The 2Tone is the lantern of choice for the Redcar and Cleveland PFI... carried out by David Webster Lighting in Middlesbrough. Green lanterns are installed, and they look quite odd on 8-10m columns as you can hardly see them! The only point to note though is the 2Tone has two seperate bodyshells for whether post-top or side-entry mounting is used.


I think Thorn lighting may be steadily back on the up again - as the Jet is seeing a fair amount of installs now... whilst in other places the Celest is also getting a good name.

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Ah I'd forgotten this; I kept thinking they only use Iridiums.

Here are the functional product ranges of the two companies:

Philips:

AluRoad SRP221/222
FGS103/104/105
Iridium SGS252/253/254/452/453/454
Iridium2 SGP352/353
Iridium2 LED BGP352/3
Mini Iridium SGS451
Mini Iridium LED BGS451
Koffer2 SGP070/100
Koffer2 LED BGP070/100
Mini Koffer2 LED BGP060
Malaga SGS101k/102k
Modena SGP681/682
Mini Modena SGP680
Mini Modena LED BGP680
Residium FGS223/224/225
Residium LED BGS224
Selenium SGP340
SGS201
SGS203/403
SpeedStar BGP322/323
SRS201
TrafficVision SGS305/306


Indal WRTL:

2600/2601
2-Tone
Airtrace
Airtrace 2
Arc 80/90
Delta
Libra
Luma
MRL6
SRL8F
Stela Square/Wide/Long/Round
Vectra 1/2/3


Lots of product duplication going on there, and I'm only talking about the Philips product range! Philips are the GEC of the modern day, launching all sorts of different niche products and keeping old product lines going probably for the sake of one or two councils in Europe. We cannot comprehend this in Britain, but in Europe councils try a bit harder to source identical lanterns when it comes to casual replacements. The factory production line must be a feat of technology, considering just how many variants of just how many versions of just how many lantern designs they have, and that's before you choose what colour you want your lantern to be!

One of Philips' biggest problems is that it has been on a new product launch binge for the past few years, launching lots of new versions of lanterns or new styles of lanterns to ever more duplicate their product lines. For example, if you want to light a residential street in LED, try the Koffer2 LED, or the Mini Koffer2 LED, or the Mini Iridium LED, or the Mini Modena LED, or the Residium LED, or the SpeedStar, or the Iridium2 LED. Indal WRTL on the other hand offers the Stela, although you can choose between four different shapes.

I think the market speaks for itself, look which company has been more successful with LED. And I think the takeover of Indal is perhaps a case of "if you can't beat the competition, buy the competition". I have seen other companies in other industries do this, but this alone doesn't make them better companies and can also lead to complacency. I think Philips need to have a big shake up once they inherit Indal, and personally I would like to see the existing management at Indal take more responsibility for the outdoor lighting sector and the existing management at Philips take a back foot. Let Philips concentrate on other lighting sectors, lamps and gear, and let "Indal" concentrate on outdoor lighting.

I must say that I definitely agree with you especially on the LED front. Philips have just "shoe horned" LED arrays into existing designs. This doesn't play to the features and advantages both technically and aesthetically that you can get with LED's. Thin profiles and new forms are what Indal WRTL delivers, and I guess someone else would be able to comment technically as I've not seen them in use?

Its surprising how many lighting manufacturers don't take advantage of LED's being one of the biggest shake ups in lighting in years, and use the opportunity to design something new. This includes the commercial indoor lighting sector.

I have only seen the Stela in use and not any of the Philips LED lanterns (whilst I've seen Speedstars installed, it wasn't late enough for them to switch on), but the Stela is suprisingly effective considering it is essentially a roof slate on a pole with LED's in it! I would agree about Philips shoehorning in LED systems into existing designs though, which doesn't really give out the true potential of the light source - it is only the Speedstar series that has shifted away from this trend and gone into dedicated designs. The iridium series has far too much duplication: standard iridium, aluminium Iridium, Iridium 2, Iridium 2 LED, mini Iridium, mini Iridium LED... and then we have the 'fancy iridium' line like the Modena's and the Selenium's - on first glance these look like Iridiums, so I really don't see the point. The mini iridiums using conventional light sources are very glarry and not particularly pleasant to stand near to at night, whilst the family as a a whole  has become far too common and so is now boring.
GRP as a material is now seen as old fashioned in favour of a return to aluminium (due to recycling issues, longevity, and new processes available) and a lot of GRP lanterns age very quickly compared to their aluminium counterparts. Sadly, Philips has a lot of GRP lanterns compared to Indal which has more Aluminium ones (the Alu/GRP split is about 60:40, with older designs like the MRL6, SRL8, Vectra, and 2600/1 being the examples, but is still in favour of aluminium)

