Page 64 - Lighting Magazine December 2018

hoNg KoNg highlights
lEft: Decorative lighting – especially large in scale – remains enormously popular for commercial installations. Iris Bohemian Crystal’s booth showcased a variety of generously proportioned traditional chandelier shapes with a modern twist.
right: Hong Kong- based Visual Idea Design showcased its transparent LED screens that can be used for signage as well as for decoratively delineating space in hospitality applications.
countries including the USA, observed an increase in the number of American distributors stopping by the booth. As of press time, ceiling fans are still omi ed from the list of imported items facing tar- i s, and the manufacturer’s line of fandeliers – most notably Beacon’s new models from the Lucci Air line with retractable blades – got a lot of a ention.
Some of the people I spoke with at the Fair ex- pressed interest in the fandelier product category, wondering if ceiling fans with decorative integral light kits could o er e ective ambient light, there- by escaping the tari . Many manufacturers whose operations are not a ected by the tari s posted signs stating such at their booths as an incentive to American buyers at the show.
Besides the tari s, the second most-talked- about topic at the Fair was Smart Lighting — both for cities and residences. For the rst time, the category was given prominent exhibit space with a specially designed pavilion dedicated to top Smart Home vendors such as Philips, Tuya, Opple Lighting, YeeLight, and Tmall Genie (developed by Amazon competitor Alibaba Group). The prime location provided a endees with the opportunity
to try out the technology via “experience centers.” Furthermore, the full roster of educational sessions revolved around showcasing the latest developments on a global level concerning smart cities and smart lighting as well as forecasting where the technology is going. The consensus among European, Asian, U.K., and American in- dustry experts is there is cause for concern the giant tech companies might supersede the lighting industry’s advances and capture the lion’s share of the consumer market bolstered by brand rec- ognition/loyalty with the electronic devices they
already have.
Another category at the Fair that has increased
over past editions is horticulture lighting and its potential impact on helping to solve food scarcity in climate-challenged areas on a broad spectrum, and how it can be utilized on a smaller scale by grocery distributors and consumers to grow fresh, pesticide-free vegetables, thus reducing the inci- dents of wasted food due to spoilage in transit or from recalls due to contamination. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s exhibit demonstrated the group’s research and success with horticulture
60 enLIGHTenment magazine | december 2018
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