Getting over the finish line
Singapore, 3rd November 2014
Many of our projects starts years and years before its due completion. Some are on time (and on budget) as in an ideal world but most are not. Over the weekend we received some initial pictures from one of our clients of a project for which we have reached the finish line! Certainly if the end result is good and the client is happy then passing the finish line is a happy event. This is certainly the case here, but we put in more than our fair share of time and effort. We are still to go back one more time for the final adjustment and fine tuning of the preliminary programming, but the resort is ready to receive its guests!
Not all finishes are happy and achieved with great satisfaction, but many of them are. We put in generally all we have got so that we have no regrets and know that if anything that is the best we could achieve given the circumstances… this is important because clients judge you on your input and results. Unfortunately life is not that straight forward and if you have a great project team where everyone respects and communicates properly with each other, you are more likely to succeed, but more then often the circumstances and conditions are difficult and not always under control. This can be a difficult client, or even difficult project managers or procurement managers, insufficient budgets, incompatible time schedules and demands, poor planning and communication, the list goes on. I can probably write a whole book about everything that can go wrong in a project and even with the longest of experiences you may still run into unexpected problems. I have blogged about this before.
The process is as good as its weakest link…knowing or finding out what or who that weakest link is, can be an art by itself. Hence it is a enjoyable experience if we get over the project finish line with great satisfaction…another feather in our cap 🙂
Light Watch 5-186: Below some of the magic pictures that show of the magnificent location (Sri Lanka) and scenery of our project. Mote night time pictures to come soon!
Confidentiality
Singapore, 31st October 2014
In our professional consultant’s business we deal most of the time with confidentiality issues. We are part of an early design and project team and get access to sensitive client information as part of the design and construction process. At times we sign project specific non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s) but most of the time it is just a professional undertaking by ourselves in respect of the client. There are times we start working on projects that have yet to be announced to the general public and hence disclosure of any project information at such preliminary stage might be embarrassing or obstructive to the process as often the early design stages are also needed to obtain relevant approvals from local authorities. Divulging project information certainly when it concerns a project in the public domain needs to be treaded carefully and with consent of the project owner.
For instance we may want to feature one of our newly acquired projects on our website to let people know we are working on it out of prestige and general company promotion and marketing reasons. In today’s world not much communication happens through hard copy brochures, most is done through the internet with websites, Facebook and even blogs such as mine. Company profiles and references are sent through email and down loaded by prospective clients at the other end. We do publish our projects also through related industry magazines like lighting, interior or architectural magazines, but there as well we need to assure ourselves that we do not breach confidentiality agreements. We have clauses in our contract that take care of these issues and when signed off by the client allow us to use project materials for promotional and marketing intentions. We do this specifically to protect ourselves against potential confidentiality issues. However there are often projects were the clients get us to sign confidentiality agreements or modify these clauses in our contract to deal with the confidentiality the way they want (or need) it. Confidentiality is a matter of respect and trust and as professionals we need to uphold that to the best of our ability.
Light Watch 5-185: Away from the confidentiality I want to share some city scape pictures from Chongqing in China where I was just a week ago. This massive city of more than 30 Mio people (!!!) is impressive by its size alone. I was not able to ascertain whether the hazy conditions were due to fog or smog but nevertheless I ventured for a walk along the famous Yangtze river in the morning and snapped a few sights. My favourite has to be the tree up lighting with no less the 6 (!) metal halide floodlights for one tree; 2 from the ground and 4 in the tree! The decorative street light with 9 globes, 4 street lights and internal linear LED is also not bad… have a great weekend!
The Air LED’s
Singapore, 30th October 2014
As I was reading some of the literature from the fair on my way back to Singapore last night, one article specifically struck me. It was an article in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post with a report on one of the manufacturers that had launched a new innovative LED technology, it seems to call the Air LED. The article states that the technology is developed by Lau Kei-may, who is a professor at the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of Science and Engineering and telecommunications developer James Wang, who founded start-up company Cledos International just a year ago. They claim the new LED bulb is 25% more energy efficient than existing LED bulbs as they managed to considerably reduce the heat element in the bulb. As we all know heat dissipation in LED chips is one of the biggest challenges, resulting in some really ugly shaped lamps and luminaires. The Air LED claims that it emits light through a waffle shaped plastic component that removes the need for transformers (drivers?) to transfer electricity between circuits. I would have loved to go see this “innovation”. Yes, I am a bit sceptical, but would not be surprised that indeed innovations of this kind are possible.
