The intersection of art and light, innovative adaptive controls technologies, indoor lighting that delivers superior quality that can enhance productivity, and more-efficient and better-controlled outdoor lighting will headline in the exhibition space at the mammoth Messe Frankfurt.
By Maury Wright, Editor, LEDs Magazine and Illumination in Focus
The Light+Building trade fair is scheduled for March 30 through April 4, 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany. The theme for the year is “Explore technology for life — the best energy is the energy that is not consumed.” Indeed, energy efficiency is a prevalent requirement in the building industry and lighting is one of the largest consumers of energy in finished commercial spaces. Sub-themes for the mega event include intelligent sustainability, smart powered buildings, and people and light.
Upwards of 2500 exhibitors will show their latest wares at Light+Building. Some of the stands will feel like the size of a small village. And making your way around the halls will feel more like rush hour in New York City than a visit to a trade show. But the exhibit will reveal the very latest in lighting technology.
Given the efficiency theme, you can assume that LED-based lighting will be almost universal in the lighting exhibits. But solid-state lighting (SSL) alone will not deliver the savings needed by a growing world. Expect that the exhibitors will show the very latest in control technologies that can truly maximize the energy savings in lighting systems. Controls and LEDs will also deliver better lighting. The advantages range from better focused light and the right CCT for optimum worker productivity to tunable colors and white color temperatures to increase our wellbeing. Also expect the dramatic as art and light meet. The products featured in the following pages deliver a preview of what can be expected at Messe Frankfurt.
Cini&Nils ceiling-mounted FormLa configurable elements
FormLa looks like art, but Cini&Nils says that the configurable ceiling version of the product is designed to contribute to human wellbeing. The health benefits come from configurable forms that can span an entire ceiling, creating a relaxed environment with diffused indirect light. The company realized the product using individual geometric elements with the LED lighting installed as flexible strips that enable the artistic shapes.
Zumtobel Sequence LED luminaire
Targeting office lighting, the Zumtobel Sequence linear product family can be pendant or surface mounted and is designed with an LED lighting distribution that the company says will empower employees’ productivity. Zumtobel offers the products in 1.2m and 2.1m versions with the light provided by rectangular modular LED arrays. Optics applied to each 6×3 array determine the light-distribution characteristics. Generally the outer modules on either end of a fixture are used to provide diffuse indirect-like ambient light while the inner modules deliver direct task light. The fixture also includes a DALI (digital addressable lighting interface) capable driver.
GlacialLight AR111 Square gimbal housing kit
Designed to host the company’s AR111 LED retrofit lamps, the square housing includes a double-gimbal mechanical design that can enable downlight installations with the adjustments possible on two axes. The 190×190×130-mm housing is built from steel with aluminum trim and weighs 470g. GlacialLight said the housing is designed for use in hotel, restaurant, and residential applications, and is designed to replace halogen lighting. The Vega Series AR111 LED lamps come in a variety of beam patterns and GlacialLight designed the housing for those bulbs, although the housing could be used with most any AR111 retrofit lamp.
Cree Edge High Output outdoor SSL family
Cree is using its Light+Building presence to launch the Cree Edge High Output (HO) LED outdoor luminaire family to the European market. The 5000K CCT products are available with CRI as high as 90 and in outputs to 75,000 lm. The product was announced in North America last October and has been installed in color-critical applications such as auto dealer lots. The Cree lighting products will share the exhibit area with LED and other enabling technologies. In particular, Cree will feature its LMH2 SSL module with Sunset Dimming.
Megaman wireless controls and LED lighting
The Light+Building Megaman exhibit will be focused on rolling out smart lighting and controls technology to support its broad range of LED retrofit lamps and fixtures that use those lamps. Leading up to the event, the company wouldn’t detail the control offering but said it would support installations ranging from Bluetooth control of lamps with a smartphone to comprehensive wireless networks that enable building-level controls. Specifically, the company said it supports installations such as the conference room pictured nearby. The featured luminaires in the exhibit will be the Solid LED pendants from New Zealand designer David Trubridge with Megaman dimmable 6W PAR16 GU1O lamps in the sockets.
