Opinions

Opinions & Appointments

Resources | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Wilfried Kramb | Opinions | May 04, 2020

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Wilfried Kramb, Interior & Lighting Designer, a∙g Licht

TTB from LpR 75: The value of lighting design and light planning has always been underestimated, despite it becoming more important with the rise of Solid-State-Lighting. This is a fact that the public doesn't realize, even though the industry does. Digitalization, compared with the special properties of LED lighting and the aim of the lighting industry to establish their IoT hubs, is a new challenge. This is even more apparent when trying to integrate light sources directly in building structures. Responsibilities and tasks are no longer clearly separated between the different disciplines of architect, lighting designer, IT planner and electro planner. Guenther Sejkora and Arno Grabher-Meyer talked with Wilfried Kramb, owner and CEO of a·g Licht, about these tendencies and topic. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Health + Environment | Quality | May 04, 2020

Providing Better Light Should Still be the Focus of the SSL Industry

Commentary from LpR 75: As President of Bardsley Consulting, Norman advises industry, government and academia on solid-state lighting, flat panel displays and energy efficiency, with special emphasis on diffuse lighting and organic electronics. He is a member of the Technical Advisory Team for the Solid-State Lighting Program of the US Department of Energy. Dr. Bardsley also acts as Chief Analyst for the International Solid-State Lighting Alliance (ISA) and is a member of the UNEP Expert Task Force on LED Lighting and Controls. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | UV | Disinfection | Feb 05, 2020

Selecting the UV LED Wavelength for Purification Applications

Patrick Durand is the Worldwide Technical Director at Future Lighting Solutions (FLS) with over 15 years of experience in the solid state lighting industry. Patrick leads the FLS Technical Marketing teams and FLS laboratory teams located in multiple regions around the world with the objective of providing world-class support to lighting OEMs in developing luminaires with the latest SSL technology from the light source to the complete system incorporating the LED driver, optic, thermal management and intelligent control solutions. Read more »

Environment | Commentary | Resources | Health + Environment | Dec 16, 2019

Care, Caution & Awareness Are Needed When Using LED Lights

Kyra Xavia is a researcher, educator and investigative journalist based in New Zealand. Her roles as general secretary of the Light and Lighting Research Consortium (LLRC), delegate for the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), New Zealand Ambassador for Women in Lighting 2019, and co-leader of the Dunedin Dark Skies Group, involve educating decision-makers and the public about the importance of responsible lighting, nocturnal placemaking and the value of darkness. Recognised in New Zealand and abroad for her advocacy in these matters, Kyra has co-authored research papers and published articles specific to this subject. Kyra has recently been awarded with The Dark Sky Defender Award. Read more »

Resources | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Laser Technology | Dec 16, 2019

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Julian Carey, Marketing Manager at SLD Laser

In 2016, Nobel Laureate, Professor Shuji Nakamura held a key note speech at LpS. As the founder of Soraa and SLD Laser, he named laser lighting as the next, innovative step and disruption in lighting. He emphasized the need to focus on light quality and the tailoring of LED lighting to the natural needs of humas, providing light that mimics sunlight as closely as possible. It was therefore self-evident that LED professional would invite Julian Carey, the Product and Technical Marketing Manager at SLD Laser, for a Tech-Talk when he was at the LpS 2018 in Bregenz. We asked him for an update on the status of laser lighting, business strategies and future prospects and how laser lighting has developed since Professor Nakamura's statements in 2016. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Quality | Nov 15, 2019

Commentary: Providing Better Light Should Still be the Focus of the SSL Industry

J. Norman Bardsley, PhD - As President of Bardsley Consulting, Norman advises industry, government and academia on solid-state lighting, flat panel displays and energy efficiency, with special emphasis on diffuse lighting and organic electronics. Read more »

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Dr. Scott Wade, Technical & Certification Manager, DiiA

Dr. Scott Wade has been the Technical & Certification Manager for DALI/DiiA since 2013 and has been an industry expert member of the IEC62386 standardization team for about 14 years. He was invited to hold a lecture at the LpS 2018 about the founding of DiiA for the purpose of taking over the DALI trademark from ZVEI and discussed measures that were taken to further develop the standard and its certification process and make the DALI concept future proof with DALI-2. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Aug 13, 2019

What the Heck Is Future Proof?