This reality was further reinforced as I was googling additional information on the net and unexpectedly stumbled on Cree’s latest press release (date only the day before yesterday) that their engineers had managed to develop a heat sink-less LED lamp. Claimed to be dimmable as well the lamps will be much cheaper as not surprisingly the costs of thermal management in LED’s can cost up to 30% of the total product costs. Losing the heat sink also allows Cree to lose the always awkward looking metal structures used to dissipate heat. Interestingly here also it is claimed that convection (air flow) is at the core of this new development. As the LED chip diode heats up, air is drawn from outside through small vent-like openings at the base and the top and because hot air rises air flows continuously through the bulb to keep the LED chips cool. The press release claims that air flows regardless of the position of the lamp.
Two interesting and seemingly related developments…something to keep an eye on…
Light Watch 5-184: The article from the SCMP and the release picture from the Cree bulb…
More can be found on the Cree website: http://www.cree.com/
The Hong Kong Lighting Fair 2014 (Autumn edition)
Hong Kong, 29th October 2014
While I came to China and Hong Kong as part of the CLDA activities over the last couples of days, I did take the opportunity to walk the fair. I had not been to the Hong Kong Fair for quite some years now, so it was interesting to see how much the fair has grown. During the HKDTC’s cocktail networking party on Monday night the show was announced as the second biggest in the world (after Frankfurt’s Light & Build I presume) and with more than 2500 exhibitors present that is not surprising! It is definitely bigger than Light Fair in the US and seeing the amount of LED companies present promoting their products the overall impression was overwhelming. In true Hong Kong style everything was jammed-packed with hundreds of small little booths side to side all with screaming LED lights with narrow (if any!) walking spaces in between the stands. The show has grown so big that it is bursting from its seams with stands allowed on the outside hall areas, the mezzanines and even the basement car park! …Incredible! It is of course no wonder to find so many “LED manufacturers” (Cowboys???) with the world’s LED cradle just a stone’s throw away in Guangdong province. Seeing the wood from the forest is the most difficult part when you walk around as there are some real good companies with some real good LED products on offer. Not the big brands that you are used to as these mostly stayed away. I did notice Cree and Lumileds but otherwise it was predominantly the second and third tier LED producers that where in attendance.
It begs the questions why the big boys stay away from this fair which is extremely well attended from all over the world. One explanation is possibly the fear of being copied, but I think that by now that reason is long overtaken with some of the local guys having innovative solutions that potentially have future. One could even say that the big boys by not joining may even miss the boat…another Kodak moment? It is for sure that the new kids on the LED block certainly give the big established boys a run for their money and seen in that light, Philips recently announce exit from the mass market lighting industry is better understandable.
Another more sinister reason is possibly the fact that the big boys are getting some or all their products exactly from these second and third tier LED producers, some of them proudly promoting the fact that they OEM some of their products to the big names. The open association could possibly harm their bottom line because why would you buy from the big boys if you can get exactly the same light from its original manufacturer?
Fact is that many of the established lighting companies will find it hard to maintain their leading roles in the new LED age with companies such as Philips and Samsung already on the way out. In contrast at the Lux Review party last night a list of hot shot companies was named that were felt to be trendsetting and leading in the new LED age. Aurora, Xicato, Eldoled and Quarkstar came out top of the list which also contained such names as Soora and IGuzzini.
All in all it was a very interesting fair. In my opinion a total overload of LED information and product display with sales people hovering around you like flies which just comes to prove what a cut throat business LED lighting has become. Getting an unbiased and professional assessment of what is actually on offer becomes practically impossible!
