Lighting takes center stage at Lightfair International in New York City (pictures)
Smart bulbs, smart cities, smart...carpets? We saw it all this week at Lightfair.
A festival of lights
Lightfair International is a yearly trade show covering commercial and residential lighting options. This year, it took place in New York City, and we were on hand to gaze longingly at all of the new lights on display. Click through to see what we found.
LEDs beneath your feet
After a few years of tests and tweaks in Europe, Philips is bringing "Luminous Carpets" to North America this year. The carpets sit atop a thin bed of customizable LEDs that shine right through the fabric and might soon make it easier to find your way around large commercial spaces, like airports.
Cree syncs up with WeMo
Meanwhile, Cree announced a new integration with WeMo that will let you integrate the Cree Connected LED alongside WeMo lights and devices.
TCP gets a few upgrades
TCP unveiled new hardware for its Connected by TCP smart-lighting kit, along with a major refresh of the software that controls it all.
No hub? No problem
Feit had new hardware to show off, too, with a new line of smart bulbs that use Bluetooth to keep in touch with one another -- no hub necessary.
GE hitches up with HomeKit
GE announced that its next smart light will be a color-tunable take on its existing line of Align LEDs designed to help you wake up in the morning and wind down at night. GE claims the new bulb will work with Apple HomeKit at launch.
Beth Comstock, GE's CEO of Business Innovations, was also on hand with representatives from the city governments of San Diego and Jacksonville, where pilot runs of GE-designed smart city lighting systems are just getting underway. An executive from Qualcomm was also on hand to announce a new partnership with GE that'll bring precision indoor location tracking capabilities to retail lighting fixtures.