Like each year, CES 2020 had some remarkable innovations for lighting fraternity as well. We at LED World tried accumulating a few from the world’s renowned lighting techs to give a picture of how the show fared.
CES 2020 featured remarkable innovations from both long-time exhibitors and companies that were not typically considered as tech companies. According to the organisers, there was so much to see and do over just a few days. We tried accumulating information about the innovations put forth by a few lighting techs from this year’s show.
Biggies like Philips unveiled the outdoor illumination bonanza and Osram came up with rear automotive lighting solutions. Sengled unveiled a new range of smart light bulbs, whereas Nanoleaf’s showcased Learning Smart Lights that can learn, sense and react to users and their environment. Arlo Pro3 security camera sported a floodlight, WiZ Connected launched Ultimate Smart Lighting Ecosystem, and last but not the least, Wemo Mini Wi-Fi Smart Plug got even smaller.
Signify Expands Its Philips Hue Outdoor Range
Signify, the world leader in lighting, showcased its Philips Hue outdoor collection with a new range of smart wall lights, pathway lights and low-voltage fixtures. Among the latest additions to the outdoor collection are wall-mounted fixtures and pathway lights. There are 16 million colours and 50,000 shades of warm-to-cool white light for effortless personalisation to create the perfect atmosphere in one’s outdoor space.
The highlight of the exhibit were the new up and down lights ‘Appear’ and ‘Resonate’, a new product type in the Philips Hue family that creates strong and unique directional light effects. Attract is a wall lantern that offers a unique light effect that casts a subtle arc of colorful light against the wall, while Daylo is a circular wall light in stainless steel or black for a subtle, backlit glow. It’s angular and architectural Nyro family includes wall light and path light options.
Augmenting its low-voltage lighting as an alternative to traditional outdoor lighting setups, involving minimal installation effort and offering a plug-and-play solution that does not require an electrician, the new range includes additions to existing families of wall lights, path lights and spot lights. Lily XL spot light is larger and provides a more powerful light output, while Impress wall light is now available in a low-voltage version. Econic has also been introduced in low-voltage version.
Osram’s Replaceable LED Lighting Modules for Cars
With Osram’s new age lighting solutions, car lighting has got a twist with replaceable LED lighting modules. Designed as per the requirements of ECE standard R128, the hand-replaceable sources are available in red, yellow and white.
They are branded ‘XLS’ for exchangeable LED light sources. The parts are LR5, LY5 and LW5 respectively, with LR5 and LY5 intended for indicator and tail light guides, LR5 also for stop reflectors and rear fog collimators, and LW5 for reversing lights implemented in indicator light guides. The modern-day light bulbs were on the show at CES 2020 in Las Vegas along with several other automotive lighting technologies from the company, including a rear combination light that adds extra information for other road users, and Infrared LiDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) components – demonstrated within Rinspeed’s metroSNAP.
metroSNAP also gets the firm’s VCSELs (vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers) for in-cabin monitoring and Eviyos LEDs in its headlights – the latter illuminate the road and display visual warnings or symbols on the road.
Sengled Augments Its Smart Lighting Range
Smart lighting company Sengled announced new additions to its smart lighting range, including a LED Edison Filament Bulb. The new line-up adds fresh form factors as well as significant enhancements to the innovative software that powers it all. The new Edison Filament Bulb adds vintage style to Sengled’s lineup, an attractive new option for consumers. The Smart LED light is a clear bulb with the filament visible at a 2100K colour temperature, providing stylish looks and a cozy golden glow to every home.
In addition, candle light bulbs have been added to Sengled’s portfolio with 16 million colours to choose from. The Smart LED E12 Candle Light Bulbs are designed to fit in chandeliers, ceiling fans and night lights to name a few. With the breadth of colour range available, the new bulbs are perfect for setting the scene for holiday events and special occasions.
Sengled is also adding Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring to its lineup, converting traditional lamps and home appliances into smart devices. The plug monitors energy consumption of your plugged-in devices allowing closer energy management. Furthermore, the plug can be turned on and off remotely via the app – perfect for scheduling when out of the house for added security.
The unveiling of the new bulbs and plug is coupled with significant enhancements to the brains of the system, the 3rd Gen Sengled Smart Hub. The hub now supports Apple’s HomeKit, which enables consumers to use Siri to control their smart devices; this update is in addition to the existing support of Alexa and Google Assistant. In addition, the new hub enables users to connect to over 64 smart lights and accessories and supports Zigbee 3.0.
Nanoleaf Introduces Hexagonal & Learning Smart Lights
Nanoleaf does smart lights, but not the likes of the range from Philips Hue. Nanoleaf has made its name with modular lighting that fixes to the wall – Nanoleaf Canvas, Nanoleaf Light Panels – and in Vegas it showed off the next iteration with a hexagonal design that can be fitted together to make interesting patterns.
Best of all, Nanoleaf says this is part of a new Unified series that will all work together, suggesting we’ll see other shapes in the future that will be able to slot in with the hexagonal lights (until now, only lights of the same shape have worked together).
More interesting, however, was a new line of lighting that Nanoleaf teased, called the Learning Series. Nanoleaf says this range ‘learns, senses and reacts’ to the users and their environment – for example, they may automatically switch on when it senses one’s entry into the room, or adapt to the outside weather.
The new Learning Series is made of a Learning Light Bulb, a Learning Button and the Learning Switch. All these illumination gadgets will be available to purchase at some point this year.
