Angry Birdsky

The best mash-up so far this year.

What a nice Friday afternoon surprise.... 


We've just received a sample of the new Color Burst from Philips Color Kinetics via courier direct from PCK HQ in Boston.  New developments from Philips Color Kinetics generally cause some commotion in the Modus office, and this was especially true this afternoon as several of us have been waiting to get our hands on this little spotlight!!!  

#charliesheen #winning #tigerblood

glowing on the catwalk

With a design aesthetic described by some as cyber-goth Paris based UK designer Garath Pugh creates avant-garde clothing using materials as diverse as mink, synthetic hair and electrically charged plastic. His latest collection at Paris Fashion Week 2011 on March 2nd included models wearing LED mouthpieces that gave a certain otherworldly air to their appearance... see the image above from the Guardian.


An interesting use of lighting technology - allthough possibly not a look everyone could pull off.  Check out some more images here. 

Banned iPad 2 commercial

Hands up who wants the new iPad... Yeah I figure everyone else wants one too.

the below is apparently a banned TV spot for the new iPad. I can't figure out if its really an Apple promo or something done by some random guys. But it is fairly funny and worth a look.

The screens we will all have tomorrow

Everyone has an LCD, heck you probably have 3 or 4 in your house. Your TV, laptop or PC monitor or all. The above is Fujitsu's take on what you will all have tomorrow...

Fujitsu's showing off a working prototype of a 22-inch computer display that receives both images and power wirelessly, the truly wireless monitor. Yes, that includes the power cable as well! "The screen gets power using a magnetic induction transmitter, which you would have built into your desk. The video itself would be transmitted from a wireless USB connection from up to 32 feet away." The prototype is currently on display at the Fujitsu booth in the Dealers only section at CeBIT 2011. Pricing details are expected at launch...

Samurai fights his own shadow.

This is a stage performance featuring actor Taichi Saotome sword fighting with his own shadow. Really Cool.

The Key Issue...

Oooh!  New inspiration for lighting residential spaces from Modular... check out some fantastic international architecture in their latest publication The Key Issue.  Download it now or contact us for a paper version.....

LED sheep.

This came through my email inbox again, how this didn't happen in New Zealand first I will never know.

Still I guess the shepherds up in Wales have been staring at sheep for longer than us.

Thomas Edison's Birthday today.

Thomas Edison would be 164 years old if still alive today, I thought it was worth pointing out as if not for him then Modus would not exist.

How your wallet works...

Retro Rondos and more

Modus New Zealand made Rondo, FLX300, Utube and Qubo all feature in Bright Wild & Thomas office in Rotorua. Darryl Church gave a retro feel to the Rondos by suggesting clear orange acrylic sides. Its great to see what the factory managed to achieve only a few months after the fire in our Auckland office.

Orewa road lighting technology trial.

Snap….Photographing the photographer !

Modus General Manager Chris Byrne and Damon Birchfield Senior Environmental Programmes Advisor Auckland Council, grimace for the publicity photographs at West Hoe Rd Orewa.

No more slow beers at the concert!

Feature review - 8 Canada st, Architecture nz

Our new building has received several nominations and a handful of awards which we have covered on this blog previously.

Following up from that, Architecture NZ has done a feature review on our new building. From the November/December see bellow for a copy of that review.

8 Canada St - Architecture NZ

The Christmas spirit

Merry Christmas - this years greeting.

New Zealands newest Telco - 2 Degrees.

Modus have a long and proud history of working with National retail chains to provide consistent lighting to maintain their brand presence in retail spaces.

Our latest venture with the architects New Improved for telco 2 Degrees is no different.

Modus supplied lighting into two degrees newest and first retail spaces in Auckland. We were very pleased to see that in the latest Pro Design the new stores had received a write up, the following is a copy of that article.

If you need someone to work with you to provide a consistency of lighting across multiple locations then drop us a line.

2 Degrees - Prodesign

New Modus manufactured product.

Our Modus factory are not only great at making new ideas come to life, or the modification of existing product. But we also spend a large portion of our time just having a play around.

iTry - Free stuff

Who doesn't like any sentence with the words "free stuff" in it?

