LED-based lighting is a proven winner in street- and area-lighting applications outdoors, and Lightfair International (LFI) yielded the expected onslaught of new and expanded product lines. And while established solid-state lighting (SSL) players in the space were omnipresent, some luminaire makers new to SSL made news, and manufacturers of larger LED chips seem to finally be positioned to succeed in outdoor applications.

While bright LED sources, optical efficiency, and low power are all important in outdoor street and area lighting, none of those attributes matter if a luminaire can’t form an effective beam pattern. Outdoor lights must evenly illuminate the target area such as a street with minimum light trespass on buildings and into the sky. Luminaires based on large numbers of small emitters covered by total internal reflection (TIR) lenses have so far proven superior at forming the desired patterns.

But Luminus Devices and Bridgelux both had compelling outdoor lighting demonstrations in their booths that utilized larger LED sources – either the single Luminus PhlatLight LEDs or larger Bridgelux arrays. Assuming such larger LEDs can be effective in forming the desired beam pattern, the devices could simplify outdoor luminaire designs based on the fact that fewer components are required and potentially designers can use simpler drivers.