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Sustainability Challenges [Video Podcast]
John Bullock is challenging the lighting industry to become more sustainable.
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Light and Colour: in perfect harmony
Could I write something about the relationship between Light and Colour?Probably . . . Light and Colour - ...
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Staying Healthy during LockDown
None of us have any idea how long the current situation is going to last. Any information on ...
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You Mean You Charge for This Kind of Thing? [Podcast]
The old designer-client riff is a constant source of hard-wearing material for teeth-gnashing and general grumpiness. Here's a couple ...
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Protracted Parsimony [Podcast]
Some things never change . . . like clients and their attitude to budgets. This was written for ...
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Dear Prime Minister . . .
Tracey White, Chief Executive of the Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP) has written to the Prime Minister asking ...
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Bad Business and The Supply Mesh
Up until the current health crisis I, like many of us, had been watching another crisis unfold at ...
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What is the Circular Economy and Why is it Important?
This article was written for LightLines, the journal for the Society of Light and Lighting and appears in ...
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RIBA Plan of Work 2020 is good for lighting specification
The RIBA has published its Plan of Work 2020 and very interesting reading it makes. Why do we ...
Read Article Online training for asset managers and street lighting engineers launched by Institution of Lighting Professionals
Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP) Guidance Note 22, Asset-Management Toolkit: Minor Structures - ATOMS is the key document for everyone ...
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SLL Lighting Factfile 16: Visual Guide to Emergency Lighting and Signage
Paul Ruffles has produced this very handy visual Factfile that is useful for anyone involved in emergency lighting, ...
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Light Creators; James Turrell’s Constellation series
James Turrell, light artist extraordinaire, has returned to the UK with a solo exhibition of new works at ...
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3 More Knocks . . . light, according to Mary Rushton-Beales
Its hard to believe that a whole month has gone by since my first missive. In that time ...
Read Article Product review: Dyson Lightcycle Morph
A new light offering from Dyson is always worth getting out of bed for . . . or ...
Read Article The Circular Economy: avoiding the GreenWash
These are difficult times to be a lighting manufacturer; or a lighting distributor; or a lighting agent. You ...
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Lewes Light 2020
Latest news from the South Coast: Lewes Light is a matter of DAYS away and it's all getting ...
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Frankfurt Light+Building 2020: Covid-19 Update
This press release was issue by the organisers of Frankfurt Light+Building 2020 today: . Facts first: international technology ...
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Angels and Lumens [Podcast]
I’ve been going back through the archives and came across a file marked Total Bullock. This was a ...
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Light Creators: Bruce Munro – Time And Place
Chris Fordham reports: Driving in the evening through rural Wiltshire on the way to a Light Show, I ...
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ILP publishes new Guide to obtrusive light
Fresh out of the box for 2020 is the revised Guidance notes for the reduction of obtrusive light, ...
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Cundall Light4: How does the lighting industry feature in the circular economy?
By Andrew Bissell - Director of Cundall Light4, Manchester. (Originally published by Cundall Light4 in Cundall Conversations: 23.Nov. 2017) ...
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Light Creators: Liz West
Liz West is British visual artist, famous for site specific artworks, sculpture and immersive light art installations. The ...
Read Article The People Matter Charter: mind your PQQs!
Its reckoned that the UK construction industry needs over 150000 new entrants by 2021; this into an industry ...
Read Article What is ‘Lighting Design’?
A company in India is offering to take the drudgery of producing lighting layouts and lighting schedules off ...
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Richard Hayes asks: is that light OFF?
"What does off mean?" In the good/bad old days you turned off your lights with a physical switch. ...
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Arup launches Luminaire Broker, and a new way of working
This is how lighting specification usually works. A designer has a very good idea of what’s wanted for ...
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Design Guild Mark for Lighting in 2020. Here’s your chance to enter!
Here at the Light Review we just love shouting (writing!) about great design, so when we heard that ...
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The Circular Economy – but how will it work?
