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Let’s Get Lit!

Of all the industry trade shows, Lightfair continues to glow with a sense of energy and excitement

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After arriving in The Windy City for my fourth Lightfair show – this year taking place at Chicago’s McCormick Place, May 6-10, 2018 – it was hard to ignore the infectious buzz surrounding the lighting industry’s most electric event.

While Lightfair also serves the commercial, residential, healthcare and hospitality industries, retail is a primary focus, and companies across the board were demonstrating the latest and greatest advancements in illumination.

A popular offering were indoor positioning/beacons embedded into light fixtures that work as controls or sensors – some could be used for wayfinding, others were used to collect consumer behavioral data and some worked to adjust light levels based on the time of day. While this technology has been available the past few years, it seemed to be top-of-mind for most exhibitors this time around.

Advancements in LEDs continue as drivers improve and tunable/dynamic white becomes more seamless (goodbye, flicker!), opening doors for designers to consider this buzzworthy tech. (Though some vendors told me the tunable/dynamic white craze isn’t worth the hype, and not many people in the field are actually using it. VMSD has observed some retailers that do, but it does seem few and far between.)

Decorative fixtures were ubiquitous, as retail begins to take cues from the hospitality industry with regards to statement-making chandeliers and fixture installations, used to draw attention to certain in-store features or promotions.

Arguably, however, the most talked about emerging trend was LiFi. Only a few companies showcased this tech on the floor this year, but it seems poised to become just as buzzworthy as tunable white, if not more.

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Essentially, LiFi allows a user to connect to the Internet wirelessly by using the light spectrum, usually via smartphone. Through a high-speed network of multiple lightbulbs that form a wireless network, LEDs are used as visible light transmitters to send data back and forth. The best part is that multiuser access is possible.

Could WiFi eventually become a thing of the past, replaced by one system that illuminates and connects – at least, at retail? Only time will tell, but I’m guessing 2019’s show will have a heavy focus on the potential uses of LiFi for both retail and commercial.

As for LFI’s Innovation Awards, the “Most Innovative Product of the Year” award was given to Ledra Brands (Tustin, Calif.) for its Vector series, which includes recessed downlights, multiples and wall washers. Specifically, the downlight, “…uses breakthrough tech allowing dynamic beam shaping through an app or wall switch from 10 degrees to 55 degrees,” according to LFI’s Innovation Awards website.

Other winners included a Technical Innovation Award for a “CCT & Lux Sensor (GLS-LCCT)” from Crestron Electronics (Rockleigh, N.J.); a Design Excellence Award for “Juno FlexConnect featuring micrOptix technology” from Acuity Brands Lighting (Atlanta); and a Judges’ Citation Award for LumEfficient LLC’s (Brentwood, Tenn.) “Lifi” product.

Lightfair will be heading back to downtown Philadelphia for its 2019 show, May 19-23, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. For more information, please visit lightfair.com.  

Carly Hagedon is the Managing Editor of VMSD magazine. She lives and works in Cincinnati and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where she studied Journalism—Magazine Writing and American history. She also currently serves as a board member for the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). Prior to her foray into the retail industry, Carly worked as a freelancer for several local publications and interned at Cincinnati Magazine.

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