Category: Education

Celebrating International Day of Light

This Saturday, May 16th, is the International Day of Light, a UN backed global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications, and energy. May 16th was selected because it is the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser in 1960 by physicist and engineer, Theodore Maiman.

Unfortunately, Day of Light activities around the world are few. One that begins today is the IES Virtual Research Symposium. Held bi-annually, this year the title is LIGHT+ QUALITY – Meaningful Metrics Beyond Energy. If you’re interested, you can register here.

LEDucation Postponed

Due to growing concerns of COVID-19 in the lighting industry and the New York community, the Designers Lighting Forum of New York is postponing the LEDucation 2020 Trade Show and Conference that had been scheduled for March 17 – 18.

LEDucation is being rescheduled to August 18 – 19, 2020. I expect that our TM-30 Annex E seminar and demonstration room will be part of the rescheduled event.

LEDucation Update

LEDucation this year is on March 17 and 18 at the New York Hilton Midtown where I’ll be part of two presentations.  The first, at 9 am on Tuesday morning with Wendy Luedtke of ETC, is a seminar called Specifying Color Rendering with TM-30’s New Annex E.  The session presents the new ANSI/IES TM-30 Annexes E and F, which apply recent research to identify three color rendering design intents (Fidelity, Preference, and Vividness) and provides specifiers with TM-30 values to achieve them alone or in combination. Our goal is to increase awareness of Annexes E and F and to help attendees better understand their contents and use. The seminar is most appropriate for people with some prior knowledge of TM-30, although there will be a brief TM-30 overview for those who are new to the topic.

Then, on Wednesday, we’ll be joined by Jess Baker of Schuler Shook for a daylong demonstration of Annex E.  In the TM-30 Demo Room visitors will experience an immersive mockup illuminated with a variety of light sources illustrating the Annex E design intents. The lighting demonstrations will be paired with TM-30 values to show how TM-30 can be used to select light sources for each intent. Visitors will experience sources that meet different levels of the IES TM-30 specification guidelines outlined in IES TM-30-18 Annex E.  We’ll be presenting the demonstration on the hour and half hour from 9 am to 2 pm.

You can register to attend LEDucation here.

The DLFNY Annual “Debate”

On February 28th I’ll be one of the panelists at the annual DLFNY “Debate”. Here’s how they describe it:

Join us for a fun and educational evening of lively, sometimes absurd debate between members of the New York City lighting design community. Enjoy a verbal joust as the debaters take sides on some of the most pressing topics in the lighting industry, during a light-hearted evening of discussion mixed with humorous provocation and competition. 
The topics have been chosen to provoke a dialog, so the opinions expressed by our panel may not be their personal stance, but will surely be interesting to hear.

You can find more information and register at DLFNY.com

CIDA Publishes New Definition of Interior Design

This is a lighting design blog, but many of my students are interior designers, so I’m going to speak to them for a moment with interesting news. The Council for Interior Design Qualification has updated the definition of Interior Design. The short definition is:

Interior design encompasses the analysis, planning, design, documentation, and management of interior non-structural/non-seismic construction and alteration projects in compliance with applicable building design and construction, fire, life-safety, and energy codes, standards, regulations, and guidelines for the purpose of obtaining a building permit, as allowed by law. Qualified by means of education, experience, and examination, interior designers have a moral and ethical responsibility to protect consumers and occupants through the design of code-compliant, accessible, and inclusive interior environments that address well-being, while considering the complex physical, mental, and emotional needs of people

The new, full definition can be found here.

IES Releases Ready Reference App

For many years the IES Ready Reference was on the desk of every lighting designer, and we were all baffled when they stopped publishing it.  Great news, it’s back!  This time as an app for your phone or tablet that’s available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.  According to the IES, the app provides:  

  • Core lighting knowledge, including values from illuminance tables
  • General knowledge information, assembled from The Lighting Handbook, 10th Edition and IES standards
  • Simple calculators for quick and easy basic lighting and energy and economic calculations
  • A search feature allowing you to find the information you want

Download it from the Apple App Store or Google Play.








Specifying Color Quality With TM-30

By now most of us have attended one or more seminars or webinars about IES TM-30 and understand that it is a method of measuring various color rendering properties of a light source and reporting those measurements.  The thing that’s been missing is a recommended set of values that set minimums, maximums and/or tolerances for the various measurements.  This has been true for two reasons.  First, TM-30 is a method and as such was never intended to set recommended values.  The second is that while the science behind TM-30 is solid, the science doesn’t offer any predictions of acceptability.

Good news!  After almost three years of research and tests around the world we’re much closer to establishing a set of recommended values.  At this year’s IES Annual Conference in Boston, Tony Esposito, Kevin Houser, Michael Royer and I will be presenting the seminar “Specifying Color Quality With TM-30”  The description of the seminar is, “This presentation will discuss several research projects which have used the IES TM-30 color rendition framework, and whose results have been used to develop various specification criteria. We will discuss UFC 4-510-01, The Department of Defense Unified Facilities Criteria for Military Medical Facilities, which has already implemented IES TM-30-15 specification criteria.”

During the seminar we’ll review some TM-30 basics, look at several research projects that are helping to establish TM-30 thresholds, and review how to use the TM-30 calculator.  Don’t miss it!








International Day of Light 2018

Today, May 16th, is the International Day of Light 2018.  It began in 2015 when the U.N. declared  The International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.  Today, the International Day of Light is

a global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications, and energy. The broad theme of light will allow many different sectors of society worldwide to participate in activities that demonstrates how science, technology, art and culture can help achieve the goals of UNESCO – education, equality, and peace.

There are events around the globe related to the theme of light.  If you’re interested you can check the web site, and the sites of organizations such as IALD and IES.








Design for Color and Illumination Webinar April 19th

On April 19th Wendy Luedtke (my co-chair of the IES Color Committee) and I will be presenting a free IES webinar called Design for Color and Illumination.  Here’s the blurb from the IES site:

When developing a lighting design, lighting specifiers determine the lamp and fixture combination that best suits the design’s requirements based on many factors. While some considerations are largely technical, such as power consumption, the amount of light generated, and how light is distributed, one consideration is both technical and artistic and can be approached in a number of ways. Participants to this webinar are eligible for one (1) IES Continuing Education Unit (CEU).

The webinar is at 12 noon EDT.  Register here.