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The week that was 13-16th July

Singapore long weekend 17-19th July 2015

Monday 13th July, Singapore – Internet of things
Back in Singapore with a relatively quiet week ahead in the office without travelling and a long weekend at the end to top it off…yeah! Good to recharge and catch up ahead of a marathon 2 weeks of travelling before my annual leave in August. This week will be busy with finalising some of the concept presentations which are due next week. We secured some new projects recently that keep us nice and busy.

Like many of you I assume, I am “linked up” with many chat groups and E-magazines that relate to our work environment. Architectural, interiors, hospitality, general innovations and technology, LED lighting, manufacturers, and so on; it is a continuous daily stream of “news”. I can but look back in wonder how we managed to keep ourselves up to date in those early days, magazines, books and fairs mostly…but now with internet everything seems to have moved in overdrive with such speed , that at times I feel totally inadequate actually keeping up.

The latest trend subject is “the internet of things”, describing (and I quote Wikipedia): “a network of physical objects (or things) embedded with electronics , software, sensors and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices.” It claims that by 2020 about 50 billion objects will be interlinked via this internet of things infrastructure. In itself fascinating, but also scary as in my opinion it gradually fades out the human aspect of living. It has my obvious interest as todays (LED) lighting technology is one of those “objects” that are becoming part of this smart infra-structure. Today I read about The Edge building in Amsterdam, an office building that includes a smart building management system based on its lighting infrastructure. Lighting integrated GPS systems and apps communicate with people’s mobile phones, communicating with other smart systems in the office (printers, etc)…the internet of things…hmmm…

internet of things

Tuesday 14th July, Singapore – “Socket survey”
Sometimes you hear an expression or a catch phrase that turns your head. This is what happened to me when I heard about the “socket survey”, sounded catchy. Turns out to be an annual survey (it’s in its 7th year already!) conducted on-line by Osram-Sylvania in the US…”The state of the socket 2015”…a survey about consumer behaviour in regards to lighting. It found in February this year that more Americans than ever are discovering LED lighting with smart lighting strongly on the rise. Interesting fact for instance (in my opinion) is that 22% is stockpiling incandescent bulbs! Even more interesting are the perceived benefits of LED lighting with 91% finding that LED bulbs produce enough light and 88% appreciates the colour quality! There is an interesting link to smart lighting with 83% seeing smart lighting as an introduction to other smart technologies such as climate control and home security systems. It would be interesting to compare similar surveys from other countries if these exist which would provide a cross cultural appreciation of the penetration and use of LED technology. This is also a consumer survey and I would venture to say that a similar survey carried out amongst professionals would have a rather different outcome! Interesting nonetheless!

SS 1SS 2

 

Wednesday 15th July, Singapore – Who’s got talent?
One of our feature projects at the moment is the lighting design for an theatre studio cum auditorium where potentially local versions of shows as American idol, America’s Got Talent or X-Factor can be held in front of a large audience. The challenge is to design the lighting infra-structure to such extent that it has the ability to accommodate the lighting needs for each of the shows while maintaining the pleasantness of a nice theatre. While we are familiar with the architectural house lighting part of the design we are on unchartered grounds for the stage and performance part of the lighting which has also been entrusted to us. I have reinforced my team with some experts in the field and specifically enjoy this part of the lighting design as it brings a new dimension to our skills as lighting designers. It is not that I am not familiar with stage lighting design, in fact I have done (design and operated) a few actual theatre plays and been up close and personal with lighting designers for rock bands (Red Hot Chili Peppers), its just that we are not doing this kind of projects as our bread and butter so it’s a nice and welcome opportunity to sharpen our skills in this area. Today I met with my team to decide on the direction for the design approach as our client does not really know how to integrate TV Studio requirements within the envelope of a theatre auditorium setting…we will present next week our proposed strategic approach and concept.

Live Show 1r

Live Show 5 r

Thursday 16th July, Singapore – Expending our horizons
I have been quite focussed on our own backyard, in this case Asia Pacific as our hunting ground for projects. I do not focus nor put any specific prject acquisition effort towards projects outside “my region” which is roughly within a 5 hour radius flight around Singapore and as such includes India in the West, China in the North, the Philippines in the East and Australia in the South. It all makes practical business sense in terms of serviceability to my clients such as reach and time zone (plus or minus 2-3 hours at the most). I can visit sites within less then 2-3 days if needed. It becomes a “different cookie” (to use a Dutch catch phrase from Louis Van Gaal, trainer at Manchester United), when project sites and clients are at double the distance away! I have just signed off on a project at the edge of Europe (Istanbul) and have some serious projects possibly coming our way beyond Australia (New Zealand and the Pacific Islands). This requires a total rethink of our approach as travel is long (>10hours) and time away from the office is at least one week! Our fee strategy is built around it so when appointed we know the client is willing to (literally) spent the extra mile creating more comfortable and respected working environment for our team. We had some previous projects in Middle East and Eastern Europe so I am looking forward to reconnect with Istanbul soon and start on this lovely project.

PP Istanbul

Friday 17th July, Singapore – Public Holiday
Today is a public holiday, Hari Raya (Aid Il Filtri), celebrating the end of Ramadan with muslims world wide celebrating by breaking their month long fast….

hari raya
The week that was…

17. July 2015 by Martin Klaasen
Categories: Light and inspiration, light watch, lighting and culture, lighting design, lighting design practice, lighting of the future | Leave a comment

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