What's New in Lighting Technology & Design【Tsutomu Ochiai】

Lighting Fair 2005 Review--Part 3: Inspirations, Ideas, and Future Directions of the Exhibitors

Aug 12, 2005

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Tsutomu Ochiai, lighting designer (M&O Design Office)

Introduction

This is the third and final installment of my report on the 7th international lighting exhibition, Lighting Fair 2005, held at Tokyo International Exhibition Center "Tokyo Big Sight." In the first installment, I reported on the trends in the latest Japanese LED lights under much attention from the world. The second installment covered lamps and lighting equipment including the recent trends in organic EL lights, which have increasingly been under focus as the new flat light-emitting sources, as well as fluorescent and HID lamps. In this final installment, I will write about some of the notable things I observed and interesting episodes I came across in and around the venue of the Lighting Fair 2005.

1 Lighting for Architectural Space

Under the theme of "Light Manipulation - How Far Can We Go?," Yamada Shomei Lighting Co., Ltd. posted the following epigraph in its booth: "Lights are closely related to architecture, and are at times expected to minimize their footprints and presence while providing the necessary level of brightness. They are required to be smaller, flatter, and thinner, emitting intense and consistent brightness to a wider and more distant area from a limitlessly small and thin aperture or gap of a simpler design." The consistently pure-white booth design matched the maker's lighting equipment design concepts pursuant to the bottom current of contemporary designs, attesting to the maker's mastery of lighting designs. Although somewhat orthodox in the approach to designs, the maker's lighting design concept fully using latest technologies demonstrated one effective way of designing architectural lighting in the future. I am looking forward to witness more of the lighting space designs by Yamada Shomei Lighting uniquely supported by its high-quality and diversified lighting theories and practices.

Yamagiwa Corp. displayed lighting equipment designed with architectural lighting ideas, which was notable. The lights lit upward beautifully, presenting an idea of cove lighting (one method of architectural lighting). This new product, "RT-BORDER," is made of the maker's existing fluorescent product, "RT-LINE," (T5, 15.5-mm tube, 35W) wrapped in a newly adopted cover. It will suit any space involving a large wall surface, for example, in condominium and other residential buildings. The beautiful equipment form will be widely accepted in the market as well.

2 Under-the-shelf Lights for Commercial Space

Under-the-shelf lights were something I took a special note of, for space design involving fluorescent lamps. "Bread Light" from DAIA KEIKO Co., Ltd. adopted the new light source (T5, 15.5-mm tube, 35W) of 2500k, 3100k, or 3200k color temperature, creating a space suitable for displaying bread, making the bread look extra tasty. Nippo Electric Co., Ltd. also set up a bread display shelf to indicate its strength in food display lighting. In addition to the color temperature, Nippo Electric's "e-Line low-heat-emission shelf lighting fixtures EES" adopting low-heat-emission lamps (with 25% lower power consumption) suppress the effect of heat on the products on display. T5 fluorescent under-the-shelf lights by these makers will attract much more attention in future.

Other under-the-shelf lights worth the mention were those using LED lamps, namely, "YP PANEL" with light-guiding plates, and "YP LINE," a line of ultra-mini spotlights, both manufactured by Yoshikawa Kasei Co., Ltd. The former uses LED lamps of ultra-low heat emission as the backlight for the under-the-shelf lighting (of a fixture height of 4 mm) which radiates the light very softly. The latter, in contrast, consists of six ultra-mini-lens LED spotlights that are placed in a straight line. (The fixture height is about 10 mm.) Its light distribution is carefully calculated to optimize the presentation of goods on the shelf. I am anxious to see these next-generation under-the-shelf lighting fixtures on the market soon, as they are very effective despite their carefully concealed existence.

3 Demonstration Booth Variations

The Lighting Fair this year saw much more colors than the previous fairs. The same trend was remarkable in the Light + Building Fair in Frankfurt last year. (See "A Report from the Frankfurt Messe 2004, Light + Building Fair," our previous serial column, for details.) This trend for more colors was evident in this year's Fair in Japan. In particular, those booths that displayed LED lamps were keen on space design involving colors. (See the first installment of this serial column.) OptiLED Japan's booth was worth the mention for its extensive use of LED lamps. Its new product, "HIVE," is a hexagonal module with three LED RGB light sources, and can be connected or lined up to form whatever shape you like, in the same way as a beehive is formed. This product characteristic was used effectively for the maker's booth design. Glass honeycombs on the floor, hives on the ceiling that doubled for imitation sunlight, plus honeycomb lights on pillars and walls formed a very special LED-lit display space. A total of 512 LED lights (20 of them with incorporated RGB) were integrated in the booth structure so comfortably that, despite its small scale, the booth qualified for high acclaim for its design sense.

