The week that was 14-18 March 2016
Singapore – Frankfurt -Europe, Weekend 19-20 March 2016
“The L&B 2016 Chronicles”…
It is probably fair to say that all who visited L&B in Frankfurt this past week find themselves in the same state of physical and mental exhaustion this weekend. The adrenaline of excitement both from seeing the latest product developments as well as catching up with our friends in the industry in combination with booth and dinner parties takes a considerable toll…but it is a very satisfactory one as I look back with great pleasure and memories of yet another successful edition of L&B where I caught up with so many people and found yet again much inspiration to carry me forward in the year ahead. It was a special edition for me as I multitasked my attendance between my own KLD lighting design team and a delegation of the Chinese Lighting Designers Association for which I am an international advisor.
Below I have listed my impressions from L&B 2016 which I have tried to group together in various topics (in no particular order):
Miniaturisation. There is no doubt that the lighting industry has (finally) taken a big step towards miniaturisation of lighting. While it was always expected as a result of the compact nature of LED technology, heat issues had prevented real developments till now, but it seems that we have arrived at a point where the lighting can be really miniaturised to a level that starts to defy our imagination. Many companies like IGuzzini, Flos, Aldabra, Alto, ACDC, XAL. Delta, Zumtobel, amongst others have succeeded in developing mini down lights and spots with quite an incredible light output. With fixture diameters of less than 25mm it is now really becoming a main direction forward. But the winner of all this miniaturisation for me was Viabizzuno who showed of their super mini spot light, not much bigger than your little pinkie. I love this trendy development as I am all for not seeing the light fixture…add trim-less into the equation and you can see where this is heading!
Optics. This is probably the next big thing in lighting world. Most companies have made huge steps forward in improving their optical system. With LED chip technology mostly being on even footing for all manufacturers differences are made with the sophistication of the optics. Prolicht secured the services of a former Bartenbach optics engineer and the results are there for all to see, great fixtures with great optical performances. Not surprisingly these are achieved through greatly improved reflector technologies. Several companies showed this off. On the other side there are a number of manufacturers that have improved their performances through lens technologies (Zumtobel and many others). Clever lens configurations contribute to a far more efficient light distribution with far better optical (glare) control…quite impressive.
Novelties and new concepts. As always L&B is a platform to show off (or test) new ideas, and this year was no different. A new concept is not always that easy and obvious to spot as it is not a mainstream display and is often shown only as a low key demonstration (to assess general feedback). Though not fully a novelty FLOS motorised track spot was still a very intriguing and exciting concept. Not only is the spot remotely controllable with pan and tilt angles the added linear movement along the track adds a totally new dimension to remote controlled lighting. Slated for release later this year it is bound to find many applications! FLOS’ suspended linear ceiling concept also offers many exciting opportunities for the lighting designers. Aldabra showed of their “Mikado” based linear system concept, which allows you to criss-cross connect linear lights to each other without the visual pollution of visible power cables. Artemide had a concept spot that integrates ambient white and/or RGB with a dedicated directional spot light, interesting but probably with limited application opportunities. Also seen at the Artemide booth and some others is the polarisation of glass from being either see through or illuminated. Though shown only as a pendant and wall fixture I could see great potential where daylight could be integrated as part of the lighting design concept. This of course is the sole and unique feature of Coelux a concept that was launched at PLDC in Copenhagen and never stops to amaze. The daylight qualities achieved through the artificial skylight are amazing. Motoko Ishi was back with Sumito Chemichal showing a colourful and arty display of OLEDs.
Technology There are the leaders, the innovators and then there are the followers. It was blatantly obvious that some successful concepts introduced over the last few years were being copied and accepted now as “mainstream” lighting products. IGuzzini’s Laser Blade has found many a following in various configurations and also RCL’s remote controlled lighting now have a steady number of followers with Forma lighting ( their Motolux series) probably leading the pack. Soora, with the eminent presence of Nobel Laureate Mr Nakamura on the stand (who kindly signed his book for me, and got mine in return J) launched their violet based LED lights. Having won the Nobel prize for his invention of “blue based” LED technology, Soora is now moving on from blue to violet based LED, showing the limitations of blue LED’s. While the demonstration on the stand of Soora’s violet based lighting versus the rest (blue based) was visually convincing, it was not possible to verify the authenticity of the “others”. There is no doubt that the quality of retrofit lamps has increased. Osram, Philips, Megaman and others are still full swing at developing alternative LED technology for conventional lamps. There is surely still quite a big market for it and with “filament” based LED lights there are some new opportunities for the lighting designer.
Systems and components Viabizzuno, Prolicht and Xicato were typical examples of manufacturers thinking about lighting as a toolkit. Providing an array of lighting components and systems it allows the lighting designer to build his own design. I had an really enjoyable session with Mario Nani, Viabizzuno’s creative mind and also my session with Roger and Webster from Xicato was exciting and inspirational. As lighting designers we crave the tools to design uniquely tailored solutions and I think that these manufacturers understand that and are moving into a modular system and components direction that I find very attractive and exciting. Carl Devolder delighted me with Prolicht’s latest range of modular toolkit systems. I was happy to oblige him with one of my books 🙂
Linear In the linear field we saw many interesting developments, specifically in creating tailor made lengths (or surfaces) and the continuous in line seamless connections. Companies like LED –Linear and Cooledge showed off some really nice products all who can be made to measure according to need. Big improvements have been made by many of the manufacturers in regards to inline connections, flush and seamless in-ground mounting and the high demand applications like underwater and drive-over versions. Light-Tape remains an odd one out with their flexible sheet and wrap around lighting solution but their performance has certainly improved and the demand, though very niche, has remained steady over the years.
Performance Not surprisingly the lighting performance is still skyrocketing forward. Linear T5 equivalents with 150 lumens/watt and floodlights (300W) with more than 50,000 lumens output where on displays on many booths. It is fair to say that we are closing in on the stage where we can say that for any conventional lighting technology there is now a matching or better performing LED equivalent in terms of performance. It seems just yesterday that LED announced its breakthrough in white light and look where we are already today! Specifically in the outdoor field a great improvement in performance and lighting optics has been achieved.
