Stark Museum to host Grand Viewing

The Stark Museum of Art will be opening its doors for a Grand Viewing on Thursday. Everyone is invited to attend and see the newly remodeled galleries and lobby. Refreshments are being provided by the museum and entertainment will come in the form of Jerry Nichols and Texas Thunder, musicians. The Grand Viewing is being held for the museum to show off the work it has been undergoing for a year.

Museum Director Sarah Boehme wants visitors to take away more than trip to the local museum. "I want visitors to take away a sense of how art makes us human and enlivens our experience. I think looking at a work of art is a way to focus your tension on an ideal, and we present this collection in a way that will create an environment for people to enjoy and be inspired by art."

This remodeling has placed the museum at the forefront of museum technology. Two new attractions are the cause for this. The LED (light emitting diode) system has been put in place in order to give the interior more natural light. This natural light enables the viewer to see the work the way the artist created it.

The LED system as replaced the incandescent system that has always been present in the museum. Along with providing natural light, the new system will also be cheaper to maintain, with 350 fixtures compared to 400, and a longer lifespan in each bulb.

The second technological leap in the museum are the new iPads that are present in gallery one and the special exhibit hall. These iPads allow for viewers to see the works on a projected screen and enlarge them for closer inspection. The iPads also allow for the user to view all the works that are related to the gallery in a easy to navigate database.

The new technology is housed in all new galleries. The museum has replaced all the dull, neutral colors, that according to the Museum Director Sarah Boehme "was a good flexible system, but it was looking very dated in terms of the interior and it meant that we couldn't experiment with color."

This dated fabric has been replaced with several of these new experimental colors. For the American Frontier Gallery the color is a mix of light blue and dark green, giving the Frontier Gallery and very natural exterior feel.

For the gallery that focuses on the people that lived out west a dark shade of yellow lit with bright LED bulbs gives the viewer a sense of standing under the shining New Mexico sun. This room is populated by works from the Taos Society of Artist, among whom are Joseph Henry Sharp, E.L. Blumenschein, Bert Phillips, E.I. Couse, W.H. Dunton, E. Martin Hennings, Oscar Berninghaus, Victor Higgins, Walter Ufer and Kenneth Adams.

Their works focused on the Pueblo lifestyles and capturing what they saw as the perfect west. These works were often painted in extreme lighting and the LED bulbs really show the work at its full potential.

Along with the galleries, the lobby as also been redone. Instead of having the closed feeling that the old lobby had, the new lobby is more open with the visitors desk moved to the right of the door and on the left the museum store has been given more space.   www.bgocled.com

Young bicyclist casts bright light

Kyle Lammie travels a well-lighted path. The senior at Sylvania Northview High School is a serious cyclist who often rides after dark, when there's less traffic.

"I love biking at night," he said. "Everything from the empty streets to the cool air keeps me biking into the night."

His problem was that the flashlight he clamped to his handlebars didn't throw off the illumination he wanted, so he engineered a solution.

Kyle, a self-described "tool nerd" who is in Northview's engineering tech prep program, designed and built his own battery-powered light that can put out 1,300 lumens -- about the same brightness as his car's two headlights, he said.

Now, no matter how dark the night, he can see where he's going.

"It's a big improvement," he said. "I feel safer."

Kyle made the light in the home workshop he shares with his father, James Lammie, who is a skilled do-it-yourselfer. The 17-year-old is a whiz with technology and much sought after as the sound and light technician for school play productions in Northview's Performing Arts Center, the school's renovated theater.

For the recent production of The Wizard of Oz, he conjured up a floating head illusion that rose from fog. The special effect wowed the audience. "Kyle was the man behind the man behind the curtain," joked Nancy Crandell, a school district spokesman.

To achieve the brightness he wanted in the bike light, Kyle used three LEDs (light emitting diodes) powered by a pack of nickel-metal hydride batteries. He also used an aluminum heat sink to protect the LEDs and a device called a driver that controls the brightness settings and permits it to flash like a strobe if desired. The project involved several trips to hardware stores and ended up costing about $150.

Kyle lays out the project in meticulous detail on a Web site called instructables and includes photographs of his work in progress.

On the Web site, he describes the strobe capability at full power as a "fun feature" that has "an effect similar to a police dazzler. NOT recommended for biking. Blinding muggers and spontaneous rave parties, maybe."

Kyle's other inventions include a T-shirt launcher for sports assemblies that makes use of an air compressor. He also enjoys woodworking.

He plans to become an electrical engineer and has applied to the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, the University of Toledo, and Purdue University.

He praised Northview's engineering tech prep, where he takes college-level courses and works on projects ranging from rockets to robotics. He also plays violin in the high school's chamber orchestra.