Commentary from LpR 72: The first time the question about future proofing LED systems came up seriously, was at LightFair 2018 when Siegfried Luger interviewed Patrick Durand. Since then, it has been the buzzword throughout the industry. Discussions concerning future proofing are often limited to wireless communications, IoT and some type of AI. But isn't there more? Read more »

Medical | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Resources | Health + Environment | Jul 29, 2019

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Dr. Octavio Perez, Adjunctant Researcher, Mt. Sinai Hospital

Dr. Perez received the LED professional Scientific Award 2018 for his paper on "Light and ED Clinical Wellness and Performance Improvement", which was published in LpR 70. The evaluation jury had the following to say about why they selected his paper: "The paper is based on the clear definition of the research question, hypothesis and objective of the research. The methodology of the screening study is described in detail and both subjective and objective parameters have been measured. Although Emergency Department lighting is a very special application, the paper provides interesting results." This interview provides background information on Octavio Perez, his work in general, his opinion on human centric lighting risks, opportunities and applications and how he became involved in this interesting research topic. Dr. Perez also provides additional details about the presented paper. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | May 16, 2019

Well-Being, Light and Exhibition Lighting

Commentary from LpR 71: Well-being is the state of feeling healthy and happy, a good or satisfactory condition of existence, including the emotional and psychological sphere. In 1810, Goethe published a theory based on a human-based approach, combining visual appearance with harmony, culture, sensations and psychology. His color wheel was entitled "allegorical, symbolic, mystic use of color" and was composed of six hues, i.e. red (the beautiful), orange (the noble), yellow (the good), green (the useful), blue (the common) and violet (the unnecessary). The position on the wheel was harmonically relevant and in particular the colors in opposite position generated a strong psychological contrast and were called "opposite colors". Primary colors were yellow, blue and red, and the opposites were green, violet and orange, respectively. Goethe's wheel and the particular matching of opposites soon became popular and was used by the Impressionism movement, especially by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. In this artistic movement, the special impact given by the combination of opposite colors were deliberately aimed to create special psychological effects and sensations. Read more »

Health + Environment | Outdoor Applications | Resources | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Mar 25, 2019

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Dr. Maja Grubisic, Researcher, Free University Berlin & Leibniz-Institute

Awareness of the ecological impact of technologies is becoming more important since climate change due to industrialization cannot be denied. LED lighting is one of the technologies that is deemed as a contributor in helping to reduce the impact caused by wasted energy. Unfortunately, light pollution, due to inefficient energy usage, is not the only problem. Besides the more recognized pollution from pesticides and chemical pollutants, light pollution also disturbs ecology and wildlife. Dr. Grubisic, Researcher at the Free University Berlin & Leibniz-Institute, has been working on this problem for more than five years now. She has written an article, also in this issue, concerning this. At the LED professional Symposium she was also good enough to grant this interview, providing some background information, explaining why light pollution is such an issue in biology and why this topic should be of concern to all of us. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Mar 25, 2019

An Industry at a Crossroads

Commentary from LpR 70: We often hear grumbles about the lighting industry suffering under low margins and high costs. Primarily, this is true for most traditional luminaire manufacturers but not as much for innovative controls and driver manufacturers, and even less so for innovative newcomers who understand the semiconductor business that has taken over a share of the luminaire manufacturers' revenue. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Dec 12, 2018

A New Lighting Scene

Commentary from LpR 69: I wouldn’t be telling you anything new if I said that technology is changing at an ever-increasing rate. But in the lighting industry there is a lot more happening, which makes these times truly disruptive and perhaps even inconvenient for some people ... but not for me. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Oct 19, 2018

UV-Light for Plant Development

Commentary from LpR 68: Since the development of the incandescent lamp, greenhouse farmers have been using electric light sources as a supplement to natural sunlight. Initially, light intensity was the major concern. Later, growers learned to manipulate plant development by altering the power distribution of the light spectrum for added value such as taste and appearance. Read more »

Smart Lighting + IoT | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Resources | Outdoor Applications | Oct 12, 2018

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Rico Kramer, Inventor, Founder & CEO, esave ag