Outdoor applications Besides greatly improved urban lighting concepts, many with smart or solar lighting integrated, the creative ability of the outdoor lights has also greatly expanded. Focusable spot lights, toolkit floodlights with a range of handy accessories and glare free interchangeable optics are just a few of the exciting new developments. Luce & Light’s ARKO system is a great example of that. Most of all the maintenance of IP rated light fixtures has been a point of development by several manufacturers. Sealing the main core light engine to desired IP rated levels has always been a challenge when beam adjustments and cable connections are still to be done on site. Now many of the manufacturers have come out with externally adjustable beams and aiming as well as “idiot-proof” connectors to assure the integrity of the IP rating is maintained through life! WEEF and Meyer had some fine examples.
Tuneable light and controls Under this heading I am capturing the enormous progress made in the field of lighting controls and the ability to tune and dim the light. Just because we can today, nearly all manufacturers have products that have tuneable white light, not just as an option but as a standard product. With colour temperatures ranging from 1800 to 6500K there are an array of possibilities now to tune the light to desired ambiences and that over time. Eldoled is one of the recognised leaders in driver technology and at L&B they showed the world why. Potential flicker has been one of the key issues on the “to be resolved” list and companies like Eldoled and Xicato have put in a lot of effort to make sure this is a problem of the past.
The future of lighting On the side lines of the fair there where a lot of talks and presentations, some on booths of leading manufacturers (Lamp, Xicato) and some in meeting rooms (IALD etc.). I personally attended Xicato’s “Future of lighting” which gave an interesting insight on where we are going. The future role of lighting with integrated functions such as far more sophisticated lighting controls, way finding, IoT, asset tracking and Light as a Service where all part of the presentation, set against the cost of lighting and its management. It is very much the end of light as we know it…very true!
Virtual Lighting Design Even the role of a lighting designer looks like being reduced to a mere operator of a computer program. I would dare to say that the progress in technology and the progress in internet virtually is also starting to ring the death bells for the actual manual skills and experience of a lighting designer. Virtual computer programs takes all the thinking out of the designer. Everything is visualised and design decisions made for you…where are the lighting designers who still do manual calculations or use a pen and paper to design lighting…all these programs are beautiful but there is no check and counter balance. If the computer is wrong (that it is possible!) or makes wrong “decisions” (the output is as good as the operators input!) the new generation of virtual designers will have no fall back for due diligence as they will only know how to operate the program of lighting app…We need to keep training our new generation of lighting designers in the actual art of design with all these beautiful aps and programs an aid or tool rather than the “bible” of lighting design!
KLD at L&B, Luminale. Finally some images of me and my great KLD team enjoying the L&B fair in Frankfurt this week, our factory visit and some mood imagery from Frankfurt, booth party impressions (Erco, Osram, IGuzzini) , the IGuzzini light experience and the Luminale. It was a pleasure to see all my good friends and colleagues during my visit and I hope to see you all soon somewhere on the planet! Take care and till then.
PS 1: this weeks blog turned out to be a monster report and even at the end I realise I missed out on many things, still…feel free to add in through comments and feedbacks!
PS 2: Next week there won’t be a blog as I am taking a week off to re-energise here in Europe.
The week that was…7-11 March 2016
Singapore – Kuala Lumpur – Singapore, Weekend 12-13 March 2016
Pre-Light & Build hassles
As I write this week’s blog I am already half with my mind in Frankfurt with my flight just hours away. The world’s biggest lighting exhibition, Light & Build in Frankfurt, a bi-annual event, is again upon us and I look forward with a great measure of excitement as this time I am not just there by myself but bring my key design team with me as well as assisting a delegation of the Chinese Lighting Designers Association in their visit to the fair. I have a hectic schedule with meetings, events and VIP dinners planned with manufacturers and key players in the industry that will leave me little time to breathe…As always the last few days before the trip there are heaps of last minute project issues to resolve and these last few days were no different. I even managed to squeeze out another trip to KL on which I report below. As often the case with a small practice like ours, making sure the “cash keeps flowing” is key to survival and a lot of my activities this week was linked to making sure we rounded up stages of work for signing off to client satisfaction. Sometimes it means that you need to soften your stance, deviate from your hard line of not issuing work if prior invoices have not been settled. The world unfortunately is not that black and white and my task as the principal is to make captain’s calls about progressing work for the long term benefit of the company, rather than for short term (egoistic) gains. My patience and weighted approach this week in regards to some “slow paying” clients finally paid off and I can leave for Frankfurt with peace of mind.
Kuala Lumpur
My trip to Malaysia was another typical example of a “rescue” mission that we sometimes have to carry out, not only to satisfy the client and get our payment released but also to clear our name which often gets a hiding in the process, as suppliers and contractors are quick to blame the lighting designer if it all looks like a dogs breakfast. They of course did nothing wrong, they “just followed the designer’s instructions”…These are in my opinion the moments where you learn the trade, where you become hardened in your design experience and confidence of your design skills. Even after all these years, it still amazes me, to how much length people (the supplier/contractor in this case) go to blame others (us) for the poorly performing lighting installation, while in reality poor workmanship, taking shortcuts or clearly cheating are at the origin of the poor installation. It reflects bad on everybody, us as the designers (“did you specify that???”), the light fitting manufacturers (“what a poor quality!!!”) or even the project manager or client.
I am talking about the façade lighting of IB Tower in KL a Norman Foster designed building and I am not ashamed to name the project and associate myself with it. The interiors have been completed and look stunning, however the façade lighting has been a long and frustrating road for all parties involved, I assume the contractor included. I am not privy to whether the contractor was properly paid so I cannot comment whether they had a just case to delay and hold back services for that reason, but what I do know is that none of their staff that ever came to site to do the façade and exterior lighting installation works was of any impressive level of competence, on the contrary. None demonstrated any form of expertise nor understanding of the magnitude of the task at hand, which for a 300m high tower with about 150 floodlights to be installed, would be expected. It is easy to say that in hindsight but far more difficult to detect during the process as the end result can often only be seen towards the end.
My mission this trip was to assess the current façade lighting installation, report my findings on the compliance to our specifications and show the client that the installed floodlights could, with proper care, aiming and focussing, indeed achieve the design intent as shown in our renderings. You may argue why we had not done that before, to which I have to reply that we did on many occasions but excuses and a myriad of other deflective reasons (including claimed non-support from the manufacturer) had frustratingly delayed the final testing and commissioning that we had been asking for so long. For this purpose we selected a representative area close to the ground to execute the sample testing and not surprisingly we managed fairly easily to create the required lighting effects. We duly took before and after pictures which I collated in my report to the client. I was never in doubt that we could achieve it as we had done extensive computer simulations as well as a visual mock-up which all confirmed it could be done. But when after so many months (year!) it still does not come out well, even your strongest supporters’ start doubting you!
