Soraa Inc of Fremont, CA, USA, which develops solid-state lighting technology built on 'GaN on GaN' (gallium nitride on gallium nitride) substrates, is sponsoring the lighting industry's first PlugFest in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of New York City (IESNYC) at their annual Control This! event, being held on 5 December at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City.
"Incompatibility between LED lamps and fixtures with existing control gear and dimmers designed for traditional light sources - incandescent, halogen, or fluorescent - is one of the biggest hurdles facing the lighting industry today. I applaud Soraa and IESNYC's efforts to solve this challenge by holding the first ever Lighting PlugFest," said Paul Gregory, founder & president of architectural lighting design firm Focus Lighting Inc of New York City.
"PlugFests are a mainstay of high-tech industries, and Lighting PlugFest at Control This! is destined to revolutionize the way lighting practitioners and OEM vendors of LED lamps, fixtures, transformers, and dimmers test the interoperability between products from different manufacturers and accelerate the growth of the entire industry," said Control This! 2012 co-chair Meg Smith, LC, IES, LEED AP, co-chair of the IESNYC education committee, and senior project manager, Philips Lighting Solutions and Services.
Soraa will manage and run the testing using a custom-built testing panel comprised of an array of commonly used transformers and dimmers and Soraa's 12VAC LED MR16 lamps and also accommodates participating companies' transformers, dimmers, and 12VAC LED lamps or fixtures.
"Manufacturers benefit because Lighting PlugFest addresses compatibility - an obstacle to widespread LED lamp adoption; designers benefit because they can specify with confidence; and end users benefit because they will know that product combinations work," said Soraa's CEO Eric Kim.
