V-TAC LED Highbay
V-TAC’s showed its range of A++ LED Highbays – 100W (12,000 Lumens) and 150W (18,000 Lumens) – with a modern ‘UFO’ design. V-TAC’s new high power SMD Highbays are so efficient that, with typical use, they will pay for themselves and start saving money within a year. What’s more, they come with a five-year warranty. The new Highbays also have the advantage of a 120° beam width – significantly wider than most other comparable products. V-TAC also showed their original 100W (8,000 Lumens) LED Highbay.
Lights in Alingsås, Sweden
With this year's installations attracting approximately 70,000 people, Lights in Alingsås brought the small Swedish town just outside Gothenburg to the forefront of lighting design for the seventeenth time.
Following last issue's workshop coverage, the 2016 Lights in Alingsås festival has now been and gone for another year. As previously mentioned, this year, the Light Trail was made up of light installations from seven teams. These seven teams were led by eight lighting designers from Sweden, Italy, USA, England, Spain, Germany and Belgium, and made up of 58 lighting students from across the whole world. Keen to learn, these students travelled from Israel, France, Iran, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, India, Greece, Chile, Norway, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Indonesia, Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador, Albania and Egypt to take part.
Also, nineteen student electricians from Alströmer Senior High School participated to form well-rounded teams and gain valuable experience.
Now in its seventeenth year, approximately 70,000 people went round this year’s Light Trail. The trail was roughly two and a half kilometers long and 2016 was only the second time in the history of Lights in Alingsås that there was snow on the trail, with the last time being 2002.
Every year a device is placed to register everyone who walks the Light Trail in the evenings. This year it was placed in Brunnsparken.
With the data collected, it became apparent that the Light Trail guided tour took around 90 minutes and approximately 5% of those who walked the the route chose to go with a guide.
This year saw 22 active guides lead some 190 tours, walking a total of 475km during the five weeks of the festival.
New for this year, five ‘lighting conductors’ drove a small train called the Light Express around the installations on a total of 72 trips.
The product of the team's hard work throughout workshop week - the light installations that made up the trail - had the job of highlighting the UN's goals for sustainable development. In total, seven goals were represented on the trail this year: 1, 5, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
Alongside the main installations, additional highlights decorated the trail. Specifically, children from Alingsås pre-schools and schools created their own installations that showed their own interpretation of this year's theme. Located at Galleria Storken, and in collaboration with Sparbanken Alingsås, Estrad, Komtek and Galleria Storken, their exhibition showcased a younger person's view of the UN's global goals.
After decorating the small Swedish town for another five-week stint, the Lights in Alingsås festival has once again showed the spirit of community and the power of collective effort. Visitors came from far and wide to experience the thought-provoking installations and to learn more about the importance of protecting our environment with a little help from light.
As a media partner, mondo*arc was lucky enough to experience the hard work first-hand and the festival's important message - big problems can be solved from small beginnings.
Pic: Patrik Gunnar Helin
www.lightsinalingsas.se
www.globalgoals.org
Sagitario SAG-DTCD
SAG-DTCD is a set of multi-functional digital interfaces, designed to provide full control and data tracking of the light fixtures installed in a project, in terms of voltage, current, temperature and light output. Between the main specs, these interfaces support the standard common protocols (DALI, DMX, KNX, 0/1-10V) under RS485 communication bus, include digital and analogic ports as well as NTC sensor, allow scenes set up thanks to the featured clock and calendar and can be totally managed remotely.
Swiss LED Linear Profile
Swiss LED Linear Profile ceiling-mounted, wall-mounted or recessed is a complete indoor lighting solution. Made of high-tech performance PCB with LED diodes or LED strips, the specific light optic systems guarantee a high degree of visual comfort. Luminous flux can be oriented downwards, upwards, or in both directions. Available in white and black, its body and LED bracket are made of die-cast, aluminium alloy. Its diffuser is Opal or Micro-prismatic and it is available in lengths from 30 to 600cm. Dimming can be achieved with remote control device, Touch-dim or with DALI control units.
Radiant LED Flex 40 System
The new version of the Radiant 3D LED Flex 40 system was developed for an installation by light artists GNI at the 2016 darc awards. Each 100mm module is fitted with four red Luxeon Z LEDs and focused with an ultra-narrow Gaggione lens combined with a deep anti glare snoot. Each module incorporates an individual DMX driver, allowing complex curved patterns of high power projected light to be created and controlled via DMX. Radiant has now completed an IP65 version of this version for a new installation by GNI.
Lucent Micro
At 40mm diameter, Micro is Lucent’s smallest downlight to date. Designed to work seamlessly alongside Lucent’s existing programme of fixed and adjustable downlights, Micro is available in square and round, trim or trimless options. With two colour temperatures and various beam angles including elliptical, a choice of black and white finishes or custom RAL upon request, with IP44 as standard - Micro is available worldwide, Q1/2017.
Reggiani Yori with Zoom+Lightshaper
Zoom+Lightshaper combines high performance and flexibility. Thanks to the five lenses positioned in the aluminium body, the light beam (Zoom), the dimension of the shapes (Diaphragm) and their sharpness (Focus) are all easily adjustable. Reggiani has designed Zoom+Lightshaper to integrate with the Yori projector, and offer both square and round light frames. Optional accessories include: coloured filters, elliptical lens and gobo (on request).
Vice Lighting U060 Lightway
The U060 Lightway inground luminaire is optically engineered to perform optimal vertical grazing capabilities. It offers a tool for designers to emphasise textured surfaces while providing scallop-free lighting from zero start point of vertical planes. Aluminum optics provide complete glare control from both the longitudinal and transversal sides of the profile (shielding angles: transversal 76°, longitudinal 45°), achieving a powerful effect ideal for surfaces of great height. Its very low surface luminance makes it disappear in its installed environment.