What we learned…
We learned many things from this exercise on multiple fronts. In regards to the design; when you design a façade lighting with super narrow 4 degree beams, the slightest degree off results in the lighting effect not being achieved. This holds for both the pan and tilt angles. In this case the bracket holding the floodlight was anchored straight on to the concrete below the façade panel cladding and while we had assumed it was fixed at right angles the reality was that practically none of them are because of the uneven concrete finish. In other words giving the contractor pan and tilt angles as per computer calculations did not work as some of the brackets we found on inspection were up to 5 degrees off in either pan or tilt direction!!! No wonder that the installed floodlights are looking a like a dogs breakfast. This is where experienced installation contractors would have flagged the issue as they would not have stupidly continued aiming floodlights that were clearly not doing their job, but these guys did…but this was just one of the problems. By far the biggest issues we had on the actual workmanship and installation quality. As the floodlights are dimmable they each have an address protocol (2 actually in our case), during the installation process we had found that many of the floodlights had wrong addresses, resulting in a hotch-potch of lighting outputs, with some floodlights clearly brighter than others…oh, they claimed something wrong with the fitting…hello, can someone knock on their brains? With further poor and wrong cabling and connections (some even not connected!) you get the picture of what we have been dealing with.
The main issue was that each time we went to site to explain what needed to be done and shown them how to do it, the moment we left site it seemed like their commitment and understanding “left” as well. We have now recommended the client to terminate this contractor and have spelled out a detailed plan to remedy and finalise the façade lighting properly which will probably see us on site for a week to painstakingly aim and focus each and every floodlight one by one. The client should have made this decision long ago but I guess they hoped that with outstanding money owed to the contractor as leverage they would turn around and perform. There is obviously a limit to how much juice you can squeeze out of an orange…
I did not even mention about the Chinese replacement copies we found in some parts of the exterior lighting but that is another story… J
Have a great week-end and for some of you, see you in Frankfurt!
Before (above) and after (below)
The week that was 29 February – 4th March 2016
Singapore – Muscat – Istanbul – Singapore, Weekend 5-6 March 2016
On the road
With barely 12 hours transit and sleep in my own bed in Singapore on Saturday night last weekend, I was already flying off for my next trip to Muscat in Oman and onwards to Istanbul in Turkey early Sunday morning. Combining this weeks two projects in one trip saved a substantial amount of travel time but put an extra load on my stamina coming right on the heels of the Tahiti trip last week. These projects are however in a crucial stage requiring me personally to travel and attend, a commitment made to the client at the start of the projects. But while I was travelling for these projects other members of my team attended project meetings in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore…busy times. Nothing beats face to face meetings which was again proven in my trips to Bora Bora last week and Muscat and Istanbul this week. After having met some of the local players for the first time, the communication flow is starting to work, while previously (not really knowing and possibly not understanding each other) the flow was piece meal or practically non-existent…after meeting each other and spending time working and understanding each other’s scope and work a personal bond is forged that so much facilitates the communication flow for the progress and final success of the project. I feel we achieved a month’s work in just one week…now I have to recover from the trip but that is another story…
Muscat
This meeting was touted as the big “showdown” between the teams from Singapore and the local teams in Oman. A lot of animosity and misunderstanding had built up over the last 2 months between the client project management side and their “demands” for deliverables, time schedules and budgets, in regards to our design and coordination process mixed with expected operator standards. Heated exchanges had flowed between the various parties mostly as a result of the local team not really understanding the design process and wanting to impose near impossible time schedules and budgets. After the Singapore team (interiors, lighting and landscape) had done their presentations in the morning, the mood changed nearly instantly. Each of us had shown and demonstrated our creativity, capability, expertise and professionalism in our presentations that greatly impressed the owners (and project management) and that combined with our cooperative and personable attitudes put the owners at ease that we were not just high handed and spoiled brats, but professionals knowing our stuff. Listening to other professionals can also be very “illuminating”, it was interesting to hear the type of wildlife to be expected on our project desert site, such as camels and hyena’s from our landscape consultant or the type of security measures needed to “secure” the property against unwanted intruders and potential terror threats! It is a bit sad to realise that a security consultant for this kind of projects is now an unavoidable must…20 years ago they would not have had a lot of work…how times have changed!
After the presentations we converged in various one on one design workshops which now had reached a very cooperative and friendly atmosphere and a lot was resolved in a fairly short time. Hopefully this has set the tone for the rest of the project and we will be looking back at the early “coordination fights” with a smile…
Istanbul
Back on Buyukada island within a month since my last visit as the first phase of the project is slated for opening by the middle of the year and with the operator (Viceroy) now firmly on board we are entering the tail end of this project. I inherited this project from a previous lighting designer with all its limitation and challenges. I don’t know the history, the original brief or why it went wrong, my task is to bring the project to a good end with whatever is already there but with my own input in terms of design and implementation. It’s a very hands-on job with much of the electrical infra-structure in some parts already done. The devil is in the details and that is very much what my input has been. For some reason the project ended up with some horrible commercial black bollards totally out of style with the resort. My suggested solution of cutting the bollard and redesigning a stone bollard around it turned out to be a great call and by relocating and drastically reducing the quantities the lighting ambiance changed 180 degrees. Specifically in the landscaping and building lighting relocations of lighting reduction of quantities adding additional features will bring back the night time ambience befitting this resort. We mocked up several lighting effects and I must say the results are fantastic. Further design discussions with the team sorting out implementation details and specific operator requirements such as signage were very productive. The pace of work was unrelenting; I had arrived from Muscat on an overnight flight on Wednesday at 6am and started my site meetings directly on arrival working till late daily (checking out the lighting mock-ups at night) with all meals taken on site. After the last lighting mock up inspection on Friday evening and a wrap up de-brief with the client I went straight back on the boat to the main land and on to the airport to catch my overnighter back to Singapore…no let up there, but a very satisfactory feeling of having achieved results and leaving behind happy clients…
Have a great week ahead!