In recent years there has been a strong focus on safe communication and controls in the lighting industry. The success story of esave ag, however, started much earlier, when Rico Kramer, the founder and CEO of esave, travelled to Taiwan due to his dissatisfaction with the quality of early LED replacement bulbs. What the former Apple employee learned there led to the development of the esave concept and its technology. In the interview he talks about his intentions, the beginning of esave, wireless technologies in general, system security, commissioning, system incompatibilities, markets and their peculiarities. Read more »

Resources | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Security | IoT | Jul 20, 2018

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Ken Munro, Partner & Founder, Pen Test Partners

Today, hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear about security breaches, hacker attacks or comprimized data; often as a result of insufficient security measures. IoT does not really improve this situation and it is therefore necessary for the industry to take this threat seriously. This is especially true for the lighting industry, whose aim is to become the IoT enabler. Ken Munro, founder and partner at Pen Test Partners, is an ethical hacker whose passion is to hack any technical product he can get his hands on. Unfortunately, he succeeds way to often. LED professional talked with him about ethical hacking, where he sees the risks in various products, where the risks are hidden and what can be done to minimize them. Read more »

Blue Light Hazard - How Dangerous Is SSL Lighting?

Modern Solid State Lighting (SSL) technology has long since found its way into our normal working and living environments. In the early phases, consumers were most concerned with lifetime, pricing and light quality of the new LED-based light sources. Now they have become almost ubiquitous, a focus has been placed on safety. At the recent Light+Building exhibition topics such as photobiological safety and blue light hazard (BLH) were highly ranked among both visitors and exhibitors. Read more »

Interview | Connected Lighting | May 12, 2018

International and Cross-Industry Projects such as OpenAIS are Absolutely Crucial to the Success of Connected Lighting

Interview with Jens Herter, Coordinator Alliances & Funding at Tridonic. Read more »

Tech-Talks Bregenz | Lp Article | Human Centric Lighting | Apr 22, 2018

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Fred Maxik, Founder & CTO, Lighting Science Group

LED light in combination with advanced controls, and here especially IoT capabilities, opened several new options in lighting. In this context, the term Human Centric Lighting, and more recently, the term Biologically Active Light have become trendy. Fred Maxik, founder and CTO of the Lighting Science Group, who held the keynote speech at LpS 2017, recognized these opportunities in a very early stage when most other manufacturers were still struggling with the challenges of the new technology. In the interview he explains what his perception of light is and its importance in our lives. He gives insights into his philosophy and ideas on which criteria artificial lighting has to fulfill in order to live up to the promising terms „Human Centric Lighting“ and „Biologically Active Light“. Read more »

Smart Lighting | Commentary | Apr 15, 2018

On Smart Luminaires

In the time up to 2010, conventional luminaires with low or high-pressure discharge lamps with a luminous efficacy of about 80 lm/W were developed. The electrical power was dependent on the electrical power of the lamps built in the luminaire. From 2008 and likely until around 2020, luminaires with phosphorconverted white LEDs with one fixed color temperature, a constant luminous intensity distribution and a maximal luminous efficacy of about 140-160 lm/W are developed with an electrical power between 10 W and 300 W for different applications and dependent on the manufacturer. Therefore, a relative increase in luminous efficacy of 80 -100% in the context of the discussions on “energy efficiency” is being achieved. Read more »

Resources | LpO Article | Statements | Technologies | Mar 05, 2018

Prof. Shuji Nakamura - The Future is Laser Lighting

PROF. NAKAMURA SAID: "For violet LEDs we reach about 50-100 Acm-2 but the laser diode uses 3-10 kAcm-2 which is about 1,000 times higher than blue LEDs. This leads to very tiny chips in combination with the same phosphors such as YAG types. The light output is about 1,000 times higher than conventional LEDs with the same chip-size". Read more »

Resources | LpO Article | Statements | Applications | Mar 05, 2018

Dr. Jy Bhardwaj - The Future of Lighting Applications

DR. JY BHARDWAJ SAID: "LEDs get integrated into the infrastructure, or let’s say, embedded. Instead of points of light there will be ceilings of light or walls of light. LEDs will be integrated into work surfaces, tables and all kinds of different things". Read more »

Resources | LpO Article | Statements | Horticulture | Mar 05, 2018

Paul Scheidt, Cree - Horticulture Lighting

"When you go into horticulture application the light output level directly correlates to the yield that you see in the plants. There is no buffer, when lights dim, the yield goes down. If something degrades very quickly and is 100% for one growth cycle then goes down to 90% for the second growth cycle, you will see a reduced yield. There is no room for adjustments." Paul Scheidt Read more »

