The LED alternative
Jakarta- Singapore, 15th July 2014
I am in transit in my Singapore office for half a day before leaving for Hong Kong and Shenzhen tomorrow. The usual project and admin issues to follow up on. We are working on a commercial project in the Philippines in which we have suggested a lighting concept reminiscent of the good old neon tubes. A case of signage patterns becoming a lighting feature. For that however we have been asked if that can be done in LED (hey, what’s new 🙂 ) so we have been looking around a bit, searching the net, checking out suppliers, and to no-one’s surprise there seems to already be quite an extensive market of LED- NEON retrofit. While it is not my everyday application it did not came as a big surprise. Who or what application does not have an LED alternative? The LED Alternative…it sounds a bit like a Robert Ludlum thriller and as I think of it, it could be the title of my new book! A page turner that will keep you locked into the un-scrupulous world of the LED Cowboys and the LED Czars! The LED mafia taking over your world! Ha-ha…I can just see it…
Anyhow I was talking about signage but designed around LED rather then Neon. The flexible LED “tubes” do exist and from what I see can be bent in quite tight curves and shapes. It would not have the same sparkle as neon as they generally use a soft diffuser, which has different properties then the shaped glass the “neon” or cold cathode uses. Nevertheless you can certainly be creative though I would say with slightly less shape options. I am in Honk Kong tomorrow…probably the city where Neon was invented…I will have a look 🙂
Light watch 5-116: The LED – NEON alternative…
Tying up loose ends
Jakarta, 14th July 2014
The first day of the week is also the first day of a whole lotta travelling this week with at about one flight a day. I am in Jakarta today, before going to Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Hainan in China over the next couple of days, to tie up some loose ends. We are in a critical stage where light fittings are being confirmed some already delivered and installed. As I have said many times before the design is as good as the final installation so with the ballroom opening in about 3 weeks time for its first function, everyone is struggling to get their part done as good s possible. I spent today going again through all samples, doing some final testing and checking to make sure we have no surprises once it is too late and the lights are already installed.
My main concerns have been in regards to the dimmability of the lights and even though today’s table top testing showed promising result testing individual light fittings in a meeting room with a test dimmer is just not the same as handling a complete ballroom circuitry with hundreds of down lights. “My friend the supplier” (see my blog last week about the client’s friend-supplier) is supplying the lights AND the dimming system and considering they have never done any large scale public hospitality lighting has my concerns raided to the maximum. Today’s individual dimming test was promising but is no guarantee the end result is assured…on the contrary…fingers crossed!
The same can be said about linear lights and their colour consistency. Having one good sample does not mean that when all are installed we will have a consistent colour temperature (on the client’s insistence we are using “cheaper” versions)…I already could see some deviations in the installed parts on site…the supplier assured me they will make sure these are replaced…time will tell…
Light watch 5-115: The activities in the ballroom are in full swing…will they finish in time?
Design without concept
Singapore, 11th July 2014
It happens at times that the project owners are in a hurry don’t really have a properly conceived idea what they want except it has to be quick and cheap. What’s new you are going to say, but in our business that is not all that easy to administer, specifically if you have a fee proposal that is based on specific stages from concept to documentation and from contract award to completion of the whole installation. When these steps are not fully cleared you have the potential of a very messy project where the clients administration does not really know how to deal with your invoices. The appointment fee is generally a no-brainer, you get appointed you receive your starter or mobilisation fees. But once you invoice for schematic and or concept it becomes harder if you have practically moved straight to documentation as there is not much to conceptualise.
We are in a situation like that at the moment with 2 of our projects, where there is really no need for a real concept. One of the project is a renovation the other is a new project (but taken over by a new client) in which we were brought in to look after the lighting after the basic design was already done by previous consultants. Hence our role is review and recommend in this one. In the other, which is more landscape related there are no site plans and there is basically not a big budget to do a lot. The lighting is existing but 20 years old or thereabouts. The only way we can go about it really is to use site pictures and advise how to improve or replace the current lighting for better results. In both cases not much of a concept or you would have to take our strategic approach to these projects that does describe in general line how we intent to attack the lighting issues as being the concept. Perhaps you can say our contract is not properly suited to this but honestly when we started these projects these details were not really spelled out.