I was particularly interested in the new product displayed by Sumita Optical Glass Inc., which attracted special attention for its various optical fiber systems. The product I am referring to is the maker's translucent block. This product presents a novel idea and has a great potential for opening a new market frontier. In contrast, the booth of WATTS Co., Ltd. presented classical lighting fixtures (large-scale chandeliers) suspended mid-air, making a strong pitch for the existing market. Among the other exhibitors who focused on the new products utilizing the latest technologies, this exhibitor stood out by sticking to its own clear direction of what their business was about: order-taking, manufacturing and supplying the classical fixtures.

An exhibitor that was popular despite the lack of lighting fixtures or lighting design in its smartly presented display was BJB Co., Ltd. BJB sells the electrical parts of European lighting equipment to the Japanese lighting industry, and it displayed its product families for the Japanese market (LED connectors, terminals, etc.) BJB has been a regular exhibitor at the Fair for the four times since 1999 including this time, and is widely recognized by Japanese lighting equipment makers for its wide range of products, among which fluorescent lamp sockets are probably the most popular. The background of BJB's success is the increasingly smaller diameter of Japanese fluorescent tubes. Following the European market where the downsizing of the tube diameter took place earlier, the Japanese market is now migrating to compact and small-sized BJB sockets that suit the smaller-diameter fluorescent tubes than the conventional Japanese sockets. The Japanese market is also very aware of the need to satisfy the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards, and therefore, BJB products with their solid track records established in Europe enjoy a high level of customer confidence. Its prevalence in the Japanese market means inevitable development of new parts. The incessant pursuit for higher quality in the Japanese market has led BJB to its development of "compact fluorescent lamp socket," a Japan-inspired product for the global market. The maker's next moves will be interesting to watch.

I was also interested in the D-Action Series (in the booth of Koizumi Sangyo Corporation), which, in the same way as BJB, fully utilized European parts (Italian glass). "D" in the name of the series stands for designers. The series consisted of glamorous new products designed by four Italian designers. As interior designs diversify, these D-Action Series lights are worth remembering for future use.

4 People I met at the Lighting Fair

Lighting Fair is a big biannual event that lighting industry insiders cannot miss, and it presents an unmatched opportunity for me to see our fellow designers. This time, I was blessed with the surprise encounter with Mr. Shigeaki Asahara, who is widely recognized in the Italian lighting industry. I remembered seeing him at EuroLuce Lighting Fair in Milan four or five years previously. The moment I saw him, he said his buon giorno in a very loud voice and shook my hand. Living in Italy for 30 years, he may claim to be Italian inside out. He casually announced to me, "A light stand I designed received the IF Award at Hanover Messe." "Congratulations," I said. News of the success of our fellow designers is always good to hear.

I was surprised to find a portrait photograph of Mr. Hiroshi Nagane, who has actively provided the opportunities for Japanese art students and young designers to present their works, and pleased to see part of his efforts. The photo panels included that of a young female designer (collaboration), and beneath it was a jointly created work on display. The work entitled "smart-type2" had nine LEDs in a beautiful and translucent acrylic casing. It showed all the details of the back panel and was quite beautiful, and I felt that it would become a pioneering design for new indirect lighting fixtures.

5 Development toward "Fuori Lighting Fair"

Light + Building Fair in Frankfurt last year was jointly held with the greatly successful 2nd Luminale. "Luminale" stands for the lighting festivals held at about 80 venues in Frankfurt. During the duration of the trade fair, various events were held every day at various places in the city. (See "Part 3: The City" of "A Report from the Frankfurt Messe 2004, Light + Building Fair," our previous serial column, for details.) The idea of Luminale came from not the lighting industry but the furniture industry.

