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DLC Draft 1 Horticultural Technical Requirements V4.0

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) has released their Draft 1 Horticultural Technical Requirements V4.0. The draft proposes three updates:

  • Efficacy increase: Hort V4.0 proposes to increase the efficacy threshold to 2.5 μmol × J-1, which is an 8.7% increase over the Hort V3.0 threshold. This will set the DLC efficacy threshold for LED-based horticultural lighting at more than 45% above the most efficacious non-LED option.
  • Removal of lamp categories: Hort V4.0 proposes to remove eligibility for lamps. This decision was made based on low application numbers in lamp categories.
  • Clarifications to various requirements: A variety of clarifications are proposed throughout Hort V4.0, including for definitions of key terminology and for certain testing requirements.

The Draft 1 Horticultural Technical Requirements V4.0 document is available here.

LightNOW: News and Opinion for the Lighting Industry

2024 State of the Cannabis Lighting Market

This ninth annual exclusive report takes a deep dive into the fluctuating lighting trends among commercial cultivators. It has been nearly a decade since Cannabis Business Times first began publishing its “State of the Cannabis Lighting Market” report. There’s no doubt that the relationship between cannabis and light is one of the most crucial aspects of cannabis cultivation and ultimate success. From light intensity to spectral properties, to light uniformity, to dimming technology and much more, every new discovery in the cannabis industry opens another door for growers, researchers, and lighting manufacturers to explore. In this 2024 “State of the Cannabis Lighting Market” report, you’ll find exclusive data revealing practices of your cannabis cultivation peers, with valuable insights into the evolution of cannabis lighting trends through the years.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Hire – While most of us have heard the term artificial intelligence, few could predict the explosion of GenAI technologies in the public sphere over the last two years. In the work setting alone, Microsoft and LinkedIn reported that “75% of knowledge workers use AI at work” and “66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills”.                 

So how did this all happen:

1956, August: At the Dartmouth Conference, researchers discuss creating machines capable of intelligent behavior and the term “Artificial Intelligence” is introduced.

2017, June: Google researchers introduce the Transformer architecture, the foundation for generative AI (GenAI) models. (GPT = Generative Pre-trained Transformer)

2022, November: OpenAI unveils ChatGPT, a conversational GenAI model, marking a tipping point in public access and accelerated adoption.

2024 NOW: Commercialization is accelerating. Globally, the GenAI solutions market is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2028 with over 60,000 GenAI companies already doing business (Horban, 2024).  The biggest tech/communications companies are all involved in a very big way to drive and influence our lives now and in the future with their GenAI models:

  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT
  • xAI’s Grok
  • Google’s Gemini
  • Microsoft’s Copilot
  • Anthropic’s Claude
  • Apple’s Apple Intelligence
  • Meta’s Llama
  • Coming: Orion by OpenAI 

Plan for your future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life. Mark Twain