Who would of thought that Powercor would be installing luminaires today that can position any person with a mobile phone or ID card to around ½ metre in a building, but that’s exactly what’s happened, since becoming a Philips Lighting Partner in 2013 we have been on a lighting Journey and it’s been a great and demanding experience.

It started with us installing DALI controls with Dynalite dimming at Avent in Glemsford, it was a  4 week project across Christmas, next it was off to Nuffield Gyms to install new LED lights using the OCCU switch, a small proximity sensor that can control DALI luminaires, but it has some extremely clever set up features, corridor mode and day light harvesting, the luminaire dedicated as a window fixture dim’s more that the central lights, absent detection and optional switching all built in.

Then we were asked to do a Pilot for a major bank to test Subterraneal lighting, this is effectively basements with no natural light, the new lights were mimicking the circadian rhythm of the external daylight, this was a first in the UK with LED technology using the Heal well Savio luminaires from Philips, when I started working as an electrician I never thought I would be speaking to a clinical psychologist to discuss how we should ensure that the day light matches external light levels so as to not mislead the occupants and make them work later without realising the time, much like they are claimed to do in the casinos in Las Vegas with no clocks etc.

We have been using colour kinetics which is a Philips product which is so exciting to work with, it’s a coloured led solution with amazing dynamic abilities from lighting up hotel facades with video images to colour cove in residential housing, the controlling of this lighting is by DMX or KYNET which are different controlling protocols. We are just touching the surface with this offering but some of the other lighting partners are offering amazing dynamic solutions, the Millennium Wheel is all CK lighting, and on new year’s eve looks fantastic. We have also installed luminous textile which is an acoustic panel like a picture frame but has a video image that runs through it, really cool to light up a list lobby or the back drop to reception, you have people watching it for hours, especially the man painting the wall from behind the panels, how does he fit in there!

We have also attended multiple training sessions with Philips and have learnt about, CRI (colour rendering index) and why it’s so important for the retail sector, as we saw the dress in the news is it red or purple etc., colour recipes to help make food look more vibrant high kelvin colours for fish, low kelvin colours for bread, or perhaps cheese lighting recipe. You can even go into a supermarket now pick up the menu card and the lights will guide you to pick the ingredients via a mobile APP, it’s called visual light communication which is a frequency passed by each individual light invisible to the naked eye.

So as you can see it’s been a lighting journey and it shows us all how quick our industry is moving and merging with the internet of everything, it’s taught me the importance of pushing the company into new boundaries and forever striving to learn something new every day.

As a Philips Lighting Partner, we are experienced in all lighting technologies – contact us for a free quotation