On the eve of the CEDIA Business and Technology Forum in October, AWE Europe and IE Residential convened another ‘AWEsome Forum’, this time to discuss trends in residential lighting control systems.

 

Around the table were:

Paddy Baker (chair) – editor, IE Residential

Will Brocklebank – director and head of technology, Face to Face Digital

Simon Buddle – technical director, SMC

Philippe Regnier – business development manager, Philips Dynalite

Iain Shaw – partner, Brilliant

Paul Mott, sales director, AWE Europe

Mal Fisher, training manager, AWE Europe

You can read part one of the discussion here.

“LED looks like a revolutionary product in what it can do and how it works, but it has been difficult to control,” said Paul Mott of AWE.

 

“We won’t use any combination of control system, driver and fitting that we haven’t extensively tested in house,” said Iain Shaw of Brilliant. “If we pick up designs from certain lighting design companies, we’ll have a damn good look at the specification because if the luminaires don’t fit with what we’re trying to do, then we won’t proceed with that spec.”

 

Simon Buddle of SMC added:“We’ve ended up on projects where someone else has specified the light fittings as being dimmable, and we’ve gone along and they’re just not. We have to say to the client, I’m really sorry, but this is just an on-off switch.”

 

Philippe Regnier of Dynalite gave a manufacturer’s perspective: “LED is a fantastic opportunity for everybody; it offers so much flexibility in how to use light in your indoor or outdoor environment. It pushed the whole lighting industry.” On the other hand, he felt that the situation with LEDs is “a massive mess” because there is a low entry level for manufacturers, and a lack of product standards. “If someone brings new luminaires into your project, it’s not straightforward – there’s no certainty.”

 

Shaw added that the availability of cheap, lower-quality LED fixtures had made some customers unwilling to pay higher prices for top-quality products.