Thank you to Design Plan and Stan Deutsch Associates for an exciting and educational trip to Light+Building Frankfurt! Light+Building provided an excellent showcase for the different manufacturers Design Plan brings into the North American Market. Design Plan also announced an update to their Quick Ship Program, with current available quantities to be listed online and updated daily.
ARES This is an exterior lighting company with great eye for aesthetic detail in their fixture design - and wit in their name selection. Many of the decorative bollards and step lights had excellent glare control, but also produced a strong linear line of light on the ground (with a hint of yellowing at the edge). This could be useful in some situations, but needs to be considered for projects where a more diffuse line is required.
ASTRO This is a mostly decorative interior line for use in hospitality and retail. There are minimal exterior products offered, but they are well designed. They have a line of well designed small reading lights in a variety of finishes, and the Digit is fully recessed for use in Murphy beds. The Edge sconce can be modified with cut outs for room numbers, etc. Astro will provide modifications to most of their products for a minimum of 100 pieces.
BRICK IN THE WALL "Invisible integration" The beauty of these products is how the plaster frames coordinate with the gypsum plane to create a smooth transition from material to light fixture. This seamless appearance allows the fixtures to be fully paint-able and customized on-site. A full range of down lights, adjustables, wall washers, step lights and unique custom forms are offered. The new LED material is available in 2000K, 2700K and 3000K with 80 or 97 CRI. Many of the products are damp or wet location rated.
Thank you GRUPO MCI for an exciting and educational trip to their factory in Barcelona! We were able to spend time at both the Grupo MCI Light+Building booth and receive a factory tour and more intensive learning experience.
The booth highlighted many of their standard White and RGB products, including full ranges of linear and point source fixtures. The Smart Flex product (available square or rounded) is a unique field-cuttable IP66 linear cove light. Available in white, static color, or color-changing, the static colored fixtures actually use white LEDs with a colored acrylic lens - which produces a higher lumen package than typically seen. The Groundliner LED is now also offered in a Slim version and RGB, RGBW, Dynamic White and Static White. These products are well designed walk-over fixtures with a node-free lens.
Grupo MCI's strength lies in custom designs. They have an incredible R&D team that produces comprehensive documental, installation details, and completes site visits to ensure the project is installed and commissioned correctly.
The Smart Column, designed for Dubai Airport, offers both up and direct lighting for the space. The integral CPU senses and drives the current throughout the life of the unit. This not only maintains the light levels as the LED life diminishes, but also senses any differences between LEDs and drives them differently to maintain the same light output throughout.
The AcryLED light panel has standard offers, but again, the strength lies in the customization. Panels are available in most custom shapes, including bent designs. The acrylic is scored with knives to produce an even glow across the surface. Any customized designs are studied and the scores are adjusted to maintain this quality.
Grupo MCI's quality is also noticeable in their handling of the LEDs. Most PCB boards are made at the factory. When the LED is encased in silicone, the factory determines the color shift this might cause and will order the temperature to correct this. You receive high quality material and at the color temperature you specified.
LUCE&LIGHT L&L has an impressive array of small beautiful products, from in-grade marker lights or walkover frosted glass up lights to recessed step lights and decorative sconces. The Linear Bollard has a classic shape (with the head piece also offered as a decorative sconce) and gave an efficient diffused spread of light, and also includes an integral driver. I would love to see this produced as a wall step light as well, for a complete family of options. Unfortunately not available in the US, the Esem series of recessed down lights looked great, with a trimless aperture and single node LED. As did the River linear LED wall grazer with white or color-changing, also available in submersible.
LUMINO This is an excellent line of linear products with many different extrusion, lumen output, and color temperature options. LUMINO provides very tight binning (just under 2 bins) and a visual check for color performance (not just relying on computer readings). This is key to providing excellent color matching throughout considering shifts in red and green are quite visible. The V20SL product is a completely node-free lens (even in a reflective surface) and is offered in both IP20 and IP66. I would like to see them offer a 45° angled fixture in the future.
