Light may be the future of computing...

An Otago University physicist is part of an international team of researchers  

who have developed what they say is the most efficient quantum "memory"

for lighting in the world, and a stepping stone to a future of super fast computers and ultra secure communications.

Think Led Lighting is complicated? Think again …

Everyone is talking LED and on the evening of Thursday 20 May 2010 our Philips Color Kinetics Light Show saw us light up the St John’s Heineken Bar in Wellington.

Cobblestone Park - Vivian Street Wellington gets a makeover

Still under construction but here is a sneak preview of the creative utilization of We-ef SVLs with a little Kiwi Ingenuity on the face plates. The units started out being a flush fit to the wall

Light & Building Fair - Frankfurt :Next Generation Lighting Gets Real

As they have been for the last 20+ years, Modus people were busy exploring this year’s Light and Building Fair in Frankfurt in April.  Every two years this massive event showcases the very best lighting design and R&D efforts from the international community.

Modus Lightings New Meeting Room/Showroom

Wellington Goes Camping

Our Capital now hosts a purpose built Motor Home Park on the waterfront.

Within easy reach to the stadium for the pending World Cup and next year's Sevens - we are looking to provide a convenient area complete with ablution block for visitors to park their Motor Homes. A new exciting addition to to the waterfront - a close walk to restaurants, trains, drinking venues, and of course the Cook Strait ferries - yes, the Wellington Waterfront Ltd thought of it all!!! We ef exterior product featured extensively in the project with the lighting design provided by Modus Wellington working in conjunction with Isthmus Wellington.

Warm Caring and Arty

CCM Architects, Wellington used Modus manufactured products in two projects recently, the Engine Room Gallery & Te Hopai Home and Hospital.

modus in the press

A couple of projects that Modus were working on towards the end of last year have recently featured in a some local and international design publications and the articles are now available online.....

Supreme Court of New Zealand, Wellington

We ef, a well respected exterior lighting provider was utilized for the exterior lighting of the new Supreme Court of New Zealand, Wellington.

Working at Wakefield

Modus Lighting, Wellington were consulted by Opus Architecture, Wellington for possible lighting solutions for the Wakefield Radiology entranceway. We recommended our Mira Pendant not only for its luminaire output but for its beautiful aesthetics. The Mira's were made in Shell Linen, which is one of our most popular fabrics.

Latest Modus Newsletter

The latest Modus Lighting Update Newsletter is available to download. This short brochure highlights some of our recent projects and installations. Please take a look!!

Waiuku continues

The Avenues........

The Avenues is part of 'Addison' Development within the Papakura district for which we have been supplying WE-EF ASP504 lanterns with either HPS or MH lamps for the past few years. However the Avenues was a different brief from the developer and it was to supply the local council with  a less maintenance requiring,lower energy consuming, more sustainable product. Part of this we could carry out almost straight away with our ex stock ASP 530 IP66 lantern (assembled in New Zealand) fitted with the Philips new generation 60W metal halide lamp which covered the first two parts of the request.

sem·a·phore (sěm'ə-fôr', -fōr') an apparatus for conveying information by means of visual signals, as a light whose position may be changed

Splore is an outdoor festival devoted to art, culture and community in the stunning Tepapakanga Regional Park just outside of Auckland City.  Alongside an impressive musical line up the bi-annual festival includes live performances, a variety of workshops and an art trail including site specific works throughout the site.

London Quay, Picton Development Takes Shape

Picton takes on a new aspect with the London Quay Development

Victoria St Taupo (Sustainable development by the District Council)

This project utilised the latest WE-EF Eyris RBL & RBM brackets and luminaires manufactured using marine grade recyclable LM6 aluminium.

Another CBD goes Cosmopolis! (White Light)

Just at the end of last year we supplied to the first stages of Victoria St Hamilton, WE-EF PFL 240 c/w 140W new generation metal halide energy efficient luminaires for the main carriageways, together with PFL 230 c/w 35W metal halide for the walkways.

Looking Good At Pegasus!

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The Pegasus development has been a huge multi stage residential lifstyle development, just north of Christchurch City. The latest stage to be completed is the 'Yacht Club' area, complete with We-ef ASP 500 Luminaires, with 60W Philips Cosmopolis lamps and We-ef decoartive aluminium and wooden Columns

There's been a lot going on....

We're back into lighting up the architecture and structures that make up New Zealand's cities, businesses, landmarks and homes. There's lots of exciting projects in the pipeline, and some great new ideas, products and technologies on the way this year.

UP and RUNNING!

Modus Lighting is up and running in the building adjacent ot our old building at 5 Wagener Place Saint Lukes. All phone, email and internet communications are restored with the same phone numbers and addresses. Physical deliveries can be made into our warehouse, and we are expecting our first international shipments in over the weekend.

