darc awards welcome eight partners in time for launch
(UK) - High end lighting brands Concord, Innermost, KKDC, L&L Luce&Light, LSE Lighting, Lucent, Megaman and Reggiani commit to innovative international lighting design awards.
High end brands from architectural and decorative lighting have commited to becoming partners to the darc awards in time for the darc nightlaunch party where over 100 lighting designers will be in attendance. The party will take place at the incredible arts space Dilston Grove in Southwark, London on February 5th 2015 featuring a special lighting scheme by Light Collective and will also feature an animation by Kerem Asfuroglu of Speirs + Major with his Dark Source series. The darc awardsprocess will culminate in darc night in London in September 2015.
Each partner will be given the opportunity to collaborate with lighting designers to create a stunning installation in the awards venue via a series of lighting schemes as part of darc night, an atmospheric party in a unique venue in London with light art and street food. This breaks all the awards rules and will be unlike any other awards ceremony to date.
Paul James, awards director and publishing editor of mondo*arc and darc, commented: “I am absolutely delighted that such great lighting brands can see our vision for something new and original for lighting design awards. They could easily have said, 'Not another awards event!' but they saw the potential immediately and have very quickly come on board. To have eight partners already, before the launch, is incredible and testament to what we feel will be a superb initiative.”
Leading international lighting design publications mondo*arc and darchave teamed up with creative consultants Light Collective to create thedarc awards, a unique international architectural and decorative lighting design awards concept.
“With our database of 1,300 international lighting design practices, as well as interior designers and architects, there is a unique opportunity for every practice to get involved in the awards process,” commented James. “We intend to make the darc awards the most accessible and global awards programme ever - after the shortlists have been chosen by an expert panel of international lighting designers, each of the lighting design practices and their designers will be invited to vote on their favourite projects via our specially developed website. Using the model developed by the Oscars where all members vote on their peers' work, the darc awards will give every designer a vote, making this the only truly peer-to-peer lighting design awards in the world.”
All the projects and the companies who have submitted to the awards will be present on the website so that, over time, the darc awards website becomes a comprehensive online lighting design resource that can be used by designers and clients alike for inspiration and promotion.
There will also be product categories (two architectural and one decorative) that will follow the same philosophy resulting in a comprehensive online database of products. The products will be voted on by the very same lighting designers who are looking to use them in projects.
Martin Lupton and Sharon Stammers of Light Collective commented, “Having been involved in many lighting awards programs over many years, this is a great opportunity to build on all of those experiences and try to create a different version of celebrating the best of lighting design where the judging is in the hands of everybody. Helping to shape darc night in collaboration with mondo*arc has given us a chance to create an awards ceremony that is by the people, for the people - it’s the Oscars of lighting design!”
The darc awards has been welcomed by the lighting design profession. Nick Hoggett, Partner at dpa lighting consultants, said, “I feel the darc night concept is excellent because the projects will be assessed by a wide group of international independent lighting designers and established light artists. This will reflect a truly global opinion of well informed and experienced practitioners engaging many people in the judging process rather than the normal select few. I know the team behind this will deliver something completely different and special which will be refreshing amongst the plethora of awards programmes that feel so similar.”
mondo*arc and darc magazines are members of Lighting-Related Organizations (L-RO), a global professional community of people who work with light and lighting in the built environment, and is part of the United Nations - International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015 (IYL2015).
The darc awards and darc night will be part of the IYL2015 related activities program and will be promoted by the L-RO to raise awareness for the lighting design profession and showcase the importance and beauty of light.
mondo*arc india to launch in March
(India) - New quality publication for designers and specifiers in India - joint venture between creative lighting company STIR and publishers of mondo*arc and darc.
mondo*arc and STIR, a creative lighting company based in Mumbai and New Delhi, are collaborating to launch mondo*arc india, a new magazine for designers with light in India.
mondo*arc comes to India at a time when the Indian economy is flourishing; and the Indian design and lighting community is brimming with innovations and ideas. Looking ahead into the International Year of Light 2015 and celebrating the first edition of mondo*arc outside the UK, we bring to you mondo*arc india.