MEYER This is an exterior lighting company on par with other manufacturers we might choose for high end projects. The SuperLight Nano claims to be the "smallest fixture in the world with an integral driver." It begins with x1 LED module at 3watts with a 7° beam spread and can also be provided with a linear lens, 25° beam spread and groups of x4 or x9 LED modules. The Ecoscape is their first foyer into street lighting and will be available next year. The Comfort Module was a glare free option, and although less efficient, was much preferred over the standard visible LED node displays. MEYER also provides a ranges of building mounted architectural lights such as up-down sconces, wall washers and area lighting.
MOLTO LUCE I was impressed by the variety of well designed fixtures presented by MOLTO LUCE. Made out of fiber cement, the Soft line might be one of my favorites (available in two pendants and a sconce with custom designs available) and the new Clip LED exterior light (path and sconce) is the perfect element for modern designs. The Gator area light had a surprise center panel that can either be painted to match the ceiling or mirrored. The fixture appears to float on the surface and requires only a standard j-box for mounting, as all drivers are hidden behind the panel. MOLTO LUCE also offers a line of thin profile retail case lighting, multitudes of track options, and various linear pendant and surface mount designs. Overall, they presented a well thought out line of modern fixtures.
MORGAN ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING I was happy to see DESIGN PLAN bring Morgan Arch Lighting back into the US. Their line of flexible LED products is unmatched in quality and light output. Among their available fixtures are three sizes of flexible white cove lighting with a variety of beam spreads, a new curve-able RGBW quad node system, flexible retail track with adjustable LED heads, and a retail case rod with moveable barn doors. It is also exciting that some of their products are outdoor rated, making Morgan Arch Lighting a great resource for many difficult projects.
WIBRE Although with only the linear walk-over fixture available in the US, WIBRE offers a nice selection of submersible and pool fixtures for international projects. The smaller submersible heads produced a nice output and the in-grade fixtures were nicely detailed with a bevel flange.
There were also a few US based manufacturers that took advantage of the Light+Building exhibition.
BAULMANN LEUCHTEN This company is soon to be offered by Solivanti in the US. They offer a very nice range of clean and minimal decorative fixtures in beautiful metal finishes. I particularly liked their reading light shape options - which had great beam spread and color temperature (in LED). They also offer a great integral mirror light option, which should be available in custom sizes.
ERCO ERCO certainly knows how to put on a show, with an impressive booth showcasing "What Inspires You?" and the melding of creativity and technology (including a live twitter feed). There were a wide selection of fixtures to look at, including the Pollux, a new track LED aiming projector; the Pantrac, a classic line LED wall washer; and their full range of Tessis in-grade up lights. As always, their products provide excellent optics and color rendering.
FILIX (INTER-LUX) Many of the products at FILIX's booth are not available in the US (yet?!). One of the more exciting was the Snake, exterior rated flexible in-ground up light with a soft opal lens. FILIX also presented an impressive array of submersible pool fixtures.
LITELAB We know LITELAB well in the US, so it was a pleasure running into them in Frankfurt. They were showcasing a new 5° LED track light with an integral driver (which means a smaller track fitter) and a new LED Framing Projector. They are also expanding the ALS Slot system, with a side mounted track head and a new standard mount LED head as well. LITELAB also now offers wood adapters for the ALS Slot, which really expands their use!
SCHMITZ (INTER-LUX) Schmitz had a nice presentation of linear LED (pendants and recessed) and integrated LED cove systems. The booth showcased their gypsum integration, but it is also good to remember that they offer ACT products as well - which are great for amping up an office interior. Schmitz produces a number of shapes and designs, in quite a large scale, and also have a range of cove spots to integrate. They also offer a range of surface mounted products to complement their recessed designs.
TECHNILUM It was fascinating to stop by this booth to learn about urban design possibilities. This company produces powerful weld-free aluminum designs, that can integrate with any light fixture. They also can include speakers, wifi, phones, signage - you name it. They range from small decorative posts to large urban function lighting.
UNIVERSAL FIBER OPTIC (UFO) Although mostly fiberoptic, I was most excited by the magnetic adjustable LED mono-points showcased in the booth. These fixtures are available in three sizes and use heavy-duty earth magnets to form a ball-and-socket design, allowing ultimate flexibility with a sturdy base. It was also great to see the new LED illuminators, which were impressive in their output and color.
