David Shiller

There has been a lot of buzz from CES, last week, about the new BMW concept car, the i Vision DEE. It sports AI, voice assistant, head’s up display, AR, and many other bells and whistles, but what’s really turned heads is its color-changing paint. A mobile app allows the user to electronically change dozens [...]

There are increasing signs of rough times in the horticultural lighting industry, including cannabis, food, flowers, and other Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) crops. Some examples include: Osram suggesting that growers cannot currently afford the expenditure on LED lighting because rising energy prices are consuming their budgets. Read more here. Signify’s CEO is also seeing a slowing [...]

Both business owners and employees should be aware of the new HR trend called “quiet hiring.” Quiet hiring is when an organization acquires new skills without hiring new full-time employees. Sometimes, it means hiring short-term contractors (external quiet hiring). Other times, it means encouraging current employees to move into new or additional roles within the organization [...]

A new level of integration between electrification and smart homes was introduced at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, last week. Schneider Electric unveiled its “Schneider Home” ecosystem that combines home electrification with IoT controls, including: An entire smart main electrical panel called the Schneider Pulse that can control its own relays and acts as [...]

  UPDATED 1.12.23 LightNow is curating a list of lighting industry award application announcements, calls for presentations & events – be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated as the list develops. Award Application Announcements The National Lighting Bureau (NLB) is now accepting submissions for the 3rd Annual Art & Science of Lighting Awards. [...]

ZKW has developed a new headlight system in cooperation with Swarovski and BMW. Four precisely cut crystals on each side of the “Iconic Glow” headlights are underlain by individually controlled LEDs. These support the daytime running and indicator lights, also utilized during the “Welcome and Goodbye light staging” functions. In the lower part of the [...]

  Here is a quick summary of six acquisitions and one closure, announced in the fourth quarter of 2022: Midstream Lighting acquired Hyperion (horticultural lighting). Details here. Munich-based ARRI acquired Clay Paky (entertainment lighting) from ams Osram. Details here. Applied UV, Inc. acquired PURO Lighting & LED Supply Co. Details here. Legrand acquired Encelium Advanced [...]

In August, I wrote about Zhaga Book 25, “NFC Readers with Bluetooth Interface for In-Field Programming.”  Since then, more manufacturers have been introducing drivers with Near Field Communication (NFC) that allows a mobile device to field-program the drivers. One example is LEDVANCE’s new line of TapTronic Field-programmable NFC LED Drivers.  They are Field-programmable via LEDVANCE’s [...]

Very happy new year, and thank you for being a LightNOW reader. To create a summary of the 2023 economic outlook, I’ve reviewed several forecasts, both from inside the electrical industry and beyond. Here is my summary: Nonresidential Construction: AIA’s consensus forecast for the 2023 nonresidential construction market calls for a 6% increase. 7% increase [...]