Lutron’s New Solutions Boost Connected Lighting
Lutron’s smart lighting system is getting a new sensor with Caséta adding a way to automatically turn on connected lights when someone enters the room and motion is detected, and then off when no occupancy is there. Customisable lighting levels support different levels of brightness for each device that’s being triggered by the sensor. The new Caséta Smart Motion Sensor links not only with lighting but Lutron’s dimmers, fan controls, and Serena smart shades, too.
It’s a standalone sensor with a 180-degree field of view. Lutron says that, compared to rivals, it can spot fine motion three times better, too. The broader perspective means more flexibility in terms of positioning, too, and there’s support for wall mounting or freestanding use on a flat surface. Battery life is up to 10 years.
Lutron’s second gadget is the Caséta Repeater, a way to expand coverage of a Caséta Smart Bridge. The company is billing it as a way for those with big homes or unusual ones – whether that’s by layout or because of wireless-impinging materials like brick walls – to make sure their distant switches can still connect. It expands the system range by 60 feet, when it’s installed within 60 feet of a Caséta Smart Bridge. Caséta Plug-in Dimmer, which also expands the network’s range, the new Repeater will work in tandem with that as well. In total, a single Caséta network can support up to 75 devices.
Lutron Aurora Wallplate Bracket is designed to offer a new mounting option for the Aurora smart knob for Philips Hue systems. Typically, that would clip over a toggle-style light switch, most commonly the same switch that controls the fixture the Hue bulb itself is in. If you’ve got a flat plate switch instead, though, the new bracket can be used to install the Aurora in its place.
LIFX Introduces New Smart Lighting Solutions & Mobile App
LIFX expands its smart lighting solutions’ lineup to include classic looking bulbs and a smart switch that can be controlled with the new LIFX mobile app. In tune with the growing interest in what is now called Edison-style bulbs, LIFX Filament bulbs try to stay true to that vintage style while still offering the modern conveniences of smart home control. The company even has a Candle White to Warm that mimics the appearance of a candle while giving people the choice of which kind of light they want to see.
In contrast, there’s nothing retro about the LIFX Switch. The four-gang smart switch can control both LIFX smart lights as well as traditional lighting, the latter thanks to a LIFX Control Module that adds cloud connecting and smart assistant control. And then there’s the LIFX Z TV 360˚ Kit, which includes corner connectors to ensure that the flexible LED strip can fully run along the edge of the TV, enhancing the ambience of your late-night viewing or game.
Orchestrating all of these is a new LIFX mobile app that itself is getting a new level of smartness. The app allows users to create and manage schedules to automate the control of their smart lights. A new ‘scenes and effects’ feature also let the users personalise and group settings and devices together, all of which can then be viewed in the new Dashboard view.
Arlo’s Pro 3 Security Camera Sports LED Floodlight
As the name suggests, Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is, quite simply, the Arlo Pro 3 with a massive floodlight on the front. It is nothing but a testimony of the fact that how diverse can the application of LEDs be thereby adding another remarkable feature to the security camera, which can attribute colour recording even at night.
Pro 3 is an outstanding security camera – but despite having a light of its own, it’s positively feeble to the 3,000 lumens that the floodlight model can blast, which is enough to get a good clear look at whoever’s creeping around the porch. Its colour recording even at night is something unique that basic night vision doesn’t usually include.
One can choose when the light comes on, or how bright it is – and even set up triggers so that it flashes or pulses when it detects movement. Beyond the lighting tricks, the fixture enables a 160-degree field of view, two-way audio, and six months of battery life.
WiZ Connected Launches Ultimate Smart Lighting Ecosystem
WiZ Connected, an innovative leader in Wi-Fi-based smart lighting and now part of Signify (formerly known as Philips Lighting), announced several new products to provide consumers with more options to effortlessly customise and easily control their home lighting from the moment they install the lights.
At CES, the company demonstrated the new WiZmote, a Wi-Fi remote to easily control WiZ Connected products immediately out of the box; a Motion Sensor that can trigger lighting modes and automatically turn off lights when no motion is detected; and a new set of Energy Optimisation features, including power consumption monitoring, in the WiZ App.
In addition to these new products, the WiZ ecosystem also includes legacy smart lighting products that are available at major retailers in the US and Canada, such as, WiZ Color A19 and BR30 Wi-Fi LED bulbs, WiZ Filament LED bulbs, and WiZ Wi-Fi Smart Plug.
Wemo Mini Wi-Fi Smart Plug Goes Smaller
Wemo (by Belkin) is one of the most longstanding and reputable brand names in the realm of smart plugs and switches. Wemo, once again, has generated excitement at CES 2020 with its new Wi-Fi Smart Plug which measures just 2.1 inches across considerably smaller than its predecessor which is 3.8 inches across. The new Plug is less obtrusive and to accommodate the size change, the manual power button has been moved to the side of the plug.
The Wemo Mini also has HomeKit, Google Assistant and Alexa support, or it can be used with the Wemo app to connect with the company’s other smart products. Wemo app is the control point for the plugs which can be operated remotely from any location.
Another wonder is Wemo Stage, the all new small, wireless, remote that mounts (magnetically) to any wall and may be left there all the time or removed and used as a hand held device. Equipped with three small buttons, the Stage allows user to quickly and easily manipulate up to six of Apple HomeKit lighting scenes. In other words, it allows setting the stage in smart home for a particular mood or activity, such as watching a movie.
