Acuity Brands Lighting on "lighting facts" labels, patents and IP and more

15 September 2011

We are kicking off our speaker interview series leading into LEDs 2011: Bringing Lighting to Life with Mark Hand, Director of New Product & Technology, Acuity Brands Lighting. As Director of New Products and Technology for Acuity Brands Lighting Mark has been entrenched in the research, conceptualization, development and commercialization of LED Luminaires for Acuity Brands lighting. His 9 years in lighting have all been spent with Acuity Brands where he started with the Utility and Infrastructure solutions brand American Electric Lighting. Mark will be sharing more of his thoughts on-site at LEDs 2011 during the "Fixture Manufacturers Panel Discussion: Addressing Challenges and Reliability at the Fixture Level." Register today to make sure you're there!

On the shelves of Big Box stores "Lighting Facts" on labels are evident on retrofit lamps, how do you foresee the consumer understanding these labels? Are color temperature and efficiency tradeoffs understood or relevant to the consumer? How is your company addressing these challenges?

Acuity Brands has been actively promoting the use of Lighting Facts Labels and was recently honored by the DOE with special recognition for our use of these labels.. We believe consumers have welcomed not only the information these labels provide, especially with regard to lamp and luminaire data, but also the comfort provided by a consistent label across all manufacturers. This indicator of common standards helps overcome consumer resistance to the new technology. We have found that even if a customer does not initially understand all of the information presented on the label, the customer is better able to comprehend downstream explanations of this information to them. Additionally, the exposure to these terms helps bring them into the customer's lexicon such that the customer is better able to understand the tradeoffs when making choices between efficiency and color temperature.

How is your company finding ways to "build a better mousetrap" in the era of patents and IP for lighting?

Acuity Brands has a number of development teams actively researching a number of new light source technologies coupled with the practical application of those technologies to lighting. Acuity, as are a great many companies in this space, is seeking to protect its new ideas by applying for patents in order to leverage its research efforts in the commercial marketplace. This in turn helps Acuity deliver intelligent, integrated lighting solutions whether it is for indoor or outdoor lighting applications.

The industry is trying many techniques to accelerate end user adoption of LEDs, from new topologies (like remote phosphor) to common LED package sizes. From your point of view, what is the most effective way to increase adoption?

The use of technologies like remote phosphor will increase efficacy but by themselves will not move the dial significantly on LED adoption. We believe the most effective way to increase LED adoption will, in the end, be achieved by supplying our customers with consistently high quality, high performance, intelligent lighting and control solutions that will maximize the economics of the delivered LED solution and allow for a prompt return on customer investment.

What are you looking forward to at LEDs 2011?

Besides, of course, my colleague Bill Ballweg's talk I am also looking forward to hearing my fellow guest speakers' thoughts on market predictions and future expectations.