Owasso, OK – Crossroads LED, an innovative leader in advanced dark-sky certified LED luminaires, is honored to announce that it’s “Astrophile Series” of residential and roadway street light luminaires has won the highly prestigious “Lighting Design and Technical Innovation Award” by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).
The IDA is the globally-recognized authority on light pollution and is dedicated to preserving the nighttime environment through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting. The award recognizes individuals, organizations, and businesses that, through progressive design, construction, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship, support the IDA and its mission to preserve night skies by promoting quality outdoor lighting.
“We invested a great deal of time and research in the development of our ‘Astrophile Series’ of dark-sky lighting products during a time when other lighting companies saw no concerns with light pollution,” said Dana Stefanoff, President of Crossroads LED. “For them, street light and ‘dark sky’ seemed to be in conflict with one another. However, we believed that the safety of street lighting and the importance of protecting our night skies can both be satisfied if we simply invest in finding a solution. So, in 2018 we initiated a research and development program to design the first Phosphor Converted Amber (PCA) LED fixture with a spectrum that has ZERO percent blue light emissions and a Narrow Band Amber (NBA) street light with a peak dominant wavelength of 592nm ±2.5nm. The result of this program led directly to the development of the “Astrophile Series” (“Astrophile” literally means “lover of the stars”), the first and only lights listed by the IDA’s Fixture Seal of Approval Program (FSA) with color temperatures as low as 1600K.”
“Light pollution is significant and continues to be a growing global problem,” continued Mrs. Stefanoff. “It has increased by nearly 50% in the last 25 years and today over 80% of the population cannot see the milky way and live in perpetual twilight. And exterior lighting, including streetlights, are a major part of that problem. So we are extremely appreciative and humbled by the International Dark-Sky Association’s recognition of our efforts in developing a street light that will substantially reduce light pollution and sky glow. The award not only validates the long hours of design, testing and hard work our team has poured into the ‘Astrophile Series’ fixtures, it powerfully reinforces our position as the leader in dark-sky certified lighting.”
The “Astrophile Series” combines high output LEDs with precision synthetic optics and the Crossroads LED proprietary internally mounted and fully adjustable house side shields. The advanced fixture design utilizes the Crossroads LED patented modular component system that permits all internal components to be 100% field-replaceable while delivering high quality, low glare illumination only where it’s needed. Today, when an LED street light fails, it is usually thrown away and replaced with an expensive new unit. The “Astrophile Series” unique design not only allows for quick and easy replacement of power supplies and LED modules, it allows for future technological upgrades without having to purchase a new fixture while easily meeting all known dark-sky specifications for residential and roadway lighting.
Crossroads LED celebrates this award with such great partners, such as Bridgelux, Inc., the worldwide leader in LED technology and the developers of advanced LED dies. The collaboration between Crossroads LED and Bridgelux yielded an extremely low kelvin temperature die that maintains high efficacy and optical performance. Tim Lester, CEO of Bridgelux remarked, “We would like to congratulate our partners at Crossroads LED for this much deserved recognition from the IDA. We were excited that Crossroad’s innovation took advantage of the broad-spectrum coverage of the Bridgelux engines and used it as a tool to achieve the noble vision of providing safe street lighting while eliminating light pollution in the night sky”.
Mrs. Stefanoff explained, “It is our fundamental belief that lighting impacts the health of all living things and that encouraged us to step out with our dark-sky lighting initiative. And now, with science supporting the importance of such initiatives, more and more municipalities and businesses, both large and small, are seeing the benefits not only to their budgets but to their cities’ well-being in transitioning to dark-sky lighting. This resurgence in the desire to move from the extremely bright, blue-light emitting LED fixtures to a naturally warm light illustrates that this technology is not a ‘fad’ but a realization in this significance of how light is utilized.”
One such example is an installation at the printing facility of “The New Mexican” in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Owner, Robin Martin, commented, “I have been promoting dark skies for many years. Some 20 years ago, I helped to pass New Mexico’s first ‘Night Sky Protection Act’. When it came time to upgrade the lighting in an industrial area I own, I purchased Crossroads LED’s fixtures and asked them to oversee installation of parking lot fixtures. I am very glad I did, since Crossroads’ lights are now helping to preserve the night sky in that part of the City.”
Mrs. Stefanoff concluded, “Most forms of contamination can take decades to remediate. However, light pollution can be reduced and eliminated with dark-sky certified fixtures. It is a quick, easy and substantial solution that is literally measured ‘at the speed of light’.”
Contact:
Buddy Stefanoff, Vice President of Engineering
Crossroads LED
Email:
Web site:
www.crossroadsled.com
*Updated Oct. 21, 2021 for additional text and product details.
