LEDs Magazine Highlights from LightFair – Feit Electric (VIDEO)
LEDs Magazine editor Maury Wright and Feit’s Brian Wilcox discuss pushing the networking boundaries with new Bluetooth Mesh-based connected lighting.
Feit Electric’s director of technology Brian Wilcox chats with Maury Wright about the launch of the company’s HomeBrite connected lighting targeted at the mainstream market, which comprises smart LED lamps that operate on a Bluetooth Mesh network with a user’s smartphone.
Bluetooth Mesh eliminates the use of a gateway — which can only connect a limited number of devices before the user needs to add another gateway — to connect multiple devices wirelessly and exponentially increases the number of connected lighting products that can be networked together and controlled using a smartphone without additional hardware.
The company developed its smart LED lamps to operate on a Bluetooth Mesh network, although it is not a standard yet, working with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group as a member. Wilcox explained that Feit is hoping to help drive Bluetooth Mesh as a standard alongside cell-phone providers because it believes that the low power, long range, and over-the-air updates afforded by the networking protocol will drive usability and demand.
The lineup includes various connected lighting products such as A19, BR30, PAR38, R56, and B10/candelabra-base LED lamps to cover a range of uses in light fixtures, in both indoor and outdoor applications.
Maury Wright | Editor in Chief
Maury Wright is an electronics engineer turned technology journalist, who has focused specifically on the LED & Lighting industry for the past decade. Wright first wrote for LEDs Magazine as a contractor in 2010, and took over as Editor-in-Chief in 2012. He has broad experience in technology areas ranging from microprocessors to digital media to wireless networks that he gained over 30 years in the trade press. Wright has experience running global editorial operations, such as during his tenure as worldwide editorial director of EDN Magazine, and has been instrumental in launching publication websites going back to the earliest days of the Internet. Wright has won numerous industry awards, including multiple ASBPE national awards for B2B journalism excellence, and has received finalist recognition for LEDs Magazine in the FOLIO Eddie Awards. He received a BS in electrical engineering from Auburn University.
