Coronet stopped by the office to talk about the direction their company is going. They are moving forward with primarily LED fixtures. A highlight of Coronet is that they are able to do a lot of custom work in house since they have their own machines on site. They are a local company to NY, which comes in handy for some projects. Most of the custom fixtures they develop for other clients tend to become standard products after the fact. One fixture they showed us that they developed for a project is a modular system that features a linear LED up light and sections of LED strips and track heads attached to global track at the bottom. It's a great product to use allowing the user to adapt the space as their needs change such as in retail or open office spaces.
Fabbian
Fabbian has expounded their Tile collection with more options featuring textures, colors and scale. They also are offering different shape of tiles that allow you to create patterns for your installation. They also have a lit bar that can be placed throughout your tiles to up light and highlight certain parts. Since all of the tiles are handmade, they are able to do custom tiles.
We also got to see a new chandelier from them. With either lit tubes or Beluga glass globes, you can creat a custom chandelier. Fabian offers standard canopies with set placement and quantities but also has custom canopies that let you very the placement.
Fabian's series of surface and recessed LED fixtures are all dim able with 0-10V standard and are available with damp and wet location versions as well.
Fluxwerx
Fluxwerx is a new company that recently entered the market with a revolutionary product. They have been able to re-imagine how LEDs are distributed. Through two different types of optics, Fluxwerx has developed a series of fixtures that provide a similar distribution from traditional linear fluorescent fixtures but from a vertical surface. Through an anidolic optic the LEDs are directed down through the acrylic extrusion and then distributed out through sides. This allows the light to be blended and remove the striations that are typically apparent when LEDs pass through glass or acrylic surfaces. Fluxwerx has three fixtures, View, Profile and Transform, all utilizing anidolic optics. Dimming is standard with no adder in all of their fixtures with 0-10V to 5%. Fluxwerx guarantees 2 MacAdam Ellipse and are usually even tighter. Right now they offer 35K and 4K, which both appeared warmer than we normally see from other manufacturers.
They pay very close attention small details. When joining fixtures for longer runs than their standard 4' and 8' lengths allow for, they have overlap joint that eliminates seams.
For the View and the Profile fixtures the driver is located in the canopy, or can be located remotely. They can offer integral emergency battery backup option as well as daylight sensors.
It's always interesting to see fixtures that think outside of the box and Fluxwerx definitely does that.
Lighting Services Inc.
Lighting Services Inc. has been working on incorporating dimming to their LumeLEX cylinder track series The LED fixtures are provided with integral ELV dimmers to 10%. Also by using the latest LED module, the fixtures are brighter. They also have a new optic that is an eyeball lens. It helps clean up the beam and reduces the secondary spread. Of course it does limit the output though. We also took a look at their retrofit track fixtures. These fixtures take into account using retro-fit LED lamps and have venting added to the body of the fixture. The SSLGR16 is one of those fixtures we looked at. It's related to their halogen fixture GR16 fixture. It has been modified to accommodate a retro-fit LED MR16 lamp. Right now the design incorporates a two-tone finish, but can be modified to have only one color which we would prefer. It is nice to see manufacturers taking into account that retro-fit lamps have a presence in the market and accommodating their fixtures to support them.
Solais
Solais is a new company that we were introduced to. They started out as a retrofit LED company and have expanded to providing dedicated LED fixtures as well. They offer varying sizes in medium screw base lamps. What is unique about Solais' lamps is that they incorporate active cooling rather than passive. With the integral fan from the active cooling, we were able to hear a slight noise when we were close to the lamp. The highest CRI the offer is 85.
We also took a look at a couple of their fixtures including track and recessed multiples. They have a version of their LED board that can be used in both track and recessed fixtures that use a violet LED in the center of the board. This imitates the look of a metal halide source.
Their recessed multiple fixtures are offered in single up to quad configurations. All fixtures are dimmable with forward phase dimming.
They have a list of several projects that have their lamps and/or fixtures installed in the city that we could visit and see them at work in real life applications.
Red Bull: New York Offices
*This article originally appeared in on November 19, 2014 on www.archdaily.com "Red Bull’s New York Offices / INABA" 19 Nov 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed 22 May 2015. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=568579>
Architects: INABA Location: New York, NY, USA Architects In Charge: Jeffrey Inaba, Ostap Rudakevych, Yoichiro Mizuno, Alan Kwan Area: 16800.0 ft2 Year: 2014 Photographs: Greg Irikura , Naho Kubota
Executive Architect: SLAB Architecture, Brooklyn, NY: Jill Leckner, Matthew Voss, Min Chen Lighting Design: WALD Studio, New York, NY: William Armstrong, Kelly Roberts Structural Engineer: Buro Happold, New York, NY: Jeffrey Thompson Mechanical Engineer: Kam Chiu Associates, New York, NY: Kam Chiu
From the architect. With major companies branding their workspace and all of the talk about the new way we work, Red Bull took a different approach.
