Q-TRAN Factory Visit - 2022

We had a great time visiting the Q-Tran factory with Sighte Studio and MOXIE in early August! Alongside the factory tour, the trip included an overview of their existing fixtures - with highlights on new offerings and a sneak peak at what’s coming up, and an educational session on drivers and transformers (we were visiting Q-Tran after all!). Many thanks to the whole team for the excellent presentations and warm welcome!

FIXTURE UPDATES:

OPTI-OPTICS Fixture: Price-efficient alternative option of VERS ($50~$60 per ft)! The smallest beam spread is 40 degrees, but no louver option yet!

TIPS:

Use static white (SW) tape for projects that require high red rendering.

When specifying Dynamic White tape, use the wattage listed on the cutsheet under “Circuit Wattage”. Dynamic white tape lights have (2) chips that are different color temperatures that are programmed to never pull more wattage than the circuit wattage lists (the chips will never be on at full output at the same time).

Most of their LED tapes are done offshore for cost efficacy. Ones done in-house are more expensive (SMT models except for the Micro family) but allow compliance with the Buy American Act, etc.

NEW:

Dedicated pool & spa rated power supply + FLEX family fixture for use in pools & spa.

UPCOMING - 2023:

An encapsulated millwork fixture designed to be silicon mounted.

Designing magnet and track mount, butterfly bracket for plaster ceiling installation. 

DRIVER UPDATES:

Typically the drivers can be used up to the max wattage, except the DMX driver that needs derating.

Driver selection for Dynamic/Tunable White:
DMX is 3-channel and requires derating for 2-channel control.
The best would be: 1) QTM (large ones, single channel pre-programmed) and 2) QTM-eLED+AW (the two-channel driver) 

Their dedicated warm-dim LED tape is fundamentally different. It has the same price as the dynamic LED, BUT it goes with the QZLP driver with 0-10V & phase dimming (down to 10%). The driver is small and goes up to X2 96W. The single X96W is around $175. 

QTMD driver is the go-to when doing fixtures with runs far from the source. This has taps that allow different voltages high mid low to avoid voltage drop and visible difference in brightness between the ones closer to drive via ones further installed. 

For Landscape: Q-SET-mLED power supply provides up to 300W and has AC and DC together in an inground cap.

App & Smart Control System Compatibility:

QZ Driver is compatible with Casambi Control. 

The QZ Non-Dimmable driver is the Eco option for use with Casambi and requires a separate add-on Casambi component. 

QZ-DMX is for indoor application with up to 4channel, programmable with MLFC app, up to 96W fully used. 

UPCOMING:

New DMX for 4-channel, comparably small size, priced around $240. EldoLed driver is also available but is more expensive 

COLORBEAM LIGHTING

Today, we looked at COLORBEAM Lighting unique control program and new RGBW+Tunable white fixture:

  • Low voltage fully controllable light fixtures

  • All the fixtures are available in a range of 1800 CCT to 4000 CCT

  • NOW RGBW + fully tunable White

  • The concept is being able to control scenes easily using a DMX controller 

  • The gateway allows their system to communicate with other none DMX systems have to assign the addressable drivers

  • Gateway is universal, with 120 channels

  • They have pre-programmed drivers for other systems like Lutron 

  • No Data cable, just DC power cable and 1 channel for everything  - Example: 2 channels for warm dim : 1 for cool White, 1 for the warm white 

  • For RGBW, there would be 4 channels 

  • Smooth dimming to 1% 

  • They created their own IP addressed - web app requires for programming

Lutron System: 

  • Homeworks QS with keypads in different spaces.

  • Their processor seats on their system and incorporated without a hiccup, as if we are controlling and setting Lutron 

  • They use integrated scene-setting for control. The lighting designer just has to configure the scenes, set the tunes and color, and luck them.

Crestron needs an additional component to translate. 

  •  Homeowners would not be able to change the setting without calling the integrator. Log in to the color beam configurator app and set the settings and levels.

Distance from the fixtures to drivers: With TYP. Cat6 distance is around 200ft to 300ft.

Their advantage is category cable instead of AC wire which reduce the cost, and they are among the few that offer full tunable and color changing  

BIANCA 16W: Availale in 1800K-4000K / 2700K-6500K ranges - 1400 lm, 1550 lm, & 1600 lm - 20° and 40° -

We looked at 4000K to 1800k at it felt too orangish!

  • Price-wise, around 70% cheaper than Ketra.

  • They sell through AV and Distributer. 

