Cree LED Revolution Blog

Cree and LED lighting are starting a revolution

Archive for the ‘LED Components’ Category

Get Your Game Face on with Cree LEDs

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

It’s that time of year in North America – the leaves are beginning to fall, it is almost sweater weather and Saturday’s are all about college football. Given the theme of this month’s blog, it’s also the time of year when we think about energy efficiency. So, how does energy-efficiency, particularly LED lighting, relate to college football?  Allow us to elaborate.

Say you’re at home on your comfy couch watching your favorite team play a friendly game of pigskin on your high-definition TV. Or say you’re at the stadium, checking out live in-game action, stats and most importantly, the score. Well guess what – that vivid game day action may be powered by energy-efficient LEDs. From your LED-backlit HDTV to the high-res screen in the stadium, LEDs are a fan’s best friend.

Cree Energy Awareness Month

In fact, in stadiums around the U.S. and the world,  high-brightness LEDs, particularly Cree’s Screen Master® high-brightness LEDs, can be driven at a lower power to save energy and extend the lifetime of indoor and outdoor video screen and billboards. With industry-leading water-resistant packaging, Cree’s versatile 3-in-1 LEDs feature superior color quality and contrast, as well as the high-intensity output and wide viewing angles needed for optimal fan viewing.

If you’re a University of Michigan Wolverine fan, you might have noticed the newly upgraded scoreboards in “The Big House.” The largest stadium in the United States, The Big House consistently boasts game day crowds of more than 100,000 fans.

IMG_2008

Well those new scoreboards are courtesy of Lighthouse Technologies and feature more than three million Cree Screen Master CLV6A LEDs in these state-of-the-art LED video displays and scoreboards. Positioned in each of the end zones, these massive high-resolution LED video boards are 40 percent larger than the previous system, providing in-game broadcast capability, instant replay, animation and dynamic promotional content in vivid color and ultra-sharp detail – all while saving energy.

IMG_1989

And the University of Michigan isn’t the only one getting in on this high-bright action. The American Airlines Center, the Dallas home to both the NBA’s Mavericks and NHL’s Stars, installed 25 Lighthouse LED video screens as part of a large-scale renovation project in 2010. It even included the first 1080×1920 high-definition video screen in any NBA or NHL facility.

So whether you’re enjoying game day updates at home or at the stadium, don’t forget that the high-resolution action is being brought to you thanks to high-quality, high-performing Cree LEDs.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Cree, Energy Awareness Month, LED Components | 1 Comment »

Marquette University shines with LED lighting from Sternberg

Monday, September 12th, 2011

The pedestrian lighting that accentuates the Marquette University campus has always featured a classic look.  While the decorative fixtures enhanced the character of the university, they weren’t particularly energy efficient. However, the university has now combined traditional aesthetics with today’s cutting edge energy-saving technology.

Marquette University recently installed 59 RiponLED fixtures made by Sternberg Lighting around both the new Law School and College of Engineering.  These outdoor LED lighting fixtures have the same classic look as the other Ripon fixtures across the campus, but consume nearly 50 percent less energy than the fixtures that utilize old-school metal halide lamps.

“We kept the aesthetic because we had invested in (this look) for 15 years, and they are one of the features that helps give the campus identity,” said University Architect Tom Ganey.

Marquette CMYK 300DPI image_14 copy (Large)

The RiponLED fixture features an elegant style made of a decorative cast aluminum fitter, a clear acrylic textured acorn and a cast aluminum roof.  Its LED array features Cree XLamp XR-E LEDs.

The 95W RiponLED fixtures should require no maintenance for at least 15 years, according to Sternberg Lighting.  That’s a long time considering the lights are on seven days a week, and can be illuminating sidewalks for up to 16 hours a day in the winter, according to Ganey.

The long life means university officials can save significant money on maintenance, Ganey said.  And since the LED light fixtures won’t need regular changing, the university’s maintenance crew has more time to tackle other important projects.  

“It’s a good, high quality light, and the length of time between lamp changes really helps pay for itself over and over again,” Ganey said. “To change a lamp on a 12-foot-tall outdoor pole is already a difficult task.  It takes two people on a ladder a lot of time, and if we can extend the lamp life to go to 10 years instead of two years, it adds up in a hurry.”

See more photos of the Sternberg Lighting LED fixtures at Marquette here.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in LED Components | 1 Comment »

Three million Cree high-bright LEDs light up Michigan Stadium scoreboards

Friday, September 9th, 2011


All eyes will be on the Big House Saturday night when University of Michigan plays its first ever night game in Michigan Stadium history. The newly-renovated, historic stadium is slated to hold a record-breaking crowd, with more than 114,000 fans expected to watch Michigan take on Notre Dame.

And we’re guessing that many of those eyes are going to be on the new LED video boards anchoring the end zones. Those stunning outdoor LED video systems by Lighthouse Technologies feature three million Cree high-bright LEDs to deliver an incredible fan experience!

