Lumenetix

SSL Lumenetix has been working on developing the control aspect of their modules lately. They are moving away from radio zig by controls and going with Bluetooth control through apps on your phone or tablet. They will also provide a solution for previously installed products to bring them up to the current technology. By wiring the fixtures to a 0-10V box you can convert it to Bluetooth control. They offer their modules with warm dim or color tune. The color tune has a high quality pure white with stay rated color options as well.

Lumenetix develops the modules and uses third parties to provide optics and controls.

The also have a linear product that comes in 1' increments. You need a power supply every 4' but you can connect with a ribbon connector and can control the length from one module. There is an integral collimator to provide near field mixing to blend the LEDs.

Cooledge Lighting

Cooledge Lighting has thin led products that are all UL listed. The material itself is a heat sink so you don't need any extrusions or additional material. You can simply mount straight to your material of your installation.

There are different sizes available starting with 1.4". The strips are field cuttable with rolls up to 30'. For the thinner strips there is not a way to add lengths to the end of the run so a new power supply would have to be run from the other end.

Cooledge also has sheets that are 12" x 12". These sheets can also be cut in the field. The great thing about the sheets is that they are connected with snaps to one another which makes for an easy installation. Because the LEDs are close together you can get uniformity backlighting materials with 2-3" depth. All of their products are 0-10v dimming standard.

Cooledge provides their products with a reasons price point making them a standout to their competitors and worth consideration.

Ketra Lighting

Ketra is a new company from Austin that stopped by our office. They specialize in a control system that allows you to have total color control of their fixtures as well as limited control of fixtures from other manufacturers. Ketra's control box can be used on its own or incorporated into a larger control system coordination. Ketra offers both a linear fixtures and LED PAR lamps. With their control system you can change the color temperature and CRI along the black body curve as well as static colors. Output is maintained regardless of color temperature. Their proprietary software is available to download and program scenes and settings for your lighting design, or fixtures and lamps can come preprogrammed from the factory.

Working on a closed loop system, Ketra allows you to calibrate color and temperature amongst the fixtures providing consistency across the board.

They said that they are developing a 3" downlight and hope to release it soon. We will have to see what the final product looks like, but we tend to be a little hesitant when companies that are traditionally focused on other aspects of lighting such as controls, try and get into the downlighting game.

Erco

Erco has been making a lot of improvements to their fixtures. They are now offering only LED products. Also they have gotten their LEDs to approximately 100 lumens/watt for 3000K and 130 lumens/watt for 4000K. They have designed their fixtures around projection and not reflection which works inherently with how LEDs work as opposed to older light source technology. Through the use of lenses, Erco is able to offer several different optics for each fixture.

Gecko is a new round projector that can work as either a floodlight or a wallwasher. There are multiple beam spreads as well as lenses that can be specified. For tighter beam spreads, the LEDs are recessed back into the fixture and for wide flood and the wall wash the LEDs sit next to the glass lens.

Lightscan Facade is an addition to the Lightscan family and is a surface ceiling wash fixture. It comes in multiple sizes and wattages ranging from 24W - 72W. It's an impressive fixture. Because of the direction the LEDs are facing, you don't get any backspill on the surface it is mounted to. Like most of their fixture families, the Lightscan comes in either a wide beam or a deep beam.

Erco has designed Site which is an in-grade linear grazer. Site has a very wide throw with an 80° beam angle. Because of this they are able to get a spacing of 1 to 4 or even 1 to 6 depending on how much light you want on the vertical surface. Each fixture is 16". After it is installed you can use a tool to tilt the fixture 10° forward and back.

Visor and Lightmark are a new series of pathlights that come in various mounting options; surface, recessed and bollards. At 6 watts a fixture, it had a decent light output. They offer either a wide or a deep distribution.

Amerlux

Amerlux is a large manufacturer with a vast offering of fixtures both interior and exterior. They recently stopped by with some of their exterior lines to give us a taste of what they can do. The LB2.5 is a bollard with a 2 1/2" diameter and has a 360° distribution. It had a nice throw of light and we didn't notice a harsh line on the floor. It's dimmable to 10%. You can specify the height to be 12"-48". They also have a 4" version as well which has a higher output allowing you to have a larger spacing.

We also took a look at their step-lights. The fixture itself is wet location rated so it can be used as a retrofit installation or used with the new construction back box. It had a pretty harsh line on the floor, but it had a wide distribution. Their standard faceplate is a composite similar to material used on boats and is a cheaper option to metal plates. The composite faceplate allows you to have custom colors for the finish. The also have steel and cast aluminum face plates for an up-charge.

The AC series comes in two sizes, 2" and 3.5". The beam on the AC2 had a strange pattern. The larger AC3.5 seemed to have a cleaner spread. Both fixtures come with the option of using additional lenses to alter the beam.

Amerlux is known for their post-tops and bollards. With LEDs taking over the market, they have developed a retro-fit module that can be installed into existing metal halide fixtures. This saves cost from installing new poles and can be used with fixtures from other manufacturers as well. The module is dark sky rated.