Paul James, Publishing Editor of mondo*arc, stated: “We are delighted to partner STIR in this exciting venture. mondo*arc india will serve the growing community of architects and designers in India with inspirational and informative articles about designing with light. With the team in India's expertise and passion, I know that mondo*arc india will be a huge success and I am looking forward to coming to India for the launch in March.”
mondo*arc india is the first magazine in the country dedicated to designers with light. A combination of mondo*arc and darc magazines, it promises to deliver an international publication with greater Indian context - pertaining to industry professionals, brands prevalent in the Indian market, research and development initiatives as well as the local lighting design fraternity.
Mrinalini Ghadiok, Editor of mondo*arc india, commented: “We recognise that there is an imperative need to outline the importance of light and lighting. Even though light is considered a fundamental building block of an architectural space, lighting is treated as an isolated and subservient element to all other design factors. While the architecture and construction industries streamline their focus on material based aspects of design, it is essential to broaden their horizons to include lighting as a tool to articulate design.
“The most influential group, the specifiers, sees lighting as more functional than experiential. The challenge lies in elevating light and lighting from a mere peripheral role to a core consideration in the design process by the specifiers themselves.”
mondo*arc india intends to create a platform to educate and spread a keen awareness among specifiers, designers and architects, providing an arena suitable for discourse as well as inspiring them by demonstrating excellence. It aims to enrich, recognise and reward lighting designers; and become the most prominent growth catalyst for the Indian lighting industry.
mondo*arc india hopes to penetrate this idea deeper into the mindset of the subcontinent. Widening the audience base to include design discerning and high net worth individuals, the magazine will kindle a profound desire for deliberated design with light in the country. This would further encourage a greater growth in the lighting industry and therein create a superior market for its products.
Ghadiok continued: “Light is the invisible-visible that renders soul into a lifeless moment. Lighting is the discipline that sanctions this transformation. mondo*arc india aspires to become the platform by which we seek, inspire and reach out to an international rostrum of brilliance. Disseminating novel ideas, propagating pioneering philosophies, showcasing creative proficiencies; this publication will truly put the Indian design community and lighting industry ecosystem on the global map.”
mondo*arc india is a joint initiative between mondo*arc magazine ltd and STIR - See. Think. Inspire. Reflect. STIR has been conceived and founded in India as an international platform for light - for creativity in light, information on light, revelation through light and education about light. We facilitate promoting, creating and disseminating ideas related to light through a range of activities across the country.
To subscribe to mondo*arc india write to mondoarc@stir.lighting
To enquire about advertising on the launch issue write tomanisha@stir.lighting
International Lighting Design Survey reveals growing profession
(International) - ILDS reveals almost 1,300 lighting design practices now operating throughout the world.
Now in its sixth year, the survey has expanded for the first time from the previous sample of 50 randomly selected lighting design practices to a questionnaire being sent to every lighting design practice (or lighting design division within an engineering firm) in the world. We have calculated that there are now approximately 1300 independent architectural lighting design practices / divisions operating throughout the world (up by another 100 since the survey last year!). These include overseas offices of lighting design firms but not multiple offices in the same country, as listed in the directory of this issue. For example, dpa are counted as three practices (UK, UAE and Japan) even though they have four offices (two in the UK - London and Oxfordshire).
Out of those contacted, 233 responded by filling in the survey that asked specific questions about employee numbers and gender, revenue and project numbers. For those that responded, a big ‘THANK YOU!’ is in order. A sample of 18% of a profession is good going in anyone’s books. If you didn’t respond then please do next time. It takes very little time and is a big help in acting as a barometer to your profession.
