Welcome to the LEDs Magazine Focus On LEDs in Lighting newsletter for Nov. 18, 2021. We’re facing up to a holiday week here in the US, although it’s been a fairly busy week for us. We will utilize this Thursday lighting-focused newsletter as a bit of a chance to catch up with the news. Normally this missive would deploy a week later but the coming Thanksgiving holiday has pushed it forward.

First let me remind you that we have a webcast coming your way at noon Eastern today. According to when this reaches you, maybe you can sign in just in time, or if not, catch the archive starting tomorrow. Experts from Vektrex and Intertek will discuss how to precisely take UV-C measurements in this pandemic era.

Meanwhile, one merger and acquisition mystery was solved recently with Acuity Brands specifically addressing the fate of its Osram Digital Systems acquisition. Our Mark Halper was dogged in his pursuit of stories relative to the ams acquisition of Osram and he covered specifically the ams divestiture of much of the Osram Digital Systems business to Acuity. That move was somewhat perplexing as both companies had extensive driver businesses and also investments in smart and connected lighting. For example, we had an article that covered when Acuity through eldoLED entered the DALI D4i driver sector. Osram had a similar driver program.

But the acquisition may have been more about the North American market. Acuity long sought to globalize the eldoLED brand although it remained somewhat European- or even UK-centric in nature. Meanwhile, Osram was a company with European heritage but much of the digital systems business was US focused under the Sylvania brand. Acuity will rebrand the prior Osram Optotronic products and PrevaLED modules as eldoLED, add to its portfolio, and better establish the eldoLED brand in North America.

We also had a story in our Newsfeed this week from Espen Technology regarding the company’s troffer-style retrofits. Troffers remain a somewhat compromise product class as our coverage of the Strategies in Light conference from 2021 would confirm. Still, there are uncountable fluorescent-style troffer fixtures installed around the world. So the news from Espen is important.

Espen is both making it simple to replace fluorescent technology with much higher quality solid-state lighting (SSL), and also allowing specifiers to use one portfolio with a selectable CCT to do so. The Versa Kit family of products indeed allows the specifier to choose between 3500K, 4000K, and 5000K CCT options, and the kits further offer the option of three lumen output levels.

The Espen products help put the spotlight on a story that we did feature in another newsletter, but that is worth mentioning again here. Signify used the venue of the COP26 conference to again remind the world that LED technology can significantly impact climate change relative to fluorescent-style technologies. Signify CEO Eric Rondolat called for quicker uptake of SSL technologies, and further stated the case for connectivity as a technology that can enhance energy savings.

You will find more lighting-centric stories of interest down below. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.

- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]