Recall – LED alert
Singapore 25th March 2013
Monday…another (but short) week ahead as coming Friday is a public holiday…
Typical day in the office: clearing your email inbox, responding to urgent matters, chasing slow paying clients, working on concept presentations, planning meetings and project site visits, attending outside coordination and site meeting while managing to have a decent lunch in between J
One of the big happenings in LED world from last few days was undoubtedly the recall by the Lighting Science Group (LSG) of no less than 554,000 LED lamps from the market sold under the names of Definity, Ecosmart, Sylvania and Westinghouse, some major brand names! The announcement was made by the Consumer Product Safety commission of America and was picked up by most lighting publications including the Professional Lighting Design Magazine who issued a special newsletter to all its (lighting designer) members. Main reason for the recall: the imminent danger of fire. Reports of 68 cases of LED overheating causing all sorts of damage such as melted fixtures, damaged light sockets and lamp circuits, burned rugs and carpets. There was no report of any personal injury.
The LED lamps concerned were all retrofit models for 120V A, G and R types also known as GLS (40-50Watt) and PAR 20 types. From my understanding sold in the US. The consumer commissions advice is to immediately stop using the LED lamps and remove them from their fitting. By contacting the manufacturer a free replacement can be obtained. The LED lamps have been identified as having been manufactured from October 2010 to March 2011, not surprisingly in China.
Interesting observations to make here is that the production at the time would have been roughly 100,000 pcs a month! Also that it has taken 2 years from manufacturing to actually find out about the defect. I can only imagine how many millions of LED lamps/ systems are currently being produced worldwide (scary!) and how many of these will actually be found to be defective (more scary!). This only came to light (literally) because of a responsible manufacturers’ action, how many would have suffered (or are suffering) the same faith elsewhere without the general public being made aware??? This totally fits my LED Cowboy profile…there is so much money to make with LED’s that scrupulous people take advantage at any cost, not bothered by any of the consequences.
Note I am not saying that the LSG is an LED cowboy; it just looks like they have been caught one by one…
Light Watch 4-52: The promised mood images from last weeks’ Ilumni Infinity awards party in Singapore. Photo’s courtesy of Ilumni Magazine (Blink photography).
3D facade lighting is here
Singapore 23rd March 2013
Got late last night after a busy day in and out the office…I had tickets for the Roots & Rock festival last night which saw 2 of my favourite musicians (Bonnie Raitt and Paul Simon) perform, so could not let that go. I used to play Bonnie Raitt songs in the Seventies, so there you go, a bit of nostalgia…
I blogged about media facades in the past but was sent a link yesterday to what must be the ultimate in façade lighting projection technology…3D mapping. But real 3D like what you see in the movie theatres. The technology has progressed to a level where you can experience 3D without glasses. One of my friends in Singapore sells the technology for TV screens and I can say from personal experience it is amazing. So I am therefore not surprised that it is now finding its way on the building facades. There are several companies in the world specialising in “3D” projection, but technically it should have been named 2D as most of the time what you see seems like an animated movie projection. Maybe with improved technology the 3D looks more real with projections coming out of the façade.
While spectacular (and spectacularly expensive), I cannot imagine this taking great flight on any commercial roadside building. The implications for safety and security would be too great. The distraction and possible scare to unsuspecting passers-by, whether pedestrian or motorised traffic, would cause a real and present danger…this kind of commercial activities can to my opinion only be applied in a controlled way; controlled in the way of location, controlled in the way exposure. As you could classify this as a show, I would imagine after the initial excitement interest would quickly wear off, bringing it then back to the level of street “noise”, your regular multimedia billboard type of advertisement to which you hardly pay attention.
It will be interesting to follow its development though to see how far this will reach and how eventually this will be regulated…
Light Watch 4-51: See LG’s commercial launch in Berlin making use of the 3D building projection. See for yourself in the video link below.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XVTga6GmbGw&vq=medium#t=74
Light pollution
Singapore 21st March 2013
An interesting article in today’s newspaper…Hong Kong University researchers have found that their city is one of the worst light polluters in the world. In a report issued ahead of the upcoming Earth Hour this Saturday, they concluded that the city’s night sky more than 1000 times brighter than globally accepted levels, reference being international dark sky standards, which takes void-of-man-made lighting as a base measurement standard. In simpler words, the sky brightness if all man-made lights would be switched off, which pretty much leaves the moon and the stars as the only natural light source. The measurements were taken from no less than 5 million vantage points across the city, though the report did not specify how the brightness was measured.
