Light up the world and save energy

It was the grandest, brightest, state-of-the-art “kite” I’ve ever seen. But unlike ordinary kites whose movement is dictated by air, this object could be choreographed to move gracefully — with dancing lights to boot — with just a push of the button. It looked so beautiful that visitors to the recent “Light + Building” trade fair held at the Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany, were drawn to the Philips booth for not just one but five consecutive days to witness what else “light can do” for them.

The Philips LivingSculpture Kinetic OLED installation, which Philips reps temporarily named “Kite,” is a magnificent luminaire whose design is based on OLED (organic light emitting diodes, which gets its name from the organic semiconductors used in the product along with the minimum amount of waste during the production process), a lighting technology that allows for very thin, very lightweight panels to be used in lighting design.

Designed by Philips Lighting chief design officer Rogier van der Heide, in partnership with the design group Whitevoid interactive art and design, the Kite is composed of 864 Lumiblade (as patented by Philips) OLEDs in triangular form and spans six meters. The thin OLEDs blend in with the frames of the installation, making it an incredibly thin plane of light that floats freely in space.

OLED is Philips’ latest step in LED technology, which not only offers unprecedented design possibilities (thanks to its thin form and diffused light), but also sheds light on future energy efficiency.

With a dimension of 10-centimer by 10-centimeter, and a width of two millimeters (including the glass cover), the thin, flat panel used for general lighting is rated at 35 lumens/watt in energy efficiency and lasts up to 10 times longer than incandescent lamp (rated at 10,000 hours), while giving off light equivalent to 75 watts for an incandescent lamp, which still illuminates most homes, schools and office buildings.

 “OLED takes lighting to a new frontier. The light it produces is gentle and comfortable on the eyes. Not only is it energy efficient. It also opens up a host of possibilities for creative designs and quality of lighting,” explained Philips CEO Frans van Houten during his product presentation at the opening of the “Light + Building” fair.

Apl.d.ap lights up the stage at the Stade de France with his dymanic-light costume peppered with LEDs and Philips’ Lumiblade.

Speaking of design possibilities, Philips Lighting chief design officer Rogier van der Heide pushed the design envelope further when he developed the unique dynamic-light costumes peppered with LEDs and OLED lighting panels for none other than American hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas. Fergie, Taboo and apl.d.ap truly lit up the stage at the highly anticipated and historic three-night stand at the Stade de France. The show took place in the three times sold out 80,000-capacity stadium in the suitably named City of Lights.

Van der Heide did it again when he dressed up Fergie in a beautiful little black dress with integrated electro luminescence lighting (which were controlled remotely and were synchronized to the music and lighting sequences) at the Billboards Awards night in Las Vegas. The dress clearly demonstrates a unique integration of fashion and technology.

Although consumers will have to wait for another six years to get more advanced OLED (40x40-cm. dimension, 40,000 hours with 130 lumens/Watts in efficiency for clear OLED and 1m. x 1m. color-changeable decorative lighting) the current product has already offered so much freedom in its usage.

At present, Philips only targets government, hotel owners, and other businesses as potential markets for the premium products.

“The price of one OLED panel is US$50, but could save the buyer up to US$165 in its lifespan. The product is expensive, but each one is unique and can be customized. We are confident that over time, the product will be more affordable,” enthused Marc de Jong, general manager, Professional Luminaires (global), Philips Lighting, adding that a LED bulb offered a retail price of US$35 two years ago, dropped to about US$10 today. 

See what light can do

Since energy efficiency is the theme of the 2012 “Light + Building” trade fair at Messe Frankfurt, Philips took this as an opportunity to present a range of lighting innovations that not only illuminate, help improve your mood, up your productivity, enhance your feeling of well-being, but are energy-efficient as well.

“We are definitely in for exciting times because there are a lot of things going on in lighting. First is the LED revolution. With LED, suddenly there’s enormous opportunities in lighting that we weren’t able to explore before. Now we can have light in all colors not to mention more variations of white light that one can imagine,” said De Jong.

If only more and more people would switch to energy-saving LED lights, energy crisis would be a thing of the past. 

“LED lighting is still in the early stage in Asia with the exception of Japan and South Korea. In most parts of the world, LED light users are less than 10 percent so it’s just a small pie, but is rapidly growing. One of the reasons why a lot of people are still hesitant to switch to LED is the price. What they don’t realize is the amount of money they’ll save in the long run. In Japan, you’ll see LED lighting being used in retail shops and offices, 40 to 50 percent of renovations now make use of LED lighting. Payback time can be felt after eight to 10 years, especially in hotels where they use light 24/7,” noted De Jong.

