About Us 
Beadlight Technologies
Beadlight Technologies provide the finest LED diffusion system creating diffused light of the highest quality and enabling split array video effects
Bead*light® Technologies * are the science of light effects (particularly LED light) as passed through optically pure micro lenses. The technology was initially developed to improve the quality of light derived from white LED’s in the task lighting environment but it is the impact of the micro-lenses on RGB (red/green/blue) LED light that provides true “look-at colour blending”.
LED lighting is the future with its advantages of significant power savings, heat savings, long life and, for all intents and purposes, maintenance free, light delivery. Disadvantages include the generally intense and uncomfortable central field of light and as the power of LED’s increases, the potential eye safety risk. Bead*light® Technologies were developed to overcome these issues.
In the premium aircraft cabin environment, passengers expect top quality from their flying experience. Airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and KLM recognized that LED lighting was highly desirable for all the advantages highlighted above but did not wish to offer anything other than a comfortable diffuse light particularly for those passengers reading. Beadlight had already been working on Bead*light® technology in the musical performance market and so the technology was born.
Putting micro-lenses in front of a light source seems like a pretty simple thing to do, but is it? Man-years of Research and Development has shown that a really simple idea is not quite as simple as you think, if you are really committed to the pursuit of excellence.
Many factors make up the concept of Bead*light® Technologies. These can be expressed in three attribute areas: the micro lens, the aggregation and the medium
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The micro-lens
Starting with the micro-lenses, themselves, what is their composition? What are the impurity levels? The issue here is that they must be optically pure. Different lens composition provides different refractive indices but which index is right for the product in question? Impurity attenuates the light (loses intensity) that will probably interfere with the lighting effect sought and it is also likely to affect the colour output. So micro-lens composition quality is important. Early research rejected two-thirds of the volume of micro-lenses for quality reasons. Clearly, quality control of “supplied lenses” is very important if the required effect is to be repeated consistently.
Is the shape of the micro-lens important? We think it is. Micro-lenses are manufactured in different shapes. Spherical seems obvious though lenticular, grooved and faceted are also worthy of consideration with the individual effects they provide. One of the key considerations is the size of the micro-lens. From particle to “ball”, each size provides its unique diffraction characteristics. In essence the smaller the micro-lens the more diffuse the effect though the larger it is the more scintillating are the characteristics of the light.
The aggregation
The next consideration is the mixture of micro-lenses. Quite extraordinary effects can be obtained by mixing different grades and by varying the depth. The deeper the layer the less intense the light output but greater the diffusion. Other effects are obtained by mixing different grades (see variables above).
The medium
So far early Bead*light® research shows that a gas is the best medium for micro-lenses to reside within. Early work has focussed on air and other gases with air the medium of choice. Liquids and solids provide too little transfer of light intensity and lose the "clean" effect of a gas. Micro-lens compression is an important factor in the product design process and compression and compression containment play an important part in all products incorporating Bead*light® Technologies.
* Beadlight Technologies subject to UK Patent GB 2 392 488, corresponding foreign patents and other patents pending