Best known for its high-energy drink, the company wanted its New York offices to be low-key. The 16,800 SF project doesn’t celebrate the company’s values with eye-catching forms, nor is its layout inspired by recent theories of workplace productivity.
Instead, the design is simple and without the pretense of being on the cutting edge of cool tech office design. It responds to the quick cycling of trends in workplace interiors by steering clear of large-scale gestures, playful lounge zones, or urban-inspired ad hoc décor.
If the new standard for corporate offices is to create a physical experience that builds on the brand qualities the company has successfully established in digital media, then Red Bull’s New York space is the antithesis of this best practice. There isn’t a reliance on storytelling or graphic imagery; the space is dialed back to reset the focus of the experience on the basic architectural qualities of scale and light.
Acknowledging that offices and technology are evolving quickly and the future functions of the work environment are unpredictable, the architects composed a layout of spaces with distinct, fixed features. The three types of spaces are large open zones, medium-sized enclosed areas, and small rooms. They are used now as open office seating, conference areas, and small meeting/workrooms, respectively. Designed to be unique in size and day lighting and not to any particular functions invites people to invent new uses for them in the future.
To emphasize these elements of the project, INABA worked with the photographer Naho Kubota who shot the space using film. The images in this series include closely framed views that describe the sense of proportions and natural light in the spaces. Other photos by Kubota and Greg Irikura document the color of surfaces, materials, and furniture.
Lumium Lighting
Lumium stopped by our office today to introduce us to some of their fixtures. The mounting plates are held on with magnets so there is no visible hardware. All of the suspended fixtures are suspended with aircraft cable for a clean installation.
They use Osram boards in 1' increments. Can do modifications. The fixtures that are smaller than 3" in diameter are low voltage and use remote drivers. Each fixture family comes in multiple sizes of profiles. All of the fixtures are provided with 27K, 3K, 35K, 4K or 57K boards. The fixtures can be specified with either a clear frost lens (minor lamp image) or a white frost lens (minimal to no lamp image).
Dado Lighting
Dado Lighting is a new manufacturer that we were introduced by Oblaney Rinker and Associates. They specialize in thin profile linear LED fixtures that are the thickness of 5/8" gypsum board. This opens up more possibilities in terms of installation without having to be concerned with studs running through. The fixtures are offered in 1 1/2", 2 1/2" and 3" widths. They provide the fixtures in two pieces, the extruded housing and the LED boards. The contractor can field cut the housing to the nearest mm. The LEDs are edge lighting the boards which allow for the fixture to be so slim without seeing any nodes.
Not only is the slim profile a great aspect of the fixtures, but they can provide up to 24' with a continuous lens. Dado can also do curves and corner pieces as well as rounded, angled or straight end pieces.
Dado also has a couple of deeper fixtures, the Liftline and the Hardline. The Liftline uses direct facing LEDs as opposed to the side mount like the other shallower fixtures.
Mirrorline was a fixture we were very interested in seeing. It uses the shallow profile and is intended to be mounted behind sandblasted mirrors. Since it has the slim profile, it does not require any special framing.
Sattler
Sattler specializes in rings fixtures in both small and large scales, with the largest reaching up to 20' in diameter. For the larger fixtures they can use either one LED strip or two depending on the desired light output. Each strip is 7 watts/ft. All fixtures are dimmable standard with 0-10v dimming. Other dimming is also available as a custom for lower dimming control. Color temperatures available are 27K, 3K, 4K and 5K. Their large scale fixtures can incorporate Barrisol or Newmat material at the top of the fixture to push the light down, or can be an open ring.
They also showed us their smaller fixtures which incorporate up, down, internal and external distribution.
While their bread and butter is rings, they do offer other shapes such as triangles, squares and rectangles. They are also developing a unique fixture called Luce Verde which has moss in the center of the circular surface.
Product of the Day: Install-From-Below from Kurt Versen
Kurt Versen has just announced a new family of retro-fit LED fixtures, called Installed From Below (IFB). The fixtures are currently only offered in Square, with the Xicato LED module, in Wide, Medium, and Narrow down light beam spreads. The fixture depth is 6-3/4".
We are excited to see this new development in Kurt Versen's line!
Fabbian
Some exciting things are happening at Fabbian. They have joined the LED world and are offering all of their fixtures as either dedicated LED products or as a retrofit option. Some of their fixtures that have been updated to LED from a E26 base do not have the old base listed as a standard option, but can go back as a custom if it is needed. They have also developed new fixtures that are completely designed around LEDs. One new fixture that they have come out with is the F30 Giro. Its a a globe fixture made of looped wires. The LED component connects to one of the circles by clipping it on. It can be customized by the user by clipping the LED module on any of the circles to created different effects.
We also took a look at their downlights with the new LED modules and their decorative crystal trims.
A great thing about Fabbian is that they can customize their fixtures even if the quantities are small. They offer high quality decorative fixtures without the added price like some of their competitors.