According to De Jong, lighting accounts for 20-percent of global electricity use, while public spaces and commercial buildings alone represent 60 percent of lighting-based electricity use. So a full switch to LED lighting would provide energy savings of up to 80 percent in many applications, and an average of 40 percent for all lighting. LED technology also offers unprecedented possibilities to digitally control light, to create intelligent and dazzling light experiences.

Philips’ intelligent LED solutions and controls offer efficient and flexible lighting for streets (CityTouch), buildings and shops, when and where it is needed.

“With CityTouch, you can make cities more safe, reduce accidents on roads, and make businesses more active,” De Jong added.

To see for ourselves what De Jong meant, Philips representatives gave us a tour of the Philips booth where they simulated different environments to show how Philips LED light fixtures work: a kitchen, an office, a fashion boutique, a supermarket, and even a sidewalk.

At the “office,” the rep showed us how, with just the push of a button, you could actually turn the light warm — when people are more active — to encourage social interaction.

“In the offices, people are working a lot of hours with relatively poor quality lighting. With Philips’ DimTone feature, we can have dynamic lighting: warm and cold combined. We also have Somfy, which intelligently manages the balance of artificial lighting and natural daylight in offices,” said De Jong.

DimTone allows light to be adjusted simultaneously in intensity and color — from bright to warm light — to create the ambience of choice by means of a dimmer. Philips also boasts LumiStone, which creates inspiring meeting rooms. A spotlight with a very high quality core light beam, LumiStone can be used in reception areas, reading spaces, and in working tables.

Philips LED lighting and controls contribute strongly to the transformation of office spaces towards stimulating and comfortable workspaces.

 “At the same time, they also reduce the carbon footprints and energy costs,” De Jong added.

LED lighting is also extremely important in retail. Philips AmbiScene solutions attract, engage and create desire among shoppers.

“We also have a very high-quality spotlight called Pure Detail. Pure Detail highlights the quality of the fabric. Ninety-percent of the shoppers chose the scarf that was lit with Pure Detail because, as they say, ‘the fabric looks more natural, more fashionable and expensive,” enthused De Jong.

Philips has also partnered with Supermarket Plus, where they’ve installed dramatic lighting to make shoppers stay longer and shop and buy more; or make them move faster when there’s heavy customer traffic.

“When shoppers go during the rush hour, we adjust the lighting to the “fast moving” setup, because we don’t want shoppers to stay longer. During slack times, we want shoppers to stay longer to better appreciate the items that they’ll buy. So this clearly shows that lighting is such a powerful tool to communicate with your customers,” added De Jong.

Design innovations

Philips has been recognized for innovation in lighting design, winning nine iF Product Design awards in 2012 for its consumer luminaires. During the trade fair, the company proudly presents its latest lineup of LED design luminaires for the street and the home.’’

There’s CityTouch, which is an intelligent light management system for city-wide street lighting. This computer-generated lighting fixture dims when the sun is up and lights up when the sun is down. It makes cities more safe and reduces accidents on the roads.

One product that every homeowner would want is the Philips is the Ledino, which gives light a new experience. This innovative dimmable warm white light creates a beautiful light effect to create the perfect ambience in any modern interior design. Philips Ledino is a wide array of lamps with integrated high-power LED light source that are extremely long-lasting.

Bring your own style home with InStyle. This range of decorative pendants, wall, ceiling, floor and table lamps in premium materials and different colors lets you experiment with the latest styles and themes in your home.

Color your world with Philips Living Colors mood lamp, which can wash a corner or an entire wall with any color, depending on one’s mood.

Kids’ room will never be the same with myBuddy, a lighting fixture which helps parents set regular sleeping patterns for their little kids. With myBuddy table lamp, kids can ease into settled slumber patterns with a new friend at their side.

MyBuddy offers three functionalities to follow your child’s sleeping rituals and teach him/her to make the difference between night and day in a fun way. MyBuddy’s moon nightlight glows softly, letting kids know it’s too early to wakeup mom and dad. Just before switching off the light in the evening, set MyBuddy’s timer at a time to suit your family’s rhythm and let MyBuddy do the work. The moonlight glow is replaced by a more brightly shining sun that tells them the day has just begun.

My personal favorite is the Nick-Knack, a design luminatires for homes based on the Italian animation La Linea’s philosophy, which draws characters using one single line. From a simple, single form, Nick-Knack offers surprising and versatile possibilities for lighting and styling your space.

“These broad array of LED lighting solutions are designed to create inspiring ambiences both in buildings, homes and outdoors while reducing energy consumpiton and operational costs,” added Frans van Houten, CEO, Philips.

With LED, how much energy you save doesn’t depend on how many lights or how often you switch off, but what kind of light you switch on.