On April 23-27, light+building, the world's largest lighting tradeshow, drew 2,098 exhibitors (1,259 from 54 countries other than Germany) and filled 2.51 million sq. ft. of exhibit space. Only 22 exhibitors came from the United States. The show attracted 134,849 visitors, 32% having visited from abroad.
The show didn't focus on sign-related products. I saw only five companies that exhibited custom-made neon, cold-cathode or fluorescent tubing, and I saw two, high-resolution, LED videoboards. Having walked the halls of Italian-luminaire design shows, I was impressed how this show's product, presentation and staff matched la linea italiana.
LED products incorporated red, green and blue LEDs controlled by all available protocols. Sold under neon-like tradenames, these products were offered by Dutch Chinese, French Chinese, British Chinese, German Chinese, Spanish Chinese, Taiwanese Chinese and, finally, Chinese companies. Show organizers and exhibitors should consider adding Chinese to future show languages, in addition to English, German and Italian.
Even companies that traditionally focused on special incandescent lamps and stage-lighting lamps showed only LEDs (with poor color rendering, in my opinion).
I spoke to scientists from LED manufacturers Nichia and Osram Sylvania about their most recent efficiency data. Nichia's white LEDs reach 41 to 42 lumen per watt (compare this to 80 lm/W for cold cathode and 105 to 125 lm/W for fluorescents), while their blue LEDs achieve 10 lm/W and their amber LEDs reach 23 lm/W – which equals a tungsten-halogen lamp.
Osram's research scientist claimed that the company's red LEDs have achieved approximately 70 lm/W. I'd believe this extremely high figure only if I could measure it myself or confirm it in writing. The company's data sheets don't provide efficiency data.
The show focused on networking and "smart" lamp power supplies that can be controlled by Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) phone systems, wireless LAN, USB or via the Internet. All big, fluorescent-lamp companies exhibited "long-life" tubes, with an average lifetime of approximately 20,000 to 30,000 hours, which had been offered before only by a few, small manufacturers. The long-life tubes would be helpful for hard-to-reach sign applications where neon or cold cathode may not be permitted.