Out of the 1287 practices contacted, we calculate that 402 operate in the USA with 178 practices now trading in the UK. Germany and France are the next highest with 78 practices each. Next is Australia with 42, Japan with 35, closely followed by China with 31, Canada with 30, India with 29 and Italy with 28. Switzerland has 26 practices, the Netherlands has 24, the UAE has 22, Singapore and Hong Kong has 21 each, Sweden and Brazil has 19 each, Mexico comes next with 17, Spain has 14, the Nordic countries of Norway (12), Denmark and Finland (10 each) bring up the rear before we get into single figures.
Of course, the UK easily has the highest amount of lighting designers per capita with London accounting for over half (92) of the practices in Britain. Even New York City comes a distant second with 57 practices. Next is Tokyo with 26 practices. Most of the other countries have a much more even split of cities with, for example, Berlin having 15 and Paris 14 practices.
Most of the practices surveyed are small in scale with by far the most popular amount of employees being between 1-5 (39%). Next was 6-10 with 19% and sole traders make up 10% of the total. Interestingly, those with over 50 employees come in fifth on the list with 6% of all practices. There is probably an anomaly here though with the larger practices having dedicated personnel who tended to the survey.
Of those employees I am delighted to report that by far the most popular gender split is 50:50 with 23% of practices employing the same amount of females as they do males. Well done you!
It wasn’t all good news on the female front however as, unfortunately, the third most popular result is all male employees with 13% of the survey. 60:40 male/female is the second highest result with 15%.
Concerning the important issue of hard cash, it seems that most practices are making a modest turnover with over half (56%) of those surveyed stating that their annual revenue is less than $400,000. 23% of those surveyed stated that their annual revenue is less than $100,000. However, those that stated that their annual turnover was more than $1 million is 22% with almost $8 achieving over $5m annual revenue. This included practices across the board in the regions of USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. Again, this figure could be skewed as most of the very large practices took part in the survey.
In terms of projects secured in 2014, again modesty was the theme with a third of all practices surveyed stating that they won the contracts of between 1-10 jobs. A quarter of those who completed the questionnaire said that they secured work on between 11-20 projects while 17% secured over 50 projects with over half of these coming from the USA.
This was borne out in the fact that most of the projects secured were national rather than overseas with 27% of practices stating that their work was entirely domestic. Almost half of those came from the States.
1-10 completed projects in 2014 came in at a whopping 53% of all practices surveyed with 10% completing more than 50 projects. Of all the projects in 2014, 37% of companies only completed projects on a national level with almost half of those coming from the States and a quarter coming from Asia. Almost 10% completed a 50:50 split of overseas and domestic projects with 5% completing entirely overseas projects.
The digital edition of the ILDS 2015 is available here...www.issuu.com/mondiale/docs/ilds15_digital_issuu
All subscribers to mondo*arc receive the ILDS free of charge. If you would like a printed edition and are not subscribed to mondo*arc you can subscribe here... www.arc-magazine.com/about/2337464/subscriptions.html
New executives for Crestron Asia
(Hong Kong) - Crestron Asia appoints new executive focusing on strategic growth initiatives.
The new team consists of Tony Yeung, Director of Crestron Asia, Harry Lam as Chief Operating Officer and Stuart Craig standing as Crestron Electronics US Chief Executive Officer.
Yeung leads the executive team with his background knowledge of the company, while Lam will oversee the company’s finance, administration and logistics. Lam is responsible for the alignment and prioritisation of company investments, while Craig will direct sales, marketing and support functions across the Asia Pacific region.
Circle of Light festival turns to SGM
(Russia) - SGM wash lights demonstrate applicability as waterproof luminaires at Circle of Light Festival.
Lighting designer Yury Krasilnikov orchestrated The Circle of Light festival held at Ostankino Tower, comprising water, laser and pyrotechnic shows as well as artists and water performances, culminating in a fireworks display.
For the water features of the festival, fountain specialist Aqua-Show installed two lines of fountains and created a 3D world of water for laser projection. Using RGBW P-5 wash lights from SGM, they illuminated the fountains were illuminated with water reaching heights of 30-metres.