"I keep busy," Kyle said.    www.bgocled.com

Vinod Khosla invests more money in clean energy

Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capital investor, is raising his bet on clean technology.
Khosla Ventures, the company he formed in 2004, created a $1.05 billion fund and will steer as much as 65 percent of that to back businesses developing renewable sources of power, energy-efficiency technology and LED lighting products, Khosla said Friday.
In supporting early stage companies with unproven technology, Khosla expects some of them to fail. Lawmakers in Washington have criticized an Energy Department program that followed the same strategy by providing a loan guarantee to Solyndra LLC, the Fremont solar company that filed for bankruptcy last month.
“When you’re trying new things, some things just don’t work,” Khosla said. “Solyndra wasn’t cost competitive with other companies in the valley; there are other companies that are doing fine.”
Khosla is seeking companies that are striving for scientific breakthroughs, such as Soraa Inc., which he has backed since 2007. Soraa has “fundamentally changed the materials on which LEDs are built,” he said. That means there’s “more science risk than just a little bit of engineering.”
He’s also interested in thermoelectric materials, which generate power from waste heat. “Thermoelectrics, if they have a large enough breakthrough, which we hope for, could revolutionize air conditioning, cooling and refrigeration,” Khosla said. They may also revolutionize power generation to become “both a demand-side and a supply-side technology.”
Khosla Ventures said its clean-technology portfolio has generated about $1 billion in profit. That includes gains from the initial public offerings of biofuels companies Amyris Inc., Gevo Inc. and Kior Inc. Khosla has also backed at least two companies that have been acquired by larger entities – solar energy developer Ausra Inc. was bought by Areva SA in 2010 and efficient-motor maker Ramu Inc. by Regal Beloit Corp. in April.  www.bgocled.com

Market for LED Luminaires Over $3.8 Billion in 2010

Growth rates among applications vary, but the global market for LED luminaires is expected to grow to $8.3 billion by 2014. Rapid improvements in performance and price of commercially available high brightness LED packages, heightened awareness about energy efficiency, phasing out of incandescent bulbs, and fiscal stimulus undertaken by countries around the world, created conditions for adoption of white light application of LED technology, which otherwise would have faced the low-volume-high-cost conundrum. Quality issues that affected the market penetration of previous energy efficient lighting technologies continue to affect this market but the resolve to reduce energy consumption is likely to propel this technology to be widely commercialized and adopted by the market. The LED Luminaires, Market Analysis & Forecast includes nine LED lighting application segments and analysis for the period from 2008 to 2014.
Being the most efficient light source technology for applications requiring a directional beam of light and batteries, consumer portable applications were the largest segment of the LED luminaire market in 2010. The quality of LEDs has improved to a point that performance is no longer an issue. The issue now is the price of designing LEDs into luminaires. Color and color-changing application in architectural and entertainment applications together had revenues more than $1 billion in 2010. Residential lighting — the fastest growing segment of the market — starting from a small base, is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 44% through 2014. Global revenues for LED luminaires in commercial/industrial applications are expected to be more than $1 billion in 2011. The outdoor area lighting applications, which benefitted from fiscal stimulus and the need for energy conservation, are expected to grow at a CAGR of 38% through 2014. Solar powered lanterns will be a low margin-high volume application assisted by NGOs and governments trying to save fuel subsidies. The revenues for this sub-segment are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 58% for the same period. LED exit signs have become a mature market in the U.S. and are in the initial stage of market penetration in white light application in egress signage lighting outside the U.S. China is the largest market as well as the largest supplier of LED luminaires.

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Vermont towns turning to LED lights

LED lights, those darlings of environmentalists and the budget conscious, are hitting the streets. The light-emitting diodes, which can use as much as 70 percent less energy as traditional lights, have been turning up regularly in car headlights, traffic signals, aviation lights and increasingly in home interior lighting. Now they're taking over street lighting in Vermont.   www.bgocled.com

RGGLED launched unique largest LED ceiling screen

Lately, no big event can be imagined without LED production, especially without something new, creative and record breaking. Just like the 2011 Asian winter games in Kazachstan which on 30th of January took place in Astana, the capital of Kazachstan. New arena in Astana was illuminated by the ceiling LED screen which was designed, manufactured, installed and launched by Lithuanian company RGGLED. This project is unique in Europe as well as in Asia by its measures - ceiling LED screen was 8500 sq. m big.
„I evaluate Astana arena project as an extreme success, despite the fact that designing and negotiations took us nearly a year. The exact LED screen project is unique by its measures both in Europe and Asia because this big area in the ceiling have not shined anywhere else,“ said RGGLED CEO Gytis Mikelinskas.
For about a year company's specialists were participating in ongoing negotiations and were trying to clarify the needs of the customer which led to a happy ending – unique ceiling illumination was created.
“The project of the size like this was refused by other world's biggest companies due to these major problems: risk of failure, because nobody else has ever made a project like this and because of short period of time, which we had for designing and installation. So this is why we can say that we accepted it as a challenge for us, which we had to complete and most importantly – we succeeded,“ described the project G. Mikelinskas.
The screen in Astana arena which consisted of more than 4,86 million pieces light emitting diodes was installed by the RGGLED specialists. Whole month the team of twelve specialists and technicians from RGGLED were assembling the screen in Astana arena.    www.bgocled.com