This year’s conference program features 70 courses and more than 190 education hours. Its two forums – Smart Cities Forum and Light & Health Forum – reveal how lighting and technology are transforming the future of the industry. The forums each contain six sessions that will be delivered on Wednesday, May 9th.
The Smart Cities Forum will focus on relevant protocols, artificial intelligence, data analysis, case studies and more. Participants will see how smart cities are leading the way to a connected future. Topics focus on the pragmatic use of artificial intelligence (AI), using data to make smart decisions, and bringing outdoor lighting into the 21st century.
The Light & Health Forum continues to explore the non-visual effects of light on humans, plants and wildlife. Current knowledge of the impact of light on biological health and overall well-being will be addressed with more detailed exploration into some of the new metrics and design guidelines that are guiding circadian lighting applications.
Lightfair continues to offer 60- and 90-minute sessions, which cover some of the industry’s most relevant topics such as energy codes, connected lighting, IoT, tunable light, emergency lighting control, wireless lighting infrastructure, smart cities, lighting finance, circadian lighting, and horticulture lighting. Anyone can fit these short courses into their busy show schedule.
After carefully reviewing the full conference program, the following 15 courses caught the eyes of the EC&M and Electrical Wholesaling editors.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Intersecting the Latest Trends in Building Automation, Building Management Systems, and Smart Lights
Jerri Levison, Arrow Electronics
(12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.)
This session will explore the latest trends and challenges with the intersection of smart lights and building management systems. The speaker will explain building automation and key motivations for implementing a “smart building,” list key features of a building management systems/building automation system, summarize at least three new trends in smart lights, and describe three challenges for deploying smart lighting solutions.
Keeping Up with Change - Annual Industry Update
Mark Lien, IESNA; John Green, Lambda 530 Consulting; Robert Cilic, LEDVANCE; and Paula Ziegenbein, Hartranft Lighting Design
(2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
This popular seminar has been a Lightfair highlight for decades. As the industry continues to change, it’s become increasingly more important to provide an update on SSL technologies and their application, both as retrofits and complete luminaire systems, with control integration. This panel of experts will cover important developments since Lightfair 2017, provide insight, and share projections about future implementation of these and emerging technologies.
Understanding Emergency Lighting Control
Mitch Hefter, Philips Lighting and Steve Terry, Electronic Theatre Controls
(4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
In the last few years, advancements in emergency lighting control technology, energy management, and integration of emergency systems with other building controls have made compliance with Art. 700 of the National Electrical Code (NEC) more complex. There are now far more design choices available to the specifier or installer. This session will review the requirements for emergency lighting control covered under the NEC and associated UL product standards and describe and compare various methods of emergency lighting control.
Best Practices for Tunable Light Specification
Charles Knuffke, Legrand, Wattstopper and Adam Carangi, Lumenetix
(5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.)
As tunable light specifications continue to grow, this seminar covers the practical suggestions on correctly designing, specifying, and commissioning tunable luminaires and control systems so they are specifier-friendly rather than an insurmountable chore. The speakers will educate the audience on the various tunable light solutions in the market, cover the advantages and disadvantages of current controls solutions, provide examples of practical applications for tunable light projects, and review a specification checklist for tunable light projects.
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Lighting & Beyond: Pragmatic Use of Artificial Intelligence in Smart Cities
Sohrab Modi, Echelon Corp.
(8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.)
This course will explain the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to everyday people, articulating the advantages and challenges of deploying AI solutions in Smart Cities. It will describe a variety of pragmatic deployments in real-world lighting projects. The discussion will touch on the role of Big Data in the AI ecosystem including case studies of real-world AI deployments for lighting control or lighting networks. Examples will include weather-adaptive lighting, traffic-adaptive lighting, parking availability and more. Learn how customers can derive value from AI in Smart Cities, how the ROI could justify the investment, and factors to consider before deployment.
Solving the Challenges of Commissioning a Wireless Lighting Infrastructure
Michal Hobot and Raymond Pfeifer, SILVAIR
(10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.)
With the advent of connected lighting technologies, a new approach to the commissioning process is needed. Different communication protocols impose different limitations and suppliers have all sorts of ideas as to how to address them. In this seminar, the speakers will dive deep into wireless commissioning, discussing the challenges and opportunities it brings. From simple scenarios to advanced lighting control strategies, they’ll investigate what is needed to commission a connected lighting system in a time- and cost-efficient manner. They’ll also analyze good practices and common misconceptions, as well as the latest innovations delivered by Bluetooth mesh.
Street and Area Lighting Limbo
Bob Parks, Smart Outdoor Lighting Alliance (SOLA) and Apurba Pradhan , Echelon Corp.
(10 a.m. to 11 a.m.)
City and campus managers prefer using one type of luminaire across large areas to simplify inventory and maintenance, but this practice often fails to optimize energy use or illumination. This session will help participants understand how to deliver appropriate lighting levels to comply with local ordinances for different intersections a using smart, connected lighting controls, learn to accurately model energy use for connected lighting and project energy savings, understand how three Smart City and Smart Campus strategies can be enabled by connected lighting controls and how they increase project value, and conquer the fear of dimming outdoor lighting through an understanding of strategies to adjust lighting levels to ensure and enhance safety.