Below: Muscat images followed by Istanbul images
Muscat sunrise impressions, presentations and design sketches…
Istanbul images, grand mansion floodlighting, lighting mock ups, landscape lighting location pegging, design sketches…
The week that was 22-26February 2016
Singapore – Auckland – Papeete – Bora Bora – Papeete – Auckland – Singapore, Weekend 27-28 February 2016
Far away destinations
This week I started my 2 week monster trip where I go from Singapore to Tahiti (-18 hours) via Auckland (+5 hours) and then back to Singapore for the connecting trip to Oman and Istanbul (-5 hours). The biggest challenge is of course to remain fit and rested which is not as easy as it may look. The time difference upsets your body clock and hence your eating and sleeping patterns, but I learned to eat a bit and sleep a lot and so far so good. It would be unthinkable to do all this flying economy class and then expect to be fit on arrival to start meetings and discussions as if you just stepped of the bus! Once in a while maybe but as you get a bit older the recuperation time is a bit longer and so is the adaptation time. So pacing yourself and building in enough time to “breathe” is essential. The trip to Tahiti has an overnight transit in either Auckland or Papeete so there is some rest build in. When you fly from Auckland to Papeete the time difference is -23 hours so after a 5 hour flight you arrive the day before and do a groundhog day routine as your biorhythm is not really disturbed and you start the same day again… As I write this blog I am reflecting on our meetings and discussions while in transit in Auckland for my flight back to Singapore.
Bora Bora.
This is my second visit to the island and this time we have a fully present consultants team including client and contractor. The biggest challenge in this project has really been the communication between the Tahiti based team (client, architect and contractor) and the Singapore based team (ID, LD and operator) with a kitchen and signage consultant caught in between from New Zealand. Despite weekly Skype conferences, a shared FTP site and all email communications the exchange between the various teams has been challenging and being all together for this meeting on side proved once again that nothing beats face to face meetings with the added value of having the actual site outside the meeting room to check out site issues or measurements on the spot as needed. We have worked closely with the ID in Singapore and developed our design package to both our satisfaction, but with many perceived “holes” as a result of missing information from the local architect. They of course are under local pressure from client and contractor to finish the job as per schedule (time is money!) which has resulted in unilateral decisions to avoid delaying the project. The problem however is that as a result the communication stream has developed as a one way street where the Singapore team provides design information but the local interpretation if I may call it that way, is not been recycled to the design team to verify its compliance to design intent and standards.
I understand the pressure put on the architects to meet deadlines, but it came out very clearly that without the due diligence with the design team we were at risk to get a half-baked end result. I was dying to see the architect and the ID together to resolve the lighting issues still outstanding and the intensive meetings we had showed it was not a luxury. Site constraints in relation to installation of linear lights had not been communicated back to us and limited time to rework the electrical infra-structure also dictated a different approach to lighting layouts, installation points and resulting technical specifications. Now that we have gone through that I feel much better. Now I understand the decisions made by the architect and contrary to my earlier belief (funny how you tend to negatively assume peoples actions when you don’t know all the back grounds!) they have done a great job and through our meeting we were able to re-align and re-adjust the lighting design approach within concept design intent and expected operational standards. With stage one opening later this April, this meeting was long overdue!
Most of all I think any negative perceptions have been cleared between the teams on each side of the ocean and by all intents and purposes we have re-ignited the communication lines and information exchange to bring this project to a successful end! As I prepare to board I leave you with some images from the site. This time we “endured” near constant storm and rain which and while this helped us focus on the work at hand, our thoughts went out to the honeymooners vacationing in the resort…spending all that money and travelling from oh, so far to find yourself holed up in your villa while the rain is pouring down must be a real bummer…
Have a great weekend!
The week that was 15-19 February 2016
Perth – Kalgoorlie – Perth – Singapore, Weekend 20-21 February 2016
Perth.
The week started with some summery days in Perth which often come with magnificent sunsets. The weekend had started with one of the biggest arts festivals in the world (according to the organisers, the 3rd biggest in the world…), the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) combined with the Arts Fringe Festival. I attended its opening event a cultural history of its aboriginal land owners wrapped in a show of music, storytelling and magical projections. Famous West Australians like Tim Winton (writer), Tim Minchan, (Musician), Ernie Dingo (TV Presenter and actor), the John Butler Trio and many more participated in a joyous night with lighting obviously being one of my dear interests…The transition from day to night with a glorious sunset on the day reinforced how damn strong the impact of natural light is in our lives…
On Monday I met with the project manager of our church projects in Perth. In one of them we intent to install more than 200 candles for special ceremonies and going with the times we are envisaging the installation of real life wax candles but invisibly equipped with LED technology. The effect is so good that you cannot differentiate between a real and an LED candle. Even the wax dripping along the candles is reproduced and the candle really smells like wax (well it is wax, so obviously). The attraction of this solution is that we can install the candles permanently and hardwire them to a control panel allowing the minister to “switch on” the candles instantly for dramatic effect. No more replacing of burned out candles or some candles blown out by a whisk of wind. Our biggest challenge now is to make the candle to be as small as possible. As we are hardwiring the candles in permanent positions all the “gear” can be mounted away. As I understand it now the biggest challenge is actually the manufacturing of the wax housing without affecting its structural strength. An exciting challenge, look much forward to the end result…!
Kalgoorlie
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, about an hour’s flight east of Perth, has been a loyal client to us for more than 10 years and every year there is some further work to do. This time we have been called out to review the lighting of one of the very first projects we did, which was commissioned about 6-7 year, a sports oval with 6 x 20m hinge poles, each equipped with a head frame with asymmetrical floodlights. At the time the structural height of hinge poles was limited to 20m and our design was worked out around this limitation. Lighting levels at full blast are reaching between 300-500 lux which is considered more than enough for senior competition of large ball sports. The sports ground fully complied with the related Australian standards. The only “downside” which was accepted as a limitation of the installation, was slight dip of the lighting levels in the center of the pitch. At the time not an issue as compared to what was there before the installation was compared to Kalgoorlie’s WACA, in reference of the iconic cricket grounds in Perth. The rave reviews in the local newspapers on opening day were very satisfying for all involved…a job well done.
Over time however other sports facilities have upgraded and a certain comfort level expectancy is settling in with both players and spectators. The players started to notice the slightly lower levels in the center of the pitch and with good intent they decided to tilt a number of floodlights up as to increase the lighting levels. It seemed to work as players happily reported that the lighting had improved to satisfaction. However it gradually started to trigger a new angle of complaints, this time from the spectators. They now complained that they had difficulties in following the game and seeing the players. Unable to figure out what to do now they decided that perhaps it was time to call in the experts and that was what we came to do. A high level of people attended the meeting, the mayor himself, the CREO of the city council, the head of the sports federation, representatives of sports clubs as well as the venue manager, everyone eager to chip in their opinion and of course make sure their interests were looked after.