Standing at 85-feet by 47-feet, the pair of Lighthouse IMPACT 16 video boards provide in-game broadcast capability, instant replay, remarkable animation, fan involvement sequences and colorful promotional videos. As for the video quality, we think Flickr user Corey Seeman said it best when he posted this picture and wrote this about Michigan Stadium, known as the Big House:

Two new LED scoreboards in Michigan Stadium feature three million Cree high-bright LEDs. Photo by Flickr user cseeman.

“Very cool to see the testing for the video screen at the Big House. Funny – the screen looks better from 200 yards than my TV looks like at home…”

And the Big House isn’t the only University of Michigan sports venue to sport Lighthouse video screens featuring Cree LEDs. Yost Ice Arena and Crisler Arena, home of Wolverine hockey and basketball, respectively, also boast new LED screens.

The LED Lighting Revolution isn’t just happening in your light sockets, it’s also happening at sports arenas around the world. At Cree, we love enabling our LED customers, and we’re pleased Lighthouse has helped transform the University of Michigan stadium experience.

Want to catch a glimpse of the new LED scoreboards at Michigan Stadium? Saturday’s game against Notre Dame will be broadcast on ABC at 8 p.m. EDT.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Cree, LED Components | 3 Comments »

Texas CandlePowerForum meetup gives flashlight fans a chance to take online conversations offline

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Matt Bransky couldn’t do his job without a bright flashlight. Matt is an aircraft mechanic for Southwest Airlines. So when planes are grounded overnight, he relies on his trusty flashlight to illuminate his work area.

When one of his flashlights stopped working a few years ago, Matt figured he could fix it. After all, he is a mechanic. So he searched online for tips on how to take a flashlight apart and found CandlePowerForums.  The online forum is dedicated to a variety of lighting discussions including flashlights, lanterns, spotlights, night vision scopes, and headlamps. Matt’s simple Google search in 2006 soon sparked a new hobby and helped him meet new friends when he later moved from Chicago to Dallas.

CandlePowerForums boasts more than 114,000 members, many of whom regularly pose questions about the lights they’re building or customizing, show off custom lights they’ve created and reminisce on topics like “What was your first loved flashlight?” Many of the posts center around the usage of LEDs.

“It’s just a share and share community,” he said. “Someone comes up with an idea and everyone else runs with it.”

 

CandlePowerForum members at the Dallas-Fort Worth meetup.

CandlePowerForum members at the Dallas-Fort Worth meetup.

 

Matt says he reads more than he posts on the forums. And while he says he has a broad range of knowledge about LED components and flashlight parts, he considers his knowledge intermediate compared to some of the knowledgeable participants in the forum.

And since the CandlePowerForums community has so much to share online, some of them even get together offline for meetups. When Matt moved to Dallas a few years ago, he found out about one and went. Soon he was helping organize them.

The latest Dallas-Fort Worth Meetup was May 8, where 21 like-minded light-lovers showed up to continue their online discussions in the flesh. “It’s a time when you can meet with people who don’t think you’re weird for talking about flashlights,” Matt said.

CandlePowerForum members in the Dallas-Fort Worth area got together May 8 to talk about lights.

CandlePowerForum members in the Dallas-Fort Worth area got together May 8 to talk about lights.

 We thanked Matt for reaching out to us by sending him a couple of CreeLEDRevolution.com T-shirts and collapsible Coleman lanterns lit by a Cree XLamp® XR-E LED. We hope the prizes ended up in LED-loving hands.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in LED Components | 4 Comments »

Here’s why you should vote for Cree’s XLamp® XP-G in the 2009 ECN Tech Awards

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Cree’s XLamp XP-G is a finalist for the 2009 ECN Tech Awards (click here to vote)! Fellow LED geeks can read the specs on the XLamp XP-G and understand why it’s receiving recognition.

If you don’t know much about LEDs, you probably don’t know why this is such an amazing creation.  But I want everyone to be as excited as we are about the XP-G, so I’m going to explain why in simple terms.

Here’s the deal: There are two particularly important things we measure about LEDs. One is how much light an LED puts out, which is measured in lumens. The other is how much energy it consumes when it puts out that light, which is called efficacy (not to be confused with the similarly-spelled efficiency). Efficacy is measured in lumens per watt or LPW.

So now that you’re armed with that knowledge, consider this:

Cree’s XLamp XP-G is currently the brightest and most efficient LED available in the industry. Here’s why: It can produce up to 367 lumens when driven at 1 Amp, at a typical efficacy of 111 lumens per watt. Now that, my dear blog readers, is very bright and efficient.

LEDonFinger

So why does all of that matter?

Well, when an LED becomes brighter and more efficient, it can potentially reduce the number of LEDs needed in an LED lighting fixture, as well as the size and the cost of the fixture. Each of these breakthroughs in LED technology means it’s becoming easier to join the LED Lighting Revolution. (Look at this photo of my co-worker holding an XP-G to get a feel for how small it is.)

So, this brings me back to the 2009 ECN Tech Awards. The Cree XLamp XP-G is a finalist in the Optoelectronics & Displays category. Now that you understand more about the product, we sure would appreciate your vote. Thanks!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in LED Components | 1 Comment »