Soraa and IESNYC Tackle LED Lighting Compatibility by Holding the Lighting Industry’s First PlugFest

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In an effort to remove barriers to the rapid adoption of LED lighting, Soraa will sponsor the lighting industry’s first PlugFest in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of New York City (IESNYC) at their annual Control This! event. IESNYC’s Control This! 2012 is a daylong event expo and seminar series that will be held on December 5^th at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, and will showcase state-of-the-art lighting control systems and energy management systems (www.controlthis.org).

“PlugFests are a mainstay of high tech industries, and Lighting PlugFest at Control This! is destined to revolutionize the way lighting practitioners and OEM vendors of LED lamps, fixtures, transformers, and dimmers test the interoperability between products from different manufacturers and accelerate the growth of the entire industry”

“Incompatibility between LED lamps and fixtures with existing control gear and dimmers designed for traditional light sources—incandescent, halogen, or fluorescent—is one of the biggest hurdles facing the lighting industry today. I applaud Soraa and IESNYC’s efforts to solve this challenge by holding the first ever Lighting PlugFest,” said Paul Gregory, founder and president of the award-winning architectural lighting design firm Focus Lighting, Inc. of New York City. (Paul will join Soraa and IESNYC at the press preview)

“PlugFests are a mainstay of high tech industries, and Lighting PlugFest at Control This! is destined to revolutionize the way lighting practitioners and OEM vendors of LED lamps, fixtures, transformers, and dimmers test the interoperability between products from different manufacturers and accelerate the growth of the entire industry,” said Control This! 2012 Co-Chair Meg Smith, LC, IES, LEED AP, co-chair of the IESNYC education committee, and senior project manager, Philips Lighting Solutions and Services. “This is a ‘must attend’ industry event.”

Soraa (www.soraa.com) will manage and run the testing using a custom-built testing panel comprised of an array of commonly used transformers and dimmers and Soraa’s 12VAC LED MR16 lamps and also accommodates participating companies’ transformers, dimmers, and 12VAC LED lamps or fixtures. A video of how the panel works is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmw_9k8IM-8&feature=plcp.

"Manufacturers benefit because Lighting PlugFest addresses compatibility—an obstacle to widespread LED lamp adoption; designers benefit because they can specify with confidence; and end users benefit because they will know that product combinations work,” said Eric Kim, CEO of Soraa. “This event is all about ensuring a positive LED lighting user experience.”

For more information on Lighting PlugFest and how to participate, visit: http://www.soraa.com/public/docs/Inaugural_PlugFest_Soraa_IESNYC.

About Control This!

Organized and managed by the education committee of the New York City section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNYC), Control This!, which has become the country’s foremost conference of its kind, is programmed to benefit professionals in the lighting industry, as well as architects, building owners, contractors, developers, educators, facility managers, green building practitioners, interior designers, public policy makers, and students. The Expo Hall is open free-of-charge to IES, DLF, Lighting Controls Association, USGBC NY Upstate Chapter members, and to students who register in advance online. For more information on how to attend and register for Control This! 2012, visit www.controlthis.org.

About the IESNYC

IESNYC is the New York City Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society. The IESNYC is a volunteer professional membership organization whose members share a mutual appreciation for and fascination with, all things lighting. They are lighting designers, architects, engineers, consultants, lighting manufacturers, lighting representatives, electrical distributors and allied professionals. IESNYC members are dedicated to promoting the art and science of illumination engineering to their members, professionals, the lighting industry, and the public through inspiring events, informative programs and educational series, social outreach, and networking opportunities.

About Soraa

Pioneering lamps using second generation LEDs built from pure gallium nitride substrates (GaN on GaN™); Soraa has made ordinary lighting extraordinarily vibrant, brilliant, and efficient. Soraa’s full spectrum GaN on GaN™ LED lamps have superior color rendering and beam characteristics compared to performance limited lamps using LEDs created from non-native substrates. Founded in 2008, Soraa is located in Fremont California, where it manufactures its GaN on GaN LEDs in the company’s state-of-the-art facility. For additional information, please visit www.soraa.com.