Cree

We got a chance to see Cree in our office today. They have developed new square recessed downlights for their KR line. They offer multiple lumen packages. It is not wet location though, which is something we look for when we are looking at a famliy of recessed lights so the trims are the same throughout the project. We did not see a sample of the trims or the fixtures, but they will have them at Leducation next month and we look forward to seeing them.

Cree has multiple types of troffer fixtures. We looked at their CR fixture. 2x4, 2x2 and 1x4 sizes are available. The fixture comes standard with step dimming for bi-level control per code but they can also do 0-10V dimming. Emergency battery backups are offered and are integral to the fixture.

The ZR troffer fixtures are a lower price version of their standard troffer. It comes standard with 0-10V dimming. The sample we saw has a glossy white finish which was a bit glary, but they said they are coming out with a matte finish soon that will help with that. It is generally in stock by distributors and contractors so it is readily available.

We also took a look at the LS fixture which is a linear area light in 4' and 8' lengths. The fixtures come in standard 4000 and 8000 lumen packages respectively, but they can modify the lumen output for each length.

Smart Cast is a unique control system that Cree has developed for their fixtures. It uses built-in censors to control fixtures together and can be programmed using a remote control device. The benefit of using Smart Cast is that no extra wire is required which brings down the cost. You have to use their switches.

We were also made aware of their T8 LED retro-fit lamp that they have. It's different from other lamps on the market because it does not need a different ballast. It can accommodate any type of ballast that you might have installed.

Ligman Lighting

Ligman Lighting stopped by our office for an introduction to their global company. Ligman Lighting has a vast catalog of products they offer. Their hard copy of their catalog is over 900 pages. Currently, they are only offering their exterior lines in the US, but plan on bringing the interior lines here in the future. One unique thing that Ligman offers for their exterior fixtures is an IK rating which rates the fixture for vandal resistance. On a scale of 0-10 with 10 being strongest and most resistant.

They have basic fixtures but are open to customizations since all of their fixtures and components are made in-house. As a standard, their logo is imprinted on their fixtures, but you can specify without it.

Ligman is similar to other exterior manufacturers that are out there but with a lower price point. What is nice about Ligman is because their catalog is so vast, they have multiple families of fixtures that let you have different fixtures types on one project that have the same style as each other.

WAC Lighting

WAC Lighting has been making some changes to their product catalog. The are offering a 3.5" downlight that has a 3.5" shallow housing depth including ceiling thickness. Trim and trimless options are available in both round and square apertures. ELV and 0-10V dimming are standard.

They also have a no frills downlight that is line voltage so it does not need a driver. It comes in one color temperature (3000K), 50° beam spread and a white trim finish. We thought the color was very cool for 3K.

WAC has developed a track fitter for their W recessed and surface track. The driver is hidden inside the fitter. When you use a track cover over the portions of unused track, you can have a seamless appearance.

The Paloma is a track spotlight that uses the W recessed track fitter. What is unique about the Paloma is that you can manually adjust the beam spread to be between 15° and 60°.

We also took a look at the Summit fixture which is intended as a MR16 LED replacement fixture. It is a dedicated LED but it uses AC so no driver is needed. Summit uses Beamshift which lets you move the lens to either the front or recessed back into the fixture to change the beam spread from a flood to a spot.

Aculux

Aculux stopped by our office to introduce their 2" aperture platform. The fixtures are available in either square or round and in fixed downlight, adjustable or wall wash versions. It comes in two outputs, 700 lumens or 1000 lumens and 80 or 90 CRI. The optics are interchangeable in the field with 18°, 24°, 35° and 45° beamspreads. We saw the 18° optic and it was relatively clean with not a lot of secondary spill. For the round downlight fixture there are two different reflector cones; hyperbolic and parabolic. The parabolic is the typical reflector style that helps eliminate the glare and direct the light, however they have developed a hyperbolic reflector that provides a wider distribution and the light seems to disappear more at the fixture. They recommend this fixture especially when you have taller ceiling heights. Although there is a harsher line than the parabolic when the fixtures are closer to the wall.

We took a look at the wall wash trim version but were not very impressed with it. There was a lot of light being directed towards the ground and a harsh line on the wall. The fixture itself was glary.

Aculux offers a remote emergency battery backup option and the red test light can be located remotely as well.

Overall it was a nice punch for such a small aperture and would be a good option to consider for residential projects that prefer when the fixtures do not draw attention to themselves and seem to blend into the architecture.

They also showed us a more commercial grade version from Juno that is a straight no frills downlight. It would be a good option for lower budget condominium projects.

Bartco Factory Trip

A quick trip to the Bartco Lighting factory in Huntington Beach, CA was greatly appreciated in the cold of early February NYC. Bartco is family owned and maintains a community spirit throughout the factory.

Bartco is working on a number of exciting new fixtures, as well as updating their current product with the newest and greatest LEDs and optics. Their typical linear fixtures use a Harvard Engineering board with multiple LEDs per inch, produced a node-free appearance on their typical frosted lens (see their BAM-XLS8290 bookcase light below). 0-10V dimming control will be provided as a standard as well.