Anyhow we are managing that with our experience and in a way you can say that the concept is already build into our actions and recommendation exactly because of our experience on how to resolve it. But it shows that you need to be skilled in not just lighting design as at the same time we are running a business in which cash flow is critical, so understanding the finer details of contract administration as part of designing is really important. 🙂
Light watch 5-114: There are always people with inspirational and creative lighting concepts. This one was produced by Croatian lighting design studio Skira who projected colourful lighting on to these giant shipyard cranes in the city of Pula and position and made to look like the famous origami paper cranes. Have a great weekend!
The perfect office…
Singapore, 10th July 2014
One of the things I always wanted to do in a project is to introduce a typical daylight cycle into a work space. Now that I have moved to a new office I am going to lead by example and install this system in our office. The idea is that the lighting will follow the colours of the day from sunrise to sunset. We are also dedicating a section to actual colours, so that we can play around with that as well, a bit like they are doing in modern airplanes (like the A380 and the Dreamliner), where depending the time of the day we can program a colour to stimulate say coffee time or lunch time.
One of our main aims is also to be able to play with the lighting controls, programming, pre-setting scenes etc. While we have already moved into our new office this is one of the things we are gradually implementing without disturbing the daily work load. When we moved in we inherited the previous tenants lighting. We got rid of most but we have maintained some basic lighting to work. Now it’s time to show our skills as lighting designers and put our words where our mouth is. It is well known that doctors are always good at treating others, but when it comes to looking after themselves it generally seems not a big priority…same with lighting designers. It’s time we change that! Over the coming weeks with the support from some of our trusted suppliers and manufacturers we are slowly transforming our office to a model lighting space. We look forward to that. In the process we are taking three lighting aspects to heart. Sustainability by using the most efficient lighting systems available; daylighting by programming and creating our lighting design to maximise daylight and health by creating a dynamic lighting system that will impact positively on our bio-rhythms, our moods and hopefully our productivity! The perfect office…for us 🙂
Light watch 5-113: Balancing light with our circadian rhythms…
LED concept and reality
Singapore, 9th July 2014
While the Indonesians have a day off to vote for their new president, work on our sides just moves on.
I often state to my clients that a lighting concept is as good as the reality of its finished implementation, and very often these are 2 worlds apart. We all start dreaming on how beautiful we can create the lighting in a project and some projects are really an open goal so to speak, where architecture, interiors or landscape have such striking features that just simply lighting them up is a sure hit.
But with the advent of LED technology and even more the compactness and opportunity to integrate the technology in building materials, we need to have a far more hands-on strategy and approach to our design, in order not being caught out at the end. Not so much with the architectural lighting where, as long as we stick to integrated COB LED technology, we are pretty sure things like dimming etc. will work out, but more with FFE items like chandeliers, floor, wall and table lamps, or even integrated façade lighting. In these cases the manufacturers are still very much in conventional lighting mode and while we may conceptualise our designs with LED lighting the provisions, lamp holders, and cabling may already been developed the “old” way. We encountered that recently when we were testing LED retrofit in chandeliers.
