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The World Cup Lights Up with Osram's LEDs

By BulbAmerica Editor

The World Cup soccer stadiums in South Africa are the object of attention of millions of viewers watching the greatest soccer talents in the world vie for victory. Some eyes, however, are trained on the stadiums in South Africa for reasons unrelated to soccer, namely their use of cutting edge LED and HID lighting technologies. Osram-Sylvania has agreed to supply all ten World Cup venues with environmentally friendly lighting solutions, and has done so, particularly at the Green Point and Moses Mabhida Stadiums, in a spectacular fashion.

The Green Point stadium, located in Cape Town, is one of Osram’s greatest lighting achievements in South Africa. The rebuilt Green Point stadium features its LED lighting as its architectural focal point. The stadium has a wavy balustrade of white light that wraps around the entire stadium. The stadium’s designers needed a light bulb that was slim and would not interfere with the stadium’s elegant architecture. To solve this problem Osram used its Opto Semiconductors and Golden Dragon Plus LEDs to be hidden, yet produce a striking white light. In total Osram used 482 luminaires which amounted to 1.8 meters of lights. These lights were installed along the wavy balustrade and the ring encircling the top of the stadium. The Osram luminaires, like most LED bulbs, have an estimated life span of 50,000 hours or more and guarantee the lighting system to be low maintenance.

The second of Osram’s largest lighting installations is at the Moses Mabhida Stadium (pictured above) in Durban. The Mabhida Stadium features a 350 meter long arch (1,148 feet), 105 meter (348 feet) high, spanning the entire stadium. The beam is illuminated by 12,000 Osram Golden Dragon plus LEDs as well as custom LED beams. The LED system on the beam features exciting strobe patterns that bring the stadium to life. In both the Green Point Stadium and the Mabhida stadium Osram also installed HID lighting, T5, and T8 fluorescent lamps. Osram’s decision to outfit the World Cup stadiums with LEDs signals the global push toward LEDs and other forms efficient lighting like CFLs and HIDs.

Embrace the World Cup fever and check out our LED and other green lighting technologies today.

LED Strip Lights Get Dialed In with Optima's Colorstream Strip Kit

LED strip light packages are easy enough to come by these days, but what is not as common is coming across one with an easy to use control that allows you to fully take advantage of the dynamic color changing ability of your color changing strip. The COLORstream RGB LED kit, featuring the PAVO dial is a great option if you are looking for an easy to install and easy to use LED light source for accent, diplay, under railing, and under cabinet applications. The nearly 40in 7w strip features 35 bright 50,000hr SMD LEDs with a wide viewing angle of 105˚. With a depth of .43in, the COLORstream strip is extremely low profile, making it easy to conceal so what you are lighting is on display and not the strip.

What really excites me about this package is the 100w Optima’s PAVO dial, which is an intuitive and easy to use control for the color strip. By turning the dial initially and selecting among its first four settings: red, green, blue, white, you choose the strip's base color. Once this selection is made, press in the dial and adjust the color and speed of fade1/fade2 and the random flash program. This control is easy to use and allows you fully customize your strip light’s look.

BulbAmerica has a wide range of LED products for display applications as well as LEDs for the home, office, and stage. As usual, leave a comment on our blog or Facebook or give us a call at 1-877-622-0897 with any remaining questions you have.

Charge Up Your Lighting Today With Elation's Event Panel

With LED based lighting products, versatility is the name of the game. Because they use so little energy, LED luminaires can be used in novel and versatile ways, especially with the integration of battery systems into the fixture. It is for this reason that Elation Professional’s Event Panel is one of my favorite products right now. The Event Panel features 288 10mm LEDs rated at 100,000 hrs each. The Event Panel can be controlled via three different methods: either via a DMX controller, the on board LCD display, or by letting it run automatically through a sound activated mode that works through the Event Panel’s built in microphone. The panel also features a master/slave feature so you can link multiple panels up and run them. This is especially helpful if you are using the Event Panel in architectural applications or stage lighting applications.

What really sets the Event Pane apart from its competition is its detachable and chargeable 12v battery. By running the Event Panel on battery power you can use it in spaces where an outlet may not be accessible. The battery power option for the Event Panel coupled with its flicker free performance makes the Event Panel perfect for a filmmaker who needs a color changing wash and great looking light. The battery is extremely easy to charge, just plug it into a normal outlet and within a few hours your Event Panel is ready to shine. By simply detaching the battery, the Event Panel can be mounted to a truss or stand for theatre or other event applications and can be plugged in directly for continuous power.

