Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Oct. 6, 2021. Nice to take a deep breath of notably cooler air this week, having gone through a pretty hectic period with virtual events and other activities of late. I don’t relish the shorter days that have arrived, but oh well.

I will spend the cold season in the southeast this year for the first time in years. I only mention that because the transition has my wife and me in the midst of a move to a new house. For the most part it came well equipped, but I immediately saw opportunities for solid-state lighting (SSL) projects. I’ll be sharing some of those details in the coming months. What I would share now is the surprise I have felt in what LEDs have brought to the mainstream of lighting products. Each year, I have followed the bleeding edge through our Sapphire program. But just in recessed lighting, it’s simply amazing how LED technology has made installation simple while improving light quality. And for once being on the buying end, I won’t speak too negatively of price erosion, but I think these manufacturers could raise prices a bit. Stay tuned.

In a normal year, I’d be excited about attending the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Street and Area Lighting Conference (SALC) next week. We will try and catch some of the event virtually. I’ve learned so much about outdoor lighting at SALC.

The event came front and center for me this week as I was writing a story about a milestone that Telensa announced in connected outdoor lighting. The company said it had deployed its PLANet central management system (CMS) over a connected street-light fleet numbering hundreds of thousands of...