Magic Lighting Tools

Light changes the appearance of objects, rooms and materials. It has a huge impact on how individuals perceive objects, structures and environment. This influence determines the emotional and physical feeling that individuals get when entering rooms, buildings or perceiving environments, objects and structures. Therefore a good lighting design which strengthens the emotional and physical appearance is imminent for all environments, buildings and materials.

Magic Lighting Tools contains the information on the equipment and techniques that professional lighting practitioners use to create amazing environments with light. Download your own copy here.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and is certainly increased and strengthened, when applied in the right lighting setting.

LED Lighting - Getting It Right.

Modus, alongside Philips Color Kinetics have been a part of the installation of efficient, low maintenance, environmentally intelligent digital illumination systems throughout Aotearoa.   

LED lighting systems create huge possibilities - but we find that there are often still allot of questions around the technology, and most importantly around how to best apply it to individual projects.

Philips Color Kinetics currently have over 34,000 installations in more than 100 countries around the world.  Some of these installations have been running continuously  for almost a decade - with this sort of experience comes an unmatched wealth of knowledge.  

Importantly to us this knowledge can offer architects and designers important insights into how LED lighting can be integrated into architecture to create sophisticated environments that utilize the best available energy efficient digital lighting technologies. 

Philips Color Kinetics have put together a great outline of the pros and cons of LED technology that dispels some of the myths around the technology in a publication called - LED Lighting: Getting It Right.  It's a great resource if you are looking at LED systems for any project - Interior or Exterior.   

If you have any more in-depth queries or would like some assistance with an LED lighting system please give us a call here at Modus and we'd be happy to walk you through a range solutions for your project.

*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?

Mothers Day, Sunday 8th May

Sunday 8th May is fast approaching and our friends at the Hamilton City Council sent us through this video of the the Color Kinetics installation on the Victoria Bridge in Hamilton lit up pink in support of the Waikato Breast Cancer Trust this Mothers Day.

The Waikato Breast Cancer Trust, working in association with GEO Skin Care, have a wonderful pamper pack for Mother's Day which contains 100ml hydrating hand and body cream and a gorgeous handmade natural soy candle - for only $30.00 (excl postage & packing $4.95).

A wonderful idea for a fantastic present for your Mum on Mother's Day. And not only does she get a gift for herself but 50% of the proceeds go back into the WBCT breast cancer research programme to support the fantastic work that they do - 2 gifts in 1!

Get along to their website for more information and to place your order, and if you are in Hamilton wander down to the river to see the light display on the Victoria Bridge.

http://www.wbct.org.nz/

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.....

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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! 

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.