CRI, CCT, IP, lumens, bin, cutting pitch, virtual junction, dimming frequency — the vocabulary that decides whether two quotes are comparable.
Colour Rendering Index. Ra is the average of the first eight test colours; R9 is deep red. Ra90 minimum for retail, Ra95+ for jewellery and art. For skin and red products, also ask about R9.
Correlated Colour Temperature, in Kelvin. Lower = warmer/yellower (2700K), higher = cooler/bluer (5000-6500K). Same CCT from different bins still reads different on site.
Ingress Protection. First digit = solid particles, second = liquid. IP20 dry room, IP65 splash, IP67 temporary immersion, IP68 continuous immersion per the manufacturer's depth/time rating.
Lumens, total light output. lm/m is the number that matters for a strip comparison — W/m alone says nothing about efficiency.
How many packages sit in 1 m. SMD 60-120 per metre is a general wash; 320-480 COB is a dot-free line for close viewing.
Chip-on-Board puts the die directly on the PCB with a phosphor dome instead of individual packages, so no dot is visible from the intended viewing distance.
The distance between legal cut points. DC24V strips cut every 25 mm (or 8 LEDs); DC12V every 25 mm (or 6 LEDs). Cutting away from the mark breaks a supply trace.
A mid-reel power injection point. Requires cutting at the mark and adding a two-pin jumper plus a power feed — not relying on the connector to carry power.
Loss along the conductor. Causes the far end to dim and shift colour. Controlled by feed distance, cable cross-section and 24V instead of 12V.
The sorting of LEDs by brightness and colour. Matching brightness and colour across a project means matching bins, which means one production batch.
How tightly bins are grouped. Lower (1-3 step) means less visible colour difference between reels — relevant from about 10 m of line upwards.
8 mm or 10 mm standard; 5 mm for tight reveals and cabinets. It decides whether the strip physically fits the channel you have.
The backing on the strip. It holds, but it is not a thermal path and it fails on dusty or uneven surfaces — clip it mechanically for anything permanent.
Extruded profile the strip mounts into. Carries heat away, hides the board, and lets you add an opal diffuser. Standard practice above 10 W/m.
Pulse-width modulation dimming. Below roughly 1 kHz the modulation is visible as flicker on camera and to some eyes — ask for the dimming frequency spec.
DMX512 is the theatrical standard with one address per controller channel; SPI (WS2812/SK6812) addresses each pixel. Addressable strips need a data line in addition to power.
Almost all strips are CV (12/24V). Drivers are CV. Mixing a CC driver with a CV strip is a failure, not an adaptation.
Warranty is usually 2-3 years. L70 (time to 70% of initial luminance) is the lifetime metric used with TM-21 projections — ask for both.
Continuous dot-free light line with chip-on-board technology. Uniform output with no visible LED spots, even on glossy or reflective surfaces.
10W/m (8W/m / 12W/m / 15W/m optional) · DC24V (DC12V optional) · IP20 / IP65 / IP67
High-efficiency SMD2835 strip — the most widely used solution for linear general lighting in commercial and residential projects. Available in 60 / 120 / 180 LEDs/m versions.
9W/m (120 LEDs/m); 5W/m (60 LEDs/m); 18W/m (180 LEDs/m) · DC12V · IP20 / IP44 / IP65 (IP68 with silicone sleeve on request)
Send the quantity and the market. We quote against this spec, with the tolerances written in.