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The week that was: 28th November – 2nd December

Singapore, Weekend 3 – 4 December 2016

The end of the year is approaching rapidly which means that we are wrapping up on some projects in regards to deadlines to be completed before the Xmas holidays and looking ahead to the New Year, what it will bring and how we should prepare ourselves for an even bigger and better year ahead. Normally I stop blogging in December but I have decided to go on till the last week of December before Xmas and then take a bigger break in January. I am also planning to change the approach to my blog as there are new things in the pipeline for the New Year. First I will open up my blog to guest writers, they maybe from my own team, they may be suppliers we work with or architects and clients that we have worked with in close cooperation. It will remain a weekly blog, at least that is the plan and while I free up my blog writing time by inviting guest writers, I am preparing to launch exciting new educational lighting design modules, Light Talk re-arranged and revisited you could say, in which I am combining my almost 37 years of knowledge and experience with my blog writings from the last 7 years in down loadable bundles and packages rearranged and reorganized in and around specific subjects of interest. It may ultimately result in another book, we will see. I can’t say too much about it right now but keep an eye on this blog for further announcements in the New Year. All I can say is that I am really excited about it and hope that many of you will enjoy this new way of experience and knowledge sharing…

Staff reward time.
It has been a good year for us so logically this is the time as a company boss I need to think about rewarding my staff for all the great work they have put in this year. I am very grateful for the team that I have and how they have stepped up this year to deliver our service to our clients and business relations above and beyond expectation. There is no doubt that a well-deserved bonus is in place and potential salary rises may also form part of the equation. It is a careful deliberation as it needs to be done in consideration of the future economic growth forecast so that any bonuses and salary increases can be sustained. So gratefulness needs to be balanced with sound financial sense so the decision will have to be made in consideration of our current situation and forecasted financial outlook. But I know I am in a position to reward my staff which is good, how much will be a matter careful deliberation. I will make my final decisions when I do the individual staff reviews in the coming weeks. For now we have planned a big end of the year dinner with all staff and family to see of the year in style.

New Year plans.
One of our New Year plans is to launch our revamped website which is currently being redesigned. We are very excited about that. Part of this exercise is also the production of a corporate video which is being produced by my own daughter Kyra, who has a media production company. I am delighted that she has taken on the job and later in December she will come to Singapore to do some shoots in our head office and tour some of our project sites as part of the storyline. Other developments that are cooking in our office are new presentation programs and platforms. There is no doubt that computer technology has evolved enormously and making use of new opportunities in the rendering and visualisation of lighting effects should be embraced, which is what we are currently doing. We are testing and working on multiple new approaches and will over the course of the next year gradually introduce them to our clients. Once we are on the ball with these I will share with you. For now you will understand I prefer to keep a little competitive edgeJ. On a side note, as someone who likes manual sketching, I bought myself the latest digital Moleskine sketchbook, the one with a pen that automatically transfers your drawing onto a digital platform, which can be your tablet, mobile phone or laptop as long as you down load the app. I have tried it but have so far found it not as “magical” as advertisements are making you believe. I probably need more practice, but so far I find it disappointing and will probably refer to my old-fashion hand sketches which I then just scan for further sharing.

Park View Square and other projects
Our PVS project in Singapore meanwhile is shaping up nicely. We went through several toe-wringing sessions with the team and the installation contractor with some serious doubts whether we would be able to achieve our design to the full ability, bovver the course of the last two weeks with an intensified attendance and cooperation it seems that the hard work is paying off. Not all projects run smoothly and there are often periods where tensions run high due to time constraints, unexpected setbacks or other. Communication and cooperation towards finding the solution rather than pointing fingers has always worked best and I am pleased to see that is what we are seeing now. It can only benefit a great outcome! On another project overseas which I can’t really name because of high sensitivities we are facing a totally different situation. The contractor who took on full responsibility to supply and install has spectacularly failed to deliver totally underestimating the amount of work and expertise needed to complete this highly sophisticated façade lighting project. It refused to pay for the supplier/ manufacturer’s service package for installation, testing and commissioning (to save money) and now find themselves stumbling at every step of the way. Because of the contractual arrangements, both the lighting supplier and ourselves are more or less side-lined and why we have been to site many times it is not our scope to project manage the completion of the site installation to satisfaction. The client in desperation has been trying to force us into the role of project managing the completion of the job but we have steadfastly stood our ground. We have already out of goodwill supported and coordinated well beyond our scope, but the client also needs to respect the way they have structured the contracts and if anything beyond that is needed they would have to fork out the related fees or get the contractor to pay for the additional expert services to bring it to a good end…hopefully this will now happen and we will finally be able to properly finish this project…what a difference a project makes.

We also received some new high res pictures of our Raffles Hotel Jakarta project that opened a few months ago, some photos below.

Enjoy your weekend!

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moleskine-smart-writing-set

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pvs-bulb-test

pvs-dim-test

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02. December 2016 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: Light and inspiration, light watch, lighting applications, lighting design, lighting design practice, lighting of the future | Leave a comment

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