Elation’s Event Panel deserves a look if you need a highly portable and versatile LED wash. Whether you are a DJ who runs the show at weddings or you are shooting a film, the Event Panel can provide you the lighting you need. Check it out today! As always, leave a message or question on our blog or Facebook or call us at 1-877-622-0897.

Chauvet's Wondrous Wall: The DVM-HR

LEDs technology has revolutionized the way light can be used to render new effects. One of the most popular and most effective usages of LED lights have been LED screens and walls that can fluidly display colorful images. Chauvet’s DVM-HR is one of the best and most durable LED panels available, and in this article I will discuss some of its features that I believe make it an exciting piece of lighting equipment for your event, bar, club, sports venue, concert, entertainment or any other application. The DVM-HR features 2,304 LEDs (768 red, 768 green, 768 blue) grouped in 256 clusters of 9 LEDs each. All the DVM’s LED bulbs have a life hour rating of 50,000hrs to 100,000hrs. The DVM-HR LED’s technology coupled with its IP65 rating mean that it is suitable for indoor and outdoor usage, making it an extremely versatile piece of equipment. The DVM-HR features an easy to use and tough bracketing system that makes it easy to mount and easy to daisy chain other DVM-HR panels if you decide that you want a bigger screen. Daisy chaining DVM-HR modules is made easy, each module has an additional video output so you can link them all together.

LED Tube Lighting: At the Center of Attention with Color and Image

With the proliferation of LEDs, display lighting has exploded with new products and innovative lighting ideas. One of the most exciting LED products geared for display lighting, night club lighting, and retail is LED color changing tubes. Both Acclaim Lighting and American DJ offer LED tubes. In this article the two manufacturers’ light tubes will be compared back-to-back to give you an idea of what is available and what these tubes can really do. ADJ’s LED 39in tubes have 144 LEDs and are user friendly, they can do almost anything. These tubes are 100% dimmable and when operated by the ADJ Rainbow II DMX controller and perform numerous pre-programmed sequences and can produce hundreds of hues using the tubes’ RGB color mixing. With the Rainbow II controller, the tubes can strobe and display impressive pre-programmed macros, or you can make your own chase sequences. ADJ Rainbow tubes are waterproof and include mounting brackets with each tube so you can use your tube anywhere.

Acclaim Lighting offers another great LED tube lighting option. The 47.25in Acclaim Pixel Tube comes in 15 LED and 30 LED versions. Like the ADJ Rainbow tubes, the Pixel Tube is ready for outdoor use with an IP rating of 65. The Pixel Tube has some tricks up its sleeve that sets it apart from the competition. The Pixel tube is designed for low resolution video applications. In conjunction with Acclaim’s X-software, your Pixel tube display will be the center of attention in any lighting system. One important implication of the Pixel Tube’s video capabilities is that it features 6-pin DMX connectivity versus standard 3-pin XLR in order to handle the additional video data. So, if you decide to opt for the Pixel Tube you will need to be able to accommodate 6-pin connectivity. Nevertheless, Acclaim Pixel Tube can provide your venue or retail application with exciting images in a simple package.

LED light tubes represent the forefront of LEDs’ boundless display applications. The ADJ Rainbow tubes are perfect if you want alluring RGB color changing, limitless color hues, and excellent strobes and chases. The Acclaim Pixel Tube is for the lighting designed that wants to blend light and image into a single package. BulbAmerica stocks both so you don’t have to decide between the two. Check these LED lighting tubes out right now!

The Time for Change Has Come: RGB LED Color Changers

Platinum has made getting exciting RGB color changing much easier for smaller venues like restaurants, bars, coffee shops, lounges, and other spaces. Platinum’s line of RGB color changing LED lamps come in medium E27 socket, MR16, and GU10 bases to give you maximum flexibility where you can utilize the bulbs and in what types of fixtures.Platinum’s RGD color changing lamps feature SMD color changing technology that allows you to change between an amazing 16 different colors. Platinum’s RGB lamps feature the performance benefits common to all LED light sources. Platinum’s LED lamps feature a 35,000 life hour rating and an energy draw of only 5w.

Platinum’s RGB lamps have excellent display abilities. Their 60 beam angle and their auto-flash and fade programs will allow you wash whatever it is you are illuminating in a bright, flat, and dynamic light. Platinum offers a great package that includes the four lamps and a remote control. The remote control, though small, can fully manipulate the color patterns of the lamps as well as perform basic functions like dimming and turning the lamps on and off. The package also comes with four PAR16 cans which are ideal for mounting the LED lamps and illuminating precise spaces like tables or the DJ booth.

