Welcome to the LEDs Magazine Focus On LEDs in Lighting newsletter for Sept. 30, 2021. We’re on the backend of a long week here at the magazine. We were consumed with our HortiCann Light + Tech Conference the last two days, our October issue is at the crux of the production crunch, and we’re somehow in a three-newsletter week on the last day of September that traces back to where the US Labor Day holiday fell this year. So yes, I’m complaining just a bit. I really wanted to sleep a bit later today. And I also wanted to explain why we didn’t have at least one more important news story already posted for you.

So we will get to that news and promise a more detailed story in the coming days. More changes, which have been expected at ams Osram, have begun. Private-equity firm SkyView Capital has announced that it acquired the Digital Lumens and Encelium business units that are focused on connected lighting and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Our Mark Halper has tirelessly followed the saga of ams acquiring Osram, and also projected that digitally-oriented business units might not be a strategic fit in the future plans of ams.

Mark is busy trying to learn more details about the SkyView deal, and we hope to have a story posted in a few days. ams Osram has been totally closed-lips on the divestiture thus far. Meanwhile, I will hope for the best for Digital Lumens and Encelium. I was still relatively new to LEDs and lighting when I met Digital Lumens as a startup that brashly claimed it would drive solid-state lighting (SSL)-centric energy savings to 90% over incumbent lighting technologies. I was immediately taken with the networked control concept having spent years covering networks in the broader technology sector. Perhaps these companies will thrive with a return to a more entrepreneurial setting.

We do have a couple of interesting architectural LED-based lighting stories for you this week. One I will mention specifically is at the headquarters of the Italian manufacturing firm Salvagnini. Zumtobel supplied the lighting, which is stunning, in the common areas. Mark Halper wrote the story, and he lamented the lack of IoT technology involved. But I would argue that the lighting aesthetics are fantastic, and the simpler controls implemented allow a combination of energy savings, maximum use of natural light, and dynamic level changes. It looks like a pleasing space in which to work.

In several recent newsletters, I’ve mentioned Sapphire Awards winners that were aligned with the focus of the newsletter in which I mentioned them. Our scope here is so broad that I’d have to mention six or so categories to cover all of the indoor and outdoor luminaire winners. So I’ll simply suggest that you read the magazine feature article on the winners written by our Carrie Meadows. I will note that one of the winners from Eureka Lighting played a key role in the resort lighting project that we have leading off this newsletter.

You will find more lighting-centric stories of interest down below. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.

- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, mwright@endeavorb2b.com