The past decade of turmoil in the lighting industry driven by the emergence and maturing of solid-state lighting technology has become the “Valley of the Normal,” – we expect constant chaos and disruption. Whether we’’ve adapted well to that is an open question. Now new factors are intensifying and exacerbating the turmoil even more, like the complex intermingling of currents at the confluence of two powerful rivers. The past year of course has given us Covid, supply chain disruptions, and dramatic political, social, and economic upheaval – on top of the relentless challenges of colliding, combining and rapidly shifting technologies. On the most fundamental level we face unprecedented environmental threats that simply cannot be met without significantly changing our global mindset and approaches – technology alone is not enough. So far the lighting industry has not quite understood its own important role in the emerging energy infrastructure transition and the true extent of the many opportunities available to those who can successfully adapt and evolve. A new era is here, and the stakes have been raised for everyone. 

In this talk, Bob Steele and Clifton Lemon will give a preview of the conference talks and panel sessions which have been carefully crafted to chart potential courses of the future of lighting and provide a detailed vision of different futures informed by the perspectives of the top thought leaders in the industries that create and maintain the built environment.

Decarbonization policies aimed at the building, transportation, and power sectors are preparing our society to meet ambitious goals. Yet opportunities exist to think about these more holistically, as there are synergistic benefits and attributes across sectors. Thought and policy leaders are developing and aligning new and emerging technologies, communication protocols, data, digitization, IoT, and artificial intelligence resources to meet environmental protection, climate change and social equity challenges. Many of these technologies and strategies impact and are impacted by lighting at the building level. Government agencies, grid operators, industry, and others are beginning to look at cross sector benefits including analytics and arbitrage systems, to support long term goals while trying to “future proof” both policies and technology solutions. These policies and the evolving monetization of system efficacy improvements are profoundly impacting markets – there will be winners and losers, and many new opportunities to evolve and adapt. This talk looks at how global initiatives and market forces are driving the future of lighting.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Industry Dynamics sessions)

The U.S. DOE has published a new report that characterizes the global manufacturing supply chain for LEDs and LED lighting products. This report aims to characterize the globalized manufacturing supply chain of LEDs and LED lighting products and investigate the economic impacts of this supply chain on the United States by addressing five research questions:
1. How is the manufacturing process structured for typical solid-state lighting (SSL) general illumination products?
2. What is the value added for a typical LED luminaire manufactured in the United States versus internationally?
3. What proportion of LED products are manufactured and assembled in the United States and internationally?
4. What is the impact of an economic event (e.g., tariffs) on the SSL manufacturing process and to the final consumer?
5. What are the domestic opportunities for SSL manufacturing in the global lighting supply chain?
To investigate these questions, this analysis used international trade data and market reports, and inputs from interviews with LED die, package, and lamp/luminaire manufacturers, as well as other industry stakeholders. Major findings on the status of the global LED lighting supply chain are summarized in this presentation.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Industry Dynamics sessions)

Despite the unprecedented period of transformative technology development from the late 19th century to the present, the lighting industry's approach to design, sales, and operations has barely changed since World War II. If anything, innovations like the internet, social media, and SSL have made our business practices and communication even more convoluted. By comparison, in the last 20 years the automotive industry has become 60% more productive by changing its design and manufacturing processes. We need to align the goals of all industry stakeholders: designers, manufacturers, distributors, sales reps, and building owners – and make significant systemic changes in how we all communicate and interact. Significant innovations in software have transformed other industry sectors, and they can transform lighting. Software and automation are crucial tools in aligning goals, creating value for all stakeholders, and evolving the lighting ecosystem to meet the challenges of the future. This half hour session will be a lively discussion among three industry experts with multiple perspectives from manufacturing, sales, design, computational design, software development, distribution, and energy services.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Industry Dynamics sessions)

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased interest in germicidal lighting to reduce the risk of airborne and surface contamination in healthcare and other facilities. As new solutions come to market, there is a need to use evidence from existing germicidal research to establish epidemiologically significant uses of UV-C technology. This panel session will explore the use and effectiveness of various types of UV-C technologies, ranging from discharge lamps to LEDs, in disinfection applications. The most suitable current applications of each technology will be discussed, along with potential applications in the post-pandemic environment. The outlook for the more widespread adoption of UV-C LEDs, as they become more efficient and lower in cost, will also be explored.  

AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 

Moderated by:
Robert Karlicek, Professor, Director, Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA), Rensselear Polytechnic Institute


Panelists:

Over the past decade, the discourse about lighting quality, so essential in the early days of solid state lighting, has given way to discourse about lighting and health, and Human-Centric Lighting (HCL). Despite much research that has engaged the biological sciences and to some degree the medical community, a clear definition of HCL has eluded most design practitioners; practical applications at scale are rare; actual benefits to building owners and occupants are unclear; and the need for more research remains paramount. Lighting and health in buildings has been very much in the center of the widespread trend towards “medicalizing” architecture, which is magnified and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The lighting industry needs direction on how to provide integrative lighting solutions that don’t focus on one aspect of HCL alone and that avoid overly complex, expensive or impractical solutions and integrate with common sense architectural design practice regarding daylighting and views. This panel discussion will present different perspectives on HCL and integrative lighting and help to outline goals and strategies for future design and product development for lighting the built environment.

AIA CEU Credits: 1.5

Moderated by:
Nancy Clanton, Founder and CEO, Clanton & Associates


Panelists:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has raised awareness regarding the significant potential of UV-C LEDs. There is strong interest in new technology that can inactivate bacterial and viral pathogens, over and above chemical treatments and/or reliance on Hg-containing tube lamps, and recent technical breakthroughs in UV-C-transparent epitaxial structures provide important roadmap opportunities. In the near future, these developments and the associated pent-up demand will usher in an unprecedented era of UV-C LED and application development, open an untapped and underestimated billion-dollar market for LEDs; and make our world cleaner and safer. This talk will provide an up-to-date snapshot of III-Nitride UV-C LED technology and applications, and project an entitled performance and cost roadmap for the future.

Achieving a P-type ohmic contact layer that is both transparent to the quantum well emission and simultaneously exhibiting low forward voltage is a critical milestone in the development of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Packaged single-chip 270 nm LEDs with 200mW optical power and low forward voltage at 350mA had been demonstrated. This development paves the way for future UVC LEDs with above 40% wall-plug efficiencies. Rapid inactivation of pathogens such as flu and coronavirus can be achieved with such emitters, making them essential tools for future pandemic prevention.

Far-UVC continues to gain market traction as the evidence mounts that it is safe and effective for occupied room disinfection. However, LEDs at these wavelengths remain elusive, and the only available light sources are based on gas-based lamp technology with many limitations. In this talk we will discuss NS Nanotech's new class of light emitter which leverages solid-state semiconductors, pulled from the LED industry and repurposed for this emergent need.

The concept of smart buildings has been around for fifty or sixty years. In the last decade the lighting industry has been pulled into the discourse, largely because lighting systems are convenient (and powered) locations for key technologies like sensors, cameras, and other data gathering gear. Also, as lighting controls become more sophisticated and complicated, we’re beginning to realize the possibilities of connecting them with other building controls and with energy management systems. But for the most part we have not been able to define what makes buildings “smart.” Much of the buzz has been technology focused, aspirational marketing hype with relatively little practical application. In the lighting industry, we’ve been thinking only inside the building for too long. As the need for unified climate action and grid stability continues to drive our thinking, we’re beginning to see that data and energy both need to flow in both directions- from the grid to buildings, and back. We’re beginning to understand that a smart building is a true “grid citizen,” that not only uses energy but produces, stores and sends it back to the grid. It’s also safe, resilient and healthy for occupants. For many reasons not often understood by lighting people, lighting systems and the lighting industry are central to the evolution of smart buildings. We have all the technologies we need now to make smart buildings a reality, what’s missing are design models, regulatory direction, and workforce training. This panel will explore how controls integration, energy services interface, and data gathering and analytics are driving the evolution of smart buildings, smart grid, and resilience in the energy infrastructure and built environment.

