What is Light and Build

Light and build is simply the largest collaboration of lighting suppliers on the planet. There are halls dedicated to LED lighting, controls and components, light source suppliers, industrial light fixture suppliers, a huge decorative lighting section as well as a hall dedicated to Chinese manufacturers of lighting products.

 

Why did Lamps-on-Line attend?

We attend all of the worlds largest Light Fairs in the world to keep ourselves up to date with trends in the lighting market and to see what we can offer to our customers in the future.

It is especially important at present with the velocity at which the LED lamp market is moving, that we keep in touch with what is happening with LED retrofit bulbs so that we can best advise our client base as to what will be available to them on the future.

 

So, What did we see?

 

LED

LED light sources and LED light fittings dominated the exhibition as you would expect, but there was a general opinion that the market for LED replacement light sources will only continue to grow for the next 4 to 5 years. By then, the market will be saturated and due to the longevity of LED Light sources, the emphasis will then move to LED Light fixtures and lighting controls.

Some of the biggest Electronics companies where exhibiting their LED Lighting products and both Samsung and LG where present. Samsung have a range of retrofit light sources, we where especially impressed with Samsung's range of LED reflectors that gave a true beam and had an aesthetic appeal. LG had retrofit light sources as well but were also showing a stunning range of OLED light fittings (see OLED, below). LG were also promoting their lighting control system whereby you can control all of your light fittings - in fact, all of your electrical appliances including fridges, freezers, micro wave ovens all from your smart phone!

 

Osram - with the biggest stand at the exhibition Osram offered a tour that took over 1 hour to complete. Osram were showing their range of Siteco light fittings, as well as a wireless lighting control system based on zigbee connectivity. There was a lot of emphasis on special light fittings and Osram had part of their stand dedicated to their recent project of lighting the Sistine chapel using a bespoke LED up/downlighter.

 

Philips – the entrance to the Philips stand was via a tunnel that was lit with LED light sources showing Philips ability to change colour and light output sharply in time to a musical background. On display were a range of domestic and industrial light fittings and their new LED light sources. Philips have a new range of Diamond Spark LED candle bulbs that use a newly designed lens that creates extra sparkle when used in chandeliers and decorative fittings. Philips also had on display their new DIM II compliant LED MR16 lamp that uses Airflux Technology to dissipate heat away from the light source. This means that they no longer use a miniature fan in their MR16 lamp.

Click here to see the General Lamps range of LED Lightbulbs

 

OLED

LG Oled Light Fitting

OLED – Organic LED is essentially a sheet of LED light that is very thin and flexible meaning it can be cut to size and manipulated to fit into any space or shape that is required.

Whilst OLED LED technology is still expensive and the efficacy – light output per watt is still poor the flexibility that OLED has, gives tremendous flexibility when designing light fittings. LG showed some really innovative designs for a range of domestic fittings. There are many future opportunities for OLED that could ultimately end up with a ceiling being replaced with an OLED panel that gives perfectly even illumination to any room or building that it is used in. Imagine no light fittings in your house just a white ceiling that can be switched on and off dimmed and change colour as you wish!

 

Decorative Lighting

As we have seen at other exhibitions, traditional halogen and incandescent light sources are most prominent in decorative lighting and LED has not been fully adopted. There where some really inspiring stands showing beautiful chandeliers and artistic light fittings. As you would expect, many manufacturers are taking advantage of the popular Edison Squirrel Cage Lightbulbs to enhance the appeal of their light fittings. For us, it was the decorative lighting halls were we saw the most inspiring light fittings and use of imagination out of all of halls that we visited.

Click here to see the General Lamps range of Squirrel Cage Edison Lightbulbs

 

Summary

So the World Light Fair lived up to its name, taking 4 days to cover the whole exhibition. We saw lots of new products on display that we will let our clients know about as soon as pricing and delivery dates are confirmed and we got a view as to what will be available in the future. Plenty of new LED light sources, LED light fixtures and Lighting controls both for industry but most importantly for your home all controlled by your smartphone!