The assessment from our side was easy, by tilting the floodlights above the recommended maximum tilt angle, obvious glare was created by the floodlights making it difficult for spectators to see because of the constant brightness adjustments the eye has to make between flied and flood lights silhouetting players in the process. By adding some round symmetrical additional floodlights with tight beam control on top of the poles and re-adjusting the asymmetrical floodlights back to their original design aiming angles this problem will be easily resolved. With a solution at hand without having to redesign or replace the existing installation (something that was feared by some), the party departed home happily. We of course are going back to the drawing board to see how to resolve this but with confidence it can easily be achieved…a satisfying night all together…
We also did take the opportunity to look at another sports ground, completed by us more recently, to see how it was holding up. All looking good, with the city’s asset manager proudly showing off it was all working well…nice feedback…
Singapore.
Midweek I flew back to Singapore to wrap up projects and project presentations with the team needed over the coming 2 weeks. I am travelling 2 weeks non-stop starting Monday with the intent to wrap up many of the design issues in the workshops we have on the site of these projects with the project teams. In my mind these meetings, if effectively organised and planned, can resolve more in 3 days of face to face meetings then 3 weeks of communicating via email. As the meetings are held on site, unexpected issues can straight away be checked and resolved as all parties are present. Being well-prepared is therefore a prime condition for participation and the success of the meetings, hence my time in the office to make sure we will deliver. The downside of all this will be the travel, but I will take that in my stride…
Have a great weekend!
Perth City at sunset
The festival
Kalgoorlie – Shepperdson Park
Kalgoorlie Digger Daws Oval – the obvious light quality difference
Perth beach sunset
The week that was… 8-12 February 2016
Singapore – Perth, Weekend 13-14 February 2016
The week did not start until Wednesday for many of us with Chinese New Year, the year of the Monkey, being celebrated on Monday and Tuesday allowing us a nice 4-day long weekend, a much appreciated break to relax, re-energize and enjoy some quality “home” time after a hectic start to the year. It is amazing how much personal stuff is actually left out to do when you are so emerged in your day to day business dealings! It was certainly productive for me. I have embarked on a new and exciting “Light Talk” project of which I will share more details later in the year. Watch this space as they say.
Singapore; luck of the draw.
Wednesday was my only day in the Singapore office as I am off to Perth tomorrow for some projects follow up in Australia. The timing seems just right as the heat (the last few days were >40 degree Celsius in Perth) will have subsided by the time I arrive.
For today there were some project progress meetings, and a coordination meeting with an architect/ interior designer, which triggered an internal question in how far you can criticize a fellow consultant for doing their work properly. We each (architect/ lighting designer) are responsible for our own core discipline and hence, out of professional respect, we need to observe the limits of our responsibility and respect each-other’s expertise . It does not always feel like a clear cut call, but if we take lighting as our guideline it actually is. Anything that relates to the performance of the lighting and its resulting effects is legitimately our call and our responsibility. We comment on a colour scheme if it negatively impacts on the lighting effect, we can advise on material finishes if we feel that it may create unwanted lighting by-effects, but we cannot really have any legitimate say in shapes, forms, compositions or architectural layouts if that has nothing to do with lighting, regardless whether we like it or not. Any opinion on non-lighting related issues is purely subjective and why we may voice our concerns, it is not our call. We generally do not appreciate architects patronizing us about our lighting design…so why criticize their designs?
We should realise though that the knife cuts on both ends as an architect/ interior designer may create a fantastic design in which lighting enhances the inherent beauty “automatically” and makes for a great project for both. On the other hand the architect/ interior designer may get it “wrong” and even though the lighting may be at its best it may not lift the project to great heights. For a lighting designer this is really the luck of the draw. I was “lucky” with projects like the Petronas Twin Towers and Raffles Hotel that help kick start my career, but there also a lot of “misses” in my career, projects where the lead designer (and the client) totally did not get it. Some of these projects don’t even figure on my reference list…So why do these in the first place? There are many reasons, first of all at the start you generally don’t know, it is only as the project unfolds that you start picking up the signs…You will then reach a stage in which you have to make up your mind whether to stay in it or leave. Often these “bad” projects have also some hold on you as the clients turn out to be bad paymasters as well, leaving you to think of an exit strategy while collecting your due fees in the process. Sometimes that just means to sit out the project, but by then the initial joy of the project is long gone…
The project that triggered these thoughts is not that bad and since we are building up a close relationship with this lead designer and the client is actually very nice, we will put in our best (lighting) efforts to make the best out of it whether we like the architects design intent or not. For all we know it may actually turn out to be very nice! The benefit of the doubt prevails for now 🙂
Perth, heat and solar. During my long weekend break I did read up on several articles all related to solar energy, perhaps triggered by the Perth heatwave. From various corners of the earth, from Australia to the USA via Thailand and Singapore, it seems there is a renewed interest and stimulus towards the use of solar energy. Climate changes conferences and events are held in abundance and the message to be more vigilant and caring about our precious planet seems to hit more and more home. Combined with the ever increasing efficiency and performance of the LED technology on one hand and the ever increasing efficiency in solar power generation, solar energy is getting a new push so it seems. Australia is one of those countries well placed to profit from solar energy and the current government is certainly putting it back on the agenda. Over the coming days I have a number of meetings in regards to our projects here, all moving in progressing stages of design and installation. I am also looking forward to get outside my normal project routine with a sports oval lighting installation to be assessed and improved next week in Kalgoorlie, 500km east of Perth. This is probably one of my most loyal customers. We were first commissioned around 2004 to develop a master plan for all the sports facilities in town and ever since we have been working on its gradual implementation. This underlines one of the most elementary marketing strategies that holds for every practice, lighting design or other, treasure your existing clients! It is far more difficult to acquire new project clients then to nurture existing ones and this one is certainly one that has proven it true!
I want to leave you with a fascinating aspect of lighting…time-lapse photography. Lighting is an extremely interesting medium to play with and many artists have explored the time lapse exposure that captures the movement of light creating imaginative objects in the process; a light moment in time…
Have a great weekend!
