“Born in the USA”
Singapore, 9th June 2014
Back in Singapore! While I re-adjust to our daily office work (it’s the first time since several weeks that I am actually a full day in the office!) I reflect on my American experience. I submitted my transfer membership application from PLDA to the IALD as the only remaining “international” professional lighting design association. And herein lies my internal conflict; on one hand I fully subscribe to a professional organisation that promotes the profession, supports its members and provide a standard reference for the provision of our services, on the other hand I am trying hard to find a connection between myself, my practice and an organisation that has its roots in the US. Being Dutch and having my practice with projects from Europe to Asia I had a clear affinity towards the ELDA, later the PLDA. With the PLDA now being defunct, I am missing an organisation that I felt was in support of my profession and the region I work.
Don’t get me wrong, the IALD has been around longer and has established itself as the principal umbrella organisation for professional lighting designers around the world, yet I can’t escape the feeling it is too much rooted in the American culture. Having been to Light Fair last week that feeling was reinforced with my impression that the exhibition was clearly focussed on the American market (in itself understandable), with predominantly American based manufacturers present in the show bar the occasional Chinese, Asian and even rarer European manufacturer. I also had a strong feeling that the American lighting market in some ways is still lagging a bit behind as contrary to Light and Build there was still emphasis on conventional lighting technologies including plasma, induction and fibre optic lighting . Or perhaps the American market is further ahead… 🙂 ?
The American market also with its different voltage, frequency, demanding legal standards and constraints is definitely different to operate in; I would have to take out a special (and expensive) indemnity insurance to be able to work on projects in the US. IALD was “born in the USA” and therefore understandably has American roots. In order to become truly international it will have to embrace other cultures and markets with an open mind and without wanting to convert, but rather encourage, support and harmonise. If I am given the opportunity I certainly hope to contribute.
Light watch 5-96: More impressions from Light Fair…
Light Fair 4 – Las Vegas
Las Vegas – Singapore, 5th -7th June 2014
The thing with travelling the date line is that on your way back you lose a whole day, but as it turns out for me nearly 2 days! I left Vegas on Thursday morning after a very satisfying time during which I made many new friends, walked the fair, did my presentation, enjoyed the strip, saw Cirque du Soleil’s brilliant -O- show and even ended up with a handsome pay-out after a compulsory stop at the casino on my last night…I could not really leave Vegas without having set foot in a casino! I had planned to see the Pawn Stars (from History Channel) but did not get to it (A friend of mine did and manage to get his picture taken with one of the guys!). Neither did I manage to see all the famous hotels along the strip (Mirage, MGM, etc.). Vegas is of course mostly known for its casino strip (movie fame) and when you walk around it is obvious from everything around you that it is all about money and opulence…
As I write this it is 6am in the morning on Saturday 7th June while in transit in Tokio for my final leg to Singapore…after a smooth flight from Vegas to San Francisco, the trouble began as our plane for Tokio had mechanical issues causing massive delays. After a 4 hour waiting period (luckily I had lounge access) we made it to the taxiway only to be informed that problems were persisting and we had to return to the gate. After another 2 hour wait the flight was finally cancelled leaving everyone in a scramble to find alternative flights back. I managed to catch a flight to LA with onward connection to Tokio and Singapore. By the time I arrive in Singapore later I would have travelled, including all delays and transits, close to 40 hours (!), not really what I had in mind after my enjoyable time in Vegas. Is it the american airlines that seem to have these troubles with their planes? If not for business class and the lounges I would be absolutely nacked! While this was probably my “Last Vegas” what “Happened in Vegas does not stay in Vegas!” 🙂 .
Light watch 5-95: Las Vegas in pictures; a selection of the amazing opulent interiors as well as the strip at night
de Strip
Venetian
Paris & Planet Hollywood
Bellagio
Cezar’s Palace
Wynn
Cirque du Soleil, preshow entertainment at the Bellagio Theatre
Wynn win at the casino!
Light Fair 3 (Colour special)
Las Vegas, 4th June 2014
Before I show you my Las Vegas casino strip night time pictures, I want to finish of today first with one aspect that is being pursued by many with varying success…colour consistency, colour tuning and adjustable colour dimming for LED. Only a very few companies seem to master it, and for a change I would like to highlight them here specifically as they seem to be the ones leading the way. Two of them are what one would call technology brands in the way we speak about Xicato for instance. They have developed the technology filed the patents but are not selling their core components other than through major manufacturers.