Moderated by: 
Clifton Stanley Lemon, Co-Chair, Strategies in Light; CEO, Clifton Lemon Associates


Panelists:

In the highly competitive LED lighting market, manufacturers are seeking better and more cost-conscious production methods and customization tools. At the same time, global manufacturing and supply chain bottlenecks are having a detrimental impact on building construction. Additive manufacturing (AM) technology, also called 3D printing, is fast approaching a state where it can be used to produce effective, custom lighting components and fixtures, offering an opportunity to ease supply chain issues. 3D printing holds promise for revolutionizing the way we light our building spaces. In this 30-minute presentation, Dr. Narendran will give a brief explanation of the current global interest in 3D printing and present a vision for changing architectural lighting practices with 3D printing. He will further discuss the advantages of 3D printing for lighting and present the opportunities and challenges learned from projects conducted during the past several years. Finally, his presentation will conclude with how the industry can collaborate to develop and grow 3D printing for lighting and prepare for the next lighting revolution.

Additive manufacturing, better known as 3D printing, holds the promise for revolutionizing the lighting industry. During the past several years, the number of companies exploiting 3D printing to make attractive, custom lighting fixtures has been increasing. The U.S. Department of Energy is funding Eaton Corp., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center, and Xerox Corp. to investigate the development of an integrated LED lighting fixture that uses additively manufactured components, including thermomechanical, electrical, electronic, and optical structures. The main focus of this effort is to demonstrate the benefits to design, cost and performance enabled by 3D printing processes. This presentation will explain the lessons learned in producing these components, technology gaps encountered and the potential benefits realized using an additive manufacturing approach.

Signify is excited to expand its offering of 3D Printed Luminaires with factories in the US, India and Indonesia. The company has perfected this highly flexible, more sustainable form of manufacturing, using a 100% recyclable polycarbonate material, which allows luminaires to be designed or tailored to customer’s exact needs and recycled at the end of their life. This sustainable form of manufacturing supports a circular economy globally. Signify’s investment and commitment in 3D printing further illustrates the commitment to better serve its customers’ carbon footprint impact while continuing to pursue Signify's goal as being the #1 leader in Sustainability and maintaining its top position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). A typical manufactured luminaire (excluding electronics and optics) has a 47% lower carbon footprint than a conventionally manufactured metal luminaire. Nearly every component may be reused or recycled, supporting the principles of a circular economy.

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The discourse about lighting industry disruption in the past decade has not resulted in many actionable insights. Our industry has constantly been told to “evolve or die” without being offered many examples of tangible, viable new business models. This has in many cases left us - largely like parents - complaining about our kids growing out of their clothes, while real change has happened outside of our control, without even our passive approval. The permanent chaos we all seem to face also represents significant unrealized opportunities – it’s only negative for passive bystanders or those who refuse to depart from business-as-usual. Today’s most successful market leaders understand how to use design as the key implementer for technology and technology as the natural enabler of design advancements. Specifiers need to become more efficient and relevant; manufacturers need work more collaboratively with all stakeholders in the design process; and distributors, rep agencies, and contractors all need to add value to the process of making better buildings by adapting new business models. Beyond this greatly needed improvement of our design processes, we need to grasp the opportunities that technological advancements offer. Among many, the connected grid is just around the corner. We can either see this as yet another threat or disruption to deny and fight – or we can choose to embrace it as an inevitable change that enables us to put lighting back into its historical place as the driving force in electrification. Let lighting - as the most visible use of energy - lead the transformation of building practice, controls, and the evolving resilient decarbonized grid. This talk will outline ideas for mastering the symbiosis between design and technology and taking control of the future of lighting.

