AUSTIN | Photos & Videos Thread - Page 132

KevinFromTexas · #**2621** Posted **Dec 1, 2020, 6:46 PM**

The Zilker Christmas Tree is lit, and they've switched to LEDs. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like LEDs and all, but I prefer the more Christmasy hues of incandescent bulbs, at least, on the big tree anyway.

• Video Link

Sigaven · #**2622** Posted **Dec 1, 2020, 9:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

The Zilker Christmas Tree is lit, and they've switched to LEDs. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like LEDs and all, but I prefer the more Christmasy hues of incandescent bulbs, at least, on the big tree anyway.

• Video Link

It's been LED's for several years now at least, lol.

I'm with you, I despise color LEDs. I prefer the warm glow of the incandescent. If they could replicate that look with LED's i'd be all for it.

the Genral · #**2623** Posted **Dec 1, 2020, 9:51 PM**

I switched to LEDs, reason...they are brighter, use a ton less electricity, and last 10 times longer. Considering the amount of lights needed on the Zilker 'tree', this makes a lot of sense even if its not overly popular. Everyone is trying to save money these days. Did the switch over lose the swirling effect when standing at the bottom? That would be disappointing.

Sigaven · #**2624** Posted **Dec 1, 2020, 10:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

I switched to LEDs, reason...they are brighter, use a ton less electricity, and last 10 times longer. Considering the amount of lights needed on the Zilker 'tree', this makes a lot of sense even if its not overly popular. Everyone is trying to save money these days. Did the switch over lose the swirling effect when standing at the bottom? That would be disappointing.

Nope, I'm pretty sure it still does the swirling

Lots of people like the LED's but I am just not a fan of the color they put out. I do like that they last longer. I used to have color incancescent lights but the bulbs and fuses go out so often I got rid of them and now I just use white LED's. I Like to mix the warm white, cool white, and pure white for a nice effect

KevinFromTexas · #**2625** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 2:53 AM**

According to this, 2020 is the first they've used LEDs for all the lights on the tree. This says they only first used them in 2019, and that they hadn't switched the yellow bulbs because yellow LEDs are hard to find.

https://www.statesman.com/news/20201...emplate=ampart

Quote:

Folks, we're inching closer to the holidays and you know what that means! In Austin, it means it's time for the Zilker Holiday Tree to go up in all its magnificent glory.

Austin Energy crews on Friday took to bucket cranes to decorate the 155-foot-tall moonlight tower at Zilker Park with 39 strands of LED lights, marking the first time that every light bulb used on the display will be energy-efficient. Each strand of lighting has 81 red, yellow, green and blue bulbs.

In 2019, most of the lights used LED bulbs, except for the yellow ones because they were harder to find at the time, city officials said.

KevinFromTexas · #**2626** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 5:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gabetx

I got me a drone! Here are some of my first shots. I probably could have gotten some better quality shots using manual mode, but I was focusing more on learning how to fly it. There definitely will be more to come.

These are really great. With so much construction going on, it's nice to see it in a way that gives you an idea of how the skyline will look and also what's finished recently. And holy moly, the Domain is going to be its own skyline up there.

ahealy · #**2627** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 1:37 PM**

SO lovely!!! We've come a long way!!

I do wish you could see more 20+ story buildings in some suburban areas. There's something oddly comforting about that with more established TX cities.

lonewolf · #**2628** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 3:30 PM**

there is a sizeable chunk of people who despise LEDs. usually that is a sign of something. i think commercial size interests will utilize them (factories, plants, warehouses) but people have already started to drop them.

rich people were getting them installed in their homes 10-20 years ago and now they are gutting their systems lol. it's an unnatural brightness. nasty supply chain behind it too.

also apparently they are very bad for wildlife(animals will root + nest + lay eggs under incandescent light but not LEDs) watch half a dozen nature docs and you're bound to hear about it

Sigaven · #**2629** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 4:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

there is a sizeable chunk of people who despise LEDs. usually that is a sign of something. i think commercial size interests will utilize them (factories, plants, warehouses) but people have already started to drop them.

rich people were getting them installed in their homes 10-20 years ago and now they are gutting their systems lol. it's an unnatural brightness. nasty supply chain behind it too.

also apparently they are very bad for wildlife(animals will root + nest + lay eggs under incandescent light but not LEDs) watch half a dozen nature docs and you're bound to hear about it

What kind of wildlife relies on human light bulbs for roosting? Sounds more like it could be a problem for animals in captivity but I'd imagine zookeepers and biologists know the limitations of LED's. They don't produce nearly as much warmth as incandescent which is why they're so energy efficient.