  • Trimless only available for plaster mounting

  • They have gibels 

  • No wall-washer

LIGHTFAIR 2021

A brief look at LightFair 2021, held at the Javits Center in NYC. Overall, there weren’t many participants and we’d already seen many of them in virtual presentations over the year.

The one worth highlighting was the ORIGAMX. It is a specification-grade architectural lighting system that was developed by BLACK TANK.
ORIGAMX office is located in Atlanta - Mainly custom made - based on request. Their mono-point features are Hybrid Driver Technology (PWM/Current Control), RGBA LED (2000K-10,000K), and White Light or Color Mixing in one Light.

We also enjoyed seeing the PURE EDGE LIGHTING Saber Suspension in person.

LUTRON

Wireless Sensor Options::

Vacancy sensors are usually required in small rooms or rooms with large windows (daylight).

Variety of sensors: High bay sensor usually used in auditorium, stadium, spaces with high ceilings.

LUTRON provides service for determining coverage layout and sensor quantity required.

KETRA  light has a preset sequence to shift the light temperature and intensity during the day. Allow the interior light automatically meld with the exterior. Perfect balance with daylight, glare control

  • Using 3M tape mounted wireless sensors provide flexibility for relocating.

  • Easy software interface: scene-setting, adjusting lighting configuration from computer and app.

  • HYPERION SHADES: From KETRA which shades adjust automatically based on the outdoor light and weather forecast.

  • Override allowance for overcast, cloudy days.

  • Different available fabric options; over 1200 fabrics.

  • Specification grade fabric; special calibrated fabric which are PVC free, low VOC, antimicrobial, and easy to clean.

ECOSYSTEM: allow rezone lights through the app

KETRA: running power between lights, reconfigure lights through the app, plus additionally KETRA allow changing correlated color.

Dedicated personalized control through wireless Pico. Custom engraved keypad

Ketra in office: provide a feeling of daylight in restaurants to only light the designated usable tables.

Q TRAIN Power Supplies

We had a brief overview of the current products and their new QZ power supply.

Most of their drivers are 24V constant voltage.

MLV POWER SUPPLIES:

AC Voltage:

  • Q6 can’t be recessed mounted.

  • QJB is a junction box shape.

  • QOM is the outdoor-rated version of the QT driver.

DC Voltage:

  • QTM-DC: in 12V model, it goes up to 300W and in 24V up to 600W. Great for placers where dimming is not critical. When smooth dimming matters the capacitor could be used. 

  • QTM-DC; is the best phase dimming in the market. Dim to black.

  • Q6-DC: could be installed in any way, upside down, wall, ceiling,.. but not recessed.

  • QJB: Their owned UL listed J-box up to 40 watts. Great for small areas where dimming is not critical.

For exterior:

  • Q-HEX: IP67, a great pocket application.

  • PH80: One of their popular products, electrical, dry, or wet option. Great for hotel applications (headboard lighting).

  • IQ-PH: Outdoor version. Two (X2) drivers could fit in one housing.

  • QTM-eLED: 0-10V dimming, recessed mounting

  • QOM-eLED: Great for pool and spa 

  • All the 0-10V dimming options go down to less than 1% linear smooth.

  • +AW fits up to three (X3) power supplies and modules in one box. Warm to dim for up to 3 modules.

  • DMX power supply is hidden in the back of the controller 

Dimming Options:

  • All-inclusive EldoLED linear could do both DMX and Dali

  • LUTRON is available only with an indoor enclosure, fits five in 1 housing

  • All the outdoor-rated power boxes are sealed in epoxy.



NEW POWER SUPPLY - 2020:

QZ : Indoor and outdoor rated available in 30w up to 288W. Works in any temperature between -40F to 100F

All the dimming options are available with dimming down to 0.1%.

The most interesting thing about this driver is that it dims different LED arrays at the same level (curve).


SDA Showroom

Today we stopped by the SDA Showroom to see what is new from their line card.

Alphabet

We stopped by alphabet to look at many of their new fixtures. We looked at their Nu Vector Downlight series which has beam shaping technology. The fixture shown below on the right is adjustable with 0.5" aperture, 600 Lumen output, provide illumination to upto 25ft. It's a great option for a quiet ceiling. The DN price is around $155.

The standard track head is around $150, dim to dark, 1%. 0-10, DMX, Dali. Line voltage into extrusion. Each part has it’s own driver. Optic down to 10°, wallwasher, different snap-able diffuser. Offer a quiet ceiling.