Light Watch 5-183: Here are some images and impressions of the fair, the talk and the after hour parties…
The Declaration of Green lighting design – Forum 15 (DOG #15)
Hong Kong, 28th October 2014
I will report about the actual Hong Kong Fair in tomorrow’s blog but today I want to share the DOG event which was held in conjunction with the fair today. The Chinese Lighting Designer Association in its effort to promote good and professional lighting design in China and abroad has created a platform that it calls the Declaration Of Green lighting design or DOG. The event in Hong Kong was its first overseas and the 15th since its incorporation in 2008. There are plans to have further DOG events in and outside China to further promote lighting design education and project design cooperation. The CLDA aims to be a two-way street in which it promotes and provides overseas lighting design expertise to the Chinese project and education needs and reversely offers Chinese knowledge and lighting design expertise for both local and overseas opportunities.
There is a demand for foreign expertise in China in complementation of the local lighting designers who have carved steadily but surely a place in their country over the last couple of years. This cooperation offers opportunities to overseas consultants to participate in projects in China. At the same time the reverse happens were the Chinese designers are keen to develop cooperation with internationally established lighting designers.
Through the DOG events we (and I say we in my capacity as one of the CLDA’s external lighting advisers) organise these interactive platforms throughout China and in the future outside China to create better awareness of the lighting design profession in and from China. Today’s event, gracefully hosted and supported by the HKTDC, saw lighting design presentations of both overseas (myself and Jim Wallace) as well as local (Lear Hsieh and ZZ Zhang) experts to an eager and near full house audience at the HKTDC’s training centre. The feedback was great and encouraging with several opportunities for future collaboration discussed. Simultaneous translations in either Chinese or English made sure everyone was able to follow the presentations.
It was a gratifying experience to be part of this event and I must complement CLDA’s president Lear Hsieh for all the effort he has put in to make the DOG such a success. It bodes really well for the future! Well done to all.
Light Watch 5-182: Impressions of the day…
The Sichuan Fine Arts Institute – Lighting Seminar
Chongqing- Hong Kong, 25-27th October 2014
While I have meanwhile arrived in Hong Kong for the Lighting Fair, I would still like to blog about our second day in Chongqing (Saturday) that was organised by the CLDA in cooperation with the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, one of the famous art institutes in China. Students from all over China and I believe even from outside China apply to study here but only a “few” selected get admitted. When I say a few you have to appreciate that in the true grand Chinese way; thousands apply but only 2000 actually get admitted with many turned down. But it is fair to say that only the top crop of students makes it into this renowned institute. To make it even more elusive the principal of the institute is no other then mr. Luo Zhong Li, a world renowned Chinese oil painter whose paintings I understand sell for millions of RMB’s. We had the honour to meet Mr Luo to whom I presented a signed copy of my book in appreciation of his invitation to the CLDA to conduct training and seminars for the students. The CLDA, under Lear Hsieh’s guidance, have set up lighting design classes as part of the available curriculum at the Institute. The lighting seminar on Saturday was part of CLDA’s ongoing training program.
In the morning we first visited a site on the campus allocated as a workshop site for the students to apply and demonstrate their knowledge in outdoor lighting. The visiting CLDA members and speakers reviewed the proposed lighting installation by day as to share their thoughts and recommend some changes and improvements to the students for better effect. This would allow them to modify the installation so we could see the final result at night. Light fittings were provided by a local lighting sponsor. We also visited their exposition of lighting sketches. The interaction with the students, their questions and our expert feedback felt like a stimulating and gratifying interchange between the new and older generation of lighting designers.
The afternoon was filled with high quality presentations from the CLDA team; respectively myself, detailing the process of lighting design, James Wallace, who showed us how to create a meaningful immersive lighting environment, prof Zhuo, who shared his research and patented approach towards the quantification and qualification of LED in road lighting, Zhizhen Zhang with an insightful presentation about his work of lighting theme parks, Light Xu, with an in-depth expose about the appreciation of LED colour qualities (Ra1-15) and finally Roger Sexton with his practical and professional update on what can today be achieved in the field of LED colour consistency and lighting controls. Roger was speaking from his valued experience and background with Xicato, one of the leading and highly respected LED manufacturers in the world.