I found this new service called iTry. They are a website, which, once you have signed up with you can order their advertised product for free. Its a similar concept to the taste tester in the supermarket but freighted out to you to try.

Coil lamp

Coil Lamp reduces the iconic table lamp down to the absolute minimum of defining elements. A single electrical cord coils around what appears to be an empty volume, defining the iconic form of a table lamp and ultimately powering a single light bulb.

Design by: Craighton Berman

Time to hit the slopes!

Earlier on in the year the Restaurant/Bar area of Snowplanet was renovated to create a more inviting space for their patron's.

Moo Moo MOO!

The inaugural Art in the Dark event was held in Ponsonby's Western Park on the 16th of October.  A wonderful night was had by all who attended as we wandered around a transformed urban space full of interactive installations by a selection of local artists.

Keyboard for iPhone.

While I haven't had the pleasure yet of being a day to day user of any iteration of the iPhone. I have been assured that the keyboard is good.

Call me old fashioned but there is just something reassuring about a button to press and a full keyboard. the following is from thinkgeek its an integrated bluetooth keyboard for the iPhone.

Cheap, clever and stylish? go here if you want to look at buying one

Thanks for coming

Thank you to everyone who came last night to help us celebrate our new building. We hope that you had a great time, we know that we all did.

It was great to see you all, meet some new faces and have a drink or two.

If you missed out and couldn't make it, don't worry drop in and see us if your in the area. We are always happy to see you.

Summer is here.

Which means the beer fridge got fired up for the summer.

See below for a great idea, you can thank me later.

Spoonachos.

Best, idea, ever.

Home projects.

The cabinet above is a home project which I have just finished last weekend. I made it on a bit of a whim, it has integrated mains voltage power (8 points total) and is being used to house my old game consoles, record player and VCR.

Victoria bridge light show.

On the blog lately there have been a number of posts about our involvement in the lighting for the 100th anniversary of the Victoria bridge which spans the Waikato river in Hamilton.

Hybrid lamp - CFL/Halogen.

GE introduces 'hybrid' bulb with both halogen and CFL elements. Itt's like two bulbs in one, the halogen unit powering on almost instantaneously then fading off once the CFL element gets itself all riled up. It is brightness than current covered CFLs and great design!

The Auckland Museum lighting spectacular scores for Allendale

The Electrical Contractors Association of NZ Excellence Awards were presented last Wednesday night at a black tie function at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Auckland. The ECANZ Excellence Awards recognise the work of electrical contractors that perform at levels well beyond the ordinary.

Auckland Architecture Awards 2010

The week of October 10th -17th is architecture week Auckland, as part of this last night there was an award and presentation ceremony. Modus' new home was again recognized in the commercial architecture category.

If you would like to view all the winners including our building have a look at the NZ heralds website here

London Quay is not falling down ...

Take a look at the progress on Picton's London Quay Carpark and Landscape Redevelopment!

Tony T - Waikato's Favourite Cover Boy

Work is well underway on our latest large scale civic project - and we were delighted to see rigger extraordinaire and all round fantastic bloke Tony from TRS on the cover of yesterdays Waikato Times working on the installation.

Tony and the rest of the team from TRS are in Hamilton with Modus Technical Manager Chris Huff, Pulse Digital and BRR working their magic on a stunning installation that will unveiled on October 16th.

Full article after the jump....

Modus' new building a winner!

The best awards are held by The Designers institute of New Zealand every year, they focus on great design from all around new Zealand. Arranged into four categories, graphic, interactive, product and spatial. Our new home at 8 Canada street picked up a silver gong in the spatial category.

If you're in the area stop in and check it out, we would be more than happy to show you around. We think it deserved gold, but then we would say that wouldn't we?

Hanami - event idea.

Hanami is the Japanese word for "flower viewing" or specifically it is a type of picnic which is held in the early spring where a group of friends has a picnic under cherry blossom trees.

Hamiltons biggest ever light show set to celebrate Bridge centenary

When Hamilton's Victoria Bridge turns 100 on Saturday 16 of October, residents from across the Waikato are invited to join in the celebration by watching the biggest light show ever to be staged in the city.

The Walking Dead - TV series in production.

