EDITED BY CARRIE MEADOWS
Owasso, Okla.–based Crossroads LED was founded by Buddy and Dana Stefanoff in 2010, with Dana serving as president and CEO and Buddy as vice president of engineering. During their 14-plus years in the lighting industry, the team has built out their company’s reputation by “continually exceeding customer expectations,” merging ongoing LED research and development with customer-guided feedback in their luminaire designs, and producing luminaires in U.S.–based manufacturing facilities.
In a recent phone conversation, Buddy Stefanoff revealed that the company’s direct and hands-on approach has netted a number of outdoor municipal lighting conversion projects across the southwest and central southern states. A few years back, LEDs Magazine reported on a Santa Fe installation that backs the Crossroads LED claims on longevity of luminaires in the field due to careful thermal management. Its Prestige Series of LED retrofit luminaires had been in operation in the Railyard District — without failures — for about five years at the time of that news report, and the company cites multiple installations that have operated for a decade without failures.
Furthering its mission to provide quality outdoor lighting, the Crossroads LED team has also pursued a dark-sky compliant approach across all its fixtures — both in terms of reducing blue-enriched light output and limiting glare and light trespass.
Firm mission: To be a leader in the LED lighting industry by continually exceeding customer expectations with the highest quality products and customer service, innovation, and the values of integrity, honesty, and excellence.
What we are known for: Crossroads LED is not only known for award-winning, advanced LED roadway, pedestrian, and conversion luminaires but also for maintaining a 3–5 year technological advantage, allowing our customers to receive the latest innovations in the LED lighting industry.
What people don’t know about us: Crossroads LED — a woman-owned, consumer-focused, and innovation-driven company with U.S.–based manufacturing facilities — has received the “Best Lighting Design and Technical Innovation award” by DarkSky International (formerly The International Dark Sky Association). We also have multiple LED lighting installations that have been in operation for over a decade without a single failure.
Firm culture: Our corporate culture is based on integrity and excellence. This manifests itself in our prioritizing research and development, American manufacturing, and quality components. We listen to our customers and from them, we made the corporate decision to always put quality first… in our products, in how we treat our customers, and how we relate to our partners.
First commission: Spring 2010 — Texas Motor Speedway caution lighting system that illuminated the three-quarters-of-a-mile long catch fence with our high-output linear arrays.
Other early projects include the following: Summer 2013 — City of Tulsa Downtown Acorn Lighting project, which converted 590 post-top fixtures from metal halide to LED; and Fall 2013 — City of Santa Fe Historic Railyard roadway and pedestrian decorative conversion project, which converted 262 decorative fixtures from high-pressure sodium to LED.
Favorite products/projects by our company and why: Our award winning and patent-pending Astrophiles Series and Prestige Series DarkSky–rated luminaires because of their recognition by DarkSky International as the standard for dark-sky lighting.
The 2022 LED conversion of the Frank Lloyd Wright–inspired art deco tower lights that illuminate the heart of downtown Phoenix with our Prestige Series DSC luminaires, because it showed how to blend the latest in LED technologies with custom and unique lighting housings.
The 2021 installation of retrofit luminaires at The New Mexican newspaper printing facility in Santa Fe because it was the first DarkSky–certified LED lighting installation in the state of New Mexico.
What we’re currently working on: Our R&D laboratory is developing the next generation of DarkSky–certified luminaires that will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to control an advanced, multispectrum LED array that will meet the demanding needs of current and future clients.
A misconception or myth that you encounter: Many of our customers have been told [by others] that retrofit luminaires do not exist for their failing outdoor HPS or MH fixtures, and therefore they must purchase new and expensive LED lighting fixtures. We made a name for ourselves early on with our retrofit luminaires that not only outperformed but also outlasted new fixtures that other companies offered.
Another misconception is that dark-sky outdoor lighting does not provide drivers and pedestrians with the same level of illumination as either HPS or MH fixtures or high-glare LED roadway fixtures available today. Crossroads LED has perfected dark-sky outdoor lighting that matches the illumination levels and color temperatures of HPS lamps. Additionally, while 2000K HPS fixtures have a relatively low color rendering index of 20–24, our Astrophile Series and Prestige DSC Series designs have increased the CRI of the 2000K luminaires to 65, which is nearly the same as existing LED fixtures without the glare and light-polluting blue-rich content.
A tool or product you want to invent: The next generation of outdoor residential lighting products that will reduce neighborhood light pollution and glare. We are also broadening our fixture product line with unique decorative housing designs that maintain dark-sky lighting requirements.
A lighting trend or practice to leave behind: We believe that the industry needs to eliminate the high kelvin temperature LED luminaires (i.e., 2700K CCT and higher) from all roadway and pedestrian lighting applications. These fixtures radiate high levels of blue light and are the leading contributors to roadway disability glare, light pollution, and sky glow.
Technology, (third-party) product, and/or designer you admire: Laboratory-grade photometric equipment, such as goniophotometers and thermal test cells.
Favorite lighting/engineering rule of thumb, standard, or equation: The inverse square law of light.
Advice to anyone interested in entering the lighting industry: First, make innovation a priority. It is easy to just follow what everyone else is doing. It’s important to know where the technology is going and how to stay ahead of the rest.
Second, treat your customers with respect. Take the time to go out, meet with them in person, and listen to what their lighting issues are. If you can be the company that solves their problems and does so with high-quality LED products that will stand the test of time, you will always have their business.
Third, do not sacrifice quality for profit. Many companies have made the decision to use low-cost, inferior components as a “bottom line” solution toward profitability. What they do not understand is that low quality will always affect future sales. Therefore, low quality is a business-ending endeavor.
CARRIE MEADOWS is editor-in-chief of LEDs Magazine, with 20-plus years’ experience in business-to-business publishing across technology markets including solid-state technology manufacturing, fiberoptic communications, machine vision, lasers and photonics, and LEDs and lighting.
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Carrie Meadows | Editor-in-Chief, LEDs Magazine
Carrie Meadows has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing and media industry. She worked with the PennWell Technology Group for more than 17 years, having been part of the editorial staff at Solid State Technology, Microlithography World, Lightwave, Portable Design, CleanRooms, Laser Focus World, and Vision Systems Design before the group was acquired by current parent company Endeavor Business Media.
Meadows has received finalist recognition for LEDs Magazine in the FOLIO Eddie Awards, and has volunteered as a judge on several B2B editorial awards committees. She received a BA in English literature from Saint Anselm College, and earned thesis honors in the college's Geisel Library. Without the patience to sit down and write a book of her own, she has gladly undertaken the role of editor for the writings of friends and family.
Meadows enjoys living in the beautiful but sometimes unpredictable four seasons of the New England region, volunteering with an animal shelter, reading (of course), and walking with friends and extended "dog family" in her spare time.
