LED LIGHTING INSTITUTE The Lighting Research Center’s next LED Lighting Institute will be held May 13-15, 2008, in Troy, New York, offering three days of hands-on LED sessions. Only 30 spaces are available. To register visit www.lrc.rpi.edu/education/outreachEducation.
THEATER’S LED FAÇADE CHANGES THROUGHOUT THE DAY France’s Théatre National de Bretagne in Rennes, recently renovated, now features a dynamic LED lighting scheme on its façade that shifts throughout the eight-hour day in five phases to announce the different activities housed within the theater building: evening, theater and cinema opening, beginning of performance, during performance, and theater closing/bar and restaurant opening. Martin Professional’s Exterior 200 LED luminaires are sandwiched between the façade’s glass and metallic structure, illuminating the glass with various colors, programmed and controlled by Martin’s PC-based LightJockey system and a DMX playback controller.
HISTORIC CHURCH GETS LIGHTING UPGRADE Boston’s Old North Church, which played an important role in the American Revolution and the April 18, 1775, ride of Paul Revere, needed a low-maintenance, energy-efficient lighting update to illuminate its 18 ceiling niches. Boston-based lighting designer Lana Nathe of Light Insight used 130 of Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions’ eW Cove Powercore linear warm-white LED fixtures, donated by Boston Light Source, to design a lighting scheme that showcases the church’s architectural details, provides an estimated 85 percent reduction in energy consumption, and creates the desired visual impact.
DLFNY’S LEDUCATION II DRAWS A CROWD Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) certainly are the buzzword in today’s lighting world. This was reinforced by the turnout—more than 200 people—for the Designers Lighting Forum of New York event LEDucation II on March 12, 2008. This year’s two-part program, which included 50 manufacturer displays and three speaker presentations, showcased current available products that utilize the latest in LEDs while explaining some of the facts and myths behind this new technology.
During the second half of the evening event, a panel of lighting industry professionals discussed the role of LEDs in the present marketplace. Lighting designer Paul Gregory, founder and president of Focus Lighting, spoke of the intimate relationship that designers have with the artistic possibilities of the light source and how that relationship creates an appreciation for the possibilities LEDs can provide given their flexibility, size, cost, and lamp life.
Brad Koerner, lighting market manager for Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions, discussed the need for national and industry standards on such issues as performance, maintenance, and durability. John Gebbie, manager of Barbizon Electric’s system division, urged the audience to work closely with systems integrators as they can provide the technical resources that are needed on projects involving LEDs.
Through the understanding of different products, facts, myths, and vantage points, LED technology is slowly being embraced throughout the lighting industry.
