Products + Technology

  Another interesting trend at LEDucation was the growing sophistication of RGBTW light sources. These are color changing, tunable white, and everything in-between! 5-channel RGB-WW-CW has been around for a while, but American Lighting just introduced its Trulux 6-channel, RGBWWW tape light. It is a DMX-controlled tape light combining RGB color mixing with wide range [...]

  One of the trends that was still evident at LEDucation, earlier this month, was continued miniaturization of luminiaires. A good example that I saw was the new release of Velino.0 by Optique Lighting. They claim that it is the slimmest, low UGR, architectural luminaires on the market, and I believe them. The family features [...]

  The IES is now accepting submissions for the 2026 IES Industry Progress Report. The IES is seeking significant new advancements in lighting products, research, publications, and design tools from the past year. The mission of the Progress Committee is to keep in touch with developments in the art and science of lighting throughout the [...]

  InSinkErator, one of the leading manufacturers of garbage disposals, has released its LEDefense line, with antimicrobial light technology added to garbage disposals to fight the odor-causing bacteria that builds up with food waste. Instead of waiting until a disposal smells bad and then using citrus peels or cleaning pods, the product uses always-on light [...]

  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 [...]