They have a nice concrete fixture and surface mounted fixture with a mirror in the middle.

 

ALW

ALW showed their super plane twist open products. A triangle, square, and rectangle are available. However, soon their ring fixtures will have sections like these products too. These fixtures are great for wrapping around columns and have surface mounted options as well.

1.5 profile fixture: Super plane 25 ft continues run recessed mounted. Comes in fully frosted, half, and clear.

It comes in 3 standard shapes,  straight, triangle(2 open sides, 1 joint) square (2 open sides, 2 side joint)

Open side allows twisting, 30° tilt

 

The 1.5 moon ring: Can go up to 16 ft section recessed go around a column.

Go figure series: Linear light fix and connection hub. 2 and 4ft linear, one side and 2 sides illuminated. There is amiable hobble with screws. They have 2 to 6 joint hubs.

Arancia

All of their fixtures are 90+ CRI. We looked at the pendant lights and 3 watt small downlight. There is a 4 week lead time and everything is made to order.

 

Day-O-Light

Delray

The ring pendant that we viewed can be a single direction fixture. It comes in many different finishes like

leather, wood, perforated patterns.

  

Designplan

We looked at many of their outdoor fixtures (as shown below).

We looked at a larger version of the pivot that has an adjustable beam and is exterior rated.

We were also very impressed by the quality of the Buzzi and Buzzi products.

 

Designplan also informed us that they do have a steam room rated fixture. (what is it called?)

Ecosense

Ecosense is coming out with their own control system- the lore driver. The image below shows the road map of what the company is striving towards- though some of it is not yet realized.

  

ERCO

ERCO is coming out with a new line of wall washers. A nice feature of this line is that their wall washers can be closer to the wall (1 to 5 ratio for the wall to ceiling). These come in black matte as a standard finish. They come in flanged and trimeless. These fixture should be coming out in January.

ERCO also has new bollards coming soon. (the last 2 on left come in smaller size.)

Feelux

We looked at the monorail system.

There is a pendant fixture for the little track that had a 1,000 lumen output.

We also looked at the FLX Stix.

 

Hemera

Tunable white pendant fixtures. Smaller fixtures with 0.5" aperture are 266 lumen output. Medium fixtures has 1,000 lumen output. Large fixtures with 2" aperture are 2,000 lumen output.

Hevi Lite

We looked at their sconce and their retrofit unit. The strip in the retrofit unit rotates and adjusts.

 

iLight

Intense Lighting

Lens Vector Technology.  Liquid crystal beam shaper.  They have shallow 2" housing. Up/Down sconces are wet rated.

  

Saco

We looked at their dual brightness v-stick. They have an app called saco switch.

 

Selux

Tri-tech. They now have silicone optic that allows for customizable optics. They have a variety of mounting options. They are also trying to minimize hardware on their fixtures.

   

The Lighting Quotient

We looked at their track system. They have both a wall wash fixture and a spot fixture for the track.

They also now have a bi-asymmetric distribution in their louver.

  

Luminaire LED

We took a brief look at their products. They offer a battery pack for their surface mounted linear fixture.

 

Lumenpulse

 

Luminii

NovaFlex

NovaFlex showed us some of their new products including the neon led and the field curvable products. The bend radius is shown the photo.

 

Tivoli

Tivoli showed us their dedicated color mix fixtures. The new tape is 97 CRI. 1 5/8" increments cut. 5/32" spacing between led chips. This tape is less than $20/ft.

*A great option for the back of a mirror. Clear uniform lighting with no dotting.

We also looked at their hand blown festoons.

 

USAI

We-ef

They make marine grade exterior fixtures. Everything is modular which makes it all easy to replace in the field. We-ef also showed us their fixtures that take gobos.

 

Whitegoods

 

 

AUDACY (Wireless Lighting Control)

Today, AUDACY stopped by our office to present their wireless system. There are 4 components to their system:

  • Gateway
  • Luminaire Control
  • Sensor
  • Wall Switch

There are internally mounted controllers much like the dali system

The system can control up to 600w of load and allows for zone control.

While they do have DMX control, they are still working to integrate it into their system more.

Audacy will also be coming out with a remote control relay in November of this year. There is also a tunable white and color tune system coming in the near future.

Lumenpulse

Lumenpulse stopped by today so we can see the new addition to their Lumenfacade family, the Nano and Nano Horizontal.

The Nano uses a 48V remote power supply, 884 delivered lm2w/ft and 1767 delivered lm on 4w/ft. The Nano Horizontal has 8W regular output. Optics for grazing, floodlighting or wall washing of 1 or 2 story facades and pedestrian uplighting.

