LEDs are ready to light up the world of Sport.

There was a time when one static camera and a floodlight tower in four corners of the stadium represented the modern day broadcasting of sporting events. Times have drastically changed, to the point were high definition slow motion replays have now increased the video speed by an original 70 frames per second to a whopping 300 frames per second, reducing the chances of any flickering in  the video. Having said all of that, the demand for a flicker free lighting is continuing to gain momentum and was actually included in the lighting design specification for the London olympics in 2012. Stadiums are capable of meeting this broadcasting demand by installing the traditional metal halide floodlights with an electronic control gear or alternatively LEDs

In August 2014, a preseason football game between the premiere league champions Chelsea and Spanish side Real Sociedad was completely light by LED's.  This was the first time in which LED lighting was used in English football. The LEDs used in stamford bridge (the home to Chelsea FC) was supplied by LED giant Philips. The momentum however did not stop there as southampton was the next english football team which installed these energy saving LED lights at their St Mary's stadium. This was supplied by Vision Accendo,   a local lighting company

Musco, a 40 year old US based lighting specialist company are single handedly responsible for the LED lighting of 60 sporting facilities last year. This is still suprisingly a small figure in comparison to the 2.000  lighting projects which Musco are aiming to conclude by the end of the year, using LEDs and other lighting technologies. These projects include Twickenham Rugby stadium, the train centre for the Denver Broncos and the NRG Stadium home to Houston Texans (American Football team).

Floodlighting seems to be the piece in the jigsaw that Philips are aiming to fill up with LEDs, according to Mike Simpson the technical and design director of Philips " Floodlights are one the last places LEDs are taking over". Proir to the world cup in brazil dutch technology company ArenaVision installed metal halide system aiming to optimise HDTV, Super Slow Motion and 3Ds. However it now looks as though this technology is wearing off the vice president of lighting giant Musco highlihted  " Metal halide has reached its zenith, while the energy efficiency and quality of LED lighting is still rising".

This was further brought to attention by this year's Super Bowl being taken place under LED lights. This event is American Football's answer to the World cup final and is one the most watched sporting events in the world.  

Overall its hard to disagree, LEDs are not just a force to be reckoned with anymore they are the go to technology in lighting and who knows maybe the next time you go watch your favourite sporting team you will be light up by LEDs

This blog post was adapted from:
ISSUU-Lux special- Hospitality by Revo media 

New Safety Benefits of LEDs and the Internet of Everything

The internet of everything is becoming increasingly discussed as the future of our society, in previous blogs we have explored how LEDs fits into this digital world but now it has been discovered that LEDs and the industrial internet can be used to benefit our safety.

 

Designs that combine LEDs with wireless sensors and data-transmitting technology have been successfully implemented for safety uses in cities in Brazil and Spain. 

The Brazilian city of Bauru, hometown of the famous football player Pelé, in the state of Sao Paolo is one of Brazil's most densely populated centres with extremely high volumes of traffic. These issues are cause for concern in the UN 'decade for Action for Road Safety 2011-20'. The purpose of this foundation is to reduce the ever increasing numbers of traffic fatalities and to save five million lives in the ten year period. 

Obviously good lighting is crucial in this so in 2013 Bauru partnered with lighting company GE to convert over 2,000 traffic lights to LED. These LED signals last ten times longer than the traditional lights used and reduce energy consumption by up to 80%. In terms of safety for road users, these LED traffic lights produce greater visibility and clearer colours, this reduces risk of drivers being distracted by the intense Brazilian sunlight. There are nearly 3,400 traffic accidents in the world every day but Bauru and GE's contribution is helping to bring that figure down, perhaps other cities in the world should follow their lead. 

Not only could LEDs reduce the amount of traffic accidents, the introduction of wireless sensored infrastructures is able to give advance warnings of natural disasters. Although this is a problem that doesn't really enter our day to day concerns in Britain, the reality is that in the last 25 years there has been a staggering 850,000 deaths in the world due to natural disasters. This amounts to $3,300 billion in economic damage, a figure that's pretty incomprehensible. 

The the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative is a campaign created to help cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social, and economic challenges that are a growing of our modern society. As part of this initiative the La Garrotxa region in Spain is devoting itself to reduce the death toll of natural disasters by developing a daily monitoring system that will provide early earthquake and flood warnings. La Garrotxa is located to the northeast of Barcelona and between the Mediterranean and the Pyranees and is known for its volcanic landscape. It has become one of the first test sites for this new kind of early warning system. This new technology uses Wifi and 40 different types of environmental sensors managed through a dashboard and enables local officials to monitor local river levels for early signs of flooding and can also measure temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels which could be used to detect forest fires which the area is prone to. These examples show the possible safety features of LEDs and wireless technologies that could be employed within fire and police departments in addition to government offices. Making our infrastructures more sophisticated will allow us to transmit crucial data at the speed of light, creating safer cities and a safer world. 




Blog post adapted from Illuminated minds article 'LEDs put safety first' July 14 2015

Led Lighting Saves on Energy Costs and Cuts Carbon Footprints.

Businesses that swap their conventional lighting for LED sources could save as much as 85% in energy consumption, according to Paul Higgins, associate director at The Carbon Trust. The Trust is an organisation which helps businesses to find ways to cut their carbon emissions and operating costs. 
Lighting costs can account for up to 40% of a building's electricity consumption therefore the potential reduction of energy bills from using LEDs is certain to be worthwhile. 
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have been in use for over forty years, most commonly as the standby indicator on your television. However in the present day, due to the constant advances in technology, Huggins suggests that they are utilised in a much wider range of applications, from office to amenity lighting, accent and display lighting, even for illuminating large interior and exterior areas. Although switching to LEDs is a relatively expensive initial purchase, due to using a fraction of the electricity of traditional incandescent lamps, effectively they pay for themselves several times over before they need to be replaced. Furthermore, since the introduction of the LEDs into the market, prices have decreased substantially. 

Angel of the Light
The Necessary Angel (artangel.co.uk), a boutique style shop in Keswick, Cumbria, specialises in contemporary jewellery all hand-crafted in Britain and has experimented with lighting solutions since its establishment in 1990. 
Johnnie Walker who owns the company with his wife, Deborah Cowin has commented that "lighting is so vital for a jewellery business, the most important consideration for us is the brightness, followed by the coolness. Heat affects the texture and longevity of the display cabinets, which are made of wood. And anything that lessens the impact of the environment is good."
The Necessary Angel used dichroic halogen lamps to highlight its displays for many years, Walker has said that "the dichroics were cheap and bright but very hot, used a lot of energy and burned out regularly. We gradually introduced LEDs and then, a year ago, when we refitted the shop, we swapped to LEDs for all our displays, using strips in the cabinets and single bulbs containing three LEDs to focus on the individual pieces of jewellery." 
Walker continued to comment that, "The LED strip lights replaced three 20-watt halogens on a lighting strip and a couple of compact fluorescents. We tend to refurbish the shop every five years so the lights should outlive the cabinets. We will definitely get a return on our investment. There has been a leap in LED lighting in the last five years. They're affordable, very bright and damn reliable."

The Led Specialist Lights the Way
The Led Specialist sells over one hundred different types of LED lamps, including GU10s, candles, low voltage MR16s, golfballs, AR111s, strip lighting, par lamps and many more. Lamps can be a bit confusing so please see our website (theledspecialist.co.uk) for more information on the lamps we offer, how long they last and which lamps they can replace. We offer competitive prices on LED lighting solutions so start saving money on your energy bills now!