Also, LED bulbs have come a long way and most can imitate the warmth of incandescent bulbs pretty accurately. They were expensive bulky things years ago but you can easily find ones that look like ordinary light bulbs now.

LED's are definitely the way of the future and way more energy efficient than outdated incandescents.

JACKinBeantown · #**2630** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 4:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

there is a sizeable chunk of people who despise LEDs. usually that is a sign of something. i think commercial size interests will utilize them (factories, plants, warehouses) but people have already started to drop them.

rich people were getting them installed in their homes 10-20 years ago and now they are gutting their systems lol. it's an unnatural brightness. nasty supply chain behind it too.

also apparently they are very bad for wildlife(animals will root + nest + lay eggs under incandescent light but not LEDs) watch half a dozen nature docs and you're bound to hear about it

I despise old school LEDs. They were cold and flickery. But the technology has come a long way in recent years. That's why it's important to achieve, accept and not be resistant to progress.

Just one example... this type of LED is awesome. I have them all over my house. They have a warm glow, can be dimmed without flicker, use less energy, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-LED-...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Here's a link to the Philips website showing the different color signatures of their LED lights.
https://www.usa.lighting.philips.com...warm-led-light

lonewolf · #**2631** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 6:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sigaven

What kind of wildlife relies on human light bulbs for roosting? Sounds more like it could be a problem for animals in captivity but I'd imagine zookeepers and biologists know the limitations of LED's. They don't produce nearly as much warmth as incandescent which is why they're so energy efficient.

Also, LED bulbs have come a long way and most can imitate the warmth of incandescent bulbs pretty accurately. They were expensive bulky things years ago but you can easily find ones that look like ordinary light bulbs now.

LED's are definitely the way of the future and way more energy efficient than outdated incandescents.

As in tortoises won't lay eggs on a beach with LED lighting, as in skyscrapers with led lights disturb bird migratory patterns, as in animals won't copulate in zoos with led lighting. I actually said this material is not hard to find. I'm guessing you didn't look. We have feedback from nature itself that something is off. Coupled with the fact there is a slice of humans that REALLY don't like them ... my spidey senses are going off. Something is lurking we don't know yet.

You know these "way of the future" predictions typically don't fare so well..

lonewolf · #**2632** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 7:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

I despise old school LEDs. They were cold and flickery. But the technology has come a long way in recent years. That's why it's important to achieve, accept and not be resistant to progress.

Just one example... this type of LED is awesome. I have them all over my house. They have a warm glow, can be dimmed without flicker, use less energy, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-LED-...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Here's a link to the Philips website showing the different color signatures of their LED lights.
https://www.usa.lighting.philips.com...warm-led-light

agreed the low temp leds certainly do seem better in 1 dimension.

you want to know what i think is going on? I think the static nature of the light is unsettling on a level deeper than we understand. sunlight is filtered through atmosphere, through clouds, even trees. it's also moving and the surface has different temperatures. Fire also has a volatile nature in terms of light emitted

LEDs do not flicker, they emit same temperature/light spectrum everywhere, it's a type of light that is completely foreign to us. maybe it's no big deal. maybe in 30 years we rip all of them out. who knows.

the Genral · #**2633** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 7:22 PM**

Many LED lights do flicker. Its the by-product of cheaply converting DC powered LEDs to AC. LED light's flicker ratings can be found on LEDBenchmark.com if you want to find out which LED lights have the least amount of flicker. That being said, Humans normally cannot detect this because light from LEDs seem to be steady at 24 Hz or 24 flickers per second to the human eye, but some animals can see up to 80 Hz, 80 flickers per second, which is why the flickering effect may be disturbing to some animals thus driving them away from the source, validating lonewolf's post #2631. Don't ask me how they measured that. Imagine a constant rapid strobe effect, how irritating that can be. Clearly more research needs to be done and released to the public.