Lighting manufacturers are rightly embracing the principles of the Circular Economy and we’re looking forward to seeing lots ...
Read Article Slow Design: why risk flygskam when you can tågskryt
The Light Review finished 2019 with a couple of pieces on Slow Design (add links). Its one of ...
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The Lighting Tree: Alison Gallagher
Alison is a senior lighting designer with Arup, London. She has also served on the national committee of ...
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Sustainable thinking – just look up!
I’d like you to imagine this: you’re rolling through the Wessex countryside. In front of you the road ...
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Low energy? It’s not good enough
Low energy is no longer enough, we have to look forward to a truly sustainable industry. The lighting ...
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Knock 3 times . . . Light, according to Mary Rushton-Beales
In my time on this planet as a lighting designer it has come to my attention that for ...
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The Benefit of Brexit ( . . . what did he say??)
We’re entering a New Year – and I wish you all a happy and successful one. The general ...
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Women in Lighting: in conversation with Sharon Stammers
I sat down for a Skype conversation with Sharon Stammers to look back on an amazing year for ...
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Slow Design: the principles
A few weeks back, we introduced you to the concept of Slow Design. Since then we’ve been asked ...
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Olafur Eliasson: ‘In real life’ at Tate Modern, London
Chris Fordham writes: Light has played an important role in art over the ages, all the way from ...
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Explainer: calculating Maintenance Factor
Richard Hayes recently took a look at the way that Maintenance Factor is often 'tweaked' to make the ...
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Light creators: the candlemaker
Now here's a challenge for you. Most people coming to this piece will be in and of the ...
Read Article The Status of Human Centric Lighting Today
Here’s a piece of good news: we’re introducing a new Podcast feature for 2020. In the first year of ...
Read Article Explainer: how to choose an electrician for your home
Black Friday has passed and you have received your boxes of replacement lights and want it all installed ...
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LewesLight 2020 is Announced – Huzzah!
A missive arrives in my inbox from East Sussex. My good friend Graham Festenstein wishes to announce the ...
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LuxLive 2019: what are exhibitions for?
I’ve been in several minds as to whether I should even attempt this piece. My recent history with ...
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Slow Design: an introduction
At PLDC 2019, in Rotterdam, the audience was introduced to the principle of ‘slow design’. Dr. Amardeep Dugar, ...
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Light a London Landmark: the winner is announced
It was way past sunset, but if Terry and Julie were making their way to Waterloo Station last ...
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Getting Maintenance Factor right
We recently posted an investigative piece, looking at the provenance of a Philips IP65 batten that scared the ...
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PLDC 2019: a Rotterdam diary (Putting it all together)
And that is a wrap . . . PLDC 2019 closes its doors, the big top is packed ...
Read Article Budget LED luminaires: when things go wrong . . . or not
I want to tell you a story . . . It started with a typical LinkedIn post – ...
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Light a London Landmark: the judges have decided
The closing date for entry was 30th September, so if you're still trying to puzzle out just how ...
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SLL Lightbytes 2019-2020: People|Space|Time|Place
The new season of SLL Lightbytes began in Birmingham at the beginning of October. Joining the regular presenters ...
Read Article Explainer: ‘entry level’ luminaires?
I mean, 'whut?' This was a new one to me until a couple of weeks ago. Its not ...
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PLDC 2019: one week to go
By this time next week my bags will be packed and I'll be standing by the front door ...
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Visiting: Otherworld | London
With increasing urbanisation and the constant assault on our senses from work emails, Skype calls, WhatsApp groups, Facebook ...
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The Light Review at [d]arc room 2019
For all those who couldn't make the show, The Light Review let Chris Fordham, our resident product reviewer, ...
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Explainer: Software as a Service (SaaS)
What is Software as a Service (SaaS) When you purchase software, it comes on a CD-ROM or DVD, ...
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How long to become a lighting designer . . . 12 months?
Thanks to Mary Ruston-Beales for bringing this to my attention. Becoming a specialist in lighting design in just ...
