By Alan M. Petrillo

LED lighting has taken the fire service by storm, virtually replacing every other form of lighting on fire apparatus. LED technology continues to offer features such as programmable flashing, colors, patterns and intensities; combination spot and flood light abilities; and several other technological advances that can be deployed depending on situational needs.

Jon Sestrom, product manager for Whelen Engineering Co., says the company’s CenCom Core® control systems enhance first responder safety by offering advanced automation, remote connectivity, and true system synchronization through WeCanX., a CAN-based communication system. “The Core system allows us to control what the products that have LEDs can do,” Sestrom points out, “by creating scenarios for the LEDs to communicate to the public.”

He notes that the Core system features Situation-Based Integration and Events. With Situation-Based Integration, scene-specific functions can be created and automated by using various vehicle components and signals, like automatically turning off a siren when a vehicle arrives on scene. With Events, multiple user-defined rules can be created for specific situations depending on the state of your vehicle, like automatically switching to Dynamic Variable Intensity™ (DVI) light patterns when the vehicle is in Park.

Sestrom says that a calm scene is a safe scene. Using Whelen’s V2V Sync, the Core system will automatically synchronize lights and tones on vehicles within any proximity to aid approaching motorists, and when on scene it will synchronize emergency lighting on all the vehicles that have responded.

“Illumination is another big issue with LEDs,” Sestrom says. “Our photometric design team has designed optics and reflectors that take the light output from LEDs, collect it, reorganize it, and direct it, focusing the light where it’s needed whether it be near field, far field, or a combination of the two.” He adds that the Core system can ramp up how LED lights turn on, turningthem up slowly so there’s no shock to the eyes. That technology is used in Whelen’s M series and 100 series scene lights, says Sestrom.

Jason Witmier, director of education and technology for Safe Fleet, says its FRC division introduced a new generation of its Focus line. The Radiant Max and Radiant Lux bend light through the fixture’s lens toward the ground directly in front of an apparatus and then gradually drop down to as far as 100 feet away. “It’s not about putting out the brightest light; it’s about getting the light into the area that’s most effective,” Witmier says. “It’s all about what you want to achieve with the number of lumens you’re using. You have to think of the application of the light, whether it’s to light up the ground around the rig or the distance down a street.”

Lou Zara, FRC product manager, says that FRC’s Signature series includes the Radiant Lux, a CAN-Bus-controlled LED that can be controlled by FRC’s OmniPlex multiplex system. Using OmniPlex, the operator can turn on spotlights individually, floodlights individually, or both simultaneously; control their intensity by dimming or making them brighter; and flash the lights in different patterns, Zara says. “We have amber integrated into our LEDs that gives us a warm function—acombination of white and amber LEDs that can be changed from low to medium to high intensity,” he adds.