I carry a little key chain LED flash light that is very bright and
supposedly can last for about 12 hours on a single AAA battery. Good tech.
And for some years now I've used the energy efficient spiral florescent
light bulbs at home, also more energy efficient.
But a couple months ago I spent a few hours cruising around the net
looking to replace those bulbs with screw in LED bulbs. For the most
part I failed to find any LED bulbs that gave the light equivalent of
more than about 20 watts incandescent. It was something of a
disappointment to me but it doesn't appear the LED tech is quite there
yet for normal home consumer use. But I'll keep watching for them.
- Tom
I once wrote a commentary for Television Broadcast magazine (4/93) discussing the hypnotic effect of sitting in a darkened room illuminated by a candle, and a single - but relatively expensive - light bulb, otherwise known as a TV.
In that commentary I asked: "Who is Al Boliska?" His words echo through my consciousness: "Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight?"
Thirteen years later, the desire of television broadcasters to hold onto a bunch of technical overhead, needed to display pictures on fancy light bulbs, seems rather ironic. The venerable CRT had to get of the way to bring HDTV to life as a commercial product. Now it looks like the venerable incandescent light bulb is facing a similar fate, as LEDs are replacing the tungsten filaments and glass bulbs that put so many candle makers out of work...
The following article about a new Royal Philips Electronics LED manufacturing facility contains many gems, as did that 1993 commentary about the mess that became ATSC DTV...
Both follow.
Regards Craig
========================================
Technology Philips Plans LED Plant In Singapore Robyn Meredith, 09.04.06, 11:00 AM ET
Singapore -
Royal Philips Electronics announced today that it will open a LED factory in Singapore, hiring 1,000 workers, in an attempt to keep up with lightning-fast growth in that new, high-tech segment of the lighting business. Philips will sink about $80 million into the LED production facility, sources close to Philips said.
The investment "further strengthens Philips' leadership position in the global lighting market by investing in the high-growth and huge-potential LED market," said Philips Chief Executive Gerard Kleisterlee, as he announced the move in Singapore. "This will be a world-class, high-luminence, high-power LED production facility that will serve our customer needs in the areas of city beautification, LCD displays, automotive backlighting, as well as various other professional applications."
LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are essentially semiconductor chips that emit light when they come in contact with electricity. Materials at the base of the chip determine the color of the light. Several of the chip-based lights could fit on the face of a watch. Compared with traditional lights, LEDs are more energy efficient, less fragile and have far longer lifespans; they last about a decade.
LEDs are most commonly used as backlighting for cellphone screens and keyboards, but are increasingly finding other uses. They are used to light up car dashboards and taillights, are made into flashlights and traffic signals. Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) plans to use LEDs in the interior of its 787 Dreamliner. Vast numbers of LEDs can be assembled into scoreboards and giant billboards and programmed to give sports scores or to show advertisements.
The modern LED market is relatively new--scientists only discovered how to create the full color spectrum on LEDs in 1993. It is growing fast: the high-brightness LED market was $3.7 billion worldwide in 2004, Kleisterlee said, and is growing at 25% a year. The industry is expected to have sales this year between $4-$5 billion, and to grow to $10 billion by the end of 2010. The total lighting industry today is around $26 billion a year.
Philips made a big bet on the LED business last year, when it spent $950 million to buy out Agilent Technologies (nyse: A - news - people )' share of Lumileds Lighting Int. B.V. In the fiscal year ending July 2005, Lumileds sales jumped 28% to $324 million, and operating profit reached $83 million. Lumileds forecast it would have operating margins of 25% in the coming years.
Like Philips, other big lighting manufacturers are rushing to produce LEDs. General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) and Osram GmbH are placing big bets on LEDs. Smaller manufacturers like Cree in Durham, N.C., and Japan's Nichia Chemical sell LEDs to other companies that make the finished lights. Canada's Carmanah Technologies makes LED-based outdoor lighting, such as airplane runway lights. Scoreboard makers Lighthouse Technologies and Daktronics (nasdaq: DAKT - news - people ) of South Dakota are building ever-bigger LED-based boards.
Philips, the huge Dutch conglomerate, got its start by selling light bulbs in Europe. Kleisterlee, the CEO, said the increased investment in LEDs is part of the company's ongoing attempt to transform itself into a health care and lifestyle company rather than a sprawling conglomerate that makes everything from semiconductors to televisions to electric toothbrushes.
=========================================================================
Television Broadcast April 1993 Commentary Craig Birkmaier
Building a Brighter Future
After all the build up, the tournament ended in a four way tie. We're headed to the play-offs. Perhaps it's time to relax and explore the emerging digital world. We need the right environment--a quiet, darkened room, illuminated only by the slowly undulating glow of candlelight and a television.
Ready? First let's contemplate what being digital means in light of remarkable advances in the delivery of digital media since the beginning of this decade. Now let's invoke the mantra and focus on the role that video will play in this digital world. Interoperability...extensibility...scalability...
My thoughts begin to focus. -Who is Al Boliska? His words echo through my consciousness: "Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight?" Interoperability...extensibility...scalability...
Arthur Miller walks onto the stage of my virtual reality: "An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." Interoperability...extensibility...scala...Suddenly the vision is obliterated as someone turns on the lights.