What a Mess! - Not Much Left!

Fire totally destroyed the Modus Factory and Manufacturing Area, Leaving virtually nothing behind. Who would have thought a warehouse full of mainly steel components could burn so well!

Modus Factory Destroyed by Fire

Unfortunately the Modus facility in Saint Luke's was yesterday destroyed by fire.  At just after 10.30 am Friday morning, fire erupted and had soon engulfed the building. Although very quick to respond, the Fire Service was able to do little other than prevent the fire spreading to adjacent buildings.

team NOM @ Architecture Week 2009

Team NOM, Howie Kang, Ash Low, Frances Lowe and Mel Pau are second year students from the University of Auckland Architecture School.  They approached Modus during the last university semester to see if we could help them with some RGB LED lighting for a rather unique project.....

Hania St, Carpark, Wellington

This job was carried out in conjunction with Wraight & Associates Landscape Architects. Our brief was to light the area well, utilising a simple contempory pole& fitting (We-ef SBL 440)

sneak peak. .

Soon to be up on the website, but a sneak peak from You Tube in the meantime....

Partij!

The showroom at our Auckland factory/head office has been very "functional" for a wee while now - most often overrun with samples, prototypes of new products, or a range of luminaires and tools as we prepare for site trials and installations. 

Christmas Lights

A couple of weeks ago Jasmax Ltd got in contact with us to float the idea of working together with Lightworks to put together something a little special in an empty cottage on Franklin Rd. 

Lighting the Auckland Harbour Bridge ....

Prominent New Zealand Architectural practice, Patterson Associates Ltd, have teamed with Modus Lighting to promote an amazing and achievable lighting effect for the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Already a joint winner in the Open section of the Cavalier Bremworth Award in unbuilt architecture, this design was described as "evocative, transformative and eminently doable..."

One night in Bangkok....

Well, 4 actually!! Last week I had the pleasure of taking a client to We-ef's Thailand factory (they also have two primary plants in Germany) as part of a group hosted by We-ef Australia. It was a fantastic insight into the world of We-ef and blew away any preconceived ideas of 'third world manufacturing'... at least for We-ef!

Dry Spell Gardening: Featuring Modus ME Lighting

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Last week Modus ME Lighting range was featured in this unique garden

Dry Spell Gardening: Series 2 Episode 2: Tiny Space, Big Ideas on The LifeStyle Channel

We-ef on a Beach Front

These spectatcular photos are of a new Waterfront Installation of We-ef PFL Luminaires in Hobart Australia. Amazingly this beachfront is actually on an inland waterway, and some 20km from the ocean.

Santa.....

It's great to see the big man in red back in Auckland city for Christmas.  We all hope that Santa's feeling much better by this weekend.....

Christmas in the City

As you can see from the pictures that Chris posted yesterday, the weather was stunning whilst we were installing the temporary lighting on the top of KZ1. The boat on the edges of the Auckland Viaduct Harbour has been lit for the team at Heart of the City as a part of Christmas in the City. All of us who were involved felt spoilt to have such an amazing "office" for the morning looking over the Waitamata Harbour on such a (surprisingly) sunny day.

The Big Boat gets a Christmas Makeover

Our latest project has been to provide some Christmas illumination to KZ1 - the New Zealand 1988 challange yacht for the America's cup, which is now in display outside the Maritime Museum in downtown Auckland.

City Gallery Wellington is open again!

Our track lighting system and LTS Torpedo fittings provide the interior of the Gallery with flexibility to change the lighting for the exhibitions held throughout the year.

Night Sky.....

Night sky concerns were taken into consideration within this Todd Valley Subdivision in Nelson. Using the innovative Phillips Iridium, together with the technology of the 60W Cosmopolis new generation Metal Halide lamping.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum... as you'll never see it.

A quick mobile phone video of the night trials conducted at the Auckland Museum. If you've seen the finished project, you will know that the result is much more sophisticated and subtle than what you can see above.

However, with all that high tech lighting installed and so many posibilities all the lighting geeks present were having a blast just seeing what the Philips color kinetics installation could do. Answer? ALOT.

8 on Nugent - Stylish Stairwell

Credit should be given to Light Works for the initial lighting concept and Stephenson & Turner for completing the electrical/lighting design and commissioning of this awesome stairwell. The light fitting used is Klik 65 Beam with T5 lamps. The lighting is not only functional, complying to the AS/NZS1680 standard, but also epitomizes the Modus Lighting motto, in this case going "beyond the ordinary" stairwell.