Light pollutions in cities is an on-going discussion and it is no surprise that the Earth Hour and Dark Sky movements are gaining more and more popularity…and with reason! In some of my previous blogs I have brought up world’s longest LED media wall (Jakarta) and shown images of the Earth at night take from space showing how bright some cities are. Fact is that when you are in big cities like Shanghai, Tokio, London, Sydney (which are listed in the report as being considered bright), the light from media walls (LED!), façade lighting, advertisements, road, security and area lighting (!) can be quite overwhelming at times. While there is of course a middle way, it is a good reminder to all lighting designers to be very mindful of our environment and design with thought and intention.
Not to forget that excessive lighting besides energy wastage may also have unhealthy side effects disturbing peoples sleep and even more disturb the human body clock and hormones! More and more therefore we see cities putting out regulations in regards to amount and extent of lighting at night in attempts to fight light pollution, now a commonly accepted “evil”!
Light Watch 4-50: The Hong Kong city and skyline at night…
A different focus
Singapore 20th March 2013
Tonight I had an enjoyable evening at the Illumni Infinity awards night organised by the in-fatiguable Tariq Qayoom, the publisher of Illumni magazine. The infinity awards are touring the world with several pit stops amongst which Singapore tonight and I believe London and New York to follow. Bringing the awards and showcasing the wining projects is a nice event but really for the lighting community here also a good excuse to get out and come together sharing our experiences and the state of our lighting design practice with colleagues in the business. It is always interesting to hear from others, as they are interested to hear from you (I assume :))…
I had two totally different discussions about how a practice focusses on the project market; one from a small but very well established lighting design practice, one from a lighting design practice being part of a big multinational conglomerate. Two obvious opposites which was clearly demonstrated by the way they focus and deal with their practice, their projects and their management. In a small and independent practice you have to be flexible and the main focus is really cashflow as there is no big financial back up. So the focus is on projects with good paymasters or countries with good legal administration systems where payments are generally organised and easy to legally challenge, like Singapore, Australia. I found out that this practice is shunning countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and India because of their very slow and difficult to chase payments. Strangely though, China was ok. I guess it all depends on your clients and the experiences you have.
The multi national practice had to deal with totally different issues, much to do with safety and security issues. Not so much in regards to the safety of travelling somewhere but more the potential safety and security threats that potential clients could yield against their company. So vetting companies legal status, financial status all seem part of a “firewall” culture to protect the international operations of the company. Also being a large multi national company everything is regulated. Unlike a small practice like ours, everything up to fee structures and amounts are regulated leaving little room to move…Interesting.
Light Watch 4-49: I don’t have pictures from tonight’s event but hopefully I can share some very soon. Meanwhile taken from Illumni’s magazine here are some of the Infinity Award winners. Respectively Optique Optometrist by Petra Kleegraefe (Architectural Lighting Design); Crown Melbourne, Eastern Façade by Electrolight; Kings Avenue Overpass by Steensen Varming and Lobby Chandelier design by Stephen Hennessy Afrt & Design. See more at http://illumni.co
Reversed education
Singapore 19th March 2013
Back to LED! It’s been a couple of blogs I have not mentioned LED’s I believe 🙂
Yesterday I met with one of the LED suppliers and had an interesting discussion. At least this one is on my page and understanding that conversion to LED (he specialises in retrofit LED) is not a matter of just replacing a conventional light bulb, like most cowboys who promote their LEDs to prospective but unsuspecting clients. Our discussion reminded me of one of the many LED sales people that use misleading comparisons, diagrams and application pictures to state their case (I had one recently), comparing only the technical features. Rarely do we see sales person talk about the lighting effects to be achieved. In this case a conventional light source of 35Watt was to be replaced by a 12W (LED)… is that a good thing? The beam diagram shows both having the same angle, the energy consumption is clearly less and the LED lifespan is a multiple of the conventional source. But on closer inspection we notice a few things. The lumen package of the LED is only about 2/3 of the conventional source and the beam shape of the LED has a sharp cut-off while the conventional lamp has a soft fading beam. It is unlikely (assuming the colour of the light is the same) that the lighting effect (light distribution/ brightness/ contrasts/ overall mood) will be the same…
Also who talks about proper return on investment? It’s not just an energy story! It is also the frequency and cost of replacement, noting that we do not necessarily need to replace one on one! The morale is that I find myself doing reversed education lately, where I need to educate my suppliers and clients about the benefits of conventional lighting in order to bring out the real benefits of LED. Reversed psychology I guess… 🙂
Light Watch 4-48: It is not surprising that my favourite city of Paris has recently decided to refurbish all their metro stations in to LED lighting. Being one of the oldest metro networks in the world it is probably an easy ROI to convert into LED. It is said the contract for the replacement (one station was outfitted with LED as a test) is about Euro 11 million…big business. Reason the more to be well educated before making the decision to change…you want your money well spent! See also the City’s announcement: http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/r_76407/led-lighting-for-ratp-metro-and-rer-stations/
Man power
Singapore 18th March 2013
After an “enlightened” weekend the real world of lighting design and running a practice is a back in full force! One of the key drivers of any company is its staff. The sum of the individuals is what makes (breaks) the quality of a company. I am blessed with a great team, but at times we look out for reinforcement. I don’t think I have shared this experience with you before, but we recently advertised for someone to join our production team in Singapore. Generally this is not a big deal, you put out an advertisement, go through the submissions, interview as needed and make your decision…But it turned out to be not that simple! Governments across the world are tightening the employment laws in a drive to protect the local workforce. I don’t know so much about Europe or the America’s but in Asia and Australasia this is certainly the case. Getting foreign workers (certainly in the lower salary scales) is common practice in this part of the world because in countries like Singapore of Australia salary standards (but also costs of living!) are much higher than in many of the neighbouring countries, hence we always had a big influx of skilled “foreign” workers for functions like drafting, rendering etc.
