LED Lighting for a brighter future!

Berlin is undergoing a street lighting revolution, 5,500 LED street lights have already been deployed, while a further 2,500 are being fitted this year. The colourful Wilmersdorf district of Berlin now features 'on demand' street lighting, which reacts to how busy the street is. An intelligent wireless lighting network has been installed in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin. The street lights are able to adjust their brightness based on real-time human presence. The intelligent lighting minimises energy waste and acts to lower light pollution by ensuring that streetlights do not burn at full capacity throughout the night when the streets are often deserted. The sensor network is a major breakthrough in Berlin’s street lighting renovation efforts. 5,500 LED street lights have already been deployed, while a further 2,500 are being fitted this year. The innovative street lighting approach was praised by Christian Gaebler, permanent secretary at Berlin’s Se...

The economic activity generated by the lighting industry will have to fall significantly if we are at address climate change, a veteran environmentalist has declared. Former Friends of the Earth chief Jonathan Porritt says we must accept a reduction of the historic proportion of GDP attributable to lighting and its associated energy requirements if we are to have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Delivering the inaugural annual lecture of the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers, he said: ‘We need to find ways of delivering increasingly sophisticated lighting services to the whole of humankind…in ways that cause considerably less impact, which probably needs less total economic activity. ‘Lighting is responsible for anywhere between 16 and 18 per cent of total electricity consumption in the world today, depending on how you do the calculations. So this is an absolutely massive part of the challenge. And although it’s rarely spoken about in those terms, people are beginnin...

New lighting to change view of Niagara Falls. PLUS: Cambridge University buys circadian lamps to wake sleepy students. AND: Can LED boost health benefits of cannabis? Lux Today November 8 2016.

  Earlier in the month internet provider OVH was targeted in an attack that involved the manipulation of 150,000 IoT devices. Some of the world's top websites were taken offline due to a recent DDoS attack that was carried out by hijacking IoT devices. Hackers harnessing Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including smart lights, have crashed some of the world’s biggest websites including Spotify, PayPal and Twitter. It is no secret, as revenues from LEDs fade, that the lighting industry is placing a big pile of gambling chips on the success of the Internet of Things, but the hack marks the second major security breach in as many months, suggesting IoT is not yet ready for the big leagues. A handful of the world’s top websites were targeted during the attack, including The New York Times, CNN and Amazon, making this the most high profile attack to date and one aimed at disrupting the very fabric of the internet in the United States. The attack was carried by ...

Thorn Lighting is helping to sponsor the “Sleepless Light Exercises” exhibition at The Canterbury Festival this year by supplying PopPack T26 Batten luminaires for use on a sculpture.  The annual event, which is taking place at the Chaper House in Canterbury Cathedral, is one of the most important cultural and contemporary art events to be held in the South East of England. The exhibition by international artist Bernardi Roig, working with the University of Creative Arts (Canterbury),  uses life size sculptures made from polyester resin leaning against a wall and covered in 200 of Thorn’s PopPack 58W Battens.  The stark white of the sculpture, combined with the powerful illumination from the fluorescent lamps, creates a dramatic contrast within the surrounding Gothic stained glass window space.  Roig’s work explores themes such as human isolation, loneliness, the limits of knowledge and the body’s deterioration. The artist has created a tense relationship be...

Poor IoT security crashes world’s leading websites. PLUS: Vatican LED sets stage for late night hymns. AND: The smart lighting revolution is coming to….Swaziland? Lux Today November 1 2016.

Megaman, a leading LED lighting solution provider, is proud to announce the launch of a new selection of GU10 lamps. Megaman, a leading LED lighting solution provider, is proud to announce the launch of a new selection of GU10 lamps that incorporate the company’s new Hybrid Reflector and U-DIM™ technology.                                                     A new 4W (250lm) GU10 and 5W (360lm) dimming GU10, with 25,000 hours’ life, are now available in Megaman’s popular Economy range, whilst the Professional range sees the addition of a new 5.5W (500lm) and 7W (550lm) dimming GU10, both with 50,000 hours life.  All of the new dimming GU10’s incorporate Megaman’s revolutionary U-DIM™ technology as standard – making the lamps compatible with a wider possible range of existing dimmers, whether they are leading-edge or trailing-edge. The ne...