Water show lighting designer and design engineer of the fountain system, Korzakov Anton, explained: “This is our first experience in using LED light for creating a wash effect on the water. All our previous attempts have been unsuccessful and for many years we have only used conventional lights.”
One fountain complex measured 18-metres long, equipped with 16 P-5s installed on the stage. Another was 52-metres, equipped with 26 P-5s installed on the lake 30-metres behind the stage.
Spin Music Service supplied the 42 LED fixtures matching all of the show’s requirements. “The light weight of the P-5 influenced our decision as well as the huge light output, but the main feature of the P-5 is the IP65 rating, as it is exposed to water from the fountains and the fixtures had to work a full week in these conditions,” said Anton.
The lighting designer had previously seen the P-5 in use for architectural installations, but never in connection with water. The result was a fitting display for the festival which received positive reviews from spectators.
Integral Memory in energy saving campaign
(UK) - Integral Memory calls for increased support for energy saving products.
According to Sunil Kotecha, Integral’s MD, an opportunity exists to build a Shenzhen style technology hub in Brent, North West London based on the demand for innovative energy saving lamps that are quickly replacing other forms of lighting.
During Integral Memory’s 25th anniversary celebrations, Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Minister for Universities, Science and Cities (who officially opened a new LED Lighting Laboratory facility which is part of a package of new investment planned by the company to meet a growing demand) acknowledged Integral’s achievement of staying at the top of a fast moving technology markets for many years.
“Integral’s success is based on its agility to spot and respond to opportunities in a fast moving marketplace. The future demand for energy saving lighting is a key growth sector that both rewards the customer with lower energy bills whilst providing energy savings and helping our ability to achieve lower carbon emission targets,” said the Minister.
Within a series of keynote addresses at the launch event, speakers called for further investment to provide the essential training and skills required to meet the challenge of the global green technology market.
“As a government we have a responsibility to companies like Integral to ensure that the skills are available to ensure continued growth. The recently announced science and innovation strategy is designed to feed that need.” continued the Minister.
Referring to his early days as an engineer, Kotecha observed that opportunities for new graduates were fewer than in the mid-eighties when he entered the job market.
“As an experienced visitor and witness to China’s economic miracle - I know we have a considerable distance to cover in order to catch up to the level of skills, investment and infrastructure available to our manufacturing competition abroad,” he said. “Our strength as a country is in our ability to innovate. Hence the key to our future lies in nurturing the talent within our Universities and attracting them to fast growing market sectors like LED lighting.”
The future of LED lighting is very exciting according to experts present at the event and according to Tony Howells, Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills: “Lighting is everywhere and combined with the cost savings available of 60-80% that LED can offer - it is a total ‘no brainer’.
Couple this with a requirement to become less reliant on coal fired power stations and in our critical need to match government environmental targets - the LED lighting industry becomes one of the strategically important industrial sectors."
My Year of Light app launched
(UK) - New app launches for International Year of Light.
Considered a possible first for the market, developer of the app, Rhiannon West, Lighting Designer at UK-based BDP, told mondo*arc: "The app collates all the latest information, events, news and photographs to help promote 2015 in lighting."
Released in January this year, My Year Of Light offers an access platform of information, providing details of the latest events for the International Year Of Light. There is a live stream of photographs, news and an interactive map, bringing users in touch with the most up to date information for the year of light.
Free for download at 24.8 MB, M.Y.O.L. is compatible with iOS 7.0 software or later on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, optimised for the iPhone 5.
To access this online platform, providing all the latest events for the International Year Of Light, you can download the app via the Apple store or Google Play here: myol.mobapp.at
CLD joins Recolight
(UK) - CLD Distribution, joins Recolight, encouraging customers to recycle their outgoing light sources.
