The 2011 Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Grant, established to encourage and recognize full-time students who have demonstrated exceptional professional promise through the presentation of an original and ingenious solution to a supplied design problem, is now open for submissions. The deadline is May 1, 2011. The award comprises a plaque and a check in [...]

The Lighting Controls Association’s website has been relaunched in a Web 2.0 format (blog with Twitter, RSS, Facebook, YouTube) at www.lightingcontrolsassociation.org. This was a big project that required us to move a lot of content into the new format that is now easier to search, share, comment. If you have not yet checked out this [...]

A big milestone for me occurred this month. Ten years ago, I left the New York publishing world, where I was publisher of Architectural Lighting and group publisher of the Design Group, to start ZING Communications, Inc. Ten years later, I’m happy to say I’m still loving it!

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is providing powerful new tools, downloads, and technical information for solution providers and engineers via its LEDlight website. The new online tools section provides access to a number of LED lighting tools for lighting engineers and designers. Public files include video slidecasts of recent reference designs, LED product highlights and SSL technical [...]

For the past two years, Howard Wolfman of LumiSpec Consulting have presented the “What’s New in Lamps and Ballasts” seminar at LIGHTFAIR to audiences as large as 500 show attendees. Howard had done the presentation for a number of years previous to my getting involved, and helped make it the must-see LIGHTFAIR event it is [...]

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published ANSI C136.26-2010 American National Standard for Roadway and Area Lighting Equipment—Troubleshooting Guide for High-Intensity Discharge (HID) Luminaires. This standard, produced by the ANSI Committee 136 for Roadway and Area Lighting, was last revised in 2003. It offers step-by-step guidance for use in troubleshooting HID lighting fixtures by [...]

In December 2010, Electrical Contractor published “Walk Toward the Light,” an article I wrote about the importance of ensuring proper illumination of vertical surfaces, particularly in projects such as LEED projects, which squeeze lighting watts to an extent that risks to lighting quality increase. The article describes the rationale behind wall lighting and its benefits, [...]

LIGHTFAIR International has announced that is again offering the LFI Student Outreach Program—with the addition of an exclusive lighting design competition at the 2011 event. Partnering with Philadelphia chapters of the IES and the IALD, LFI will present Design With Light: Student Lighting Design Competition 2011. The competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate [...]

The Lighting Controls Association is pleased to announce that EE301: Wireless RF Lighting Control has been added to the Association’s popular online Education Express distance education courses. Radio-frequency (RF) wireless communication is a significant emerging lighting control technology in both residential and commercial building applications. In a typical hardwired lighting control system, control signals are [...]