Verbatim Natural Vision LED candle lamps
Candelabra-style LED retrofit lamps have been problematic in general due to space constraints, and even such products that have used legacy sources have lacked the charm of real candles. Verbatim is addressing that issue with a new multi-emitter RGB LED integrated into the company’s Natural Vision VxRGB LED lamps. The LED combination allows the lamps to deliver the 1900K CCT common to a candle flame. The 2.5W candelabra products are designed for use in chandeliers or even table settings. Verbatim will also demonstrate the technology in MR16 retrofit lamps. The RGB emitters will allow such products to deliver CRI as high as 97.
GE Lighting Evolve LED scalable area light
In area lighting, it’s become increasingly important to both provide outstanding vertical illuminance to support people or object recognition while also delivering uniform horizontal illuminance on the ground or parking surface. The GE Lighting Evolve LED scalable area light is designed for just such performance while also minimizing glare based on an architecture that combines lens and reflector optics with LED sources. In a parking area scenario, the design supports 5:1 pole spacing with light output packages ranging to 35,000 lm. The reflector-based design, however, eliminates light spill behind the pole when required.
Lutron Quantum and EcoSystem controls
Lutron’s Light+Building exhibit will be focused on the company’s adaptive control technologies built around the EcoSystem wired network and the Quantum Total Light Management System. EcoSystem is an enhanced version of DALI that Lutron supports with drivers, luminaires, sensors, and control systems; and compatible luminaires are offered by lighting vendors such as Cree and GE Lighting.
ETAP LED luminaires and emergency lighting
ETAP Lighting will demonstrate a variety of product types at Light+Building including the slim linear LEDA pendant fixtures that can be configured in a variety of patterns including crisscross. But the emergency SSL-based products are sure to garner interest. For example, the company will introduce the new tiny Mini LED module pictured that measures 20 mm in diameter. The LED module is meant to be recessed in the ceiling, virtually disappearing among other ceiling lighting products. Yet the module can deliver the functional light needed in an office during an emergency. ETAP will also demonstrate new K4 emergency lighting panels based on OLED technology. Lighting controls and tunable LED technology for human-centric lighting will round out the demonstrations.
Osram ARKTIKA-P LED linear pendant luminaire
The ARKTIKA-P pendant luminaire uses low-power Duris E3 LEDs from Osram Opto Semiconductors to achieve glare-free office lighting intended to optimize productivity for workers using computers for extended periods. The unique design places the LEDs into hexagonal reflective cavities that control the wide beam distribution from the emitters. The tiny LEDs also enable an aesthetically-pleasing look with the fixture less than 8 mm deep. At Light+Building, Osram will also demonstrate an LED A-lamp that appears to have a filament and looks nearly identical to an incandescent bulb. The LED Superstar lamp could virtually pass for an incandescent even with a clear diffuser globe. OLED panels and PrevaLED flexible LED strips will also be featured in the exhibit.
Targetti in-grade Keplero outdoor LED fixture
Designed to deliver dramatic uplight for architectural features such as in the striking residence pictured, the Targetti Keplero in-grade fixtures are available in Zoom and Gimbal models. The Zoom version includes a mechanical adjustment in the fixture that allows the luminaire to produce four different beam distributions from one LED source. Indeed, the luminaire can produce soft, flood, medium-wide flood, and wide flood patterns using a mechanical design that delivers three degrees of freedom. Ultimately the Zoom can deliver patterns as wide as 20° as well as the ability to adjust the direction of the beam virtually parallel to the grade in which the fixture is mounted. The Gimbal unit can be specified with different LED light engines with four LEDs that can deliver spot, super-spot, flood, and even rectangular beam patterns.