LEDZWORLD is a Malaysia based LED manufacturer specialised in LED driver and dimming technology who have developed the technology to seamlessly dim LED’s in the same linear way we were used with halogen dimming. In other words from bright white light at 3000K to a soft warm glow at 1600K. What is special of their Chameleon technology is that it allows the LED lamps to be dimmed by any (!) dimming protocol. No longer do we have to be worried whether the dimmer system will be compatible with the LED lamp in terms of dimming. Specially in the residential and hospitality industry this will be welcome news as it allows to dim and create ambience settings as before
LUMENETIX is a relatively new kid on the block that have made headways with colour tuning. They developed a technology (Araya Colour Tuning Modules) by creating the white light by mixing 5 LED colours, a mix of Lime, Amber, Red, Green and Blue. By adding Lime and Amber they are able to reduce the blue content (the one that needs the most watts to create light) in the process increasing the efficiency and output. The other great advantage is that it basically eliminates the whole binning issue. Though they do not claim this (yet), the result seems to indicate it is equivalent to a 1 Mc Adam step! Lights can be seamlessly be programmed to all shades of white. Major brands have already adapted this technology in their products. I was duly impressed.
LUMENPOULSE has developed an algorithm in the selection of LED’s in the binning process (Lumenbin technology) that virtually assures consistent colour through life per product. The algorithm selects LEDs 2 or more LED’s from different bins to blend them together into the equivalent of one single bin colour. As the colour is no longer depended on a single bin selection it allows to recreate an consistent average colour said to be equivalent 3 Mc Adams step. The technology is also independent of LED brands and can be applied to any is my understanding.
Note: These are the one I saw, there maybe others and if so please comment and share.
Light watch 5-94: Interesting and exciting stuff…I must say that this all is IT technology driven, not much to do with lighting technology!
Light Fair 2
Las Vegas, 3rd June 2014
Today the fair officially opened to the “public”. While seminars and courses have been going on since Sunday, the actual exhibition opened its door with an official ribbon cutting ceremony in the morning. A strong crowd was waiting to storm into the hall. This is only my second Light Fair, the previous one being more then 10 years ago, so my only main reference really is Light & Build in Frankfurt. Compared to the last time I attended LFI it has certainly grown in size but it is still nowhere near the enormity of Frankfurt.
It is also more “Americanised” if I can say so, with an enhanced focus on safety issues, quality standards, surprisingly (to me at least) a lot of attention to daylight harvesting and not surprisingly LED as THE one and only replacement solution for EVERYTHING. In order to do so the manufacturers resort to differentiating LED’s into specials, making the selection for the average Joe even more complicated. LEDs for health, LEDs for productivity, LEDs for relaxing and so on…as far as I can see the LEDs are technically all the same but with varieties in intensities, color or beam control. All in the name of being good for humanity…and of course a great marketing ploy…
Light watch 5-93: Here is my photo impression of the fair with some comments here and there…
– The crowd waiting to enter the fair in the morning
– Traditional lighting: incandescent now rebranded as “specialty lighting”
– Switch to LED made easier..
– Marketing to the extreme!
– Lee correction filters for LED…we may need these to correct all the horrible LED colours we get!
– Soora with their magnetic snap on correction filters
– LED GPS people tracking through light fittings; indoor location based services…Big Brother watching us now through lighting! Really, do we need this???
– LEDzworld, the only company (with their Chameleon dimming technology) that seems to be able to provide real and full dimming with active color control effectively reproducing halogen dimming features from bright white light to soft warm white within the same LED lamp…certainly leaders in their field!
Jan Kemeling from LEDZworld explaining the new technology to Paul James from Mondo Arc…spreading the word through professional magazines like Mondo Arc is really important for the lighting fraternity…
– Daylight harvesting, now combined with Integrated LED lights to complement lighting in darker days
– Recycling…not very common, but will all conventional lighting redundancy possibly a huge market for the next coming years! Do we ever include recycling as part of our recommendations in a renovation job?
– Of course they are present, your Asian/Chinese lighting manufactures…but not as much as in Frankfurt
– Lighting for health, marketing playing on your mind
– Las Vegas lights of course!
