Guest Editorial By: David Parrett, director of product marketing at Cortet, a firm specializing in smart building IoT technologies If you’re considering a move to networked lighting control, or you’ve already begun roughing in the project scope, you may be wondering: Is fixture-level control or area-based control the best …
Editorials
LED Business Will Get Bad Report Card for Fiscal Year; IoT is One Exception
The first of September brings the beginning of the new fiscal year for the LED business. Unfortunately, the financial report card for most LED and LED lighting makers has not been good. As the LED lighting industry has matured, it has become more and more like the conventional lighting industry …
on September 4, 2018 in
Diversified Tech Firms with Lighting Divisions Looking for Profitability Away from General Lighting
Some of the major LED Lighting makers are switching their focus as the LED lighting technology matures. Increasing competition, lower prices, and decreased profitability are to blame. For example, Cree is switching its focus away from general lighting to markets with better prospects including power electronics and RF. Osram is …
on August 1, 2018 in Latest News, LED Business News, LEDs for automotive applications, Internet of Things, LEDs for biometric identification
Tariffs and Trade Restrictions Bad for U.S. LED Lighting Businesses (updated)
Whether or not we want them, trade restrictions and tariffs are now being enforced for products coming into the U.S. from several company abroad. I expect that other countries will institute their own tariffs on U.S. goods as well in retaliation. These restrictions and tariffs could mean trouble for even …
Intelligent Grow Lights, an IoT Application that Can Make Indoor Farming More Profitable
Smart or intelligent grow lights may be an extremely valuable Internet-connected lighting application. A plant growth environment should have the perfect conditions for each plant growth stage. For this reason, an entirely controlled environment requires many sensors including temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, etc… Plants also demand watering, and of course, most …
Study Linking Street Lights to Cancers Flawed
A newly released study has found a link between exposure to blue light of street lights and the incidents of breast and prostate cancers. Researchers at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health and The University of Exeter in the UK conducted the study. They published the findings in the April …
Bluetooth and Bluetooth Mesh, Connecting Technologies that Compliment the Internet of Things (Updated)
I have had more than one non-technical person ask me about the Internet of Things. One question that I have gotten more than once is, they say something like, “The Internet of Things, that’s like when your phone connects to your speakers with Bluetooth, right?” I have to explain that …
The TM-30-15 Standard, an Improvement Over CRI (Updated)
By Scott McMahan The Illumination Engineering Society intends to cease using CRI as metric. CRI as a standard for lighting quality has been around since 1964. The value of CRI as a standard is significantly less than what most in the general public and even many in lighting community understand. …
Hurricanes and Earthquakes Help Remind Us to Not Take Lighting for Granted
During the past month, the major hurricanes and even earthquakes have plagued parts of North America. These events in addition to the recent announcement of Philips Lighting’s establishment of the Philips Lighting Foundation, have made me realize that people have forgotten how important artificial light is to our lives. We get a few …
Sensor Feedback May Be the Answer to LED Degradation and Color Shift Over Time
LEDs gradually fade in intensity, and they also shift in color over time. How quickly their brightness declines and their color shifts depends on the LEDs and their operating environment. The fabrication of LEDs gives them inherently different brightnesses even when attempting to give them the same brightness. In fact, all …
