The Vu1 CEO, CMO and VP of Manufacturing are all here at Light Fair. Light Fair is for manufacturers that are showing off their new products and lines to potential resellers. We are not into production so it did not make sense for us to go the expense of being an Exhibitor. Instead – we are meeting with EPA representatives, testing labs, strategic distribution partners and industry consultants. Plus getting a firsthand look at all competing technologies.
This year’s show is 95% LED. After you go through the first 10 booths you will find that the remaining 300 are mostly more of the same. Everybody is making essentially the same product – just different cases, some dim better than others, some are for stadiums or parking lots – some for business and homes. After 6 hours of searching I found exactly ONE product (an LED) that I had not seen before. It was a somewhat dim and expensive (as almost all the products were) recessed can product that is using a clever variation on deployment of the LEDs in the lamp. Other than that – not much new. In the recessed can space – there were lots of heavy, expensive LED PAR 35 types of products. High color temps, low lumen output, lots of glare and very directional light distribution. And yes, expensive. CFLs were few and far between. One founder of a sizeable distribution/rep agency commented to me "CFLs are over".