  

Both come in 1',2', 3' and 4' in length, dual chamber design, mounting arm with 180 rotation feasibility, varaity of optic such as 8°x8°, 10°x10°, 10°x 90°, 30°x 60°, wide 120° and asymmetric wall-washer and up to 50' cable (not plenum rated). Available in dynamic white, warm white, Amber and RGB. (developing quad chip for cove lighting)

 

Both Nano series have fully integrated accessory, snap-in system. The louver and shield color always matches the fixture color and the shipping in about 6 weeks for custom color and 1 week for quick ship products.

The standard controller is Nicolaudie. They also have Pharos kit (they have reduced the price of Pharos kit from $900 to $200), keypad of Lumenpuls priced at $99 and lumentalk (allow DMX on the system even with 2 wire without rewiring) . Also, all their products are compatible with Lutron since  they have an Eco system card (Lutron chip) to recieve the Lutron signal (there are some exception)

Lumenquad is the updated version of their square shape outdoor lighting. It has a 3.5 in profile with 50W and 100W options, Narrow and Wide optics  which are suitable for wallwash, floodlighting, or street lighting.

Lumencentro is the new Lumenpulse pole, suitable for plaza, campus walkway.

100W, 2200K to 5700K, 70+ and 80+ CRI with up to 20000lm on clearsite lens and 7000lm on softsite lens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xeleum

Xeleum is a manufacturer that specializes in utilitarian fixtures but also has developed a wireless control system. During the commissioning, they provide a dongle that connects to a computer and contacts the fixtures it finds locally to set up programming. The technology is integral to their stairwell fixture and can be added to most of their fixtures as an add-on. [embed] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bTfq6gHz4U [/embed]

Eaton Controls: WaveLinx

Eaton has developed a new brand of controls called Wavelinx. It is a wireless system that implements the use of an app and wall box keypads instead of a larger complicated control system. The system uses control boxes that have a range of up to 200' and can be combined with other boxes to increase the range. Eaton has sensors that can be integral with their fixtures or they can provide a relay switch pack to use with fixtures from other manufacturers. They also have dimming relays that can control any fixture as well as receptacles. The standard dimming protocol for the Wavelinx components is 0-10V, but they do have a module that can be added to handle other types of dimming.

Wavelinx is designed to be an easy solution for new spaces as well as retrofitting existing spaces without the need to run extra wires. The app automatically commissions the zones to meet title 24 when you create them and you can tailor them after the fact.

Eaton is planning to have training programs in order to help the contractor and specifier know better how to implement the system.

Ketra Lighting

Ketra is a new company from Austin that stopped by our office. They specialize in a control system that allows you to have total color control of their fixtures as well as limited control of fixtures from other manufacturers. Ketra's control box can be used on its own or incorporated into a larger control system coordination. Ketra offers both a linear fixtures and LED PAR lamps. With their control system you can change the color temperature and CRI along the black body curve as well as static colors. Output is maintained regardless of color temperature. Their proprietary software is available to download and program scenes and settings for your lighting design, or fixtures and lamps can come preprogrammed from the factory.

Working on a closed loop system, Ketra allows you to calibrate color and temperature amongst the fixtures providing consistency across the board.

They said that they are developing a 3" downlight and hope to release it soon. We will have to see what the final product looks like, but we tend to be a little hesitant when companies that are traditionally focused on other aspects of lighting such as controls, try and get into the downlighting game.

Vantage Controls

Vantage Controls stopped by to give us a rundown on their products. All of their equipment integrates with other components, i.e. shades and A/V, so they do not need a third party company for coordination. There is less hardware than their competitors so it is easier to manage and install. Vantage offers a series of LCD keypad options called the Equinox, and are similar in appearance to an Apple product. The Equinox 40 is a smaller keypad that offers three widgets that are customizable for user flexibility. Each keypad has 3 pages with 5 landing points on each page. Each landing point can control a scene or can take you to a new page. Vantage is proud of the fact that not only are their interfaces and controls customizable, but the user can modify themselves without needing to set an appointment with a technician. Their regular keypad options are all available with a flush and a millwork adapter allowing for a seamless appearance.

One unique thing we liked about their systems is that their components can sense the load type instead of having. This feature takes care of issues that might arise during the installation in the field.

Vantage seems to have a lot of technical resources not only within their company but within SDA as well.

Vantage_Equinox40