LEDs Magazine chief editor Maury Wright interviews Jerry Duffy, GE Lighting’s GM of global lighting products, on the latest outdoor lighting products with smart city capabilities, as well as the company’s recently developed high-color-quality technology.
At LightFair (LFI) 2015, there was plenty of illumination on display. One bright spot was an interview between LEDs Magazine chief editor Maury Wright and Jerry Duffy of GE Lighting. Duffy, responsible for global lighting product management, talked about the company’s latest outdoor lighting technologies that have enabled smart-city projects for metropolitan areas such as San Diego, CA and Jacksonville, FL.
Duffy explained the strategy of embedding intelligence in the outdoor lighting fixtures as well as sensors, combined with cameras and communications to collect information and send it back to the city managers. Sensors and analytics have been helping these cities to monitor and resolve challenges such as parking and traffic concerns.
“The data is ultimately going to tell you where the next applications are,” noted Wright.
Turning to color quality challenges, Wright observed that warm color and high CRI come with an efficacy penalty in LED-based solid-state lighting products. Duffy explained that the recently announced TriGain potassium fluorosilicate (PFS) phosphor produces a narrow red emitter that is available now and in a form factor that can be easily integrated into lighting products that GE Lighting has planned to roll out this year and next.
The potential with such a development, commented Wright, is that forthcoming solid-state lighting products may “not just match but maybe exceed what has been done with legacy sources.”