JACKinBeantown · #**2634** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 7:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

Many LED lights flicker. Its the by-product of converting DC powered LEDs to AC, though this is being improved with newer and more expensive technology. LED light's flicker ratings can be found on LEDBenchmark.com if you want to find out which LED lights have the least amount of flicker. That being said, Humans normally cannot detect this because light from LEDs seem to be steady at 24 Hz or 24 flickers per second to the human eye, but some animals can see up to 80 Hz, 80 flickers per second, which is why the flickering effect may be disturbing to some animals thus driving them away from the source, validating lonewolf's post #2631. Don't ask me how they measured that. Imagine a constant rapid strobe effect, how irritating that can be. Clearly more research needs to be done and released to the public.

Thanks for the lesson. I just learned something.

The world's fastest camera can take 10 trillion frames per second. So using similar technology should make it easy to measure LED flicker rate. (I'm sure I could have just looked that up too.)
https://petapixel.com/2018/10/15/the...es-per-second/

ATXboom · #**2635** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

As in tortoises won't lay eggs on a beach with LED lighting, as in skyscrapers with led lights disturb bird migratory patterns, as in animals won't copulate in zoos with led lighting. I actually said this material is not hard to find. I'm guessing you didn't look. We have feedback from nature itself that something is off. Coupled with the fact there is a slice of humans that REALLY don't like them ... my spidey senses are going off. Something is lurking we don't know yet.

You know these "way of the future" predictions typically don't fare so well..

Better off looking at actual sales numbers. and it's game over - LEDs are the standard now

ATXboom · #**2636** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

Many LED lights do flicker. Its the by-product of converting DC powered LEDs to AC, though this is being improved with newer and more expensive technology. LED light's flicker ratings can be found on LEDBenchmark.com if you want to find out which LED lights have the least amount of flicker. That being said, Humans normally cannot detect this because light from LEDs seem to be steady at 24 Hz or 24 flickers per second to the human eye, but some animals can see up to 80 Hz, 80 flickers per second, which is why the flickering effect may be disturbing to some animals thus driving them away from the source, validating lonewolf's post #2631. Don't ask me how they measured that. Imagine a constant rapid strobe effect, how irritating that can be. Clearly more research needs to be done and released to the public.

This can actually be observed when people film / video vehicles with LED headlights. As the frame rate and flicker rate overlap on their cycle you will see the light turn off for a split second on video.

JACKinBeantown · #**2637** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:04 PM**

Lonewolf, I don't know your line of work or study, but if possible, perhaps you could make an effort to make revisions to LED technology that alleviate the problems you mentioned.

lonewolf · #**2638** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATXboom

Better off looking at actual sales numbers. and it's game over - LEDs are the standard now

LOL. Were you a VCR or DVD salesman by any chance?

lonewolf · #**2639** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

Lonewolf, I don't know your line of work or study, but if possible, perhaps you could make an effort to make revisions to LED technology that alleviate the problems you mentioned.

honestly it does seem there is a breakthrough to be had here, doesn't it? I am a resource allocator, not a tech. If I was in the field though I would be pushing into R&D here for sure.

lonewolf · #**2640** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

Many LED lights do flicker. Its the by-product of cheaply converting DC powered LEDs to AC. LED light's flicker ratings can be found on LEDBenchmark.com if you want to find out which LED lights have the least amount of flicker. That being said, Humans normally cannot detect this because light from LEDs seem to be steady at 24 Hz or 24 flickers per second to the human eye, but some animals can see up to 80 Hz, 80 flickers per second, which is why the flickering effect may be disturbing to some animals thus driving them away from the source, validating lonewolf's post #2631. Don't ask me how they measured that. Imagine a constant rapid strobe effect, how irritating that can be. Clearly more research needs to be done and released to the public.

verrrrrrrry interesting. yeah some monitors and screens can go out of sync with newer cameras and it's disturbing to look at. also sometimes when you film a helicopter and the frame rate is just right it looks like they are levitating.

i was not being scientific when i used "flickering" i'm not sure what the right term is... LEDs area more... uniform light. If you catch my drift