The week that was…1-5 February 2016
Singapore – Istanbul – Singapore, Weekend 6-7 February 2016
The travelling has begun again and for some reason this year looks like shaping up as a long haul travel year. We have diversified into projects in other parts of the world which sees us now travel to the Middle East and Eastern Europe to the West and New Zealand and Polynesia to the East as we follow the economies that flourish or have active projects rather than linger along in slow moving areas. Yes I know I am departing from my strategy of doing projects only in a radius of around 5 hour’s flight away from Singapore, but the reality is that we have a practice that needs be kept busy and hence we go where our client’s want us…
Buyukada Island, Istanbul.
This week’s travel was to Istanbul where we are working on an absolutely lovely project on an island of the Asian side of the city. It very much means that we are “stuck” on the island, but being a somewhat derelict but very picturesque island with no motorised traffic (except public services such as police, ambulance or maintenance cars), all traffic is pedestrian, bike or by horse carriage, it is a pleasant stay. With what’s going on in the world it somehow feels like a little safe haven, so no complaints! Over the last few blog’s I have ranted about the need for good communication and coordination and this visit (for which I initially was not even invited!) proved the point again of how important it is to regularly meet with the team on site with the actual site issues right in front of you to understand, discuss and resolve. In the few days on site more issues are resolved then in one month through long distance communication! This is proven true time and again, you can’t design from just behind your desk! The devil is as always in the details and these generally come out on site. The site contractor’s interpretation of your design is often different then yours so site confrontation helps to shortcut all possible misunderstandings. We had really fruitful meetings and with next meeting now officially pencilled in for March we have all have a clear target ad deadline for the deliverables. The local interpretation of our specifications and layouts is where our assistance and guidance will be most needed…
I am not 16 anymore!
Back in Singapore later in the week I had two projects to attend to requiring physical site visits. Again design is never fully completed from behind a desk and I had insisted in visiting the sites with the local engineer to get a thorough understanding (both projects are renovations) of the current lighting situation, the issues they face on site and potential opportunities for improvements. This is where you realise the perils some of the maintenance people have to go through to maintain a lighting installation. In case of the Parkview project accessing the upper levels of the building where switch boards, dimmer racks and access to the ceiling cove lights is located, meant creeping through a small port hole and then climbing up a “rescue” ladder bolted vertically to the wall through a manhole of about half a square meter up about 15-20 meters. You then arrive on a metal mesh platform from which you can only navigate further on to small steel I-beams without any form of security (no hand rail to hold on to); if you miss-step you land on to the ceiling which no-doubt will see you fall through to the floor below…downlights, which are serviceable from the top, can only be reach by bridging 2 beams with a plank! Anyhow I had a good look and convinced myself that whatever we do it should involve an absolute minimum of lights in the ceiling if not just for the future nightmare of maintenance. During this perilous tour of the ceiling catacombs I also realised that I am not 16 anymore! While my mind is willing to climb, creep and balance my way through, my body does no longer have that elasticity which became all to obvious when I managed to dislocate my shoulder when trying heave myself out of the manhole on to the landing platform 3 stories up! Fortunately I managed to relocate my shoulder quickly without too much pain, but aborted my “tour” and after re-capturing my breath descended back slowly to safe grounds to complete the rest of the inspection from the safe seat of my lounge chair and a large glass of cold water…
When IP rating does not help.
For the final project inspection, a condominium where we are asked to renovate all exterior lighting following residents’ complaints of the poor quality of the lighting, we toured the property part by day and part by night to have a good feeling of both day and night time situation. The point is that during the day you can still inspect the physical condition of the lighting installation while at night you can only appreciate the lighting effects and performance of the lights. These inspections are super useful as they immediately expose the short comings and the quality of the existing installation. The most notable conclusion from this inspection is that despite the use of reputable brands (Bega/ Ligman!) with proper IP65, some 67, protection ratings, many were not working. With all conventional technology (Metal Halide, CFL, Halogen and PAR lamps), some surely where due to lamp failures, but from engineers feedback we quickly realised that the cause was tripping and continuous short circuiting due to water seepage into junction boxes or other conduits, probably with brittle cabling. There is no point in having IP rated light fittings if your electrical infra structure is not at the same level of protection! We found rubber sealant rings of junction boxes replaced (probably they had become brittle through age) by black duct tape and I am sure that if we would have dug further we would have found more of the same. It is clear that before we can even undertake any lighting improvement the electrical infrastructure has to be thoroughly reviewed and tested with all failing circuitry to be fully replaced by new. Lighting is a s god as the weakest link and besides notable visual improvements we will make to the lighting, the electrical “IP” rating will have to be priority number one. The invisible is as important as the visible! I leave you with one famous cartoon (recently sent to me by a colleague) that describes communications in an organisation as no other…
Have a great long weekend!
Happy Chinese New Year to all.
Gong Xi Fat Choi!
Beatiful Buyukada Island 6.30am…
Parkview
The week that was…22-29 January 2016
Singapore – Jakarta – Singapore
Weekend 30-31 January 2016
This has been a week mostly spent in the office with a quick day trip to Jakarta on Thursday. What I retain most from this week is that running a lighting design practice has very little to do with lighting design. This statement may come as surprise to some people but those who run a design company or are involved in projects will know what I am talking about. I have stated on numerous occasions that the actual act of performing lighting design work, sketching with pen and pencil for the older generation or creating computerised lighting design concepts for the new generation, is a very little part of our daily work. For me it would be less than 10% of my time (if I am lucky!). The rest is a mix of managing people and their expectations, managing time and (administrative) tasks, managing quality both in document deliverables as well in light installation fitting quality and last but not least communicating (big thing!) and networking with existing and potential future clients. I could add more to the list…
Managing expectations.
