Products + Technology

  By Brad Koerner, Creative Director, Koerner Designs There is plenty of latent opportunity in launching application-level innovations in specification-grade, interior architectural lighting categories. But the problem is that no one is looking. The architectural lighting industry has become so stagnant that for the past decade, no one is even considering it as a possible [...]

  The increasing complexity of modern lighting control components, such as smart dimmers, sensors, and networked modules, is directly leading to the use of larger junction boxes. The added electronics, extra wiring for communication, and the need for heat dissipation require more volume than traditional electrical components, necessitating deeper or wider boxes: Smart switches, dimmers, [...]

  There is a strong, growing trend toward low-glare high bay fixtures in industrial applications, particularly as facilities increasingly adopt automation, robotics, and machine vision systems. The shift is driven by the need to optimize lighting for both human worker well-being and the technical requirements of automated equipment, which requires consistent, shadow-free, and glare-free environments to operate [...]

  While primarily utilized in entertainment lighting, 5-channel color mixing is beginning to be adopted in high performance architectural fixtures, as well. This includes two approaches: red-green-blue-amber-lime (RGBAL) and red-green-blue-indigo-lime (RGBIL). Here is a comparison between the two 5-channel color mixing approaches. The differences between RGBAL and RGBIL LEDs primarily involve color rendering, spectral output, and specialized application needs. [...]

  Randy Reid published an interesting article in EdisonReport about a conversation at Light + Building, in Frankfurt. The conversation was about whether NFC configurable drivers could be replaced with mobile app-configured drivers to eliminate the NFC programming tool, in favor of a basic smart phone or tablet running an app. While the advantage is [...]

  Focal Point’s Seem Sweep 2 has expanded their award-winning curvilinear luminaires with narrow, 2.5″ aperture, offering additional design flexibility to specifiers. Building on the success of the original Seem Sweep 2 Patterns, these new offerings introduce a broader toolkit of curved and linear forms, now unified by rounded end caps that deliver a soft, [...]

  Matter over Thread is the combination of the Matter smart‑home standard (the “language” devices use) running on top of the Thread wireless mesh protocol (the “network” they use to talk to each other). Together, they are designed to make smart devices more interoperable, responsive, energy‑efficient, and reliable than today’s Wi‑Fi or proprietary‑hub systems. What [...]

  Home adoption of smart devices is widespread but shallow, and AI is the lowest priority feature for buyers. A Vivint study finds people want reliability, simplicity, and security more than “intelligence.” About 85% of U.S. homeowners own at least one smart home device, such as smart TVs, speakers, doorbells, outdoor cameras, or thermostats, but [...]

  Polymer, sodium-ion, and oxygen-ion batteries are emerging as three safer and potentially cheaper alternatives to Li‑ion, with direct implications for outdoor lighting, poles-as-a-platform, and conventional lighting projects. Texas A&M has built a polymer‑based dual‑ion battery that replaces liquid electrolyte and hard inorganic electrodes with soft polymer materials, dramatically improving low‑temperature performance. This prototype maintained [...]