In order to avoid wiring and control issues at a later stage we need to become more pro-active in the early design stages and engage with these peripheral “lighting” manufacturers so that these fixtures are LED ready and with that I mean integrated LEDs and not retrofit LEDs. We learn along the way…engage, communicate, resolve…
Light watch 5-112: Meanwhile lighting installations keep amazing and mesmerizing us time and again…
My friend the supplier…
Jakarta, 8th July 2014
What do you do with a client who has its mind set on using a specific supplier…I guess you (try to) comply…
I am faced with this situation in this project where we have basically been forced to approve the light fittings from this supplier. Off the record, the supplier is a personal friend of the owner, ok we understand. But on the record how do we reconcile the lack of quality and experience of this supplier with the end result we want to achieve, after all we are creating a 5star hotel look; like having to buy a Rolls Royce at a Volkswagen dealer! Will we be able to lift the relative lack of quality products to levels that we can accept? A big challenge! It’s happening everywhere I know, wouldn’t you like to help your friend? The problem is once you have made that decision it is hard to accept that perhaps your friend is not up to par. Courtesy dictates that you then “saves his face” and make the best of it all the way. This is the situation we are now facing. While there are certainly some quality aspects that we can approve for being compliant or close to compliant, there are a lot that need serious improvement specifically in the performance. I can live with a lesser material quality/ finishes, but I can’t live with a much lesser performance. The point is that my design and hence the location and the quantity of the fittings are based on this design; any deviation may result in poor lighting levels and limited lighting effects. Key issues here are light colour quality and consistency, the light output and distribution, and finally the dimming ability of the lighting systems. Small deviations in performance may result in big effect changes…
Light watch 5-111: On my approach to Singapore I was again reminded how powerful and impressive nature can be with a rare sunset…it felt like a light at the end of a tunnel… 🙂
All on board!
Singapore-Jakarta, 7th July 2014
A short stop in Singapore to meet with my team before I am on the road again to Jakarta to attend some progress meetings for one of our projects there tonight and tomorrow.
During my team meeting one project in particular seems to bug as no other…We are “on board” but with no official paperwork to confirm our appointment, which with some clients can be a delicate situation, with potentially disastrous outcomes. In this case the project is quite prestigious but the client is a notorious bad paymaster. We had started on this project 1-2 years ago already, but the project was aborted late last year due to insufficient funds or “irreconcilable budget issues”…whatever you want to call it. We were already on board then, with signed contract and appointment fees paid. However the contract was officially cancelled with all consultants asked to put in new fee proposal for the now revised scope and project brief just recently. In doing so all previous contracts became null and void.
Project meetings have re-started but with most consultants having no new signed contract! We submitted our new proposal and initially stood our ground we would not move until we had an official confirmation, a signed contract or our appointment fees paid. None of this had been forthcoming, but the new project manager has been organising meetings like nobody’s business, moving quickly and requesting technical documentation to be completed within a fortnight or so!
The tricky part of this situation is that there is a chance that our fee proposal may not be accepted as it is (it is currently together with all others with “the board” for review and approval!) and considering our history with them certainly a possibility. So do we proceed as being “on board” or do we hold off hard headedly until all administrative matters are settled? If we do that we remain on the side lines to a project that is seemingly moving fast with the potential that a disgruntled client decides to kick us out for non-performance even if that is totally of their own doing! After consultation we have decided to carefully progress with the required work while submitting a disclaimer to the client in regards to our proposal. See how this pans out…these are difficult business decisions to make as from experience I know it can swing either way. It all depends how eagerly we want to be on board…
Light watch 5-110: Meanwhile the Dutch have reached the semi-finals in Brasil! An unfancied but strong squad is getting ready to face Messi’s Argentina…what a game that will be after they started with a great victory over Spain (Van Persie’s goal) and held off a brave Costa Rica with some great safes in the penalty shoot out!
Testing 1, 2, 3
Perth, 4th July 2014
Another day and some more time spent on testing…It has become a far bigger part of our daily practice life then in the past, at least it seems that way to me nowadays. Again today we spent time at the showroom of one of our suppliers here in Perth to test ways to combat the colour striation and light distribution of our LED lights following the unwanted effects that we found during our assessment of the installation earlier in the week. With all the experience in the world it is still very hard to predict exactly the way light will play out in its environment certainly when you star mixing it with optical systems, filters and lenses. We did just that today just to get a feel of the options we have to resolve our issues and I am happy we did.
