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Showing posts from December, 2016

LEDs and the next agricultural revolution

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Historically, lighting in farming and agriculture was seen purely from a human standpoint. While all the sound and fury has been coming from the human-centric lobby, there’s been a quiet revolution going on in the agricultural sector. LED technology has brought massive change to the lighting for horticulture sector and the rearing of livestock. By creating LED systems that offer special spectral outputs, crop and livestock production is enhanced, reducing costs and increasing profits for farmers, while at the same time improving the quality of the product. Historically, lighting in agriculture was seen purely from a human standpoint. It may be that our light sources left us with little option than to make the best use, or what we perceived as best use, of those sources. Now that we have a ‘tunable’ light source we are able to focus on providing the plants, birds and beasts with the best growing environment. Horticultural lighting Research has identified specific wavelengt

Niagara Falls unveils spectacular LED lighting upgrade

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  Niagara Falls unveils its dazzling new $4 million LED makeover which illuminates the water with a rainbow of colour The new system is also installed at the Table Rock Centre and includes 1400 individual LED luminaires supplied by Stanley Electric. The Niagara Falls Illumination Board has unveiled a new LED-based dynamic lighting system that makes the famed falls even more spectacular at night. The twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and Niagara Falls, New York collaborated on the $4 million solid-state lighting (SSL) project that was undertaken by a consortium of lighting specialist and contracting firms including Ecco Electric, Salex and Mulvey & Banani Lighting Sceneworks, and Stanley Electric. 'The newly enhanced nightly illumination of Niagara Falls will capture the imagination of the millions of visitors, who come to witness the sheer power and beauty that is Niagara,'  stated Mark Thomas, chair of the Niagara Falls Illumination Board. 

New York's bridges to get multi-million dollar LED facelift

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  The Robert F Kennedy bridge, which links the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx together, is part of the state wide project to light New York's Hudson river bridges with LED. The George Washington Bridge, one of the most famous bridges in New York City, will get an LED overhaul as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan to revitalise New York's river crossings. New York City's iconic Hudson River bridges are set to undergo an LED make-over, in a move that mirrors London's 'Illuminated River' project to revolutionise its own river-scape. Nine New York bridges will receive an LED overhaul during the first phase of the $500 million project, ranging from the Henry Hudson Bridge in the Bronx to the Crossbay Veterans Memorial Bridge in the Rockaways. It is planned that the new lighting schemes will be able to be programmed to salute historic moments, sporting events and national occasions such as the Fourth of July.  This mirrors

Meet the streetlights powered by footsteps

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Streetlights powered by footsteps are unveiled in Las Vegas. PLUS: World’s first live li-fi test takes place at LuxLive. AND: Lux Award winners revealed at a ceremony in London. Lux Today December 6th 2016.

Legacy to LED - Dimming in One Smooth Curve

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With the advent of LED lighting, the relationship between legacy dimming technology and LED lamps has become an uneasy one.  Here MEGAMAN® shows how to overcome such difficulties. New for old? One of the big areas for dimming problems comes when home owners decide to switch out all of their traditional lamps for LEDs, but don’t change the dimmers at the same time.  This is largely down to the lack of public knowledge about the fact that trying to combine old and new technologies can lead to all kinds of issues.  The problems that can occur when new and old are combined include: lamp flicker, flashing, an inability to dim as low as required and failures with the LED and/or dimmer.  Even if the LED lamps seem to initially respond well to dimming, over time, the use of LED light sources on a legacy dimmer can have longer-term implications that lead to call-backs, weeks or months after installation. The root of the problem Almost all legacy dimmers designed for incandescent