The day ended with a local and traditional Sichuan hotpot dinner where the mood (and noise) markedly raised to very happy levels as the evening progressed. A final stop was made at the student’s workshop site that we had visited in the morning to validate their efforts with our final review of the lighting effects at night. With our morning comments well implemented we concluded they had all done a great job. Congratulations to this new generation of future lighting designers at the SCFAI…you are on your way!
Light Watch 5-181: Impressions of the day…
As I will have quite a full day tomorrow (Monday) at the fair I may not be able to get my blog done, so hence the advanced posting…
Chongqing Interior Design Entreprise Association – Lighting Seminar
Chongqing, 24th October 2014
Our first day in Chongqing was dedicated to the local interior designer association, the CIDEA, which recently was adopted as partner in the IFI, the International Federation of Interior designers. A handsome group of interior designers, architects, developers as well as members of the Chinese Lighting Design Association (CLDA) attended this important lighting event. The CLDA is a select group of lighting designers in China which membership is restricted and subject to high level experience. I am an external consultant and adviser to the organisation and in that function invited to share my experience with the participants. Together with me were James Wallace, a long-time friend and colleague in the business from Australia and also a former director of the now defunct PLDA (Professional Lighting Designer Association) as well as Lear Hsieh the current president of the CLDA. Both James and Lear are very much involved in bettering the cause of good lighting design through public educational events, university programs and lighting seminars such as this. It is was certainly an pleasure and honour to share the stage with them today.
James started the proceedings with his insightful presentation called: “Subjective impressions in lighting”, in which he outlined the key factors, very much related to the human appreciation of light and lighting, that determine what is considered good lighting design. He was followed by Lear who (in fluent Chinese 🙂 ) outlined the key role of the CDLA and its objectives for the Chinese market including the vital stages of work and documentation required for completing well design lighting projects. I rounded of the presentations with my talk: “The challenges of using LED lighting technology in architectural interiors”, a collection of my hands-on experiences and project case studies showing what it takes to bring a beautiful lighting design concept all the way to its actual and real implementation. A design is only as good as its final end result and hence the rocky road from concept to reality is something that many aspiring lighting designers, but also architects, interior designers and client developers need to understand to achieve a successful lighting project.
While some parts of the presentations may have gone lost in translation at times due to the language barrier, the overall response was very enthusiastic with a spirited Q+A time and positive feedback from the participants. All in all a very gratifying day that ended with a co-sponsored dinner by the CIDEA and the CLDA…
Light Watch 5-180: Impressions of the day…
Learning from our mistakes
Hong Kong, 23rd October 2014
I am on my way to China to participate as a speaker in some events organised by the Chinese Lighting Designer Association and currently in transit in Hong Kong. As an invited expert speaker I am expected to share my knowledge and experience in the field of lighting design with the participants to the lighting seminars that are being conducted for aspiring lighting designers, interior designers, architects, government representatives and students. I don’t know the exact mix of people that will attend but roughly this will be the composition of particiapnts. A few hundred are expected over the next few days.
I relish these opportunities because I feel blessed being able to share by more than 30 years of experience in project lighting design with willing and interested people. What good is it for me to keep my knowledge to myself? I have always felt gratified by sharing. I have done that with my book Light Talk, through my magazine articles and through my public presentations and lighting seminars.
The crucial thing is always to learn from your experiences and in some cases from your mistakes. I am not ashamed to admit I make mistakes, even after more than 30 years in the business. The difference is that with time and experience you become better equipped to deal with or even better to rectify it. Unfortunately I have learned that knowing what can go wrong does not necessarily prevent it from happening again, sometimes in a different shape or form. Failures come in many different disguises! Certainly today with the ever changing and developing LED technology we are dealing with a moving target; what you know today may be outdated tomorrow!
There are two main issues that keep bugging me and which keeps me on my toes in designing the lighting for my projects. One is the lighting performance quality, it moves and improves continuously for the renowned quality brands, but at the same times disappoints regularly due to embellished performance claims, mostly driven my commercial pressure. The other is the control of the lighting mostly through dimming. Whether 0-10V, leading, trailing edge, DALI, DMX, etc., no-one seems to have it fully worked out. Here as well many claim they have it “under control” but reality is different and while I have gone through this many times now and I believe I know the problems that we can face, I still get surprises, despite diligently testing the lighting systems. Learning from our mistakes is a continuous process!