The Walking Dead is a monthly black and white American comic book series published by Image Comics beginning in 2003. The comic was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore.

The story chronicles the travels of a group of people trying to survive in a world stricken by a zombie apocalypse. A television series was announced to be in production on August 11, 2009. The series won the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series at the San Diego Comic Convention.

How we lost the recipe for concrete

Some times humanity suffers a bit of a set back. No better example exists the loss of the recipe for concrete. The Persians, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Romans all famously used concrete to give their structures a longevity and strength which has enabled some to survive to this day.

Unfortunately sometime during the fall of the Roman empire our ability to make todays most widely used building material was lost in the plunge into the dark ages. The modern recipe that we are all so familiar with wasn't discovered until the 18th century.

Ferrari F1 working drawings

Found this last night, its an artists website where the artist only draws cars or car parts. The drawings which caught my eye in particular are a set of working drawings for an engine from the 2000 F1 Ferrari.

Incredibly detailed and drawn by hand, not a computer modeling package in sight.

www.khulsey.com/tm_ferrari_f1_engine_drawings.html

LED handrail - ledpod, simple handrail lighting.

Handrail lighting has traditionally been hard to specify, difficult to install, costly to purchase and costly to maintain. Easily damaged linear fluorescent systems have been the most popular, often requiring a secondary rail to be installed below as the lighting rail does not meet the relevant standard.

The video above shows a new patent pending system by our supplier Klik.

LED Feature wall concept test.

Previously on this blog I posted a photo of some of the panels running on the floor being checked before they were sent to site.

The above is a quick 13 second video of Brian, Tom and I fitting two of these panels to the wall to firstly check that the concept was sound, and to allow a photo instruction to be made for the onsite installers.

Art in the Dark 2010

Art in the Dark, an interactive community event, is set to light up Ponsonby's Western Park on the 15th and 16th of October 2010, from 7pm until late.

Modus are thrilled to be working alongside the Dry Dairy collective on their installation for Art in the Dark, especially after the amazing pavilion that they created at Splore this year lit with Philips Color Kinetics.  Be sure to mark this event in your calendar and get along to Western Park to check out not only the Dry Dairy installation but the whole event for yourself! 

New agency - Brick In The Wall

Modus has had the recent pleasure of becoming the new agent for another unique brand out of Europe.

Specifically from Belgium, Brick in the wall manufacture a range of light fittings which are totally borderless. Designed for that minimalist look, all of these fittings can be recessed into either concrete or normal gib walls then painted the same colour as the rest of the wall.

Could be the greatest music accessory since the groupie

I stumbled across the above last night and thought that they were worth a look. Now we just need them to start making these in 1200 x 2400 sheets so that they can go on the wall or ceiling!

Modus.v2 is up and running....

As of Monday 6th September, Modus Lighting are relocated in our new building at 8 Canada St, Newton, CBD.  A few photos of the first day in the Auckland Sales office are attached, if you are passing call in to have a look or make the effort to drive past at night to view the "LightBox"......

Backwards Google

So I have previously bought you Uneven Google and Rotating google, I now present Backwards Google.

Now you can have the full set.

Bringing Colour to Dunedin!

Last week, our South Island Team, from Mark Herring Lighting put on a great colour lighting demonstration  at the Historic Dunedin Railway Station. We can't say that this treatment would be 'advantageous' for this amazing historic building, but as a canvas for providing education and illustration of what can be achieved with coloured light- it was fantastic! This turned out to be great night- thanks to all that attended! (and Trevor even got his picture in the paper!)

Mysterious Shadow People.

Kumi Yamashita has a secret power. She can place wood or metal objects in just the right light to make mysterious shadow people show their true selves. The genius of it all lies in the fact that without the lighting and shadows the objects would never give away her secret. These surprising silhouettes only come out when beckoned to do so.

The original article about the artist and the full article with more of her works can be found here.

Color Kinetics in Christchurch!

Mark Herring Lighting (The Modus Agent for the lower South Island) hosted a fantastic customer event last night. Introduced by the Mayor, Bob Parker and based around a product seminar and lots of hands on equipment in and around the Christchurch Town Hall, the evening was well attended by the local specifier and design community.

