5 Things to Know:  November 14

Lumetta Inc., the Warwick, Rhode Island, maker of decorative commercial luminaires, is now under court-appointed receivership.

We have been working this story since Thursday, when Lumetta contacted Inside Lighting to say its business and assets will be sold. The Providence attorney who has been our contact on the receivership, told us we were the first outlet to hear about it. He also made clear we would not be the last.

The court docket adds a notable detail. The case, filed Oct. 16 in Rhode Island Superior Court, is captioned Prichett v. Lumetta, Inc., and Ian Prichett is Lumetta’s president. A company’s own leader suing it may look like a boardroom feud, but in Rhode Island it is a familiar route: an owner or officer petitions the court, often with the company’s cooperation, and a receiver takes control to run an orderly sale outside federal bankruptcy. We have not yet seen the petition, so the full circumstances remain unconfirmed. A temporary receiver was appointed Oct. 22, and a hearing is set for Nov. 20.

Lumetta sells through commercial lighting agents in the United States and Canada, so rep agencies with the brand on their line cards now face real questions about open orders, active specifications and who will ultimately own it. The company, founded in 1992, makes decorative fixtures for workplace, hospitality, healthcare and education projects, with fabrication, powder coating and assembly done in-house at its Warwick plant.

For a U.S. manufacturer with decades of custom capability, the sale process will show what that kind of domestic production is worth to a buyer today.

We are working to obtain the court record and expect to speak with the attorneys involved soon. This is a developing story, and we will bring you the full account as more details become available.

Digital Lumens, the Boston upstart that sold LED conversions directly to industrial end users in the early days of the LED shift, has turned up in a Texas courtroom. On Oct. 26, Digital Lumens Holding Company, LLC sued Current Lighting Solutions and HLI Solutions (the former Hubbell Lighting) in federal court in the Western District of Texas. The suit alleges that Current’s Daintree, NX and LightGRID+ controls platforms infringe six patents covering occupancy sensing, dimming, power metering and rules-based control.

Readers may recall our April 2023 report that Digital Lumens’ software, trademarks and service contracts were quietly sold to Singapore-based Siteworx Software. The patents, it now appears, stayed in other hands.

The plaintiff’s counsel is Alston & Bird, a firm Signify has often turned to in its own patent fights. The 73-page complaint builds its case largely from Current’s own manuals and product literature. It seeks damages, ongoing royalties, possible triple damages for willful infringement, and an injunction.

A LightGRID+ architecture diagram from Current’s product literature, as reproduced in the Digital Lumens complaint.

Lighting rep Bell & McCoy is also named as a defendant because its Austin and San Antonio offices carry Current on their line cards. Naming a Texas agent or distributor is a familiar way to anchor a patent case in a favored Texas venue. Just ask agent Design Build Lighting or distributor Elliott Electric, both pulled into earlier lighting patent suits. Nothing in the complaint suggests Bell & McCoy designed any controls products.

None of the allegations have been tested in court. With a controls portfolio this broad under attack, though, Current has plenty of reason to fight.

The lights went out late in the fourth quarter of the Cincinnati Bengals’ 34-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 8 at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium, the NFL’s second game in Madrid.

With Cincinnati in control, Joe Burrow handed off to running back Samaje Perine just as the stadium went dark. Perine appeared to gain enough for a first down. Apart from a handful of emergency lighting fixtures, the venue was dark.

Power came back within seconds. Officials nullified the play and had it run again, and the Bengals picked up the first down and closed out the win.

The report did not identify a cause for the outage, which left players on the field confused and drew frustration from fans.

DarkSky International says the U.S. Supreme Court’s Nov. 9 decision allowing border wall construction to resume in Texas’ Big Bend region threatens one of North America’s darkest night skies. In an unsigned 8–1 ruling, the justices put U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone’s order on hold, allowing construction to resume while the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to review the case.

Big Bend National Park anchors the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve, a binational area straddling the U.S.-Mexico border that was certified in 2022.

DarkSky says it takes no position on border security policy. Its concern is large infrastructure projects that bring bright, unmitigated lighting into protected landscapes. The group wants environmental impact assessments with comprehensive lighting plans completed before construction proceeds in certified dark sky places.

That could be a hard sell. The government has pushed forward by issuing sweeping waivers to bypass regulations that are aimed at protecting the environment, and those waivers sit at the center of the litigation.

Earlier this year, DarkSky published images of high-powered floodlights lining other stretches of the border wall. Lighting professionals who design to dark sky standards will be watching whether any lighting plan for Big Bend emerges at all.

Sonepar’s marketing team has been busy. Several press releases from the distribution giant hit the wires this week, covering everything from a regional reorganization to Veterans Day hiring numbers.

We don’t copy and paste press releases and feed them to you as headline news, especially when they come from a marketing department. Most of this will go into Electric Avenue, our monthly digest that recaps happenings in the electrical distribution channel. A couple items, though, are newsworthy enough to cover now.

• Three regions become two. Sonepar is reorganizing its U.S. operations into two regions, Pacific-Midwest and Gulf-Atlantic. The company says the change will speed operational alignment and collaboration. Scott Jansen will lead Pacific-Midwest, which includes North Coast, OneSource, Codale, QED, Viking Electric, Standard Electric and Echo Electric. Mike Dumas will lead Gulf-Atlantic, covering Crawford, Summit, NorthEast, Cooper, Capital and World Electric. Both report to COO Dana Mouritzen. Irby stays separate under Joe Lenoir, who reports to Rob Taylor. Andy Waring, formerly president of the Central Region, moves to strategic initiatives, including M&A and integration support. For manufacturers and agents, fewer regions could mean fewer decision-makers to reach. It could also mean line-card conversations become more centralized.
• Crawford names a new president. Mark Ganucheau will become president of Crawford Electric on Jan. 1, 2027, succeeding Dumas as he moves into the Gulf-Atlantic role. It follows directly from the reorganization, and we would not be surprised to see more leadership changes at the banner level as the new structure settles in.
• A Veterans Day note. This one isn’t big news, but it’s worth a moment. Sonepar says it has hired more than 680 veterans over the past four years. Its Bright Lights Brighter Futures program is giving free LED lighting upgrades to 14 VFW posts by year-end. The company is also a finalist for Advocate of the Year in the 2026 US Forces in Business Awards. To the veterans working across the lighting and electrical industry: thank you for your service.