Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting39s Gardco SoftView LED parking garage luminaires line won Lightfairrsquos coveted Most Innovative Product Award

Awards at Lightfair 2016 Point to Where Lighting Market is Headed Down the Road

May 6, 2016
Entries in this year’s LFI Innovation Awards competition were almost entirely LEDs, with the Conventional, Retrofit and Replacement LED Lamps; Control Components; Hardware and Systems; Parking, Roadway and Area Luminaires; and Recessed Downlights categories drawing the most entries from vendors.

At least week’s annual meeting of the lighting tribes in San Diego at Lightfair International 2016, you could get a feel for the future of R&D in the lighting world by studying the winners of the industry’s biggest award competitions — Lightfair’s LFI Innovation Awards and the Department of Energy’s Next Generation Luminaires (NGL) competition for luminaires.

Entries in this year’s LFI Innovation Awards competition were almost entirely LEDs, with the Conventional, Retrofit and Replacement LED Lamps; Control Components; Hardware and Systems; Parking, Roadway and Area Luminaires; and Recessed Downlights categories drawing the most entries from vendors.

The top LFI Award winners were: Most Innovative New Product of the Year–Philips Gardco SoftView LED parking garage luminaire;  Technical Innovation Award–DMF Lighting OneFrame recessed LED downlight for multi-family buildings; Design Excellence Award–ADOT Lighting’s Rayee desk lamp; and the Judge’s Citation Award–Eaton Cooper Lighting’s Invue Arbor Outdoor Architectural LED collection.

The DOE’s eighth annual NGL Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Design Competition recognized 25 commercial LED indoor and outdoor lighting products. Submissions making it to the judging phase presented market-ready samples and complete documentation, including luminaire and component specification sheets, LM-79 test reports, lumen maintenance projections, warranty statements, and marketing materials. These documents help make sure actual performance matches what’s claimed. As LED technology and product design have evolved, NGL requirements have become increasingly demanding.

“The NGL bar is set high, and the tires get kicked often and hard,” said DOE SSL Program Manager Jim Brodrick. “So when the judges award a product, you know it was well earned.”

The Outstanding winners in the Indoor competition came from three manufacturers: Focal Point’s Nera linear pendant; Eaton’s Portfolio dim-to-warm downlight; and Kenall Lighting’s white-tunable MedMaster Balance. Among the other Recognized indoor winners, Visa Lighting, Selux Corp., and LED Linear GmbH all earned praise for their decorative pendant luminaires and Philips Ledalite received recognition for two of its linear pendant luminaires. Selux, Acuity, and Acuity’s Juno Lighting Group were recognized for their white-tunable luminaires and Meteor Lighting received recognition for its high-output downlight. Juno Lighting earned praise for its recessed accent light; LF Illumination and LumenWerx, for their cove lights; and QuarkStar, in collaboration with Everlight, for a wall-wash luminaire.

Connected lighting systems that integrate luminaires, sensors and software to monitor and control operation received special emphasis in the 2016 indoor competition, a first for NGL. Two types of connected lighting systems were submitted — those with an external controller and networked luminaires, represented by EnLighted’s Lighting Control Solution, and those with self-contained network controls integrated into the luminaires, represented by Cree’s SmartCast Technology and Philips’ SpaceWise Technology. The judges did not find any single connected-lighting entry to be generally superior, but rather noted that each has benefits and limitations in different applications.

The Outstanding winners in the outdoor competition included Landscape Forms’ FGP Path Light bollard and Cree’s RSW Series LED Street Luminaire. Among the Recognized outdoor winners was the  Philips Gardco fixture, which also won the Most Innovative Products Award in the LFI Innovation Awards.

The 2016 outdoor competition included sports lighting for the first time. DOE said that while significant advances have been made in LED sports-lighting equipment for large arena and stadium applications, there remains a need for high-quality, affordable lighting to meet the demands of smaller exterior installations such as high-school and recreation fields, where lower mounting heights call for improved glare management, and light scatter beyond property boundaries can be an issue.

In the Sports Lighting category, two NGL sports luminaires evaluated — Eaton’s Ephesus Lighting Stadium Pro and KMV’s SUFA-A Sports Luminaire — were considered “Notable.”

To see the complete list of LDI Award Winners go to www.lightfair.com or search for “LFI Innovation Awards 2016”; for the NGL winners go to www.ngldc.org.