High Voltage Discharge lamps will quit the Market in Europe in the Future?
Stage lighting is the use of lighting for the characters, scenery modeling art. The technology are growing under the large requirement of the entertainment. Now the stage lighting fixtures mostly adopting three kinds of light source: Gas-discharge lamps, LED, Laser.
The High Voltage Gas-discharge lamps
High Voltage Gas-discharge lamps is the traditional technology for stage lighting and has been widely used. It’s a family of artificial light sources that generate light by sending an electric discharge through an ionized gas, a plasma. For example, the LUNAR BEAM of LIGHT SKY is using the 420W USHIO Lamp. The advantage of Gas-discharge lamp is economic, with strong brightness, with mature technology. However, such discharge lamp don’t have a long lifespan. Usually 1500h to 2000h. Lighting technicians have to change the bulbs more frequently compared with the LED module.
With the promotion of environmental protection policies, the European market will have a plan to eliminate all fluorescent light bulbs in the future, which is expected to significantly reduce toxic mercury pollution, lower carbon emissions, and save people and businesses billions of euros in energy consumption.
The new policy of High Voltage Gas-discharge lamps
The EU RoHS Directive regulates the placing on the EU market of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) that contains certain hazardous substances. The law prohibits the use of mercury in lamps unless used in an explicitly exempted application. However, the listed expiry dates are generally not considered final phase-out dates as these exemptions can be periodically renewed b applying for a renewal of the exemption period. During the evaluation period of such a renewal application, the existing exemption remains valid – even beyond the listed expiry date. If a renewal is not granted, the European Commission must still grant a transition period of 12-18 months to give time to the market for a final phase-out.
At first, the RoHS exemptions for (Hg) projector lamps was until 24 February 2027. As projector manufacturers foresee that mercury projector lamps are still needed after February 2027, the lighting industry is expected to apply for another 5-year renewal in 2025.
The reason for the reaction of people hoping delay the exemptions time
Apparently, people struggle to against the policy for more time of the exemptions. Why people need to delay the time of the restriction?
Firstly, for the lamps manufacturers, as the technology of LED module is not as mature as the Discharge lamps, they still need more time to develop the new technology. And it will also take some time for the previous inventory to be used up. The lamp lighting market kinds of belonging to the monopoly market. And you can easily count out the famous manufacturers, like Osram, Philips, Ushio, etc. For the restriction regulation of the Discharge lamps, they have the most strong voice about that.
Secondly, for the users, the rental and selling company they have purchase many discharge light for their events already. They may plan to use that batch of fixtures for several years to get the cost back. However, such regulation have cut down the time they can using such fixtures. It’s definitely not economic for them. In the other hands, the LED module fixtures usually more expensive than the discharge fixtures.
LED products of LIGHT SKY
Now LIGHT SKY has a big LED profile family. From 450w the SUPER SCOPE PRO, to the 580w SUPER SCOPE, and 880w SUPER SCOPE PLUS, and the 1200W SUPER SCOPE MAX. Also we have outdoor version the 1200w SHARK PROFILE. LED module can make a pure and full beam, with nice optical system, LIGHT SKY can optimize the output of the fixtures to increase its brightness.
And also LIGHT SKY had already make a step into the laser area. For the outdoor moving head beam, there is Shark laser, 260W moving head beam. And this fixtures was used in the Sydney Harbour Bridge New Year light Show in 2023.
For compact size fixtures, there is Mini laser aqua, 100W moving head beam and IP66. It’s only around 13kg weight. This small fixtures has already show itself in ISE exhibition and Prolight & sound in Frankfurt.
New technology to optimize the problem of heat dissipation of Hg lamps
At the same time, facing the problem of poor heat dissipation of traditional High-Voltage Discharge lamps, LIGHT SKY actively researched and developed, and had its own unique technology. It called DTCS (dynamic temperature control and heat dissipation technology). We develop lamps that are brighter than most of the same wattage lamps in the industry. It extends the lifespan of the bulb, reduces the operating costs caused by frequent replacement of the bulb, and also reduces the burden on the environment.
Protecting the environment is the trend of era, but the change of technology is not a day’s work. And from an economic point, the replacement of goods also needs more time to accumulate funds. For both suppliers and consumers, more time is needed to the change. However, LIGHT SKY as one of the leading manufacturers in China, they always on the their way of development and innovation. Let expect its new LED products. Contact us if you are interested in our stage lighting products!
