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Below are selected excerpts from the latest issue of Lighting Art & Science for International Designers.  If you would like to read these articles in full please contact melinda@rala.com.au to purchase the latest issue of Lighting Art & Science for International Designers.

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Single Copies (excluding Who's Who of Lighting)
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- Overseas: $21.50 (includes Postage + Handling)

                Who's Who of Lighting (single copy)
                Australia:  $25.00 (includes GST, Postage + Handling)
                Overseas: $37.50 (includes Postage + Handling)

 
 

 

Executive Insight

Alistair Robertson – Managing Director, WE-EF LIGHTNG Pty Ltd

While the exposure of lighting to energy scrutiny in a carbon-constrained world and advances in technology are ensuring the trend towards more efficient light sources, there is also significant demand for greater degrees of lighting control. And although Australia may be considered the ‘lucky country’ when it comes to the effects of the global financial crisis, lighting companies don’t have a crystal ball when it comes to choosing the right path for ongoing success. These are some of the insights that came out of Lighting Magazine’s recent conversation with exterior lighting specialist, WE-EF Lighting’s, Alistair Robertson.

LM: How are your products and R&D of new technologies reflecting current and future demands and trends?
AMR: I wish I knew, we have always been committed to HID and in recent years, like many others, we have accepted the need to go with LED; we have worked harder and faster than ever before and today feel that our LED portfolio is coherent and dependable; have we made the right decisions? Are we on the right track? Only time will tell.

LM: What's the next big thing to impact on the lighting sector?
AMR: When you know the answer to this question can I ask that you make sure that you call me first? We are exterior lighting specialists and we are going through a period of unprecedented change; putting LED technology to one side, the major challenge for us is the sudden demand for control, that is the ability to switch, dim and colour change all manner of exterior lighting products.

LM: What do you consider gives your company and/or products the competitive edge over rival players?
AMR: I will ‘dodge’ this question to the extent that I do not want to broadcast why it is that we are perhaps better positioned in the market than some; we have touched earlier on the technology revolution that is having profound effect on us all; the other revolution that's taking place is in respect to how buildings are being constructed and who today are the decision makers. Simply put the rules have changed and we have to do things differently. Construction is a commoditised industry and there are tremendous pressure therein; does that mean the end of quality high end lighting? Not at all, it means that you have to justify yourself and add value in a way we have not had to hitherto.

Simon Gerard – Managing Director, Gerard Lighting Group

With a history of more than 90 years in the lighting market Gerard Lighting Group’s strength is in its customer relationships and network of family companies which includes several well-known brands, a byproduct of being a family-owned company according to Simon Gerard. He recently spoke with Lighting Magazine about effective delivery of lighting solutions to the local market but increasingly through global networks.

LM: How are your products and R&D of new technologies reflecting current and future demands and trends?
SG: In a carbon-constrained world, in which energy costs will continue to rise, successful lighting companies will be those that deliver innovative lighting solutions and new products based on robust R&D. Gerard Lighting Group (GLG) has a centralised company-owned R&D facility in Adelaide and a commercialisation centre in Shenzhen (China) which operate at the leading edge of trends in energy-efficient lighting technology, especially ‘Intelligent Lighting Products’ (iLP). We have also established a number of commercial partnerships with some of the world’s major technology providers, in line with our strategy of targeting aggressively product releases that commercialise new energy-saving technologies. GLG expects around 20 per cent of total group revenue to be generated by iLP by FY2016 (iLP currently accounts for 10 per cent of group sales).

LM: What's the next big thing to impact on the lighting sector?
SG: It’s ultimately all about giving customers greater control over lighting functionality. Lighting applications in the future will deliver increasingly effective illumination but use less and less energy. In decades past, lights were, essentially, either ‘on’ or ‘off’, with the addition, if you were lucky, of a dimmer switch. The trend now is for lighting systems to be much more responsive to individual needs. Advances such as motion sensors and the development of lighting systems that take account of the physiological impact of lights on, for example, office workers, have transformed the commercial lighting environment in recent years..

To read this article in full please contact melinda@rala.com.au to purchase the latest issue of Lighting Art & Science for International Designers

Lighting Photography

Over the many years that I have edited this journal the poor composition and quality of many of the photographs submitted for publication has surprised me. It is a though people do not care. The problem is most obvious in the material received for the various lighting awards. In the days before digital photography, very small matte prints were often submitted. Sometimes, now, low resolution images arrive with date stamps. However, the major problem has always been in image quality, often prompting the question “How did this possibly win an award?”

Lighting is difficult to photograph, since most film and digital cameras do not have the dynamic range of the visual system, resulting in the risk of under exposed or over exposed areas in am image. There are techniques that can be used which will allow most interiors and exteriors to be photographed without using additional lighting; obviously, additional lighting creates a false impression of the scene. Image composition is a matter of creativity along with the use of appropriate lenses.

I had been thinking about adding a unit on lighting photography to the Master of Design Science Illumination programme for sometime when the 2003 intake of students urged me to add more lighting units to the programme. So, 2004 saw the introduction of Lighting Photography, Lighting Design Software, Daylight in Buildings, Theatre and Performance Lighting, Lighting Design Masterclass and Lighting Design Internship as options supporting the core units of study.

The basic premise of Lighting Photography was to teach and develop practical skills, not only the basics of photography and composition, for which there are hundreds of courses but to explore the techniques to photograph interiors and exteriors using only available light. The other requirement was that the unit should be practical and that it be taught by an outstanding architectural photographer. I knew the person I wanted — Brett Boardman, one of Australia’s best whom I had taught during his architecture studies. He found the idea exciting and the 17 students enrolled in 2004. The unit runs every second year with around 20 students..

To read this article in full please contact melinda@rala.com.au to purchase the latest issue of Lighting Art & Science for International Designers

Colour Quality and LEDs

If you’ve flipped through a lighting catalogue, strolled through a trade show, attended a professional conference, or otherwise been paying any attention to the lighting industry over the past few years, you know that solid-state lighting (SSL) is here. It seems like there are countless issues a lighting designer now needs to consider when evaluating a lighting product: thermal management, power factor, controllability, spatial distribution of light, lumen depreciation, luminaire mass (!), and so many others. While everyone agrees that colour quality is an important characteristic in a light source, there is still confusion regarding what constitutes good colour quality and how we can communicate about colour properties with each other.

A discussion of colour quality can be broadly divided into issues relating to light source chromaticity and issues relating to colour rendering. While chromaticity certainly does affect colour rendering, we measure the attributes separately and tend to consider them independently when specifying.

To read this article in full please contact melinda@rala.com.au to purchase the latest issue of Lighting Art & Science for International Designers