The winners of the Next Generation Luminaires (NGL) Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Design Competition were announced during Lightfair in San Diego this past April. Twenty-five LED fixtures—16 for indoor use and nine for outdoor use—were recognized for excellence in meeting the program’s requirements. Of the 25, five products received the additional recognition of an Outstanding commendation. They were:
Focal Point for the Nera linear pendant
Eaton for its Portfolio dim-to-warm downlight
Kenall Lighting for its MedMaster Balance white-tunable fixture
Landscape Forms for its FGP Path Light Bollard
Cree for its RSW Series LED Street Luminaire
The NGL program was launched in 2008 and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the International Association of Lighting Designers “… to encourage technical innovation and promote excellence in the design if energy-efficient LED luminaires for commercial, industrial, and institutional applications.” The program has gone through several iterations since its conception as categories and review criteria have evolved to maintain the program’s high standards. This year saw the addition of two new categories, Connected Lighting in the Indoor competition and Sport Lighting in the Outdoor competition.
Overall, this year's program reviewed and judged 93 complete submissions. Entries were evaluated using several criteria including color, illuminance, glare control, light distribution, serviceability, value, appearance, dimming control, lumen maintenance, and luminous efficacy. LED products have evolved significantly since first generation product offerings were introduced to the market. This year’s product entries generally had a higher efficacy level than those products submitted in past years. And according to the NGL release, “About four-fifths of all submitted products had a lumen maintenance greater than 85% (L85) at 50,000 hours. And for the first time, a significant number (31%) of awarded indoor products had a CRI greater than 90.”
The NGL product entries were reviewed over a multi-day period by a jury of 11 individuals for indoor products and jury of 10 individuals for the outdoor products. They were as follows:
Indoor Judging PanelDan Blitzer, Practical Lighting Workshop; Matt Franks, Arup; Michael Poplawski, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Charles Thompson, Archillume Lighting Design; Paul Mercier, Lighting Design Innovations; Aram Ebben, exp, U.S. Services; Ruth Taylor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Avraham (Avi) Mor, Lightswitch Architectural Chicago; Melanie Taylor, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff; Mary Matteson Bryan, Energy Engineering; Beverley (Bev) Shimmin, Blanca Lighting Design, retired; Gabe Arnold, NEEP-DesignLights Consortium; Craig Bernecker, The Lighting Education Institute; and Andy Thorsen, Kohl's Department Stores.
Outdoor Judging PanelDan Blitzer, Practical Lighting Workshop; Joe Paulson, City of Boulder; Jay Wrattan, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff; Dave Bisbee, Sacramento Municipality Utility District (SMUD); Nancy Clanton, Clanton & Associates; Naomi Miller, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Ruth Taylor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Jeff Brown, Power Design Engineering; Aram Ebben, exp, U.S. Services; Nathan (Nate) Mitten, Kimco Realty Corporation; Chip Israel, Lighting Design Alliance; and Mike Lambert, KCL Engineering.
For compete information about the competition and an overview of all the prize-winning fixtures, go to the NGL website.