The Platinum LED lamps and package allow you a formidable yet simple lighting system at a great price. The LED bulbs’ long lifespan and durable construction ensure that you will be able to set up your lights and never have to maintain them or change the bulb. Platinum’s RGB color changing lamps are low cost, low maintenance, low energy, and highly attractive—pick up yours today!

LED Flood Lights: A Perfect Fit for Environmentally Friendly Lighting

By BulbAmerica Editor

As the demands for environmentally friendly lighting solutions continue to increase, consumers are looking for green light bulbs to retrofit their existing halogen and incandescent fixtures with. Flood lights especially are an important market for green light bulbs because typically they use incandescent and halogen lamps, both of which are among the most inefficient light bulbs. Recently, manufacturers including Optima, Osram, and Silver have designed E27 and E26 medium screw base LED bulbs to replace halogen and incandescent floods while utilizing their preexisting fixtures. As with all LED lamps, these LED floods are extremely efficient and have excellent luminous efficacy. Osram’s PAR 30 13w LN bulb is intended to replace a 50w halogen flood. This bulb, along with many other LED bulbs, has a 50,000hour life hour rating.

One important advantage that LED floods have specifically over incandescent and halogen floods is that they remain cool during operation and have cool beam bulbs. Halogen produce large quantities of heat, thus presenting a hazard to small children who may touch the bulb or in some cases a fire hazard. LED bulbs generate close to no heat and for this reason are safer and much more efficient than halogen floods. The cool beam of LED flood lights will allow you to use flood lighting in more environments than halogen bulbs, including high-end retail lighting, accent/display lighting, and other display environments where a warm or hot light can not be used because it could damage whatever is being illuminated.

Of course like most LED technology today, LED floodlights are more expensive than halogen or incandescent bulbs. This is only a temporary situation, and moreover, the savings on your energy bills, replacement bulbs, as well as peace of mind, make LED floodlights a wise and thoroughly green investment for your home, office, or business. Check out what we have to offer today!

The Stage in a Whole New Light: LED Par Cans

In a recent interview in Lighting and Sound  America, Broadway theatrical lighting expert, Gary Fails remarked that, “LEDs are the future of lighting, they will change our industry.” Indeed, from the home to the airplane LEDs a re replacing more traditional light sources. This lighting revolution is no more apparent than in Mr. Fails’ own area of expertise, theatrical lighting. Since there have been electrically illuminated stage performances, parabolic aluminized reflectors (Par cans) have provided the light. Typically par cans have used incandescent or halogen bulbs to light up the stage. Like much of the lighting industry, however, this is quickly changing as consumers demand more environmentally friendly and efficient lighting options.

The energy savings of LED par cans are remarkable. Typical par can bulbs are usually incandescent, halogen or high intensity discharge (HID). These bulbs usually require energy draws of between 500w and 1,000w. LED par cans, such as the Optima Par 64 LED, draw only 12w. As with all LED bulbs, LED par cans match their low wattage with high lumen output. In addition to saving you money and energy consumption, LED par cans generate considerably less heat than traditional par can bulbs do, creating a more comfortable stage for performers. The savings LED par cans provide do not end there, however. With LED par cans, you do not need to bother with gel sheets or gel frames as they are integrated into the LED par can.

The range of color that LED par cans can produce is striking. The Optima Par 64 LED, for example, has a total of 183 LEDs bulbs, of which 61 are red, 61 are green, and 61 are blue. By using DMX controllers and downloadable software, one can quickly customize the color of the light, allowing you color flexibility not previously possible with traditional bulbs. Some par cans also come with built in light effects, something not possible with traditional par cans. The Optima Par 64 Pro features built in variable strobes and multiple color programs, giving your lighting an energy and capacity for creativity to match your performances.

Though LED par cans share the benefits of LED technology at large, they also share its temporary downside, namely the higher cost of LED technology. The cost of LED par cans however is temporary and will likely decrease as the technology matures. Furthermore, LEDs par cans save you money not only in energy expenditures, but also in that you no longer have to purchase gel frames or gels. The performance advantages of LED par cans make them a worthwhile investment and serious consideration for any theatre or concert venue owner.