Agabekov by Swiss LED AGA-LED A10
AGA-LED A10 is a new LED solution with unlimited possibilities for lighting design and creation. It is composed of Nichia LED sources, AGA Anti-Glare (AGC), Performance dimming, B-light conductor and a low power light source (1,2W per unit). The system uses two B-Light conductors, superposed in parallel (each up to 16mm), allowing to increase the number of AGA-LED A10 units up to 1,000W. The product has been conceived to provide an appropriate LED solution for specific requirements in varied installation contexts.
OSRAM/Siteco Streetlight 20 LED
Streetlight 20 LED, from the OSRAM subsidiary Siteco, is based on efficient lens technology and provides an economic way of illuminating roads, paths and railway infrastructures in compliance with current standards.
The range is available with various control options for optimum energy efficiency, including simple switching and dimming functions, integration into networked light management and monitoring systems via Powerline, and wireless radio communication in a network based on the future-capable IPV6 network standard. An interface for light sensors or RF (radio frequency) antennae means the luminaires are smart city-capable.
Griven Eklipse
Designed to sit on windowsills, Eklipse is an LED graphic light shaper that highlights the inner frames or the outer edges of windows or balconies, while creating optical effects on building façades. Its compact and minimal body houses four high power LEDs and in-built electronics. Its capability of producing accent lighting effects and colour scenes makes it ideal for lighting designers. Available in RGBW, cold, warm and dynamic white, Eklipse features functional efficiency and dynamic lighting performance assured by an external DMX512 controller.
Kevin Grant: Lighting design technology comment
Director of Light Alliance Kevin Grant shares some predictions for lighting design technology trends in 2017 and what they might mean for the future of the industry.
There are many challenges and opportunites that could have a direct effect on the future direction of lighting. A changing climate and global economy continue to inspire more effcient products in terms of energy and cost. New suppliers, brands and collaborations are coming online and often bringing knowledge from non-lighting backgrounds. The management of power consumption, lifespan, reliability and light quality of light sources is continuing to improve and the costs are reducing as the uptake of this technology increases.
We anticipate a better level of interaction and controllability becoming the norm, allowing us to personalise spaces, making them adaptable and flexible. I hope the wider focus shifts from the present quantitative based approach, to consider the quality of our spaces and places a bit more – where we consider how light improves the experience of the space and can provide information rather than focusing so much on lighting levels, uniformity or the direction of light.
Often decisions seem to be made based on ‘making energy savings’ or ‘minor cost savings’ at the expense of making a better quality user experience. By making sure our client’s buildings and spaces not only look beautiful and function well, we can be more efficient, effective and improve the overall user experience. By spending a bit more on better design we can make tangible savings and add real value to the construction process by building smarter buildings – and that doesn’t always have to involve high technology solutions.
That said, a lot of the current advances to the architectural lighting toolbox are technology driven.
LIGHTING DESIGN TECHNOLOGY TRENDS 2016/2017
SMART LIGHTING
There is a move toward providing luminaires and light sources with integrated features, allowing users to vary colour/colour temperature/intensity of light, switching times, or engage scheduling and automation.
VARIABLE LIGHTING
The ability to change the colour/colour temperature, intensity or direction of light is becoming easier, smaller and more cost effective. To improve the flexibility and experience of a space is to increase the value to our clients.
(New variable lighting product developments are now available from iGuzzini, XAL, FLOS, Martin, Philips, OSRAM, Helvar, Fulham)
INTEGRATION/INTERACTIVE/INTELLIGENT Variable lighting is becoming more mainstream, with increased options to have control elements integrated within luminaires – so lighting can respond to movement, occupancy or proximity without the need for expensive control systems. We anticipated this becoming a standard offer in external lighting products also, with several key players now beginning to offer this along with some elegant options to incorporate other non-lighting elements (wifi/speakers/cctv/charging points/signage).
(New integrated- interactive product developments from BEGA, Hess, Selux, Philips)
MINIATURISATION/MINIMALIST/MODULAR AND INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES
Miniaturisation of lighting equipment means that luminaires and lighting components can be discrete and easily concealed from view – so the focus can be on objects and surfaces being lit and not on the luminaires.
SMALLER DIMENSIONS
With lower heat emitted within light beams, extended maintenance periods and less need for regular access, we can get closer to a wider range of materials. This inspires a move towards integrated products that become part of the built environment, allowing us to transform the appearance of a space or object when these components are switched on/off/or varied. The flexible form factor means that lighting can be incorporated with fluid form and organic shapes.
- SELF-LEARNING CONTROL SYSTEMS
Devices with in-built intelligence, to respond to different triggers and patterns, learning its own optimised settings for each space to self-commission learning how a space is being used over time and automatically adapt to suit – to switch lights on/off/vary lighting levels to react to an event/engaging sequences/considering time/ambient lighting levels and physical commands, allowing manual override of course.
(Developments from Helvar, Charismac, Fulham, Lutron)
- OPTICS
The advance of optical systems means we can create very specific light distributions or dramatic effects and often using less energy or fewer luminaires than with previous technologies. Optics can now be tailored to suit specific shapes, forms or light distributions. We can even print optics using 3D printing, meaning that tailored solutions can be produced much quicker and be more cost effective.
(Developments from Luxexcel, LEDiL)
- NEW BRANDS/COLLABORATIONS
The changing markets have attracted new partners into the industry including ‘home-grown’ manufacturers and international global brands, including non-architectural lighting players to the world of architectural lighting, designer-led tailored brands and collaborations with firms from non-lighting backgrounds.
- NEW MATERIALS
Many manufactures are now offering a wider palette of standard colours for visible lighting components including textured finishes and metallic finishes, attachments and accessories.