– Still some soldiers marching on with Plasma lighting and Induction lighting; they feel there is still a big market in the high performance applications
– Me ending the day with my presentation at the Spotlight lounge
Light Fair 1
Singapore- Las Vegas, 2nd June 2014
I am on my way! After a fruitful and enjoyable stay in Perth I have embarked on my long voyage to Las Vegas where I will be attending the Light Fair 2014. I am an invited speaker, so if you are there and want to come and listen to my story, I am on tomorrow 3rd June at 4pm in the main hall I believe. As I start writing my blog I am in transit in Tokio en route to San Francisco and onwards to Las Vegas. I had a brief transit in Singapore over the weekend but am now truly on my way. I nearly did not make it as on check in this morning I realised I had not applied for my visa waiver…just shows how rarely I travel to the US! With that assistance of the check in personnel and the wonders of internet on your mobile phone, I managed to apply right there and then and obtained my visa waiver approval with just minutes to spare…phew…I should have known that no one enters the USA without any form of prior checking!
For a change I fly with United, still Star Alliance but once you are used to the spaciousness of Singapore airlines it is a bit of a readjustment. Yes still the sleeper chairs, but where Singapore Airlines has 4 or 6 crosswise, United manages to cram 8 seats…hmmm, anyhow still comfortable… The San Francisco transit was a nightmare with a couple of planes unloading at the same time creating an absolute havoc at immigration. It took me 45 mins to go through and that was with jumping queues to beat my boarding time. Again I managed to board (of course the gate was at the far end!) with minutes to spare, sweating and puffing from the effort as I was carrying an additional 15 kg of my books with me!
Las Vegas welcomed me with a sweltering 37 degree Celsius…argh 🙂 ! I have now checked into my hotel just across from the Convention Center where the Light Fair is being held. I popped in to pick up my speaker badge and have a feel of the venue…tomorrow we start.
Light Watch 5-92: Impressions of Narrita and San Francisco terminals, then the unmistaken gambling machines awaiting you on arrival in Las Vegas and the convention centre where LFI is being held…maybe I may still have time to see one of Las Vegas’ famous shows?
Professional hazards
Perth, 29th May 2014
It is fast approaching winter in Perth which brings along early darkness and late sunrises. Now on my early morning walk (normally somewhere between 7 and 8 in the morning) the sun just comes up and the cold night slowly evaporates in the morning sun creating a little “haze” over the river together with the twinkling of the water drops of trees, grass and other.
The professional hazard that we lighting designers are confronted with (at least I am regularly) is when we drive at night. I was reminded of that tonight on my way back home when I nearly drove my car into sidewalk while looking at the new lighting of a nearby shopping centre slated for opening in the next few months! A last minute reaction avoided a collision with a street light! It is something that surely many of my colleagues fall foul off. We observe, specifically at night, the illuminated world around us in the hope to see something new, something creative and well done that we can learn from and perhaps reapply in a different form in one of our projects. We learn from the good and the bad by looking around and that’s why every professional designer is exposed to hazards of the profession, regardless what he is doing! To all driving lighting professionals, watch where you are driving!
Light Watch 5-91: Here is to nature and how the early morning sun and the late night fireplace at Perth’s famous Alfred’s Kitchen where people queue up to enjoy a soup and burgers inspires us to great things in lighting…
Reporting
Perth, 28th May 2014
Sometimes you have to do the extra mile to satisfy the project team and ultimately your client. I spent a good part of the day converting my concept presentation into a report format that will find its way to the client later. The report is combining all consultants inputs in a readable format so that the big bosses, who have no time in this particular project to attend our presentations in person. We have met and presented to their project director in charge but even though she may approve it, the final direction in regards to concept approval and associated budgets will come from the top.
My problem is that my presentations are very visual and the information that is needed in support of the images is in my mind…I know what needs to be done, I know what needs to be achieved and I know what pitfalls to avoid. All good and well when you do the presentation yourself but a bit more complicated when you have to bind it into a report. Without my verbal explanations it may not be that clear to the uninitiated so to speak. Big bosses tend to look at the bottom line and are not really interested in aesthetic issues, as long as the capital costs needed to realise the project will earn back the investment sooner rather than later. It’s all about dollars and cents. So I ended up converting my presentation that uses black backgrounds to better bring out the lighting effects into a white A4 report format (thank God in landscape format at least). The more challenging part was the narrative part to explain in simple words what the design intent and direction is of my design…I managed and I think it came out well, but it was really an extra mile that I had to do to reach there…
Light Watch 5-90: While I am enjoying my lighting in Perth here in the West, the East Coast is enjoying the Vivid Sydney festival of music art and light. I will be in Sydney next month but will just miss the event. Here are some pictures that I googled…
Ceilings
Perth, 27th May 2014
Heritage ceilings can be quite intricate and finding a lighting solution that validates the ceiling features without really impeding its beauty is a challenge. I have been looking at lighting for heritage ceilings and really one of the main points is that you can forget about introducing any sort of down light. If at all it would be needed for some practical reason, only very limited locations that do not disturb the ceiling features or patterns could be envisaged with the blessing of the heritage consultant.