Light Watch 5-179: Lighting can mean so many different things to so many different people!
Cliff hanger
Perth- Singapore, 21st – 22nd October 2014
As I left Perth yesterday after some last minute meetings I looked back at the pictures I took on Monday night of the first testing and commissioning of the cliff lighting we did at Arthurs’ Head Beach in Fremantle… a real cliff hanger… :). We had tested some individual lights before to make sure we knew what light to specify and I blogged about the tests a few months ago, but until you see it in full, all lights together, I am always a bit nervous… will it come out the way I envisaged? Will it work the way I wanted? Will the client like it? With all the experience in the world I still have these feelings every time I go to look at a first light up after contractors have spent days, weeks or months installing your lighting design.
Most of the time it turns out just nice, close to expectation, but still…On Monday night we turned on the lights and the effects were beautiful. There is still some tweaking to be done and one light to be added where we feel we have a dark corner, but overall the position of the lights their coverage and grazing angle did very much justice to the rough and textured limestone cliff surface. Specifically when the colours started to be tested the level of excitement raised notably. I may need to rethink my original notion that we should just light it up in neutral white and only use colours in the weekend or to coincide with events. For instance when the Fremantle Dockers play their footy game, which normally sees the town turn into purple, the club colours. Interestingly the purple colour looks great on the photo, but in real life the colour was not as strong. It just shows that our eye has a totally different sensitivity to light then a camera!
Overall one could feel the sense of relief and appreciation for the lighting and the client straight away started planning dates for its inauguration, to coincide with the first of the summer beach markets to be held later in November. Another great project in the making!
Light Watch 5-178: A beautiful sunset sky provided a dramatic background as we started our work…The lighting effect on the limestone cliff turned out really nice…while I was initially headfast on maintaining a minimum in colour applications, neutral white being my preference to bring out the natural colours of the rocks best, I was swayed by the rich and impactful colours…I programmed a colour roll…
PS today is a public holiday in Singapore (Dipavali) so hence the double date header.
Light house
Perth, 20th October 2014
Over the weekend I took a break and drove down to Margaret River for a bit of R&R. It turned out I also escaped the wild weather in Perth, but we only found that out when we returned yesterday; we enjoyed beautiful, though cold, weather. One of the stops on my trip was the Cape Naturalist Light House (…of course 🙂 ). It was Australia’s last manned lighthouse and was build over a period of 10 months in 1903. The gold rush in the 1890’s in Western Australia had enabled the government to save up money to undertake these projects such as the at that time much needed light house. The light house is only 20m high and has only 59 steps to reach the top, but as it stands on a plateau about 100m above the sea level it is effectively 120m high. The light house is still fully operational but converted to automatic operation in 1978 with the last lighthouse keeper leaving in 1996. A light sensor activates the light house at dark and a computerised checking system keeps track of its working reporting any malfunctions directly to Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The major cost was for the custom made lead prism crystal lenses commissioned from Chance Brothers from Birmingham in the UK, one of the leading light house equipment manufacturers/ suppliers at the time, costing nearly 5000 pounds, which would translate in several millions at today’s rate. The diameter of the lens system is about 14 foot. It consists of two lenses that focusses the light to a ultra narrow beam visible as a flash as it rotates. The lenses rotate in 10 seconds creating two flashes with a unique 2.5 and 7.5 second interval. The lens system sits on a turntable that including the lens weight 12.5 tons. The weight floats on a bed of mercury, an ingenious design, to assure the electrically motor driven equipment provides a clockwork and friction free rotation.
The lamp, only a 1000W 3000K halogen bulb, seems minuscule compared to the huge prism crystal lenses, but its light through the lens system is said to magnify nearly 900 times creating a flash of light that is visible more than 25 nautical miles away. The small bulb replaced an earlier much bigger filament version.
Light Watch 5-177: I have always found light houses to be inspiring. Converting light from a tiny light source to a beam easily visible tens of miles away…
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