When I caught up with Joe Casper, founder and CTO of Ephesus Lighting, based in Syracuse, NY, he was about to leave for the Super Bowl. Your humble editor has interviewed many C-level executives in our industry, but never have I heard passion like this. He could hardly contain himself because of the excitement (and the anxiety). He said, “knowing that you are lighting the biggest sporting event in the world–the pressure is huge right now!”
Joe explained that doubling the light levels allow the cameras to work with a smaller aperture, giving more depth and focus. Ephesus worked closely with NBC who will be broadcasting the game. Fans at the stadium will notice a crisper, brighter, feeling on the field. Fans at home will notice huge differences, especially in slow motion. Normally, HD slow motion is 500 to 600 frames per second. Because of the new lighting, cameras at the Super Bowl are certified up to 8,000 frames per second. The CCT is 5600K.
I asked Joe if a fan could determine whether or not a football had been deflated by viewing the game on television. He said his lights were good, but probably not that good.
With built-in controllability, there will be use of multiple levels during the pregame show and the National Anthem. Joe explained, “The halftime show will be like nothing you have ever seen before, and the lights will be turned off.”
Joe said that his team consists of bright and smart engineers who worked closely with Cree. Cree designed the LED chip that was capable of the lumen output using a 2mm x 2mm chip. Ephesus designed their own power supply, which is 96% efficient, and is integrated into the fixture. Because of the high efficiency, very little heat sink is required, thus the luminaire only weighs 20 pounds. Another feature is multi-voltage of 208 thru 480v with a very high powerfactor and low THD.
A few years ago Ephesus began work on building the brightest LED luminaire in the market. They began development in 2012 building an arena light which ultimately relit about 30 venues. Joe knew that the NFL wanted to go green and be more sustainable.
The company name, Ephesus is unusual. Joe explained that it is the name of a city in Turkey. 2500 years ago, Ephesus was the most advanced city in the world and its technology was far ahead of Rome at the time.
One last thing. In addition to the 2x light levels, the 5600K, the instant-on, the controllability, the lights also save 929,000 watts.
Your humble editor may not care about the outcome of the game this year, but you can be sure we will be paying attention to the lighting…..and the commercials, of course!