This leaves only ulterior solutions to be applied such as indirect lighting from soffits or from suspended structures that are either decorative in nature with a period style design finish or a modern day sleek structure that has functional elements that take care of the lighting. Whilst the first is mostly an ambient and diffuse lighting approach, the second can have integrated multiple systems for indirect and directional lighting effects. Combinations of the two are of course possible. In my project I am looking at a combined solution with flexibility as the final usage of the space has not been finalised and will depend on the tenant that will be awarded the space.
When it comes down to the design of a bespoke fitting like that close coordination between architect in charge, heritage consultant and ourselves is important. In this case we have come up with the design intent and will need further consultation with a specialist manufacturer with experience in creating customised solutions…
Light Watch 5-89: There are many different ceiling designs some with magnificent chandeliers, some with just very intricate designs…
Heritage and history
Perth, 26th May 2014
Another week another country…my schedule has been fairly hectic lately and that when I was hoping to take my foot of the pedal! We have nicely settled into our new office in Singapore but I haven’t been able to spent more than 2 full days in there due to my heavy travel schedule. Thanks for the team for holding the fort!
This week in Perth I am following up on two very intriguing and special heritage projects, both with a rich history. Both buildings are more than 100 years old and are landmark buildings in the city. Build towards the end of the 19th Century (that now seems really long ago!) they both went through various changes and mixed uses. Both where a hotel at one point of time. Now one is according to my knowledge the oldest theatre in Australia, the other till recently integrated as part of bank, now to be turned into an entertainment hub with bars and restaurants. The heritage fabric of the building to become the attraction and the background setting for a new social meeting place. Of course this is driven by commercial thoughts as you can make much more money from a commercial use than by just using the space as offices. This trend has been going on a lot in countries that have heritage and historical buildings that are just sitting there.
The challenge for any lighting designer in approaching these projects is multiple; first of all the building fabric often cannot be touched or if it can, only under very strict guidelines with limited ways. Practically all these projects have specialist heritage consultants to advise the design team. The trickiest and most challenging part is the choice and selection of lighting technology and lighting systems. In the older days there was no LED, no compact fluorescent or metal halide for the matter. When it opened the lamps where either candle or incandescent with handcrafted fixtures to hold them. Re-imagining the heritage feel with new lighting technology is what drives the process… I look forward to the challenge…
Light Watch 5-88: Perth has many heritage buildings….recently heritage buildings were renovated and integrated with modern new buildings to create Brookfield Place, now a concoction of bars café’s, galleries and shops. Here is an impression..
Budgets revisited
Jakarta-Singapore, 23rd May 2014
On my way back to Singapore for the weekend after a busy travelling week…
One of the key issues that I have had to deal with is quality and budget, the ever recurring challenge when dealing with our clients. The thing with budgets is that it is as good as your input, nearly as with computer calculations. There are so many variables that at times your guess is as good as mine…no probably not 🙂
In our designs we already differentiate between what we call A, B or C Grade fittings in which A is your top of the line high quality product, B is your middle of the road basic quality product with C being your “China” made product in which China is meant metaphorically. We try avoid the C Grade fittings at all costs as they generally spell trouble with a capital T, so we focus our selection as a balance between A and B depending on the importance of the areas and the direction (budget) from the client. Applying A Grade fittings is generally a tough fight as specifically the LED budgets can grow sky high. With many budget planners still in the conventional technology pricing mind, it is often a tough sell.
The thing with budgets is that you obviously have to look at the bigger picture; overall project need, return on investments, savings in other areas and so on. But even when you have educated your client on that aspect there is still the discrepancy between what the manufacturer/ supplier will quote you for your budget compilation and what in the end turns out the “real” cost figure. Many a times we have found that to be much, much higher sometimes even double or triple (!) what we budgeted. Our budgets generally focus on the equipment costs, but when you have to cost in the installation costs, the mark-ups, you find yourself in a hornets nest with so many unknowns…no wonder that some contractors multiply the costs of your fitting to cover themselves for these. In my discussions today I decided to turn things around to move forward. I managed to agree on a total lump sum between the client and the supplier basically instructing the supplier to work within this amount, all fitting selections to my satisfaction and approval. Pheewww…
Light Watch 5-87: Budget thoughts in images…enjoy your weekend!
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