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The Lighting Tree: Kerem Asfuroglu
After almost 8 years at Speirs+Major and being awarded the title Dark Sky Defender in 2017, Kerem established Dark Source in 2019 ...
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Integral LED – Official Opening of Aylesbury Logistics Hub
When it comes to managing a commercial operation there has to come a point when issues like Brexit ...
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The hidden problem in sealed-for-life LED luminaires.
The Light Review has been looking at sealed-for-life luminaires; those fixtures that come out of the brown box ...
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Explainer: the Orange Donald
Should I really need to write this? Its depressing to think that, even now, some slack-jawed deniers will ...
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PLDC: a vote on recognition of qualified lighting professionals
As PLDC is the largest gathering of lighting professionals across the lighting design community, its been decided that ...
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Light a London Landmark: designers exercise their gobo muscles
The days of flattening a baked bean tin and punching out a Rorschach-esque pattern to make a gobo, ...
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PLDC 2019 – press release!
This just in from the PLDC team: Online registration closes on 18. October • Pre-convention meetings complete • ...
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Say hello to eFixx
You know the thing; you’re sitting quietly in the garden, enjoying the unexpected sunshine with a fine chilled ...
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Explainer: luminaires and fire risk
We have a somewhat tense relationship with light and fire. After all, for millenia, light and fire meant ...
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Recycling isn’t always the right answer
It might seem strange for the CEO of a recycling scheme to argue that recycling is not always ...
Read Article Explaining: IP ratings
The IP Rating system is there to provide a guide to the degree of protection that lighting equipment ...
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Looking for a new way to specify? Spektd is here for you.
The Light Review’s Lighting Tree asks lighting designers for their least favourite activity in the creative process of ...
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Lighting – who ya gonna call?
I was talking with Peter Harrison, Technical Director at ILP, the other day. The conversation came round to ...
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Bluetooth lighting – renaissance or another false dawn?
Fred Bass turns his investigative eye onto the uncertain world of Bluetooth-enabled lighting. When the first Bluetooth LED ...
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Explainer: understanding lighting Standards
Standards are there to ensure that products and services are delivered in a ‘standard’ fashion. Often, standards refer ...
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Picture of health: A boost for wellness lighting from the Urban Land Institute?
According to The Urban Land Institute the UK can expect a boom in architectural and fit-out projects that ...
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Circadian Lighting? – you’re asking the wrong question
We’ve recently seen the term Human Centric Lighting (HCL) be dropped in favour of the apparently more focused ...
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Explainer: why Power Factor is important in an LED luminaire
WARNING: electrical talk here! Power factor is all about wasting energy. The LED chip is only one part ...
Read Article The Lighting Tree: Rachael Nicholls
Rachael is a Senior Designer with dpa Lighting Consultants, in Oxfordshire. The Lighting Tree is a celebration of ...
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Explainer: Melanopic Lux
At the core of ‘circadian lighting’ is the phenomenon that we call ‘the melanopic response’. This comes from ...
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UGR16: what’s going on?
A year ago, manufacturers were complaining about the rigours of UGR19. Specifiers - or, more to the point, ...
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Emergency lighting obligations explained
Bad things happen, hands get wrung, promises are made - and then we quietly slide back into the ...
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Human Centric Lighting: it’s time for a change
Human Centric Lighting is shifting its focus or, to put it another way, Human Centric Lighting is finally ...
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The security of Connected Lighting.
Jasper Hijink of lux-it Lighting Technology asked me what we've done to promote security in connected lighting systems ...
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The Future for the Circular Economy
I sat down with Simon Fisher of F Mark the other day and we talked about where lighting ...
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The 7-Step Programme to Good Lighting: Step 3 – The Specification
I’m in a hotel room and have just finished what was laughingly called ‘a breakfast box’. There is ...
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Are LED lifetime figures a ticking timebomb?
There is a conversation underway about how we can check the rise of inferior products, poor installations and ...
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Can I borrow your pen?
