Communication 2

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Jakarta, 6^th August 2014

Now here is another piece of communication that comes totally out of left corner. Before I left Singapore this morning where I still had a submission deadline to complete, I was also confronted with a piece of miss-communication that I found quite eye-opening. I received feedback from one of my colleagues on site in the process of commissioning a prestigious renovation project. As is often the case in commercial renovations, time is of the essence and everyone works on a tight time line to make sure everything is completed in time. As you can understand there little room for error…

Today we were informed that there was there was insufficient loading in the dimming system to allow dimming of the cove lighting. We are commissioning the ballroom and the pre-function area as part of a staged implementation with a big function planned in about 3 weeks! Fingers were pointed towards KLD but we rebutted that as we pointed out that this was an internal matter between manufacturer and local supplier. I am sharing this as this may happen to others.

We had provided our specifications, control and dimming schedules on which the contractor was awarded. Dimming systems and cabling was installed to accommodate the dimming of the respective light fittings, in this case linear LED cove lighting. Of note is that the manufacturer of both the linear light as well as the dimming system is the same! Along the way it became clear that there was an upgrade of the linear light and its controller (this happens a lot in this new fast paced LED world). The communication that did not take place was that the new LED controller had far higher energy (watt) consumption than its predecessor, so much so that it resulted in drawing 6 Amps more per cove! Not surprisingly the circuits are now overloaded, the current wiring cannot handle it and the dimming system does not have enough capacity now…great!

We made clear that the contract was awarded on our initial specifications, the dimming system designed and executed accordingly. When a manufacturer changes (or replaces) a product for whatever good reason, they need to communicate any possible impact. This is obviously a serious oversight from the manufacturer and their local supplier, which will result in them taking the brunt of rectifying this. Never assume anything!

Light watch 5-130: In continuation of yesterday’s architectural communication: A textured Winter Garden in Brisbane and a world cup stadium reconfigured to house residential units now aptly named Casa Fussbal.