Resources | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Research | Light Generation | Jan 15, 2018

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Julia Frohleiks, Researcher, University of Duisburg-Essen

In his commentary on technical progress and innovation, Dr. Sejkora said: “In the early stage, in the first phase of its life cycle, technology is mainly driven by fundamental research.” He went on to say that we can never predict how a technology will develop. Researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen, working in the Nano Energy Technical Center (NETZ), worked on this type of fundamental technology and their submission received the LpS 2017 Scientific Award. Ms. Julia Frohleiks, a Ph.D. student, was a major contributor to this research in the group led by Dr. Ekaterina Nannen and accepted the award in Dr. Nannen’s name. In the following interview she gives some background information and discloses future research possibilities. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Commentary | Trends | Jan 15, 2018

Can You Show Me the Next S-Curve, Please?

The evolution of technologies is often described using the “S-curve” model. In the early stage, in the first phase of its life cycle, technology is mainly driven by fundamental research. Only a few players are active at that time and innovation steps are quite large. In the second phase, early adopters start to develop products and bring them to market. This phase is characterized by huge investments. In the third phase, more and more players enter the technology field, competition becomes important and development speed of the technology decreases. In the last phase, the technology is mature, (nearly) everybody can use it, there are fewer margins and the technology should be replaced by a new one. Many of the SSL technologies have meanwhile reached maturity. Where are the upcoming technologies, what will be the next S-curve? Looking at technology discussions and lectures at LpS 2017 I tried to find answers to these questions. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Quantum Dots | Oct 31, 2017

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Ken T. Shimizu, Research & Development Director, Lumileds

QDs have been a hot topic in lighting for a while already, but up until now they haven’t been adopted on a large scale in lighting. The adoption began in display devices because some of the technical issues were of less concern in this application. With continuing development, QDs are now also becoming interesting for general lighting applications. Ken Shimizu, Director of Novel Technologies and Devices, Research and Development at Lumileds, attended the LpS in Bregenz and made a presentation about the company’s QD technology. In this interview he gives some background information about the QD program and future steps. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Commentary | Test Equipment | Oct 31, 2017

The Value of High-End Labs for High Quality Lighting

With the relocation to the Augsburg site in 2015, the Osram laboratory equipment includes a number of integrating spheres of different sizes up to 3 meters in diameter, several goniophotometers A/B/C types, a rotary mirror light distribution meter and a hemispherical goniometer with a measurement radius of 2.65 meters, optical bench measuring systems with up to 35 meter measuring distance, corresponding high-quality photometric receivers and spectral radiometers as well as the necessary components for the electrical operation of lamps - according to customer or standardized specifications. Read more »

Trends in Horticulture Lighting

Cree has been a leader in general lighting applications for over 20 years and has customers ranging from restaurant chains to global government agencies. Paul Scheidt began his career in Cree in 2005, working on the development of their lighting applications. During this time, he has seen an increase in the horticulture lighting application. LED professional spoke to Paul Scheidt about horticulture lighting and what he thinks is behind this recent trend. He also shares his views of what he thinks the future holds for both Cree and horticulture lighting applications. Read more »

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Dr. Wilfried Pohl, Research Director, Bartenbach GmbH

Bartenbach is one of the pioneers in light planning and lighting research. Since Christian Bartenbach Senior founded the engineering office in 1976, the company has been dedicated to light and visual perception. Several lighting inventions made over the years, can be attributed to Bartenbach. Dr. Wilfried Pohl, as a member of the Managing Board and Director of Research at Bartenbach GmbH, has played a substantial role in many developments. LED professional talked with him about Bartenbach’s history, education in the lighting business, the lighting parameters he deems very important, the quality of light, "Human Centric Lighting" and "Biodynamic Lighting“, and how LEDs have changed the light planning and lighting research company, in general. Read more »

Brave New World and the Dualism of Light(ing)

The lighting business has been quite predictable over a long period of time. Technical changes were introduced slowly, dominated by a handful of leading companies, and mostly due to new, but not disruptive light sources. The life of engineers was mainly determined by a manageable number of parameters: Lighting requirements, light source parameters, costs, product dimensions, and the odd, required feature. Read more »