*new goodies* UNITED by Modular Lighting Instruments

In simple terms, United is a naked ‘seamless’ fluorescent lamp in a powder coated aluminum housing. It is precisely that plain simplicity that makes Modular Lighting Instruments latest release so special. 

To start with, the exposed lamps ensure higher efficiency, thus reducing power consumption. That efficiency can be increased even further when selecting a white interior to amplify light reflection. 

United consists of one or more U-profiles, which are available with or without a cover. Anyone who believes fluorescent lights cannot create a cozy look should definitely rethink their view. 

United is the ultimate tribute to the fluorescent tube lamp. It radiates a warm, white color and is a welcome sight, in either white or black.  

You can download Modular Lighting Instruments latest mini book here or shoot us an email if you would like further info.

Auckland Council Orewa Road Lighting Technology Trial

Modus Lighting supplies Auckland Council the LED lighting and controls that deliver major energy and environmental savings.

Chris Byrne & Damon Birchfield Onsite at the Orewa Trial

There has been much activity in recent times with various New Zealand local councils exploring new road lighting efficiency concepts to identify energy, environmental and financial savings opportunities.

The Electricity Commission “RightLight” Efficient Road Lighting Programme that rolled out last year promoted processes and guidelines to encourage the undertaking of council road lighting technology trials and assessments.

Damon Birchfield, Energy Efficiency and Environment Officer at the (then) Rodney District Council was a participant in the EC training workshops and wished to progress the opportunity within the Rodney District with a well researched and rigorous road lighting efficiency study.

This has resulted in the Auckland Council Road Lighting Technology trial at West Hoe Road, just off State Highway 17 Orewa, north of Auckland. This trial deploys best practice LED road lighting fittings with advanced electronic control and dimming systems.

Philips SpeedStar Luminaire as Installed in Orewa Trial

Modus Lighting Ltd was the equipment supplier, IT designer and systems integrator for the project.

BEFORE - Traditional HPS Lighting at 100% light level

AFTER - MODUS LED Lighting at 100% light level

As well as LED appraisal, a significant part of this trial was to evaluate the practicalities of adaptive lighting for NZ roading conditions, as a means of achieving operational savings. Adaptive lighting is the selective adjustment (up or down) of lighting levels during different stages of the nightly period in accordance with the exact needs of the prevailing traffic and pedestrian activity levels.

The new lighting equipment on trial delivers full light output at high activity periods, is dimmed by 50% at shoulder periods and is dimmed by 75% at low activity periods.

AFTER - MODUS LED Lighting dimmed by 50% to 50% light level.

AFTER - MODUS LED Lighting dimmed by 75% to 25% light level

The trial employs Philips SpeedStar LED light fittings combined with Philips advanced electronic light level dimming and control to adjust the light output to deliver the exact amount of light required for the conditions, minimising waste light and waste energy.

The results of the whole-of-life assessment over a 30 year period are -

a) Energy saving (kWh) vs currently installed orange light (HPS) technology = 54% saving

b) Energy saving (kWh) vs traditional white light (MH) technology = 73% saving

All of the improvements are attainable at a lower whole-of-life financial cost than that of traditional High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide technologies of an equivalent quality level.

Further details of the trial are available from Modus lighting Ltd General Manager, Chris Byrne at chrisbyrne@moduslighting.co.nz

Modus Lighting is now ready and able to supply NZ councils with energy and money saving technologies that far outperform outdated traditional options.

Just another table lamp?

When is a table lamp not a table lamp?

I think that if there is any product that can qualify for the above statement its the below. A simple return rolled piece of material with the edges cut to form the profile of a classical table lamp with a much reduced footprint.

Simple and stylish, a great modern take on a truly classical design. Or should that be profile?

It's been a busy month for our favorite Belgians with more new lighting from Modular just released...

A Piece of Cake

Modular Lighting Instruments, the Belgian pioneers in architectural lighting design have just released a new luminiare - Soufflé, shown above, which continues the signature Modular combination of technicality and aesthetics.

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.....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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! 

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!

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....

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'.