Day-o-lite
Day-o-lite made a stop by our office to introduce their LED products to us. They are known for their quality fluorescent fixtures and have been taking the time over the past two years to integrate LED into the mix at the same standard as their fluorescent ones. Their factory is located in Rhode Island and they offer a 4-6 week lead time typically but can possibly do faster if they have the supplies on a project by project basis. All of their products are dimmable standard without an adder. They are also going to be offering the option for tunable LEDs to program the output with a resistor.
One fixture we took a look at was the Athena MLB which is a semi-recessed LED fixture with an extruded acrylic lens. The lens is clear on the sides and frosted on the edge when the fixture is illuminated. The LEDs are placed deep inside the fixture so you cannot see the nodes from any angle. They are working on developing a pendant version of the Athena as well.
We also took a look at their Equator fixture which is a surface round area light with a convex opal acrylic lens. It is also available in concave and flat versions as well. Because of the layout of the LEDs, they are able to get an evenly lit surface. With the flat lens, however, they have to reconfigure the LEDs with a tighter spacing otherwise you will notice dark spots.
Because of the size of their factory and production, they are able to do a lot of customizations to their fixtures all in house.
Visual Lighting Technologies
Visual Lighting Technologies have been updating their fixtures as well as developing new ones and stopped into our office so we could look at them. We are always looking for solutions for backlighting surfaces. VLT has two different panels for these types of applications, ELP-L and ELP-G. Both have been revamped to offer the same light output as before but with lower wattages. Both panels offer different qualities to accommodate various project restrictions. The ELP-L is preferable for backlighting materials such as onix, frosted glass and acrylic with large LED spacing, while the ELP-G is ideal for stretched fabric ceilings with its tighter spacing. For projects that require a lower wattage and have shallower depth allowance, and a larger budget, the ELP-G is a good fit. And the projects that have a lower budget but have a deeper allowance, ELP-L can also work for stretch fabric installations.
We also got a look at some display lighting they have developed. They have a new 4watt puck light that is dimmable standard and is available in 15°, 30° and 60° beamspreads. We did notice a little bit of discoloration at the edge of the beam but they said they can add some diffusion at the edges to help smooth it out.
The Orb is an adjustable accent for display cases with a 45° housing. It can come in one, two, four or six heads. The heads are fully adjustable and lockable so that once they are aimed properly you don't have to worry about someone bumping into it and having to redo it.
VLT is developing another version of their Light Run fixture, which is one that we really like and have used on several projects since it is a completely diffuse line of light with a small extrusion. The new version of the fixture incorporates a dynamic strip allowing you to tune the white to any color temperature through the use of two circuits.
We asked about a possible version of the Light Run in a 45° extrusion and they said that they are developing a prototype in the next month and should hopefully have a solution to it soon.
Feng Shui Lighting
We were introduced to Feng Shui Lighting a few weeks ago at the SDA showcase. Since it was just a brief meeting, they came to our office so we could get a better understanding of all that they have to offer. Their bread and butter is backlighting with edgelit panels and their LED 'net' system which consists of strips of LEDs equally spaced in vertical rows.
Feng Shui has three types of LED panels to fit an assortment of project needs. Their Slim LED and Slim XL panels are both frameless and very low profile panels and can be edge lit from one, two or four sides. The advantage the XL panel has over the regular slim panel is that it can accommodate larger sizes. Both are available in 3K, 41K, 53K, 65K and RGB. They can also do custom shapes.
Their third type of panel is the Core LED panel and is a more robust panel with the LEDs built into an extruded aluminum frame. The frames can accommodate various material to back light.
Feng Shui offers dynamic white in some of their panels that can be programmed to transition automatically between on color temperature to another.
We also learned that Feng Shui also specializes in custom fixtures with the use of wood veneer, textiles and artisan glass. They are also working on a series of downlights that incorporate decorative glass and acrylics. We saw a sample of one that is being developed that used an acrylic rod that extends out the bottom of the fixture. When the fixture is switched off, the rod appears completely transparent, however as soon as it is switched on the rod is diffuse with the light coming out of the end. We noticed rings on the ground because of the pattern in the acrylic causing the diffusion, but it could be solved by using a lens between the LED and the rod. It was a really nice piece that has a unique decorative feel in both on and off positions.
Reggiani and Picasso Lighting
Reggiani and Picasso Lighting had a showcase at the International Lights office. Reggiani showed us their line of adjustable accent lights that can be used with track, surface mono-point and recessed mounting. We were impressed with the quality of the light as well as the output. They had a display of different colored scarves to showcase the color rendering they can achieve. The fixtures are a good solution to keep in mind when the budget is tight without having to compromise the quality.
Picasso had some a couple of fixtures that stood out to us. One of them was a stainless steel undercabinet LED fixture. Most undercabinet fixtures we have seen are not focused on the asthetics and are more intended to be hidden. With the stainless steel finish it is a nice option when the installation requires the fixture to be seen.
They also had a couple of large recessed and semi-recessed fixtures in both round and square versions. Both versions provide an evenly illuminated surface without lamp imaging.