Bartco has also been working on a new anodizing treatment that allows for any scanned image to be used as a finish. We've seen a few factories that are offering this type of finish, mostly as various wood options (Intense Lighting, Luminis, etc.) but Bartco is also offering to coordinate for custom designs. Any anodized finish you can scan - can be provided for their extruded aluminum fixtures.

Two exciting new products that Bartco is working on are an 5/8" deep edge-lit frosted lens fixture, designed to install within the gypsum only so that the studs behind are not affected. This allows the fixture to run in any imaginable designs without restriction. Typically, it can only be mounted in gypsum with a mud-in plate, but Bartco is also working on integration for mirrors.

The other new product is their BSS110, a new linear cove light. Using the new node-free LED boards with a frosted lens, this product produces a smooth band of light on the back and ceiling of the cove. It also has up to 15deg tool-less field adjustability.

It was interesting to discuss projects with the other designers on the trip. Many still use linear fluorescent lamps for commercial projects where dimming is not required. Since fluorescent lamps are now available with 50,000+ (or even 80,000+) lamp life hours, and the lumens/watts is still relatively similar, the payback for LED is not as great. Also, the consistency of using fluorescent lamps and ballasts, which can easily be changed out, is potentially more attractive to owners than relying on LED boards and drivers that are constantly changing.

Coronet

Coronet stopped by the office to talk about the direction their company is going. They are moving forward with primarily LED fixtures. A highlight of Coronet is that they are able to do a lot of custom work in house since they have their own machines on site. They are a local company to NY, which comes in handy for some projects. Most of the custom fixtures they develop for other clients tend to become standard products after the fact. One fixture they showed us that they developed for a project is a modular system that features a linear LED up light and sections of LED strips and track heads attached to global track at the bottom. It's a great product to use allowing the user to adapt the space as their needs change such as in retail or open office spaces.

Fabbian

Fabbian has expounded their Tile collection with more options featuring textures, colors and scale. They also are offering different shape of tiles that allow you to create patterns for your installation. They also have a lit bar that can be placed throughout your tiles to up light and highlight certain parts. Since all of the tiles are handmade, they are able to do custom tiles.

We also got to see a new chandelier from them. With either lit tubes or Beluga glass globes, you can creat a custom chandelier. Fabian offers standard canopies with set placement and quantities but also has custom canopies that let you very the placement.

Fabian's series of surface and recessed LED fixtures are all dim able with 0-10V standard and are available with damp and wet location versions as well.

Fluxwerx

Fluxwerx is a new company that recently entered the market with a revolutionary product. They have been able to re-imagine how LEDs are distributed. Through two different types of optics, Fluxwerx has developed a series of fixtures that provide a similar distribution from traditional linear fluorescent fixtures but from a vertical surface. Through an anidolic optic the LEDs are directed down through the acrylic extrusion and then distributed out through sides. This allows the light to be blended and remove the striations that are typically apparent when LEDs pass through glass or acrylic surfaces. Fluxwerx has three fixtures, View, Profile and Transform, all utilizing anidolic optics. Dimming is standard with no adder in all of their fixtures with 0-10V to 5%. Fluxwerx guarantees 2 MacAdam Ellipse and are usually even tighter. Right now they offer 35K and 4K, which both appeared warmer than we normally see from other manufacturers.

They pay very close attention small details. When joining fixtures for longer runs than their standard 4' and 8' lengths allow for, they have overlap joint that eliminates seams.

For the View and the Profile fixtures the driver is located in the canopy, or can be located remotely. They can offer integral emergency battery backup option as well as daylight sensors.

It's always interesting to see fixtures that think outside of the box and Fluxwerx definitely does that.

Lighting Services Inc.

Lighting Services Inc. has been working on incorporating dimming to their LumeLEX cylinder track series The LED fixtures are provided with integral ELV dimmers to 10%. Also by using the latest LED module, the fixtures are brighter. They also have a new optic that is an eyeball lens. It helps clean up the beam and reduces the secondary spread. Of course it does limit the output though. We also took a look at their retrofit track fixtures. These fixtures take into account using retro-fit LED lamps and have venting added to the body of the fixture. The SSLGR16 is one of those fixtures we looked at. It's related to their halogen fixture GR16 fixture. It has been modified to accommodate a retro-fit LED MR16 lamp. Right now the design incorporates a two-tone finish, but can be modified to have only one color which we would prefer. It is nice to see manufacturers taking into account that retro-fit lamps have a presence in the market and accommodating their fixtures to support them.

Solais

Solais is a new company that we were introduced to. They started out as a retrofit LED company and have expanded to providing dedicated LED fixtures as well. They offer varying sizes in medium screw base lamps. What is unique about Solais' lamps is that they incorporate active cooling rather than passive. With the integral fan from the active cooling, we were able to hear a slight noise when we were close to the lamp. The highest CRI the offer is 85.

We also took a look at a couple of their fixtures including track and recessed multiples. They have a version of their LED board that can be used in both track and recessed fixtures that use a violet LED in the center of the board. This imitates the look of a metal halide source.

Their recessed multiple fixtures are offered in single up to quad configurations. All fixtures are dimmable with forward phase dimming.

They have a list of several projects that have their lamps and/or fixtures installed in the city that we could visit and see them at work in real life applications.