Codes, standards and policy are often viewed by manufacturers, specifiers, and builders as necessary evils, factors that get in the way of executing building projects. Few of us realize the essential nature of the regulatory function of government - policy and regulations drive markets. California’s Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Title 24 Part 6) is now undergoing one of the most significant updates in many years for the current 2022 code cycle. California has been a global leader in reducing energy use in lighting over the past decade, and while efficiency will always be important, it’s no longer the singular driving force in lighting codes. Lighting is now playing a key role in the transition to healthier, more connected buildings that will eventually become full grid citizens, contributing to a resilient, carbon free grid. This panel, comprised of some of the country’s top experts on policy, codes and standards in the lighting industry, will explain the 2022 code cycle Title 24 changes and updates and how they impact the lighting industry today. They will illustrate specific case studies in code measures that they’ve been directly involved in that demonstrate the mechanisms behind evolving better codes and standards; provide an overview of what factors to consider when planning products and projects; and discuss in detail lighting’s role in grid modernization and decarbonization.

AIA CEU Credits: 1.5

Moderated by:
Josh Dean, Executive Director, California Energy Alliance


Panelists:

Integrated building controls – where lighting, HVAC, and other systems work together to optimize building performance – are essential to building  an equitable, resilient, decarbonized power infrastructure and meeting the challenges of climate change. In order to manage the influx of renewable energy sources, balance the load on the grid, and create truly smart buildings, building systems and equipment must be able to collect and report data, respond to dynamic price signals, and talk to each other in a much more robust way than they currently do today. As one of the most important building systems, lighting plays a key role in the transition to a sustainable, resilient future.  

Control systems have long been a weak link in the building industry, and as they become more complex, the challenges will only increase. But the main hurdles we face are not technological, they’re economic, behavioral, and cultural. Contracting business models in particular must evolve and adapt to face the reality of the enormous challenges we face today. 

Despite being far from accepted mainstream practice, integrated controls are being successfully implemented in a growing number of projects. This talk presents several compelling case studies of controls integration and explores the connections between integrated controls and larger issues like policy, codes and standards; engineering best practices; economic metrics and overlooked externalities; real estate asset value; building performance; and resilient grids.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Controls sessions)

Illustrated by a series of software screen captures from various manufacturers, this seminar provides a view of what it is like to operate a networked lighting control system from the vantage point of the building/system operator, while also diving into various spaces and user types to provide a user perspective. With this application-based presentation method, the full spectrum of potential features, benefits, and pitfalls of networked lighting control are explored over a year, demonstrating the energy and non-energy benefits and typical functionality of these control systems, both integrated and not integrated with other systems.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Controls sessions)

The announcement in late spring 2020 of a collaboration between Bluetooth SIG and DiiA (Digital Illumination Interface Alliance) to develop specifications for a standardized Bluetooth mesh interface for DALI-2 and D4i devices, which will enable connectivity with wireless Bluetooth mesh networks, highlights the growing recognition that interoperability is key to connected lighting solutions in today’s and tomorrow’s marketplace.

This session will explore three prominent interoperability standards: Bluetooth mesh for wireless communication interoperability; Zhaga for mechanical and electrical interoperability, and DALI for intra-luminaire communication interoperability. The presenter will examine each of these standards and how lighting infrastructures can incorporate each level of interoperability to add complementary functionality and extend capabilities beyond lighting to other value-added services.

Finally, the presenter will review some early projects that incorporate significant interoperability aspects and explore the lessons learned from these projects.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Controls sessions)

The practice of architectural placemaking through lighting has transformed dramatically in recent years, with technology such as addressable LED, sensors, projection, and advanced digital control systems pushing the boundaries of what is possible. A new industry is emerging that combines innovative lighting and fabrication techniques with new technologies traditionally used on the stage. The combination results in dynamic architectural centerpieces and interactive "light-art" installations that are being integrated into public and private spaces around the world. Two speakers, Robb Pope and Nick Moser will speak about the topic from two perspectives. Nick comes from a background of complex fabrication, and Robb from a background in creating innovative digital installations.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Advanced Concepts in Lighting sessions)