Last week I wrote about the Climate Change Challenge and its good to see that everyone's keeping their ...
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Chasing the Sun: an interview with Linda Geddes
A few months ago we reviewed 'Chasing the Sun', a book by Linda Geddes that looks into 'the ...
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The Museum of the Moon at Sherborne Abbey
Luke Jerrams's Museum of the Moon has gone on display in Sherborne Abbey, Dorset. From Friday 5th July ...
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The Climate Crisis Challenge
Usually, when the lighting industry goes quiet over something its for one of two reasons; expect a mass ...
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The Lighting Tree: Phil Copland
We welcome Phil Copland to The Lighting Tree.Nominated by Juliet Rennie, Phil is a senior designer with Nulty+.For ...
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Clerkenwell Design Week 2019: on the streets
Chris Fordham wanders the romantic streets of Clerkenwell on behalf of The Light Review. "When in this area ...
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Good Lighting : counterfeit product
At a recent EDA Regional Business Forum in Exeter, the delegates were received with an update on the ...
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Wellness and Deep Biophilia
If we accept that ‘biophilia’ describes our love for nature, then how far does that love go? Day ...
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Wellness: the 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design
This planet has, or had, a problem, which was this. Most of the people living on it were ...
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Wellness and Integrative Lighting
We’ve been looking for a term that encompasses the approach that we need to take to achieve a ...
Read Article The Biophilic Office: Living Walls
Why are we talking about plants in offices? Its not the first time that we’ve been fascinated with ...
Read Article The 7-Step Programme to Good Lighting: where does that come from?
They say: ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ They also say: ‘The road ...
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The Book Review: Urban Lighting for People, edited by Navaz Davoudian
The strapline for this book is “Evidence-based lighting design for the built environment”, which should be warning enough ...
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The Lighting Tree: Juliet Rennie
The latest addition to The Lighting Tree is Juliet Rennie. As we all know, Juliet is coordinator for ...
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The Biophilic office: the designer’s view
Oliver Heath Design is responsible for the design of the refurbished offices at BRE that will become The ...
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Producing photometric data – what do we need?
Specification of data required for a luminaire – photometric data There is a practical reason for data collection ...
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The Lighting Tree: Alex Bittiner
The ground rules for The Lighting Tree are simple. The previous candidate suggests the next candidate – and ...
Read Article Euroluce 2019; the view from the aisles
"I know you. You're John Bullock!" Damn, I thought; the debt collectors have found me at last. But, ...
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Circadian Lighting: improving the care home environment
I suspect that, for many of us, our idea of a care home – whether experienced or imagined ...
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The Biophilic Office, BRE; the researcher’s view
Cosmin Ticleanu, principal lighting consultant for the Biophilic Office project explains the background to the project. 'We spend ...
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The Biophilic office, BRE: the manufacturers view
The Lighting Approach for the Biophilic Office. Waldmann was approached by the BRE to be a core partner ...
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The 7-Step Programme to Good Lighting: Step 6 – The Install
All things being equal, this really shouldn’t be a problem. The problem is – not all things are ...
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LED streetlighting: holy grail or unfit for purpose?
Its probably written into statute by now that whenever two lighters come together to share a soft drink, ...
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MADE BY EMIRATI: a new educational initiative in Dubai
Where do we get our next generation of lighters from? More to the point, where do we find ...
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The Lighting Tree: Ellie Greisen
The ground rules for The Lighting Tree are simple. The previous candidate suggests the next candidate - and ...
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Responding to the SLL Position Statement on Circadian Lighting
The Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) has issued a Position Statement on Circadian Lighting (April 2019). In ...
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Lighting terms Glossary (thanks to SLL)
Someone suggested that The Light Review should have an explainer for all those head-scratching technical terms that the ...
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Emergency lighting batteries – one size fits all?
The technology behind emergency lighting is changing. We asked Simon Coates, Technical Manager of Orbik to tell us ...