Museum Makes the News

Modus' latest Philips Color Kinetics instalation, makes a great photograph on the front page of the NZ Herald Today. The Museum will be offiically ''Turned on" tonight, by Mayor John banks at 9.45pm. There will be lots of activity at the Museum tonight, so please come along!

Wintec winner

Last night Tania and I ran a lighting trial in Hamilton using Philips Color Kinetics LED & We-ef HID fixtures on the exterior of the (under) renovated Wintec building in Anglesea St. This old building is under going a major face lift, being gutted and rebuilt as the entry point to the Wintec campus.

Oamaru Opera House - IES Lighting Awards

The Facade Lighting at the Oamau opera house was completed some time ago. The Philips Color Kinetics LED RGB system suprised us all with its easy integration into the Historic Building - and the result being exactly what the owners were looking for!

A new dress for the 'Grand Old Lady'

My last post described the sort of difficulties we have to overcome as part and parcel of our job.... but last night was the reason why we do it...

Chris Huff, Maryanka van Schaik and myself spent a good part of the night helping commission parts of the Museum's new Philips Color Kinetic LED exterior lighting. The effects we gain from PCK LED products are stunning. Combined with the expertise of a leading international lighting design team, lightemotion, the result is stunning.... and that is just in the default 100% RGB mode. Once we add colours to the lighting scheme, it will be sensational. We would love to add some photos and show you some of the results, but perhaps it is better to wait for the unveiling....

Still some work to do, some more late nights to be done but we relish the opportunity to work with great companies like Allendale Electrical and learn new lighting techniques from experts like lightemotion.

Makes all the difficult days (and nights) worth it!

Whatever the weather.....

Let me tell you about Chris Huff.... Chris is an industry legend and a stalwart of Modus Lighting! Our latest large project is currently being installed and commisioned at the AKL War Memorial Museum (keep an eye on the museum, night of 30th Oct...!). The great thing about Chris is he can be relied upon to do the job, no matter what the circumstances, problems or issues that confront us.

Revamping the Ibis Hotel Wellington with a Mira type of lighting

We were approached by a consultant to redesign the lighting for the Café/Restaurant and reception areas of the Ibis Hotel, Wellington.

Linear Enlightenment

Actually embedding luminaires into the very fabric of a building as an integral part of the structure is a unique approach to assimilating lighting into a space.

We-ef Roxx

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We recently had a 'facelift' of our Auckland office and took the opportunity to upgrade the entry lighting. We used two We-ef Roxxy UDN 300 [P/M] 35w MH up/down wall lights to create some drama on the front entry.

Safer City Centre

Weef (standard warranty is (5) years.) was used extensively in the upgrade of the Palmerston North City Square.

Not only resulting in a beautiful City Centre aesthetic but in a safer environment.

What do you think?

Lighting by Collis Studio

We were up at essenze in Parnell last night at the preview of the new lighting by Collis Studio. It was fantastic to see the full collection by Peter and Julie Collis installed within a gallery environment by night.

Street Light Columns Without a Crane???

A very exciting development in the street lighting world! the use of Aluminium Columns (Made from 95% recycled Aluminium) so light they can be installed with out the use of a crane. These Columns are so cool, at the end of life (in 40 years or so) hey will probably be worth more as scrap than you paid for them in the beginning!!

Sebel Trinity - Tauranga

The Sebel was the first of our ColorKinetics product launches in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato. It was a excellent chance to show our clients what the product can do. Night trials have to be the best way to show potential clients what can be achieved. Call us Lighting Geeks but its something we at Modus love to do!

Arts Post - Hamilton

Recently we lit the outside of Arts Post in Hamilton. Even TV1 was there to see our efforts thanks to the Springboks coming to town. It was a great chance to show our clients what the ColorKinetic product can do. The evening was a huge success. Below are a few images we took on the night.

Collaborating With New Zealand Designers

We recently had the opportunity to work with noted Auckland based artists Peter and Julie Collis of Collis Studios. They have been working on some of the sculptural lighting that forms part of their new range. The Waka Light, show above was especially interesting to work on with the woven glazed ceramic form offering a fantastic play of light and shadow.

Playing with LED

One of the great things about working for Modus is the chance to 'play' with new technology.... at heart we are all lighting geeks! Philips Color Kinetics is a cool product range and we never tire of being able to get into interesting places to play with lights!!! In this case MOTAT........

Auckland Rail Network

Its been great to see that the rail expansion project in Auckland has included some good lighting, Modus has enjoyed being involved in many of these station upgrades.

Bridge Lighting

Andy has been doing quite a few jobs out of town - which no one gets to see, but this bridge in Whitianga, which is lit with all We-ef product and a selection of lamp sources really looks good!