Let them eat cake”. With no famine, but a feast of exhibitors and product awaiting attendees inside the trade show, anticipation grew shortly before 10:00 am when LIGHTFAIR officially celebrated its 20th anniversary with 12 exhibitors who have been in the show since its inception, with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and everyone receiving a piece of cake. In droves, attendees flowed onto the trade show floor. The list of the 12 faithful exhibitors (and not angry men!) can be found here. Most, where applicable, are now offering LED products. Between the LIA Awards and this retrospective, who would have thought that this would have been seen to occur so rapidly a few years ago?
An annual event is the orientation seminar for new attendees to LIGHTFAIR, where, this year, close to 100 had their eyes opened to the ‘bright lights’ and what was in store.
GE media event:
Over the lunch hour, I attended a very interesting presentation made to the Media by GE, where we learned more about GE’s intentions in the SSL market and what products will be coming to market in the short and term. GE sells lighting in 56 countries. With CFLs only having a market share of 30% as reported by GE, CFLs have now overtaken their incandescent business in dollar volume, thus causing GE to abandon their intentions o develop and release to market, a high-efficiency incandescent bulb. GE is currently involved in many commercial sector building LED lighting projects with members of the Commercial Building Energy Alliance and the Retail Energy Alliance.
Michael Petras, President of GE Lighting and Industrial commented that consumers should be able to see quality ‘household name brand’ LED products in retail stores over the next 4 years. When talking about performance, Petras said, “Its all about usable lumens, not simply lumens per watt.” Petras outlined that GE makes a significant effort in the areas of awareness, education and networking with various sectors. “GE is focused on reliability and designs products to the DFSS protocol or Design for Six Sigma” said Petras but is still designing outdoor lighting with modularity in mind added Mike Armstrong of GE, thus reinforcing the need for reliability. When asked about GE’s IP and company acquisition strategy, Petras commented that they look at quality over quantity, rather than simply amassing a ‘library’ of IP. Petras added that acquisitions may be in the strategy and that they are looking at what ‘spaces to play in’ and watching the competition and the market to identify whether it makes sense, but it has to be at the right valuation. Attendees can see GE’s LED offerings in the GE pavilion on the trade show floor.
L Prize and DOE:
Also over the noon hour, the Department of Energy hosted an L Prize Meet & Greet, where L Prize Partners had an opportunity to meet with each other and network with manufacturers and other interested attendees.The response to the DOE presence is quite impressive, with many attending the schedule of training sessions. So why does the DOE attend LIGHTFAIR? Jim Brodrick responded to this in his May 5th issue of ‘Postings: from the desk of Jim Brodrick’. “This week I am writing from LIGHTFAIR International, considered the gathering place for the lighting industry in North America. Co-sponsored by IES and IALD, the event is in its 20th year, and it's big--about 20,000 international and domestic architectural, design, engineering and lighting professionals gather with more than 500 exhibitors from around the world. It's a great place to get a glimpse of the direction of architectural and commercial lighting products and services in the coming year. If you've ever walked a large trade show floor, you can picture it--new product designs and introductions, technological advances and lighting solutions. This year, LEDs are everywhere, with exhibitors making big, bold statements. It is both exciting and overwhelming.
You might be wondering why the DOE SSL team attends. After all, the government isn't in the business of selling products. But DOE has committed to transforming lighting in the future--through many R&D and commercialization support activities. Think about it--the last time lighting was completely transformed may have been in Edison's days, or perhaps when HID lights gained momentum mid-century. The hardest part for all who come here to LIGHTFAIR is to cut through the hype, the glitz, and the glow of thousands of lighting products and sort the wheat from the chaff. To help attendees learn in a vendor-neutral place, we've got back-to-back training sessions (in Booth #2975) to educate the public on DOE programs, like ENERGY STAR, CALiPER testing, GATEWAY demonstrations, SSL Quality Advocates, and more.
To transform lighting in the U.S., DOE must stay on the pulse of what's happening, which makes attending LIGHTFAIR a must for us, too. Staying current in a fast-moving market is a challenge--just as a laptop that entered the market in May 2008 differs significantly from a May 2009 product offering, solid-state lighting technology changes rapidly, and it is on a fast path to the consumer.” Our appreciation is extended to Jim and the team.
Seminars:
Both John Curran’s ‘100,000 Hours of Life & Other LED Fairy Tales’ presentation, now into its second year, as well as Rick Kauffman’s LED Roadway Lighting Case Study were excellent and well attended, leaving attendees with increased knowledge. Both presentations gave great examples of best practices from lessons learned.
INTO THE LIGHT TOMORROW: Thursday, May 7
Show hours are 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, a shorter last day, so get there early for your final look.
Essential seminars on Thursday include:
The US Department of Energy continues their series of Training Sessions, with the shorter schedule due to the earlier closing time of the trade show.
LED University continues with their series of hands-on product demonstrations, also with the shorter schedule due to the earlier closing time of the trade show.
LIGHTS OUT:
When the exhibit hall lights went down at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, the hall still shined brightly from the many displays still in action. The excitement will continue and grow over the next 2 days with thousands more attendees traversing the floor. With exhibitors and attendees both pleased and exhausted, everyone will be refreshed for another day of LIGHTFAIR on Wednesday, or should I say LEDFAIR!