Innovations in Lighting Finance
Jeremy Epstein, HBC Energy Capital
(10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.)
The world of lighting finance can be a mysterious one, full of jargon and difficult to understand financing structures. This presentation will cover three key lighting-financing instruments out there: Equipment Leases; Lighting as A Service/Energy Service Agreements; and Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). The speaker will help you understand which ones can be most relevant to your projects and why, and hopefully give you just enough information to be able to describe the structures, applications, and benefits of these three key financing instruments.
Lighting's Place in the IoT world: A Designer's Perspective
Ardra Zinkon, Tec Studio; Jered Widmer, The Lighting Practice; and Paula Ziegenbein, Hartranft Lighting Design
(10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
The term "connected light" and IoT are buzzwords constantly overheard in the industry. What is connected lighting and how does it allow people to better engage with their environment? Be it an in interactive art installation, a tuneable lighting system in a Well certified office fit out, or voice activated lighting in home automation, this session will review opportunities for connected light in typical project environments. Session leaders will guide participants through a basic understanding of the necessary lighting system components, features, and protocols required.
Control Options for LED Retrofits
Gary Meshberg, OSRAM Encelium and Craig DiLouie, Lighting Controls Association
(2 p.m. to 3 p.m.)
As LED lighting and LED product rebates stimulate a wave of retrofits, building owners have a choice of doing nothing (leave energy cost savings on the table), something (limited retrofit), or everything (new lighting). Whether the owner installs retrofit lamps or new luminaires, lighting controls offer options for maximizing energy savings, extending product life, and providing other value. This session examines LED retrofits from a controls perspective, evaluating controllability of different lighting options, control options for different retrofit approaches, and related issues such as energy codes and rebates.
Horticultural Lighting: A Growing Market
Doug Oppedal, Evergreen Consulting Group, LLC; Philip Smallwood, Strategies Unlimited; Travis Williams, Fluence Bioengineering; and Damon Bosetti, DesignLights Consortium
(2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
In the past few years, SSL horticultural lighting has exploded onto the market, leaving in its wake a set of unfamiliar terminology, developing test procedures, and a very different approach to determining product performance and quality. So, where is this market headed? This session will help you understand product performance for horticultural lighting products, learn how to select the right product for your horticultural application, and understand how to access utility incentives for your horticultural projects.
Circadian Lighting Solutions for Office Workplaces
Katherine Stekr, Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design; Rachel Fitzgerald, Stantec; and Steve Warren, CT Lighting Sales
(3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.)
What does circadian lighting mean for interior spaces and buildings? In this session, experienced lighting designers will walk attendees through the factors associated with successfully implementing a circadian lighting design system. They will outline the importance of improving our baseline design standards to design for "less harm" and the ongoing battle against the epidemic of misinformation. Various design solutions will be reviewed, control schemes outlined and options for the scientific measurement and calculation of circadian lighting will be discussed. The team will discuss lessons learned and overview results with user feedback.
The Chicago Smart Lighting Program: Bringing Outdoor Lighting into the 21st Century
Leslie Darling, Chicago Infrastructure Trust; Rebekah Scheinfeld, Chicago Department of Transportation; and Danielle DuMerer, Department of Innovation & Technology
(5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.)
This panel discussion will provide an overview of the City of Chicago's ambitious Chicago Smart Lighting Program, a four-year project to retrofit approximately 270,000 street light fixtures – replacing High Pressure Sodium fixtures with LED fixtures. The speakers will describe the city's legacy outdoor lighting system, the complex procurement process conducted to hire a vendor to undertake this massive project in the most cost-effective way possible, and the lessons learned so far.
Lighting’s Influence on Demand Response (DR) and Demand Management in the LED and Controls Era
Scott Zeigenfus and Don Barus, Hubbell Lighting
(5 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
Studies show the contribution of lighting to electric bills has been reduced by more than 50%, leaving HVAC as the priority electrical consumption in most buildings. Although HVAC is more aligned with demand response needs because it is climate driven, lighting can still be a true contributor to demand response programs. This session will review the basics and differences of DR, DER, AutoDR, and Peak Management. You will also learn how lighting’s linear, predictive, and instantaneous nature is the perfect complement to HVAC for DR.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
LED Lighting Product Life and Failure: Why We Need New Test Methods for Accurate Life Reporting in Applications
Nadarajah Narendran, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Erik Page, Erik Page & Associates, Inc.; and Cameron Miller, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
(10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
Laboratory testing of consumer LED lighting products is showing that manufacturer-reported life estimates are missing the mark when it comes to residential applications. The results show that LED systems are not living up to life claims because industry test methods do not consider common operating parameters in applications, such as on-off switching and high temperatures. This seminar reviews the research showing the causes of LED system failure, how to accurately predict LED system life by knowing the system’s operating temperature and use patterns, and explain current industry test methods and strategies for revising standards.