A lighting scheme is the result of a relationship between Client, Designer and the Codes and Standards. Others may be concerned to some degree, but they are really bystanders to the main action. The Client ostensibly knows what he or she wants and requires, the Codes are there to describe how that can be achieved and the Designer is the Interpreter of both. For the Designer who wants an easy life, it’s quite simple: take the Client brief, apply the relevant Code and draw up the resulting scheme. But this is not Design, it’s light as illumination, light as engineering. 
Lighting Design begins once the correct information is on the table. A good Designer takes time to analyze what the Client really wants and needs and also knows what the Codes ask for. It’s at that point that Design truly begins. The Designer changes the shape of the relationship and the shape of the outcome. This talk looks at lighting projects that challenge the status quo, that go Beyond The Codes, in the retail, hospitality, residential, offices, museums, and heritage genres. These projects provided solutions that neither the Client necessarily expected nor a rote application of the Codes allowed for. Some of the projects are outliers and will probably stay as such, while others have created a new dynamic within that liminal world of possible future.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Advanced Concepts in Lighting sessions)

For Billings Jackson, one of the leading industrial design firms in the world, the design process begins with understanding the needs of the entire product ecosystem: end users, specifiers, architects, lighting designers, manufacturers, sales and marketing teams, contractors, installers, building owners, and regulators. Working from the bottom up, the firm builds design briefs based on performance requirements across all stakeholder groups and specific manufacturing processes and technologies. This enables high quality, practical design solutions that prioritize ease of production and economy in delivery and in use. This talk will look at developments in integrating IoT into lighting projects and projects over the last 5 years, and describe the valuable lessons learned from an industrial design perspective.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Advanced Concepts in Lighting sessions)

The lighting industry is in the midst of a transformation. Prior transformations were the result of technological advances that dramatically increased efficacy. As these advances level off and high efficacy is expected, the priority is shifting from efficacy to quality as the differentiating factor between luminaires. Specifiers and their clients place more value on the quality of light aspects for luminaires and manufacturers have a public avenue to differentiate their quality products in the DLC V5.1 SSL program. This policy, released in February 2020 with applications accepted in July, includes quality metrics such as TM-30, UGR, and BUG Ratings. This talk will include an overview of the industry’s performance using these quality metrics, hurdles in understanding or submission of DLC applications using these metrics, and further action that can be taken to highlight, promote, and expand quality luminaires to the users who are now demanding these attributes.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Quality Metrics sessions)

Technology usually evolves unevenly, and our cognitive understanding of innovations usually lags their development by years, decades, or generations - for instance, we still measure motor output by horsepower, and light output in candlepower. In the quest for the ideal spectrum for a general LED light source, efforts to date have tended to attempt to replicate either the now superceded technology, incandescent, or sunlight. This backward-looking frame of reference has given rise to a certain bias, or preference, for “smooth” vs “spiky” spectra, trying to match smooth black body curves or relatively smooth averaged “daylight“ spectra. Although solid state lighting is a mature technology, development continues apace as we discover more and more ways to make light better- in efficiency, in spectral design, in its ability to deliver circadian stimulus. We now have far more variety and different levels of quality available than ever before, and can engineer seemingly endless spectra, spiky or smooth. Which is best? In considering the effects of light on health and circadian processes, manufacturers practically must rely upon experts in biology and neuroscience to provide appropriate guidelines, and must deliver products that are highly consistent as well as economically feasible. While “full” or “smooth” spectra may be most useful for general interior lighting in most applications, narrowband light sources can offer many different benefits: discreet circadian stimulus, germicidal properties, horticultural applications, and dramatically improved efficiency offer the common blue-pumped packaged phosphor design, while delivering acceptable color rendering. This talk looks at different approaches to spectral design and examines the metrics behind them.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Quality Metrics sessions)

Substantial advances in color science have been made over the past several years, most notably IES TM-30 and IES TM-30 ANNEX E. Importantly, no measures of color rendition, standardized or otherwise, consider the impact of light level on color rendition. This is important because objects appear less colorful at low light levels than at high light levels—a visual phenomenon known as the Hunt Effect. Despite the many lighting applications where low light levels are common and color rendition is important, current lighting solutions do not account for the change in color sensitivity as a function of light level. A strategy for overcoming the Hunt effect with LEDs will be discussed and a pictorial demonstration will be provided.

Total AIA CEU Credits: 1.5 (must attend all three Lighting Quality Metrics sessions)

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