Boliska got it backwards. Yes, Edison may be responsible for putting thousands of candlemakers out of work. But he made a far more significant discovery that spawned a century of incredible advances in communications and the modern consumer electronics market--the Edison Effect. This discovery led to the development of vacuum tubes, the cathode ray tube (CRT), and television. Vacuum tubes have been replaced with more sophisticated silicon, but the CRT is still with us, demanding more of our attention than any other invention of the past century. Unfortunately, CRT's can't get much bigger (they won't fit through the door) or much brighter. The same can be said of the current prospects for many of the institutions which brought us the first fifty years of television broadcasting.
It 's ironic that those of us who have been working to assure a brighter future for television have been labeled Utopians on the eve of the non-decision about an Advanced Television system for North America. In his commentary, ATV Under Attack By Utopians,Television Broadcast February 1993, Glen Pensinger claimed that: "The Advanced Television selection process is suffering from an infestation of techno-idealists." We are called dreamers because of our desire to establish a set of global rules for digital imagery--"open system" standards that will allow television to play a major role in this new digital world by making it scalable, extensible, and interoperable with new infrastructures that will deliver digital media in the future.
Does Pensinger speak for himself or those who would benefit from the selection of these systems as they currently exist? Certainly the latter, just as I have presented the Utopian point of view. They claim "the Utopian Blueprint is not quite ready for prime time," However, it is their basic illusions that have been exhausted. HDTV has been an "achievable commercial reality" for more than a decade--to date it's "commercial viability" has not been demonstrated. The real dreamers are people who believe that HDTV can be the salvation of broadcasting.
At the international level, major efforts to commercialize HDTV have failed. The European Commission has ceased funding of the HD-MAC system and indicated that they will take a close look at the U.S. Digital Advanced Television (DATV) systems to see if this technology is appropriate for Europe. Japanese consumers failed to support the MUSE HDTV system--now Japan is trying to attract international participation in a consortium to develop a digital Ultra Definition Television (UDTV) system.
In the March issue of Television Broadcast, John Abel, Executive Vice President/Operations for the National Association of Broadcasters, commented on the changing attitudes of his constituency. "Broadcasters cannot afford to let other industries obtain a technological advantage at our expense...We must strive for the best system for BROADCASTING. That is what this process is all about, and that is the only way to assure that the public has long-term access to free over-the-air television."
The convergence of the communications, information, and entertainment industries, around the use of digital representations for all types of media,
is the essential precursor to the "commercial viability" of information age technologies. The time has come to resolve our differences and get on with the process of building the digital communications infrastructure.
Pensinger suggests: "A great deal of techno-political negotiation with great diplomacy will be required, and we have no evidence that a diplomat with Middle East caliber negotiation skills exists in these industries." I suggest that it is not the lack of a negotiator, but the willingness to negotiate that has been lacking. Fortunately this picture is changing.
International standards organizations such as the CCIR and SMPTE have been working on the harmonization of advanced television standards since the beginning of this decade. The SMPTE Working Group on Digital Image Architecture provides an excellent "due process" forum to discuss the remaining issues and the provide a home for the required standards--the first draft of a proposed open system standard was recently introduced to this group for consideration.
Perhaps the most encouraging signs of cooperation are taking place inside the U.S. DATV process. As this is written at the end of March, a group that represents a broad cross section of affected industries, is collaborating on the development of new imagery and procedures for the re-testing of the four remaining ATV systems. Working with Planning Subcommittee Working Party 2 of the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Services, this group includes representation from each of the proponents, video equipment manufacturers, program producers, television broadcasters, the computer industry, the telecommunications industry, government and academia. The goal is to provide new tests for image quality and interoperability with computer systems and wired networks.
Let's forget about 59.94 and interlace versus the mantra for a moment. The conditions that have virtually every participant ready to negotiate are rooted in economics and politics, not technical issues. Digital data transmission erases the boundaries between industries that were formerly insulated by technology and regulation. Digital makes it "technically possible" for a radio station to broadcast pictures and a cable company to get in the phone business. Digital compression, especially of audio and video, either devalues or enhances the book value of existing infrastructures based on existing regulations.
Competition for the delivery of data will ultimately boil down to the cost per bit--cost reductions of several orders of magnitude are projected as we make the transition to broadband digital networks. The continued existence and/or future profitability of virtually every common carrier of information is challenged by this digital steamroller. As Martin Polon indicated in his column: Techno-Anarchy: Does Big Trouble Loom?, Television Broadcast February 1993, it is the consumer that is likely to get run over if the government fails to modernize the regulatory landscape to reflect the new digital realities. Fortunately, there are strong signs that the new administration is willing to address these issues. The challenge is to develop a cooperative relationship between industries and government rather than the adversarial relationship characterized by regulation.
Discovery of the Edison effect marked the beginning of a new era--a multitude of illusions to invent and commercialize. Today we are at a similar threshold. We need new illusions, such as interactivity, programming on demand, virtual reality, and the ability to collaborate with anyone, anywhere, anytime to energize the Thomas Edison's and Arthur Miller's of a new era. Let's turn this collective energy loose to build the infrastructure and to develop the content that will be carried by these digital highways. This is not a Utopian dream...it's a question of economic survival.
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