Lightfair 2012: New Companies to Watch
Sure, the conglomerates dominated the Lightfair International 2011 exhibit floor, but here and there a few new entrants created a splash, and even some post-show buzz. Lighting.com is pleased to highlight a few of these new entrants as companies to watch in the coming years.
A relatively new company based in Montreal impressed a lot of designers with its family of LED luminaires for interior and exterior applications. “We released 20 new products in March and that allowed us to go out into the marketplace,” said Jason Broadherst, director of marketing for Lumenpulse. “We already had some excitement building, and then before Lightfair opened we had one of our products, the Lumenbeam LBX, recognized with an Innovation Award for Best Floodlights, Theatrical, and Specialty Luminaires. That created a buzz around the products and the company.”
Most Lumenpulse products are based on a dual-chamber technology in which the driver is separate from the LEDs. This design can help dissipate heat and allows the driver to be replaced when it fails.
Sensitile Systems (Ypsilanti, MI) produced one of the most startling booth displays with its glittering acrylic panels used as feature walls, dividers, and other artistic surfaces: they won the Best Booth Award in the Design Pavilion. For instance, the Lumina architectural panel diffuses LED edge-lighting into thousands of ever-changing points of light.
“We specialize in materials that either react to light and shadow or that can be illuminated for different aesthetic effects. Our materials are covered by several patents, and we are well established in the architectural and design materials market,” said Founder and President Abhinand Lath. “At Lightfair we launched several new light fixture applications using our proprietary materials, so it’s a brand-new market for us. Typically we have reached out to architects and designers; but at Lightfair we reached the lighting design community as well as the OEMs.”
Based in Columbia, MD, Autani Corporation has been providing energy management solutions for several years, moving increasingly into lighting controls. Autani offers products for new construction and retrofit, including a new motion sensor powerpack and 0-10 V dimming controller – all operating on a Zigbee wireless mesh. The retrofit solutions allow previously dumb controls to operate within an intelligent building system.
“We are in the midst of signing up lighting reps throughout the US,” said Walt Dowling, who manages lighting sales. “Lightfair was a great show for us. We had good traffic and spoke with lots of reps. The products were well received by specifiers, as they are both easy to specify and easy to use.”
SLV Lighting has been around for more than 30 years, and is one of the largest lighting manufacturers in Europe. For the past 2 years, President Steven Parker has been working to bring the SLV catalog of products to North America: “We have converted all 3800 products to North American standards, obtained safety listings [ETL], created documentation, and brought our 55 global manufacturing locations up to speed. The shelves are full and our support personnel are all in place. We have a state-of-the-art materials handling system at our warehouse based in Tampa – one of the most advanced in the Southeast.”
SLV promotes specification-grade products: attractive, green, and functional designs at reasonable prices.
Another overseas player, Intra Lighting was founded in Slovenia 22 years ago, which is why their commercial and architectural indoor luminaires can be found in more than 40 countries. Intra Lighting is new to the North American market, based in Toronto. At its booth, Intra highlighted the Kalis T5 or LED strip (recessed, ceiling, wall, or suspended installation) and the Deux-pièces LED trackhead with three different beampatterns and separate housings for driver and LEDs.
“We received a tremendous response at Lightfair and are in the process of building our rep network throughout the US,” said area manager Mirsad Burina. “We will definitely exhibit in Las Vegas in 2012!”
We look forward to seeing where these companies are a year from now – and who will be new on the scene?
By Lois I. Hutchinson
21 July 2011