But since many governments are looking at reducing local unemployment and “stimulating” local jobs, getting employment passes for foreign skilled staff is getting increasingly difficult. They also have raised minimum wages for approval of work permits. It appears that specifically in the retail, hospitality and the service industry this is strongly felt with current foreign staff not getting renewal permit regardless if they already worked there for years! Increasing salaries for them is for many businesses a too heavy burden. I know of several cases in and around our design industry.
With that in mind we listed in the ad for the job that the applicant should be Singaporean or a permanent resident. To our astonishment we received near 200 (!) applications, mostly from “foreign” workers already here in Singapore presumably on a current work pass. Out of all these applications less than 5 (!) where actual Singaporeans or permanent residents and to compound the misery none of them complied to our requirements!!! From the “foreign” applications for the position of draftsman we even received certified architects! This just illustrates the economic woes that this region currently goes through. Getting the proper manpower is becoming more and more difficult!
Light Watch 4-47: A powerful man known as being the architect of light is Louis Khan, famous for some of his quotes about lighting:
> “ The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building “
> “ I sense Light as the giver of all presences, and material as spent Light. What is made by Light casts a shadow, and the shadow belongs to Light.”
> “ All material in nature, the mountains and the streams and the air and we, are made of Light which has been spent, and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow and the shadow belongs to Light’
> “Even a room which must be dark needs at least a crack of light to know how dark it is.”
A retrospective is currently being held: ‘Louis Kahn – the power of architecture‘ – runs from 23rd February to the 11th August, 2013 at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
Enlightened
Singapore 15th March 2013
In all the project excitements of the week I forgot to mention that we have got a new Pope…from Argentina. Pope Francis I. I am a “free thinker” but do take an interest in various religions and their cultures as they define the world we are living in! The English announced the new Pope (a bit spiteful) as the “New Hand of God” in reference to (Maradonna) and their loss to Argentina at the world cup soccer. But the most striking picture I saw in news report was one with the new pontiff drinking a cup of Mate; the famous Argentinian drink. Alex introduced me to Mate several years ago when we met and till date I like my occasional sip! 🙂 Go Francis enlighten us!
With all the hype surrounding the appointment of the new pope I guess what we all want is that he will use his powers and influence to really bring “enlightenment” to this world. While our job of lighting designer consists mostly of physical and material ways of working with light, there is certainly an important spiritual and holistic side to our work. We design for different cultures and religions, people with different lifestyles and habits. When we design we have to take that in consideration and that may translate into colours, brightness and type of lighting, all creating different moods and emotions, the spiritual side of lighting. There is a huge variety of options between a candle and a flood light, between darkness and bright daylight. Our design concepts are not only driven my lighting design standards but also by our “enlightened” understanding of people and human behaviour!
Perhaps the lighting design community should also elect a (lighting) “pope”, an enlightened designer who can preside over our community, side by side with presidents of the lighting design associations, to better reflect that lighting designers also have an important spiritual role to play in this world! 🙂
Light Watch 4-46: I wish you all an enlightened weekend (and future!)
Winning ways
Singapore 14th March 2013
Sometimes you start on a project and you have that feeling it is going to be one of those great projects. I spent today a good part of my time working on the concept and design development of a hotel resort project that I feel has the potential to be a winner in all possible ways. The architecture and interior design are stunningly beautiful and above all unique with a very local flavour. I can just see the design slowly coming into shape which will bring this place mysteriously alive. I am excited because the lead consultant understands the power of lighting and his design has this already in mind. These are situations where you basically can score in an open goal.
