Cree markets the idea that its LEDs have reinvented the light bulb. Now, the Durham-based tech firm says it is setting new standards for office lighting with “WaveMax” LEDS and fixtures.

Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) unveiled WaveMax on Tuesday, and Wired immediately greeted the news with a story headlined:

“Cree Wants to Make Your Office Lighting Less Ugly”

Cree recently lit up the Super Bowl with powerful LEDs, and its LEDs provide the illumination for the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It recently unveiled “connected” LED bulbs for the home.

Now comes office lighting.

“Using precisely shaped optical elements to capture, transport and extract light, the platform provides new levels of visual comfort and color quality while redefining the limits of fixture design,” Cree declared.

“Ultimately – this allows for new form factors, at an affordable price – and high CRI lighting and warmer color temperatures to be achieved without trading cost or efficacy for the most efficient designs yet.”

The lighting promises “unmatched visual comfort.”

Explains Compound Semiconductor:

“Featuring Cree DiamondFacet optical elements to achieve up to 90 percent optical efficiency and precise optical control, Cree WaveMax Technology is claimed to be able to deliver unmatched visual comfort, uniform illumination and improved colour quality while enabling a wide range of design capabilities and energy-saving potential.”

The lighting also will reduce energy costs up to 80 percent and provide payback in less than two years, according to Cree.

Wired noted that Cree also offers an alternative to “unsightly fluorescents.”

They add much more.

Notes Wired:

“Cree’s new LN series suspended LED tubes are similar to the fluorescent counterparts you’re accustomed to, at least until you turn them on. That’s when they trade the familiar jaundiced glow for the softer, more palatable hues that have made LEDs a legitimate alternative to incandescents bulbs, to say nothing of more garish corporate fluorescents.”

There’s also no buzz, Wired adds.

“Cree is surpassing assumed boundaries of LED technology, driving breakthroughs that fundamentally transform the way light is experienced,” said Norbert Hiller, Cree executive vice president for lighting. “With WaveMax™ Technology, we are delivering our most intelligent light yet, enabling the future of highly-efficient, modern building designs to become today’s reality, while accelerating adoption of better  LED lighting at greater value.”

But Wired notes Cree rivals Phillips and GE offer their own office alternatives. Cree’s counter: Its lights offer more efficiency.

Read more from Wired at: http://www.wired.com/2015/04/cree-led-lights/