The most important of all is finding of a durable solution, not a temporary band-aid approach. If you are using good and durable quality lighting fixtures with high safety and protection ratings you want to make sure that whatever solution you come up with does not become the so-called “weakest link” in the system; hence the importance of coordinating these custom solutions with the manufacturer to maintain the integrity of the lighting installation. We tested filters, lenses, different optical set ups, angles, part filtering to get the feel of what worked best, which in the end turned out to be the lens. But while for one situation the integration was straight forward, in the other case we really need to look at creative solutions to fit the already customised fitting. Before we knew we had spent easily 2 hours just playing around…how quick time passes when you are having “fun” with testing! 🙂
Light watch 5-109: Images of our testing in action…enjoy your weekend!
Spot the difference?
Awards night
Perth, 3rd July 2014
Today a look at awards…I am attending the Australian Institute of Architects Awards night as an invited guest. Not so much to do with lighting, though there is a an architectural lighting category, but it does raise the question about the value of (lighting) awards in general. Recently electronic magazine IIlumni introduced a “hit parade” of lighting design practices based on lighting awards won, attributing points to award competition winners. There is no doubt that winning awards is a great marketing opportunity and I have to say I have not focussed much on this in the past couple years simply as I have been busy re-building my practice under my KLD banner. I am aware of companies that submit projects or products simply with the intention to be nominated or mentioned, their thinking being that a listing and nomination already puts them on a higher footing and more in the public’s eye. Even if you don’t win a nomination or citation is still regarded as a great promotion…if you have been shortlisted or nominated it means that you must be good, right?
It however begs the question how truly these award competitions reflect the general quality of design. Many practices are small with small budgets and little manpower, as a result you hardly ever see these small practices participating as it does take time and money to submit your entries. Yes awards are not free; you need to pay to participate! If you look at the list of award winners they are generally big and established practices, bar the occasional exception. Here in Australia we have the IES-WA lighting awards coming up later this year and perhaps I may participate this time again. I have been a participant and winner in the past but honestly because the low participation at times you are nearly guaranteed a honourable mention or award by only participating. So the perception is a bit flawed as the greater public generally would not have the information about how many participants entered the competition in the various classes.
So in my opinion the jury is still out on this matter; but there is no doubt that if you win or are nominated that there is some commercial value for your company image and marketing efforts!
Light watch 5-108: Local lighting supplier Mondoluce was one of the sponsors of the awards night together with IGuzzini. One of the awards was for architectural lighting…
LED Lessons learned 2
Perth, 2nd July 2014
We keep learning our way through the LED minefield…
Today my team in Singapore faced a challenge in regards to resolving a specific dimming issue related to the dimming of big decorative ballroom chandeliers that are being reconditioned to a new look with (of course) the inevitable LED retrofit. The problem that we faced initially was to find the LED lamp that could reproduce the sparkle to bring out the crystals, originally done by clear glass 40W E27 GLS lamps. The replacement was found in an 8W E27 retrofit with similar lumen package in a clear globe producing the small focal lighting point that we needed for the sparkle effect. Colour temperature a nice 2200 or 2500K, so all good.
The manufacturers information stated that the lamp was seamlessly dimmable to less than 5%, again just what we wanted. But as always due diligence called for some testing with the dimming equipment that we had agreed with the client, basically an upgrade what was already available in other areas of this hotel project. Not suspecting any major issues we were taken aback when we were informed that the initial test on the mock up showed limited dimming possibilities! What the…!
So we went out to investigate to find one of those issues that probably many of you encounter in the field. The dimming modules were designed for incandescent loads. I understand that in our case the LED load was well under the minimum load required for the leading edge dimmer to operate properly. While the dimming specialist was telling us to increase the circuit load, adding an active load is not the solution as it does not solve the root problem, it also does not react the same as the LED dimming driver!
What should be done is that the dimming systems should look at modules suitable for much smaller wattage systems! We reduced the power load by 5 times, the dimming system should adapt accordingly. We don’t realise all this when go about our LED selections, but as LED becomes standard, dimming system manufacturers should move in sync to develop LED compatible modules when it comes to dimmable loads. Lesson learned again and appropriate action taken!
Light watch 5-107: There are some impressive chandelier designs for ballrooms, I googled a few for reference…there are many lighting points in these chandeliers!
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