Amerlux

“The future is LEDS,” says Bill Plageman, Amerlux's vice president of marketing and product management, voicing the refrain heard from almost all the event's exhibiting sponsors. Fittingly, in its display, Amerlux showed its latest line of LED luminaires, everything from track accent fixtures to LED downlights, including the new Hornet LED, a 120V or 277V replacement for MR16s. The company, known for its product lines' affinity with retail applications, played on that type of setting and displayed its LED products like diamonds in a jewelry store, recessed in cases and propped up on stands, with two mannequins clothed in red dresses, wearing necklaces. The theme showed off the new LED fixtures' abilities to spotlight goods, and was a nod to the retail market's interest in the new lamps. “Retail is going to jump all over LED technology,” Plageman says. “Once the retail market takes it, understands it—then it won't use the MR16 anymore.” Of all the retail applications, Plageman notes, supermarkets were some of the first adopters of energy-efficient sources because the room for profit margin is so narrow. Grocery businesses need all the money-saving advantages they can get and lighting is a good place to start. For Amerlux, the future of lighting is LEDs, but the future won't start in the office, or even the home, it will begin in Whole Foods, Starbucks, and Costco.