In the Spotlight #8: Ceramic Light Bulbs

In order for light bulbs and lighting related products get better and more durable, more materials need to be added their construction in order to strengthen the existing materials and allow the bulbs to withstand higher operating temperatures. In browsing light bulbs you may have come across lamps that feature ceramic materials or ceramic sockets? What exactly does a ceramic bulb or socket entail? In this article I will answer this question and detail some of the products that include ceramics. Ceramics have been long used in electronics because they have some remarkable abilities as current insulators and semiconductors. Even more amazing, ceramics can be integrated with glass to produce glass-ceramic which is stronger than ordinary glass and can withstand rapid and wide temperature fluctuations. These characteristics make ceramics very useful for lighting products. The most common place for ceramics is in HID light bulbs, in particular metal halide lamps. From metal halide PARs for stage lighting to metal halide MR16s, and for other metal halides used for TV/Film production, ceramic metal halide lamps can be found. A ceramic metal halide bulb replaces the quartz arc tube with a glass-ceramic arc tube which can withstand longer durations of bulb operation and higher temperatures, ensuring longer lamp life and better light quality. Ceramic bulbs are particularly useful in applications like medical lighting where you require high quality light for potentially long durations of continuous use. Ceramics can also be found in Xenon medical lamps headlamps, or in both metal halides and xenon bulbs, ceramic arc tubes also resist the gradual degradation and failure of the tube itself, thus protecting the bulb against premature failure. There are also ceramic light sockets, which are used in sockets for all types of bulbs including medium screw bases and MR16s. Ceramic sockets provide excellent current insulation and make the conductivity of the electrical current that much more safe and efficient.

BulbAmerica has a wide range of ceramic lighting products from some of the most trusted names in lighting including Philips, Osram, Ushio, and GE. Check all of our xenon and metal halide products today. We also have a wide range of MR16, CFL, automobile, and LED products to choose from so don’t forget to check them out. Remember, there is more than one way to go green! As usual give us a ring at 1-888-505-2111, leave a comment on our blog, or post on our Facebook with any questions you have.

In the Spotlight #6: Metal Halide Miscellany

By BulbAmerica Editor

Lately I have been fielding a number of technical questions regarding metal halide HID bulbs, so I figured I would use this article to address them because I’m sure that these few customers are not the only ones who have ever scratched their heads over some of these technical issues. In this article I will explain the importance of (1) lamp burning positions, (2) pulse-start versus probe-start lamps, and lastly (3) the difference between quartz and ceramic metal halide lamps.

1. Burning position denotes the proper orientation of the bulb inside the fixture. Manufacturers test their lamps extensively to determine what position, whether it be, base-up, base-down, horizontal, vertical ± 15˚, etc. maximizes the life of the lamp. This will depend largely on the shape or construction of lamp, for example whether it is a short-arc lamp or ED17, and what gasses are inside of it. One should note that many lamps also have a universal burning position, meaning that they can be oriented any way. Manufacturers also denote burning positions to ensure that lamps operate safely and avoid premature failure. Burning position is also important with regard to consistent color rendering. Even lamps of the same model by the same manufacturer can very well have varying color rendering and color characteristics. To help ensure that the light is uniform, manufacturers stipulate burning positions to limit this variability in color quality.

2. Because metal halides are a gas based lamp, they require an initial burst of electrical current to sufficiently excite the gases inside the glass envelop so they can emit light. Probe start and pulse start refers to two different ways that the ignition of the lamp occurs to sufficiently excite the gasses inside the lamp. Older metal halide lamps typically use probe start lamps, which feature a starter electrode. The initial electrical current is produced by the ballast and travels up a conductor to the starter electrode which then forms an arc with one of the two central electrodes and thus facilitates the complete ignition of the lamp. The shortcoming of probe start lamps is that as the tungsten electrode is heated and deteriorates it blackens the glass envelope, reducing the efficiency and efficacy of the lamp. Pulse start lamps eliminate the need for the starter electrode by integrating the ignitor into the ballast which provides an initial 3kV to 5kV burst of electricity that forms the arc between the two electrodes. This streamlined system not only reduces bulb blackening, but also allows the lamp to function with a smaller envelope, making it more efficient. You should also be aware that pulse start bulbs warm up, or reach full luminosity, faster than probe start bulbs and also re-ignite faster, making them more convenient and easier to use.

3. Today, metal halide lamps’ arc tube are housed in one of two different materials: quartz class or a ceramic housing.Ceramic metal halide lamps are newer and are typically more expensive. Ceramic metal halide lamps can withstand higher temperatures and therefore have improved life hour ratings and better lumen maintenance over time. Furthermore, ceramic metal halides have better color rendering and better color consistency than quartz metal halide lamps, making them a good choice if you need a high performance lamp that will faithfully render color, as in medical and scientific applications.

Hopefully this article has clarified these important technical issues. Remember that for lamps like metal halides that require special care when using them, you want to make sure you have all of your technical bases covered before choosing the right one for you. Please continue to post your questions and comments on our blog and Facebook or call us at 1-877-622-0897 with any further inquires you have.