With its products being replaced by more energy efficient and cost saving lighting schemes, CLD Chair Nigel Howes explained: “We want to make the recycling of old lighting fixtures as straightforward and cost-effective as possible, especially for those who are investing in our Comus range of LED lighting.”
Recolight was set up for the commercial lighting industry to maximise recycling of all lighting kit relevant to the 2006 WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment) regulations.
It provides a free recycling infrastructure across the UK for the disposal of defunct lighting products via a network of over 2,300 open collection points. CLD customers can also bring their waste lamps directly to the manufacturer’s HQ in Hastings.
The WEEE Regulations have been implemented to help reduce the amount of waste going into landfill and to increase awareness of the re-use of waste products.
To date, Recolight has funded the recycling of approximately 200 million lamps, in the process preventing nearly 800kg of mercury from entering the eco system via landfill.
Through its Comus LED lighting range, CLD is committed to producing more sustainable lighting and production technologies for commercial buildings and entertainment facilities in an expansion of its Comus LED lighting range.
Students asissted by Martin Professional at Singapore Night Festival
(Singapore) - Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) students developed ‘Flights of Fancy’ display in Singapore National Design Centre.
The reflective butterfly display was assisted by Martin Professional Exterior 400 LED lighting fixtures for 2014 Singapore Night Festival to mark culmination of SUTD’s 10-week Urban Lighting course.
The course taught students about effects of natural and artificial light on space. According to the SUTD student team leader, Kenickie Cher Jia Jun, Martin Professional fixtures were crucial in bringing the team’s vision for ‘Flights of Fancy’ to life.
Careful positioning of lights and shadows offered unique effects depending on the time of day and vantage point to ensure no experience was the same. The display featured a large floating sculpture made of hanging dichroic films - a reflective material the team used to mimic butterflies ascending into the sky. To do this, the team used eight Martin Exterior 400s, a MAC 700 Profile, and a MAC 250 Krypton to produce a powerful light for these reflections in a large space.
“One of the things we liked about the Martin fixtures was the ability to program a dynamic design,” said Kenickie. “The installation became ever-changing, making the experience unique for each visitor. The strong light source amplified the colours of the reflections and refractions created by the dichroic film.”
The Martin fixtures were concealed in two floor boxes below the floating sculpture and programmed to gradually change intensity and direction. Each box contained four Exterior 400 fixtures that provided colour washes that were slowly dimmed and then brightened over time.
Lighting Designer and student course instructor Shigeki Fujii described the fixtures as powerful and effective: “The dimming and movement of the lighting fixtures amplified the colours and effects of the display. Most observers did not even notice the lights were changing intensity and direction, they thought the effect was simply due to the wind.”
“Space, material and light source were the three most important components of the design,” said Fujii. “The light source had to be powerful and sharp to create crisp reflections on the space as well as programmable to allow us to amplify the dynamic effects.” According to Fujii: “The students would not have been able to complete their final project without the support of Martin’s team and their products.”
Syncrolite founder Jack Calmes dies
(USA) - Jack Calmes, Syncrolite and Showco founder, dies aged 71 at home in Dallas, Texas.
A lifelong music aficionado, Calmes passed away on 5 January. Having playing guitar professionally as a teenager Calmes remained a part of the local Dallas music scene while attending Southern Methodist University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1966.
After graduation from college, Calmes co-founded Showco. As President, Calmes helped lead Showco’s emergence as a major sound and lighting operation for concert tours by such prominent musical acts as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Genesis, Wings, James Taylor and ZZ Top.
After resigning from Showco, Calmes founded Syncrolite in 1984. Under Calmes’ leadership, Syncrolite has been an award-winning pioneer in the evolution of large format automated lighting systems. In its 30+ year history, Syncrolite has provided lighting systems for numerous high-profile events including major concert tours, festivals, Super Bowls, Olympic Games and other live shows in addition to a plethora of permanent installations around the world.
Calmes’ highlights with Syncrolite include earning a prime-time Emmy for American Idol, and providing the exterior lighting for the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, which drew a worldwide audience of over one billion viewers.