The temporary displays really highlighted what a bit of colour can bring to this iconic building and it's surrounds.Watch this space for some more colour in the deep south!

Waiuku Stage 2 - a little bit bent!

The redevelopment of the Town Centre continues using the WE-EF Eyris luminaire with 140W HIT-COS and the RBL bracket for the main lighting. The pedestrian crossing areas have been enhanced with the use of the WE-EF Ceon Luminaire.

 A very unique architectural column design  has been utilised for the Town Square incorporating WE-EF PFL 230 c/w 45W HIT-COS, as well as using the FLC 141 70W HIT spot light c/w snoot concentrating the light on the clock face of the tower, quite radical for Waiuku!

Wine bottle light.

Found this great little DIY lamp/lighting idea in my internet travels last night. So if you want a day long project and can picture one of these in your house then go for it, we all love the DIY.

The instructions are here

The blog that this comes from is called Wit and Whistle and should be visited for other fantastic DIY projects.

The DNA of LED.

Modus has a long history of taking that hard to build concept for a lighting feature and making it into reality, and that is exactly what we have done here.

New Library - New Lights - New LED!

Modus Lighting Ltd congratulates the Tasman District Council on the use of the Philips Clearline LED beside the new library, Queen Street, Richmond.

It Lives....

A recent residential project Modus Lighting has been working on with the renowned architect Richard Furze (of TV fame) has included a mixed bag of Modular Lighting fixtures including Downut, Lotis, Square Moon, Gutter, Duell. But centre piece and by far the lighting feature is an organic cluster of Modular IZAR Moodswing RGB LED fixtures. Construction is nearly finished and we will post some finished pictures but as an appetizer we show the recently installed IZAR's.... tre' cool....

"Change is the essential process of all existence" Spock - Star Trek

Modular Lighting Instruments have just unveiled Spock........  until recently interior LED lighting has generally not been able to meet the illumination requirements of architects, designers and end users, retro-fit and "patchwork" LED solutions have been predominant in interior LED luminaires.

But changing technologies can now offer more advanced solutions.........

Spock is something completely different – a fitting designed as an LED luminaire with a unique aesthetic driven by technology with an unrivaled performance.

Modus Lighting now Tweet controlled.

A while ago now we had the privilege to supply a full LED colour changing system for the Sky tower to illuminate from the observation decks up.

Just last night Skycity started a program where you can text in what colour you want the LEDs to show. Go on give it a go!

Originally reported by Close up on TV one here

Modus on the Move!!!

Everybody at Modus is starting to get excited that we will finally be moving to new premises, and putting the last memories of the fire behind us. 


The new premises at 8 Canada Street Newton are the complete antithesis of our current 'temporary residence'. Designed by Wingate and Farquhar, it was described in Pro-design Magazine as a 'Rare Beast'. 

Too cool for Unevengoogle?!?!

Then this is for you, revolving Google and internet!

Too cool for Google?

www.google.co.nz is normally the defualt search for anyone in New Zealand. In the fine tradition of google "looks" with a difference may I present uneven google for all your googling needs with a little quirk.

The 2010 Film festival is here!

From the 8th - 25th of July this year Auckland's silver screens will play host to some of the best celluloid from the last year.

For those of you who aren't regular festival watchers don't be put off there are a number of great films to be found. Visit the website www.nzff.co.nz pick something out, my first festival was only two years ago where I watched about 3 films. For my movie going experience this year I have 17 films on my list that I simply MUST see and about 7 optionals, not in Auckland don't worry the festival travels all around the country.

Incredible lighting job.

This video is a long one at sixteen minutes but well worth the watch to see an incredible lighting job.

‘YEKPARE’ (monolithic) from nerdworking on Vimeo.

Welcome to the internet.

Welcome to the internet

Emission trading scheme

.

Like it or loath it, it's here.  With the ETS now passed into law and a cost now associated with carbon emissions of $12.50 per tonne, anything which causes emissions into the atmosphere has either just gone up in price or shortly will.

While Modus can't help you with your petrol bill, we can help you with reducing your electricity bill.

The Show Must Go On !

After 10 years of fundraising and 5 years of rebuilding, Nelson's Theatre Royal has recently reopened.