Products + Technology

  The role of Z-Wave in the smart home industry is evolving, particularly in light of the emergence of Matter, a new universal standard for smart home connectivity. Z-Wave, once a dominant protocol for connecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has faced challenges in maintaining relevance as consumer preferences shift toward simpler, hub-free solutions. Z-Wave’s [...]

The Flying Sun 1000, developed by Freefly Systems, is an innovative drone lighting system designed to provide industrial-grade illumination for applications such as construction, emergency response, search and rescue, security, and film production. Built on Freefly’s Alta X heavy-lift quadcopter platform, the system integrates 288 high-power LEDs distributed across four panels, producing an impressive output [...]

The ORB3 and ORB5 LED drivers from Arkalumen offer intelligent tunable spectra control within compact Zhaga-standard dimensions. These drivers are designed to provide lighting designers and fixture developers with greater flexibility through their modular architecture, enabling a wide range of customizations for various lighting applications. Product Overview The ORB family includes two main models: ORB3: [...]

  When I entered Lutron’s booth at LEDucation, I expected to be overwhelmed by endlessly complex control options and a dizzying assortment of products and components. I was wrong. The Lutron booth was a master class in presenting highly technical and complex products in a simple to understand story. Some of the credit goes to [...]

  Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has spun off its laser-based internet company Taara from its “moonshot” incubator X, positioning it as an independent entity and a potential competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network. This move allows Taara to attract external funding and pursue more aggressive growth strategies. Taara employs free-space optical communication [...]

  The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) has released a new NLC-HVAC toolkit to improve collaboration between building operators, lighting professionals, and HVAC engineers. DLC claims integrating networked lighting controls (NLC) with HVAC can save over 20% of the whole building load. The toolkit helps building professionals: Understand the benefits of integrating Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) with [...]

An enjoyable surprise at LEDucation last week was the Avenue Lighting booth. This company has slowly transformed over the past 10 years from a basic residential lighting manufacturer into an innovative, decorative, specification-grade lighting manufacturer. Perhaps the most startling find was their Monaco Collection. This collection of pendants have medium-based sockets, but are delivered with [...]

  Another fascinating find at LEDucation, last week, were multiple manufacturers showing dual-bendable, solid silicone light strips. By dual-bendable, I mean it can bend in both dimensions perpendicular to the long linear run of the strip. Typically, bendable light strips were only bendable in one dimension perpendicular to the long linear run. Tivoli’s VAST-EX and [...]

  I rarely cover line extensions but this one was notable, at LEDucation, last week. The open-center, linear Aira pendant line by Current had a significant number of additional options at the show: 90 degree turns wall mounted light bar that connects to the Aira pendants. accent colors for the cross bars that match the [...]