But as easy as it may look, there a still many pitfalls to be navigated. We may all feel good about the concept and the way the design evolves, but it is only when we come to the reality of procurement and installation that we will know whether our dreams will really materialise. We will need to overcome budget limitations, surely (this is Asia!) and make sure we have the owner fully on our side. So it will be crucial to communicate at each and every turn we make so we don’t lose him along the way. And even when have navigated the budget (quality) obstacle, there will still be the quality of installation. We all know how contractors have a tendency to take shortcuts, so we will need to be alert to the end. But if we can manage that with the team and commission the project to full satisfaction, we will surely have a winner here! Winning ways may look simple on hindsight, but when you are on the road it takes skilful navigation!
Light Watch 4-45: Talking about winning ways, Illumni just announced it is organising the Infinity Awards exhibition in Singapore next week. An international panel of judges adjudicated entries from all over the world showcasing the creativity of lighting designers. An evening I will certainly try to attend….other peoples work can be very inspiring! The evening will be held at the Ying Yang Roof Club Bar at Ang Siang Hill, next week Wednesday. Here is the venue:
13
Singapore 13th March 2013
It’s funny how the number 13 has always had this “unlucky” superstition attached to it. Today is the 13th March 2013. Two 13’s in there for you… I am not really superstitious, though I have had a keen interest in numerology. For that reason I started KLD on the 1st January 2011 (1-1-11)…who knows if that has had any influence on the companies energy and wellbeing, but so far so good. When you travel around you will note, specifically in this Asian region, that unlucky numbers such as 4 and 13 are being avoided in many different ways. In several airplanes you don’t have seat 13, its 12 and then 14. It is the same for building floors; most of the time it is 12 then 14, sometimes 12A.
So what about numbers in our lighting design practice? You may not want to have your office at nr 4 or nr 13 or on the 13th floor. I certainly watch out for it. What about project numbers, do you avoid project with a 13 in it? While I did use 13 in my project numbers both 13 and 113 were unsuccessful projects. Is that proof of 13 being unlucky? When it comes to numbers of light fittings in layouts, do you sub-consciously add or delete one so you don’t end up with 13 fittings in a space? I do keep an eye out for it as I generally like balanced layouts and 13 does not really sound like a balance lighting layout 🙂
When it comes to lighting levels it does not really matter as we all know that 13 or 113 or 1313 lux does not really exist in a constant situation. Lighting levels vary continuously so a computer generated value of 13 does not hold strongly. You will note that there are hardly any lighting manufacturers that have lights with 13 degree beams!
Finally when it comes to fee proposals do you work out your fees into such figures that they either don’t have a 13 in it or don’t add up to 13 (4)? I certainly do! It may sound silly and superstitious to some of you but I have been long enough in Asia to appreciate and at least respect all these things. Enjoy the rest of your 13th March!
Light Watch 4-44: As it turns out this light watch is a triple 4! While searching for some images I found an assignment by a student called Devyn who had to express Friday the 13th with lighting. She had a little Friday the 13th doll and lit it from different angles…:)
Progress of work
Singapore 12th March 2013
Back in Singapore again and the first thing on my mind today was a project meeting with my team this morning. I have been away a lot so it was good to go through the projects and get a good status report. Not that I am not aware of what’s going on as as we keep in touch through skype on a daily basis, I am copied in on most email correspondences, but when you meet one on one with your designers it becomes more direct. When I am away there are always excuses and other things that distract my attention 🙂
Establishing the project progress is crucial as we invoice our clients in stages according to our progress of work, so we are always smarting our ways to log in our work progress with our clients so our invoicing is a logical consequence of our work and not a thunderbolt in clear skies! But because our progress depends very much on the total consultants team progress, it is important to keep up a (diplomatic) pressure on our fellow project team members. Finishing a project swiftly is in everybody’s advantage and creates a quick turn around on the fee collections. It is however a fine balance as we also want to have sufficient time to deliver quality lighting design work. Rushing to finish has never been a good thing.
You may be able to determine your own progress of work, but you will find that clients have a knack of finding reasons and things to delay approving your progress. I spent a good part of the afternoon trying to show one of my client’s contract administrators she had it all wrong…It can be pretty frustrating at times, but it is all part and parcel of our design practice. Keeping track of our work progress and smartly packaging our progress to allow invoicing…cash is in the end the petrol that keeps the engine running!
Light Watch 4-43: As a tribute to creative design work I came across this interesting “anti” construction, a structure that reveals the un-built, the absence of a building, if that makes sense. A project from G.Mazars. Lighting the structure is an interesting challenge by itself, with basically no solid space to light! Imagine determining the progress of work here!
See also http://www.designboom.com/architecture/reveal-the-absence-the-un-built/
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