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Changing to a 4-day week. Part 3 of 3
This is the final part of Neil Knowles' LinkedIn blog, talking about how he took the plunge and ...
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Society of Light and Lighting: Lightbytes, Bristol
LightBytes events offer a day of peer-reviewed, bite-sized presentations, focusing on key issues relating to lighting professionals and ...
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SLL Young Lighter 2019
Brendan Keely has been on, asking if I can make a bit of noise about the SLL Young ...
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The Biophilic Office: Wellness and Biophilia Symposium
6 - 7 June 2019: a 2-Day Symposium at BRE, Watford How can nature-inspired design foster office occupant ...
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Changing our company to a 4 day week (Part 2 of 3)
The Light Review is shadowing Neil Knowles' blog series on how he took Elektra Lighting to a 4-day ...
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Wellbeing in the Workplace, with the Supply Chain Sustainability School
This event in London on 26th March 2019 was the first SCSS Facilities Manager Supplier Day to focus ...
Read Article The future of Smart City street lighting after Harvard?
The offer of more efficient, cost-saving, almost failure-free street lighting, all thanks to the favourable conjunction of new ...
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I introduced a 4 day week at my company. How did it turn out? (Part 1 of 3)
Loitering through The Guardian a few days ago I ended up with one of those mental images that ...
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Lighting as a Service to enable circular economy
I bumped into Fred Bass at Futurebuild. The conversation, as it always does, came round to what was ...
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Futurebuild: where’s the lighting?
The stated aim of Futurebuild is “to explore and tackle the biggest challenges impacting the built environment and ...
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Retro-fitting escape lighting on residential staircases
Let me set the scene: a low-rise residential block, probably three or four floors of flats, with a ...
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Wellness: reporting the Light Diet
A couple of weeks ago, I introduced you to Lys Technologies and their Light Diet. Read about it ...
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Women in Lighting
“When we talk about women in design, we should not turn it into a minority issue. We need ...
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The Lighting Tree: Stuart Alexander
The UK lighting design community is rich in talent. The Lighting Tree is looking forward to introducing you ...
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In-job training: throwing some light on it
The Electrical Distributors Association (EDA) has introduced a series of Product Knowledge Modules to help wholesalers improve the ...
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3:30:300 – the conundrum for office lighting design
Most of us have been raised with the idea that the single aim for office lighting design is ...
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Wellness: taking care of your circadian rhythm
Never mind those 10,000 steps, are you getting enough LIGHT in your diet? A new wearable sensor from ...
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How to cheat: pricing emergency lighting
Can you price up 212 standard 3W non-maintained emergency downlighters? Best we can do so far is €??. ...
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IoT: who ‘owns’ smart lighting?
The first LIA Technical Forum of the year was given over to a dicussion of the Internet of ...
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Museum of the Moon: 2019 Tour
Created by Luke Jerram, the Museum of the Moon is one of his newest arts projects. It tours ...
Read Article How to cheat: bungs and kickbacks
Earning a living as a lighting designer/specifier can be a challenge. There must be an easier way to ...
Read Article The Book Review: Chasing The Sun, by Linda Geddes
Linda Geddes' new book explores the vital relationship between the sun and the human race suggests directions for ...
Read Article LED dimming – a 2019 update
LED Dimming: what’s going on? I was looking for a replacement 1-10v dimmable LED driver and was surprised ...
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The Lighting Tree
The UK lighting design community is rich in talent. The Lighting Tree is looking forward to introducing you ...
Read Article Emergency lighting – do we have all of the exits covered?
We're so used to the conventions of visual exit signage and audible alarms, but does anyone ever think ...
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How to cheat: ‘Equal and Approved’?
What are we to make of 'equal and approved'. Who is the beneficiary when products get swapped out ...
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The Light Review – what’s in a logo?
We started the ball rolling with a simple line of heavily serifed text, with the ‘I’s of The ...
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The Light Review – what are we up to?
After spending 40 years (yikes!) in the lighting industry I’ve come to realise that there’s only one thing ...
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