This week was very much a reflection of this, managing people’s expectations mostly. We are involved in the early stages of a number of projects with a new project team and that always means “getting to know” each other. One of the projects has a new hot-shot project manager who wants to show the client he is “in charge” which translated into an avalanche of protocols and directives on who to or not contact, who to or not distribute, report…it was so complicated that it created more confusion then clarity. When I quizzed him about these protocols with some references to other projects I was basically told of and threatened that if I did not want to dig in line they could always look at another lighting designer…really? Anyhow I was comforted by the lead consultant and other team members, to just get on as it was obviously show-off exercise designed to impress the client. In my opinion he achieved the opposite and did not make many friends in the process. It will be interesting to see how long he will hold…hopefully we will all gel smoothly back together and get to a successful completion of this project. Developing a deliverables schedule to allow the overall building and construction schedule to be coordinated with all involved is crucial and not surprisingly everyone wants it “yesterday”. A lighting designers input is very much depending on the input from the lead consultants, architects, interior designer or landscape consultant. The reality however is often that it is issued to us as a completed package leaving little room for our inputs other then “adding on” the lighting, which generally results in the worst possible solutions. So a great deal of effort goes into managing the lead consultants and project manager in including the lighting designer in the process. I was surprised to find myself not invited at a major design workshop next week where all key consultants will be present. Obviously we are not seen as being “key” to the client. Their reasoning was that the lights were not yet installed so there was probably no need for me to come. After explaining our role (again!) and the importance of participating in the whole process, they realised the mistake and the flight arrangements were quickly organised.
Managing communications. Another issue that popped up a few times is about communication. Working with a project team means we need to coordinate and not work as a stand-alone. Two of our projects this week had typical examples of that. The first was just a straight forward missing out on the fact that the lighting designer should be copied and consulted on any outgoing package from the lead consultant. The interior designer had apparently issued a full design development package for an area in the project prompting the client’s project manager to ask us about the lighting. We were taken aback as we did not even know it was ready, let alone issued! And that while we had been in their office just a few days albeit discussing the lighting for another project. It surely ws not ill intended and assumingly under pressure just simply forgotten, but it does hurt a bit that we are not at the front of their minds. In another project, which is the start of a brand-new relationship with an architect/interior design group, we encountered a very similar situation, though this was much more due to their inexperience cooperating and consulting with a lighting design practice. We only met the client to presenting and discuss the lighting this week for the first time after that lead consultant had held it off and had had several rounds of design presentations including remote information from us. I had felt very uncomfortable and so was the client apparently. The meeting was a great success, reassured the client completely and will form a renewed based for a close collaboration with the lead consultant. Knowing what to do is one thing but managing it in the right direction is something else. Practice makes perfect they say and with both these lead consultants I think we have still some ways to go but eventually will result in great projects together.
Managing quality
Managing quality in the broadest sense of the word is very much related to time and a big part of our daily activities. Under time pressure often short cuts are made which generally goes at the expense of quality. Quality of documentation (mistakes) and quality of light fixtures (specification choice and alternative “equivalent” approvals). Managing a client’s mind set about what quality is, generally involves a cultural revolution and can be a time consuming (and often frustrating) process. Regardless whether you explained the consequences and benefits of poor versus good quality products, most people think with their wallets and not their minds. A head on clash with the client/ project manager this week erupted in regards to installing as specified lighting in the mock up room. The client insisted they wanted cheaper alternatives, but the allocated budget (less then 1/3 of our already moderate specs) left us scratching our heads. Which part of the basic quality aspects did they not understand?
Keep calm…I m a lighting designer…
Have a great weekend!
The week that was 18-22nd January 2016
Singapore – Bangkok – Guilin – Hong Kong – Singapore,
Weekend 23-24 January 2016
Travel
Back to my old habits this week with a lot of travel, though for one project only, our beloved hotel in the Guilin Mountains. While the site is famous (notably figuring on the back of the 20 Yuan bank note), scenic and beautiful, the travel to get there is rather daunting. As winter is traditionally a low season there there are only a few flights a week and the connectivity from Singapore is practically nil. The best route is generally via Hong Kong but the meeting dates (who choose these dates???) are such that alternative travel routes had to be found. We decided on a flight via Bangkok with a stop-over in Nanning as the quickest route to reach Guilin. It worked out quite ok. The return however is still ongoing as I write the blog. We had worked out a flight via Hong Kong but while the most direct route, there was a caveat; the transfer time in Hong Kong was officially only 50 mins. The flight left Guilin well on time with an initial arrival time projected of 10 mins ahead of schedule…as we were about to start our descend into Hong Kong however the captain announced that due to traffic congestion the landing would be delayed and we remained in a holding pattern for about 20 mins before finally landing 15 mins behind schedule leaving us only 35 mins to transfer. To compound the misery the plane was parked at a remote bay, where we had to wait another 10 mins for the bus. Add to that the fact that the plane for some reason had a whole bunch of elder people who could not really walk and had to be carried out of the plane and put in a wheelchair and you get the picture…we did not make it…I am now looking at nearly 6 hours waiting (luckily in the lounge) for our overnight flight back to Singapore…oh well look at the bright side, at least I can get some work done…and in the comfort of warmth as it was bloody cold on site with only some coal fires to heat up our site office J
Project commiserations
Dealing with Asians in general and with Chinese in particular is always a challenge and with never a dull moment to put it nicely. Communication and cultural differences seems to be the general frustration and even though I have been around in this part of the world for more than 25 years it never ceases to amaze me, how seemingly simple issues can be blown totally out of proportions. Let me share some of the commiserations with you. We had heard through separate channels that the client was not happy about us because he had been told by his M&E consultant (after going through our documents with the help of “someone”) that our drawings were not up to date, missing details and full of mistakes! Now that is a serious allegation, which I took very seriously knowing that our documents were coordinated and checked with the interior designer, architect and operator before issuance. Not only that, in a special WECHAT group used by the team to discuss or clarify issues, the perfect platform to clarify anything that may be bothering the rest of the team, nothing was raised and all said to be ok, so the feedback was obviously a big surprise. Confronting client and M&E consultant on site we found out several things; the M&E consultant had consulted with a lighting control supplier considered for the supply and ostensibly at the source of the negative report on our documents. Rather than bringing this up with us he chose to relay this to the client. The reality however became more evident, the M&E consultant, under pressure of time, was looking for excuses (and time) by blaming it on poor documentation by us. However on site clarification and verification by the complete team cleared us from any “wrongdoing” and put the ball clearly back in his court. After we talked it through the hatchet (for now?) was buried and the episode relegated to “cultural differences” and “misunderstanding”. In my opinion however it is incompetence, lack of experience and poor professional attitude but of course I cannot say that out loud. Cultural differences may also brought about a fear to communicate directly with us (“foreigners”) with potential risk to lose face, who knows. Anyhow we are hopefully, and peacefully, back on track and look forward to completing this project successfully as we are all convinced it will be a cracker of a project!