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I think when it comes to design flair, Indal definitely have the edge. Philips should definitely use Indal's lantern designer in future, rather than their own. If you look at the Iridium it's a dull, bland design and as Mazeteam says, the Modena and Selenium are basically variations of it. Too much emphasis is placed on the Iridium range as if it was the best lantern ever invented, which it clearly isn't. The Speedstar is a step in the right direction but on the whole Indal make more attractive and (in my opinion and from what I've seen) better quality lanterns.

It's definitely time Philips canned the aged SGS203, which was never a good lantern in my opinion. It's light output is poor and they age really badly, with grubby GRP canopies and bowls which turn brown in no time. If you look at the MRL6 (which is an older design) then as a 'budget' (ie dated) lantern it's a much better bet, as it's much more durable, aesthetically-pleasing and has a better light output. Sure, it throws light out all over the shop but it does give a road a much better level of light than the SGS203. The Vectra is more durable and has better optics than the Trafficvision, the Arc is more durable and better-looking than the Iridium. As for the Stela, Libra, Airtrace and 2-Tone, these show a lot more design flair than any of Philips' offerings (apart from the Speedstar).

In short, I would suggest that Philips seriously trim their range if they want to remain competitive and I would start by slimming down the Iridium range and dropping the AluRoad (has anybody ever seen any of these installed anywhere?), Selenium, Modena, SGS203, Trafficvision and Residium (replace this with the more modern Libra range) and concentrate more on what's been brought over from Indal.

The AluRoad looks like a top entry Iridium to me. The SGS203 does need to be scrapped as its just limping on now, Brighouse railway station has them, maybe its time to replace them with the 'LED Rooftile' aka Stela as it helps the lantern and more importantly, the manufacturer look modern. Older designs need to be withdrawn or otherwise the whole range becomes too generic.

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From streetlighting to radio, dance through the night whilst the streetlights are glowing outside.

Philips:

Iridium SGS252/253/254/452/453/454
Iridium2 SGP352/353
Iridium2 LED BGP352/3
Mini Iridium SGS451
Mini Iridium LED BGS451
Residium FGS223/224/225
Residium LED BGS224
SpeedStar BGP322/323
SRS201
SGS201
TrafficVision SGS305/306

This is what the range would look like removing the flop lantern designs (AluRoad, Koffer) outdated lanterns (FGS range, SGS203) and the Iridium duplicates (Modena, Selenium and Streetfighter to some extent...) I thought it would be good to leave in a budget SON lantern (SGS201) as these are still surprisingly being installed in places. There are so many Iridiums in the range but the range was so popular anyway it would have been a missed opportunity not to expand. Smell what sells and all that! But Philips have had so many flop designs it's silly. I'm surprised the AluRoad was not as popular as the Thorn Jet considering more councils tend to use Philips rather than Thorn these days, but there you go - More councils seem to be going back to Thorn and have recently started installing Jets/Oracles/Civics. I would like to see more Celests used - they are a superior version of the Residium in my opinion.

I shall comment on WRTL's lanterns when I'm less tired.  

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"I used to rule the world... Now I sweep the streets I used to own."
Remembering GEC.

The use of Thorn Jets may be to do with price. York's Thorn Jets were bought at less that £60 per lantern. The Opalo's were spot on £60, so were more expensive than the Jets... and I don't reckon the Philips version would be cheaper....

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I expect Philips buying Indal will make Philips look at rationalising factory and office locations. Philips UK is based in Guildford Surrey whilst Indal WRTL is based in Tipton West Midlands. It would not surprise me if they closed down the WRTL base in the next couple of years, killing production of the last British-made WRTL products in favour of retaining Dutch made products. Similarly, I can imagine Philips killing off Spanish made lanterns and the Spanish Indal factory. What they would essentially then have is two manufacturing bases for Europe, both in the Netherlands, with existing Philips offices continuing to act as distributors. And maybe over time two Dutch bases would become one. Either way, I think the MRL6, SRL8F and PTL-Series are soon to be knocked on the head.