A Day At The (Light)Fair

Most of us at Live Design spent Tuesday at Lightfair at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, starting off with a press conference held by Philips, at which executive VP and CEO of Philips Lighting, Rudy Provoost gave a briefing as to the goings on and future of the company. Philips now encompasses a massive range of recently acquired companies, among which are Vari-Lite, Strand, Color Kinetics, and most recently, Selecon.

Provoost noted that LEDs are "the sweet spot of lighting" and that they are "shaping the future, and Philips is in a tremedous position to maximize that future." At Lightfair, in fact, Philips announced a cross-licensing program with Zumbotel for LED-enabled luminares; a new audit and upgrade program by the newly formed Philips Lightolier Energy Services Group; and a $1 million agreement to provide LEDs to a green project at New Jersey's Overpeck County Park.

Live Design inquired at the press conference if companies like Vari-Lite, Strand, Color Kinetics, and Selecon would continue to retain their identities. While the future of the brand names seem uncertain, Provoost obviously expressed respect for their pedigrees, stating that Philips' approach in these markets and with the brands, in particular, "will not be dogmatic, but practical," saying that it will really be considered on a case by case basis.

I, for one, can hardly imagine an entertainment tech industry with a Philips VL500, but that's just me, and I suppose a name is just a name, as long as the gear is the same gear.

Speaking of Vari-Lite, I also got to check out the LED chip that's in the VLX--very bright stuff from Luminus Devices (CBM-380).

And anyway, there were new products from the Philips folks:

Strand Active Power Management For A21 Dimming & Contact Relay Panels

Philips Color Kinetics showed iW Graze Powercore; iColor® Flex MX and iColor Flex LMX LED-based strands; ColorReach Powercore; and more.

And new products and news from many others:

TMB Architectural introduced the Solaris CF-35 Cap Strobe, a compact high-powered capacitor strobes available with colored lenses. Also shown was the Green Hippo HippoCritter media server for linking and controlling visual media over a standard Ethernet network.

Ushio showed new CFL, cold-cathode CFL, and Powersaver MR16s.

amBX showed a new ambient lighting control system called Ambient XC.

Of course, Lee Filters, Rosco, and GAM showed their lines of architectural and architainment products, and Doug Fleenor Design exhibited the Chameleon wall-mount controller and new low voltage dimming system.

PixelRange showed its new SkyLine family of LED floodlights, which will be available this month or early next.

Illuminarc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chauvet, launched its product line, including more than 20 LED-fitted products, including indoor/outdoor linear, pod and panel luminaires, and control systems.

Elation and Acclaim also exhibited, with new national sales manager for the specifications market Blain Engel on hand, just two weeks into his new gig.