LED lighting has been on every 'big this year' forecast ever since the technology really broke through, becoming affordable for businesses and homes alike, in 2009.

But as Arlen Schweiger reports from the CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis, the rate of innovation in the field of LED lighting could see an avalanche of new products hit the market over the next 12 months, making energy-efficiency lighting solutions even more common in homes, gardens and even as car headlights.

"This year especially it feels like an avalanche of companies with these super-cool, super-efficient, super-long-lasting lighting products is hitting the custom market," says Arlen.

Chief among them are low voltage intelligent lighting systems, that not only install energy-saving LED light bulbs in the home, but fix them to an array that controls the amount of light in a room and gauges whether or not a home is occupied, turning lamps off when they are not in use.

It's thought that such systems - already emerging as part of commercial installs - could make a real breakthrough in homes over the next year.

And as firms work to provide longer-lasting bulbs with more lumens per watt, they are also working to put those bulbs on more ambitious fixtures: surface mounts, swivel bases and four-inch recesses are all on display at the expo.

As well as being useful in homes, such fixtures make specialised commercial projects - such as the award-winning outdoor theatre installation featured as part of the expo's award ceremony - more viable.

While the expo rages on in Indianapolis, Uwe Jessen, European sales manager at thermal material supplier Bergquist, was telling Electronics Weekly that developments in his firm's field could see LED lighting become a more common feature of car headlamps.

"We do see a trend for automotive headlamps to provide growth in the future," he said. "More and more, these make use of LED technology."