CE Pro June 2022 - 62

LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY
staff certified by the American
Lighting Association (ALA)?
The various buying groups
have been working closely with
the ALA to offer access to their
courses, but taking a few lighting
design courses does not
suddenly give you the same
skills that a veteran lighting
designer possesses. Moreover,
manufacturers offer design
services in many instances.
According to Libman at
DMF, one of the biggest
stumbling blocks he sees
among integrators is they
want to wait until they are
the ultimate experts before
getting started in lighting.
" You definitely need to
have a baseline understanding
and know what you're talking
about, but there is an awesome
support network that
wasn't around five years ago.
Designers such as Light Can
Help You do outsource design
for integrators. These guys
are fantastic. They know what
they're talking about. They
understand your business
model, " he says, adding that
manufacturers such as DMF
offer their own lighting design
assistance for dealers.
Wesco at Allegro says hiring
an internal lighting designer is
a big commitment.
" We've run the numbers
to determine at what point
would we need to bring a
lighting designer in, and we're
estimating that it would be
somewhere in the neighborhood
of at least 20 projects a
year, " he says. " If you have less
than 20 projects a year, you
really have no business looking
to hire a lighting designer.
It's going to be an enormous
62 | CE Pro June 2022
investment. That lighting designer
is probably going to be
green. He's probably not going
to be necessarily a processes
guy, which is really what you
need to develop your strategy. "
Wesco uses Light Can Help
You to design his projects and
often doubles the number of
electrical loads on a project
after arranging for a joint
20-minute Zoom call with the
client and the lighting design
firm's David Warfel and Mark
Langston.
" We close eight out of 10
projects that I get on the
phone with them, taking
projects with a $20,000
lighting controls package to
$40,000. Then, when we start
selling the fixtures, that adds
another $40,000. So we can
grow that $20,000 project
to $80,000 using a lighting
designer, " he remarks.
Instead of investing in
in-house lighting designers,
Wesco recommends dealers
look to hire an engineering/
accounting person that can
manage all of the parts and
pieces of a lighting design and
execution.
" Preferably someone that
has enough people skills
to engage the electrician
and work with the different
parties involved and bringing
the full execution of the
project together. That would
be the first hire in my opinion.
That's what we did. We
hired an engineer fresh out
of school. Anytime our sales
guys have a project, if it's a
retrofit scenario, they literally
do a debrief with him and he
does the full bill of material, "
says Wesco.
Low-voltage lighting is
rapidly transforming the
AV market by providing
integrators with new
revenue opportunities.
Adding low-voltage lighting
to projects enables
integrators to " own the
ceiling " and expand their
wallet-share of projects,
and the Environmental
Lights team is ready to
assist them.
Driverless Downlighting
Fixtures & Remote
Power: Driver-less
low-voltage downlighting
fixtures are a gamechanger.
Eliminating the driver
removes heat (the enemy
of LEDs) and enables a
smaller, more dependable
fixture that receives its
power remotely. Power
supplies are rack-mounted,
integrated with the
primary control system,
and configured to run
multiple LED fixtures -
all from up to 200 feet
away! This enables easy
power management while
eliminating the need to
Environmental Lights: REVI Driverless
Downlights Are Gamechangers
run expensive ROMEX
wiring.
LED Accent Lighting:
Accent lighting provides
the " wow factor " for
altering spaces in ways
traditional lighting can't.
Linear accent lighting
applications can range
from toe-kick lighting all
the way to cove lighting,
and also provide a wide
range of backlighting
opportunities. Multiple
color options are available
including tunable white for
biophilia applications.
Control Agnostic:
Low-voltage downlighting
is easy to integrate with
lighting control systems.
From custom homes using
major control systems, to
production homes with
switch-based controls, low
voltage downlighting is
simple to control and easy
to integrate.
The REVI Illumination
system from Environmental
Lights is a great example
of a quality low-voltage
downlighting solution
designed with integrators,
for integrators. REVI
features programmable,
RDM-enabled drivers and
configurable fixtures. It facilitates
easy installations,
remote power management
and simple integration
with control systems.
-Michael Krupinsky, Vice
President of Marketing,
Environmental Lights
cepro.com
http://www.cepro.com
CE Pro June 2022

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