It’s supposedly exiting illumination, but now ams Osram lights up a Hanoi skyscraper

Earlier this month, we pointed out that for all of its zeal at refocusing on optical and sensing semiconductors — at the expense of general illumination — ams Osram continues to operate one glaring exception in the form of Traxon Technologies.

In case you think we didn’t mean it, now Traxon has announced its latest façade lighting project: a top-to-bottom dynamic installation at the brand new, 45-story TechnoPark Tower, which is Hanoi’s third tallest building. The 611-ft skyscraper, also known as VinFast Headquarters, opened less than a year ago,

“The TechnoPark Tower is built on three criteria: green, smart, and wellness,” Traxon said in posting a synopsis of the skyscraper project on its website. “These are also the principles for the creation of the building’s façade lighting, created jointly by lighting designer LK Technology and solution provider Osram Traxon e:cue.” LK, like Traxon, is based in Hong Kong.

Traxon and its e:cue controls were part of Osram prior to ams’ 2020 acquisition of the bigger Osram, and the creation of the new ams Osram.

Since then, Premstaetten, Austria–based ams Osram has declared an emphasis on chip-level products, and has been steadily divesting illumination and IoT/smart lighting operations such as Digital Lumens and several others.

While ams Osram LEDs can typically end up in broader illumination systems, those systems are provided by other vendors who buy the chips from ams Osram.

In December, the company even agreed to sell off its highly regarded Fluence horticultural lighting company to Signify, which has declared its intention to improve Fluence profit levels.

But Traxon remains part of ams Osram, at least for now. Ams Osram does not post Traxon news releases on its website, where it is difficult to find any reference at all to Traxon. The “lighting” page of the website does not mention Traxon.

On its own website, Traxon describes itself as “an Osram business,” not as an “ams Osram business.”

When LEDs Magazine asked ams Osram three weeks ago if it plans to hold on to Traxon, the company replied, “There is nothing to communicate at this time.” It has provided us with no updates since then. The company has scheduled an online Capital Markets Day with analysts on April 5. It is not known if it will have more to say about Traxon then.

At the new TechnoPark Tower, Traxon installed 14,000 ft of RGB LED ribbon around curved and freeform structures. It connected them to around 350 e:cue controllers to support dynamic, rolling lighting scenarios.

TechnoPark Tower has a LEED Platinum status granted by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, which runs a rating system of green orientation.

The building is the home of Vietnamese automaker VinFast, one of the companies run by Vietnam’s privately held Vingroup, which has holdings in the technology, industry, and service sectors. VinFast plans to begin exporting electric vehicles to the U.S. and Europe this year.

Meanwhile, ams Osram’s focus on chips includes selling its LEDs into not just illumination applications but into many other areas as well, such as the so-called metaverse.

MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).

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