The China way
Another issue that came out of this week in China relates to the way Chinese do business. Everything for a dollar, is how Chinese business attitude is often described and in our lighting business it is no different. Shortcuts to safe money happen on all levels and even for a mock up room where original equipment specifications are generally installed for reference, clients often start the chase for these elusive dollars right from the start. In this case however I have to say that the client is pretty good and the dollar saving chase (or the “more money in my pocket” approach for some) is actually lead by the contractor / supplier combination. While instructed by the client to be as cost effective as possible they not surprisingly interpreted that as being as cheap as possible. The result was the installation of blatant copies of the original. With two mock up rooms up for review they tried their luck by installing the absolute worst in the first one to see if we would accept that! No real photo metric data available other then a poor, self-made, black and white, hardly readable paper copy with some image supposed to resemble the downlight, yet they claim that all our performance specifications are met. With our colour spectrum meter we could however quickly debunk most of the claims and reject the fixtures outright. Typically a class C type of fitting (C for Cheap and Copy).The second room was a bit of a different story though and reinforced what I have been observing over the last 1-2 years…the Chinese are getting damn good at copying! And I don’t mean copying the looks, no I mean copying the performance. While till now copies were done to match the look with the guts being the cheapest of cheap, there is a definite reverse trend going on. The “guts” and with that I mean optical quality, LED chip quality, binning (!), colour consistency, basically the quality of the lighting performance are starting to give the established manufacturers a run for their money. Not surprisingly they have picked up on the fact that lighting performance is more critical than the looks and buoyed by the fact that many of the leading manufacturers OEM their fittings in China, have found ways to replicate (and improve!) on the lighting quality. The downlight I found were of excellent quality, with well controlled clean optical beams and LED binning tolerances well within 3 Mc Adams! And here is the knock out…all that for less than half the price! The morale is the China way has changed. We can no longer say that (all) Chinese products are poor copies of poor quality. The reality is they are catching up and fast. I think the LED revolution has changed the lighting industry playing field completely. Everybody, designers and traditional manufacturers have to re-invent themselves to remain relevant!
Have a great weekend!
The week that was 11-15th January 2016
Singapore – Weekend 16-17 January 2016
A new year, season 7!
It is hard to believe that I am embarking on my 7th season of blogging! We are already well into January but I only returned to work in my Singapore office this week after a very relaxing time with my friends and family in Australia. While we had a very solid year behind us but I am particularly excited about the year to come. It feels like the stars a aligning for a great, successful and most of all gratifying year ahead. We got appointed into a few new projects right from the start of this year and some of my other projects and plans for this year are shaping up excitingly. I also have some plans to revitalise the blog with some exciting new elements, but more about that over the coming months…I started working on it and need some time to detail it out…watch this space.
To speak or not to speak…
So what happened this first week back in office. First of all I picked up my communication with an event organiser in Korea who had invited me to come and speak, but as many of these events, they seem very commercial more focussed on profit making rather than professional content. This translates into a situation that the event, even though government backed, requests all participants, speakers as well, to finance their own way to the event, including the event fees. I had made my participation conditional to having my costs sponsored as to not be out of pocket as an invited speaker to the event and after securing the sponsorship have confirmed my participation. We will develop separate activities while in Korea with my sponsor to maximise the outcome of my visit but I had a bout of conscience during the week whether to “speak or not to speak” as in principle I have my doubts towards the quality of the event if people have to pay their way in. This generally translates in one big sales and advertisement campaign by the speakers using the platform to promote their company or products rather the seriously sharing innovative and meaningful information. In the end I decided to use the event as a springboard for other activities in Korea, a country I have not been active for quite a while…time will tell if it was a right decision. The event centres on low carbon emission technologies, a subject close to my hart, and hence the decision to participate…
Communication
Communication and managing our clients and project team’s expectations remains a hot topic as always and this first week in office was no different. With the risk of being regarded as condescending or patronising, when leading our fellow consultants and diplomatically communicating with our clients in regards to prompt communication and consultation with the lighting designer was again high on the menu this week. Three (!) of our projects failed miserably in communication on different levels. In one of the projects the interior designer had issued full DD package without informing or copying us with the client then asking us where our lighting design was…In a second projects due to time constraints the interior designer had decided to go ahead and present the concept including their interpretation of our lighting concept to the client without us having provided our actual proper input. As a result the overall concept leaves much to desire and some catch up and patch up will be needed…and finally as part of an ID lead consultants team we discovered a total disconnect with the local architects who for some reason are doing their own thing while we together with the ID here in Singapore are developing our own…In all three cases I decided to personally intervene, with personal direct phone calls and face to face meetings with the bosses or lead designers involved. The reaction was immediate and supportive which leads me to believe that it was not intentional but just unthoughtful.
Technology innovation to continue unabated in 2016…
This year 2016 looks like continuing on the path of constant new innovations in the lighting industry that may have big impacts on our work as lighting designers. Two technology reports struck me this week, one being the renewed focus on developing electrical energy from plants(!) and the other in regards to efforts to bring back the incandescent lamp.
Producing electricity from living plants seems a real clever idea and the only company in the world that has managed to do that, Plant-E from Holland, was recently conferred the World’s Economic Forum Technology Pioneer award in recognition of their unique and innovative way of generating power. The report also highlights its first commercial projects in Holland (see press release link: http://plant-e.com/onewebmedia/Press%20release%20launch%20Plant-e.pdf). Plant generating energy modules are now commercially available in modules of 50x50cm and sold per 100m2. It is said it rivals solar power in output…That would be a much nicer sight then large fields of solar panels! In an interview the developers were saying that grassland could be used where cows maybe grazing while electricity is generated below the surface! Interesting development to watch.
Meanwhile researchers at MIT have managed to redevelop the good old incandescent lamp by surrounding the filament with a special crystal structure in the glass allowing to bounce back the energy that is usually lost in heat while still allowing light through, basically recycling light. Traditionally incandescent light bulbs are only 5-10% efficient with the rest of the energy lost, while compact fluorescent and LED light bulbs manage around 15-20% efficiency. It is believed that this new technology could reach about 40% efficiency effectively making the incandescent lamp far more efficient then LED lighting! Interesting to watch as well, certainly in consideration that many countries have moved to ban the incandescent light bulb!
Have a great weekend!
The long awaited book compilation of Martin's first year of blogging is available. Order now.
Feedspot Top 100 Lighting Blogs