Catching Up With George Stringer of Soraa at LFI 2018

One of the industry leaders to set up a booth at last week’s LightFair 2018 conference in Chicago, IL was Soraa. We stopped to speak with their Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, George Stringer.

“The nice thing about LightFair this year is that we were selected as one of the top ten booths to see because of an award-winning product,” Stringer said. “People forget that we’re a technology company first. We’re a semiconductor company. We make violet based semiconductors in Freemont, California, because we believe that natural light should mirror what the sunlight does.”

For Soraa, there is an understanding that to meet their customers’ needs, the technology must be perfected before applications and products are even discussed. It is this dedication to the small details that has made them so popular with companies who crave the aesthetic provided by natural light.

“The people who care most about color quality would be museums, retail, high end, residential and hospitality. Those are the markets that we cater to,” Stringer said. “We’ve started focusing primarily on retail because that’s where light and color really matter.”

Stringer stopped to show us one of their cutting-edge designs, the Radiant GU10. It is a directional light that allows for proper lighting in spaces where display is essential.

“Museums are a critical vertical for us. If you think about what they’re trying to do in terms of color for the artwork and sculptures – if you’re going to have beautiful antiquities and art you want to light them with the best color quality of light,” he said. “I would say we’ve done close to 300 museums in North America alone,” Stringer noted.

Internationally, the company has a strong presence as well. Soraa’s products even light up the Palace of Versailles. Stringer believes much of this success is simply because they listen to what customers are asking for and find ways to make that a reality. When more lumens were required, they found a way to develop fixtures with more design freedom to incorporate heat sinks. And when it was discovered that violet light can be used to get rid of unwanted bacteria, the company began to develop innovative concepts using the technology they already had at their disposal.

“We found that we can increase the output of violet light to 405 nanometers and kill most of the bacteria in an eight-hour period,” Stringer said. “Violet has many purposes, it renders white, it gives better color, it gives a healthy light solution and it has medical applications for bacteria removal. We’re doing all of that for technology today, but also for products for the future.”

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

intelligent audio systems
Redefining Security: The Critical Role of Voice in Intelligent Audio Systems
April 1, 2025

In the world of security technology, vision has long taken precedence—cameras, analytics, and access control have dominated the conversation. But what if we’ve been underestimating our oldest, most human sense of communication: voice? The rise of intelligent audio in security systems marks a turning point in how we protect spaces and people, shifting from passive…

Read More
How PSA is Empowering Integrators to Navigate AI, Mobile Credentials, and Modern Business Challenges?
April 1, 2025

As the security integration industry contends with rapid technological advancement and increasing business complexity, many integrators are looking for the tools, training, and guidance to keep pace. At the center of this evolution is AI—transforming not just the products integrators deploy but also the way they operate their businesses. Meanwhile, the shift to mobile credentials…

Read More
facial recognition
Biometrics Beyond Security: A New Era for Facial Recognition
April 1, 2025

Facial recognition technology has long hovered on the fringe of mainstream adoption—promising futuristic solutions but often shackled by high costs, limited applications, and public skepticism. In 2024, however, a pivotal shift is underway. Thanks to advances in edge devices, reduced price points, and changing attitudes toward digital identity, biometric authentication—particularly facial recognition—is now finding a…

Read More
SIA RISE
SIA RISE is Shaping the Industry Through Community and Intentional Growth?
April 1, 2025

The security industry is experiencing a quiet revolution—one led not by technology alone, but by a new wave of passionate young professionals. As legacy systems give way to modern, cloud-based platforms and mobile-first solutions, the need for fresh perspectives, diverse skill sets, and energized leadership is more pressing than ever. One organization at the…

Read More