Milano Salone (held in the beginning of April every year), one of the world's biggest furniture trade shows, is held at Fiera, the large international exhibition center in Milan, Italy. From the 1990s, manufacturers of furniture, kitchens, and other interior goods that have their own showrooms in Milan switched from exhibiting their products at Fiera to announcing and demonstrating their new products at their own showrooms. Accompanying this trend were the free-lance designers who started organizing their own individual and group exhibitions using galleries and halls in the city. These various exhibitions tied up with the interior decoration magazines to make sure that the information on the many unique exhibitions held at different places could be compiled in one place (in a form of a booklet) for the convenience of visitors. Thus, the combination of the international furniture fair at Fiera and other individual exhibitions surrounding the main venue have come to attract furniture buyers from around the world, and has greatly diversified the trade show over the years. The synergy effect has transformed Milan into a festive city celebrating attractive Italian furniture and interior goods for the duration of Salone, making it the biggest event of the year that attracts all the attention of interior business people of the world.

"Fuori Salone" is the collective name of the many exhibitions, big and small, held concurrently with Milano Salone, surrounding the main venue. (Fuori means outside.) The number of the exhibitions held outside Salone in the spring of 2005 exceeded 500. Their extravagance contributed to the success of the Milano Salone properly by the synergy effect.

In the spring this year, an LED exhibition was held in Shinjuku, Tokyo, at the same time as the Lighting Fair 2005. I hope that this event will develop to something that could be described as "Fuori Lighting Fair" to support the Lighting Fair from a flank. I will hereafter write about this LED-only exhibition, quite a rarity in the world.

The exhibition was entitled "LED Mobile Lighting Fair 3." It was held at the Living Design Center OZONE located on the west-exit-side of the Shinjuku Station from the 24th of February to the 8th of March (to coincide with the Lighting Fair 2005 held between the 1st and 4the of March.) The organizers were LED Lighting Fair Steering Committee and Living Design Center OZONE.

LED light sources are environmentally friendly, as they save energy and resources. Japan has become the world's top LED light source producer, with an outstandingly high diffusion rate in its own market. Japan is the only nation in the world where anybody can obtain an LED light source anywhere. LED light sources are so common that they are mentioned in the textbooks for primary and secondary schools. "Mobile Lighting Fair" was organized to create and propose new mobile lights using LED light sources, and the third LED Fair was held at OZONE this spring. The first LED Fair was held in December 2002 (at Living Design Center OZONE), when not many people in Japan recognized the value of LED light sources. (However, even then, LEDs were used in mobile telephone sets and remote controller displays, and anybody could obtain an LED lamp in Akihabara, the nation's biggest electric appliance shopping town.) The first LED Fair received warm reaction from every direction as the very first LED-only exhibition.

Japan, by the way, had held many lighting-related exhibitions since before, and they were typically held in the autumn and winter, as the autumnal season is perceived to be the time when people romantically enjoy firelight. (In contrast, such exhibitions are typically held in the spring, the trade-show season, in Europe and North America.) Therefore, the LED exhibition in the spring in Japan would have appeared odd, if it was not for the Lighting Fair.

At the venue of the LED-only exhibition, which is a rarity in the world, the posters of the Lighting Fair were posted on the walls and leaflets were distributed to lend a hand in the publicity of the Lighting Fair. I sincerely hope that the combination of the two events will eventually develop into something that can be described as "Fuori Lighting Fair."

Closing

There are many other things about the Lighting Fair 2005 that I wanted to mention in my report. These include the double energy-saving titles awarded to a light source manufactured by Prince Electric Co., Ltd., which I saw and was explained about when I was listening to the announcement of the end of the Fair at the end of the last day, the unique history of an exhibitor, Kou Lighting Inc., whose architect-turned-businessman owner developed a successful business out of his habit of importing lighting fixtures for his own use, and the Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association that led the successful exhibition by the many overseas exhibitors. However, due to the limited space, I could not report the details of these interesting topics. I hope to write about them on another occasion.

While this serial column was being published, there have been the LIGHTFAIR in New York and Euroluce in Milan in April, Intel's World Light Show in May, and the first Taiwan LED Show in Taipei in June. It was very interesting to visit these lighting trade shows, each of which demonstrated each country's uniqueness. On closing, I hope that the very unique Japanese Lighting Fair will continue to inspire the entire world.

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Lighting Fair 2005 Review--Part 1: LED Lights

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Lighting Fair 2005 Review--Part 2 : Many New Products to Satisfy the Market Needs