In addition to his career as a visionary executive, Calmes was rightfully proud to be a part of the Forever Fabulous Chickenhawks Showband & All-Star Revue, a super-group comprised of multiple Grammy-winning musicians for whom Calmes played lead guitar.
Calmes also produced a wide variety of major live television projects including a global satellite broadcast of The Who in 1982 for 20th Century Fox and HBO, as well as the 1988 presidential debates for CSN. Calmes also managed musical acts, including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Freddie King.
“Jack’s multi-faceted career speaks for itself,” said Jonathan Adamson, current Chairman of Syncrolite. “Over the course of almost 50 years, he was able to combine his two lifelong passions of music and technology to create a lasting legacy not just with Syncrolite, but through the hundreds of musicians, producers, designers and other partners with whom he worked.”
Calmes is survived by his wife, Susie, as well as their daughter and two grandchildren. His memorial service takes place Monday, 12 January at 2pm at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the SPCA or another charity.
ELC lights up Orange 20th anniversary
(France) - Orange’s 20th anniversary celebration brought to life with Arcaline and ELC.
Over 1,800 guests assembled on Parc Des Exposition Porte de Versailles, near the Orange building, as ELC's Buddy worked with Arcaline LED lamps to illuminate the building's windows.
Conducted by Impact Evenement, Project Manager Thierry Bernin commented: “Buddy was recommended to me by Axente who were very enthusiastic about a new product on the market that was very easy to use.
"The Arcaline products have a DMX interface but not Ethernet. With one Buddy on each floor this enabled the spotlights to be linked by DMX cable, Buddy took the console data in the computer rack on each floor, and converted it, enabling us to operate the spotlights."
Using 1,024 DMX channels the Buddy is a two-port DMX-Ethernet node compatible with Art-Net, sACN and ShowNet and is fully supported by ELC Lighting’s dmXLAN software. This allows features including the set up of DMX ports for complete dynamic merging of different DMX sources, control fixture for testing and rig start up and RDM (Remote Device Management) support.
Zumtobel Group plans Lichtforum for Amsterdam
(Netherlands) - Venue to host year-round programme of events themed around light and technology, architecture and urban planning.
Designed as an open house, the Lichtforum (light forum), located in the UP Building, will also host a showroom for all three of the Group’s brands: Zumtobel, Thorn and Tridonic.
“Amsterdam is an extremely attractive location for our industry,” commented Zumtobel Group CEO Ulrich Schumacher. “As well as engaging in intensive dialogue with some of the world’s leading architects, at this international hub we will also be able to work alongside some exciting technology partners.
“Our aim is to develop new and innovative business models in the field of lighting. In pursuit of this goal, our new Amsterdam Lichtforum with its international team will be an important innovation driver for Zumtobel Group as a whole.”
The Amsterdam Lichtforum will host a year-round programme of events themed around light and technology, architecture and urban planning. There will also be a new Zumtobel Group LightLAB, acting as an important incubator for innovations. Here, in-house designers and applications experts will work alongside partners from universities and technology firms on visionary projects.
In addition, the Thorn brand will set up its own luminaire concept development team in Amsterdam, just an hour’s flight away from the brand’s main plant in Spennymoor in the north of England.
By May 2015, Zumtobel Group plans to recruit an international team of some 25 employees for the Amsterdam Lichtforum.
“In the age of LED technology we need to study the latest trends more closely than ever – be it in terms of new materials, software solutions, sensor technology or communications electronics,” said Rogier van der Heide, Chief Marketing & Design Officer at Zumtobel and responsible for coordinating the activities of the new Lichtforum in Amsterdam.
“In the new LightLAB we have the ideal place to develop concepts for the future, for knowledge transfer and to inspire our development teams around the world. But we will also be realising very special, customer-specific lighting projects in Amsterdam that will pave the way for whole new business models for us.”