Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast: Recent Episodes

Get A Grip On Lighting

Recognizing a need in the lighting industry to forum together and discuss subjects & issues in our industry, the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast was born. Get A Grip brings on industry experts to talk about real issues and focused on that subject matter. If there’s something to be said on the subject, Get A Grip will go there.

Get A Grip On Lighting Podcasts are hosted by Michael Colligan and Greg Ehrich, who have over 30 years of combined experience in the lighting industry. Michael Colligan is an entrepreneur and inventor. He’s a subject matter expert in commercial and industrial lighting supply, lighting retrofits, and finding recycling streams for hard-to-recycle waste. Greg Ehrich, LC is the former President of the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors (NAILD) and owner of a progressive lighting distributorship.

Nathalie has questioned a lot! Everything from the term “Lighting Designer” (she prefers the title “Phototect”), to what color lights to use to light different skin tones. Nathalie started the not-for-profit, Light Reach, a solar lighting initiative to help light disaster areas and underserved communities worldwide. Being the founder of a think tank on light, she shares some different perspectives on lighting issues with Michael and Greg. Nathalie Rozot, MIES, is the founder of PhoScope, a think tank on light. She is a New York-based phototect and the recipient of many prestigious awards, grants, fellowships and sponsorships, including a 2021 WIL Award for the global solar lighting initiative Light Reach. She has a strong track record of contributions to social and critical issues in lighting and to lighting and design education. These include international keynote presentations, speaking engagements and publications, as well as a part-time professorship at The New School, former engagements as senior thesis faculty in lighting design Masters programs, senior guest lecturer in landscape architecture Masters programs in Versailles and Lille, and education columnist for the IES’s publication LD+A. Connect with Nathalie: https://www.phoscope.org www.lightreach.net Social Media: @lightreachnet @lightforleb Sponsor: Griplock www.griplocksystems.com

Oh boy. Here comes another curve ball for the industry. LEDs came along in the early 2000’s. They emitted light. They were energy efficient. What could be bad? Ask Mark Baker who’s highly sensitive to certain LED lights. And there are people worse off than him who cannot neurologically tolerate the type of radiation emitted by LEDs. Imagine if you couldn’t go to a store or walk under street lights lest you get dizzy, acquire a migraine or fall into an epileptic episode. There are thousands of people who can’t leave their house, and now can't even replace their light bulbs with incandescents. Mark Baker is the President of The Soft Light Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for the protection of people and the environment from the harms of visible radiation emitted by products that use Light Emitting Diodes. Mark is the primary author of a primer on the differences between a curved surface emitter and a flat surface emitter. His co-authors include subject matter experts in the fields of physics, engineering, medicine, and light pollution. Connect with Mark: www.softlights.org Soft Lights Foundation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/softlights.org Ban Blinding LEDs - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BanBlindingLEDs Petition to Ban Blinding Headlights: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and-save-lives

Idiotic. Stupid. Disastrous. A debacle. We’re talking about the recent light bulb ban of course. Hey DOE, take a walk with Michael or Greg and see how this negatively impacts countless businesses and institutions on the ground.

It was always looming, and now the day has finally arrived. You can’t sell any more incandescent lamps (with VERY few exceptions). Is it going to bring down energy consumption? Is it going to create a lot of waste? Is it going to be a problem in some businesses? In this episode, Chris Siegal from Satco addresses these and many more questions and concerns. Chris is the 4th generation in the lighting business, starting with his family’s company, Supreme Ltg., a manufacturer of incandescent lamps in SC. Followed by 6 years with SLi Lighting after acquiring Supreme in 1999. With cousin Gary Siegal, he started Hygrade Lamp Company in 2005, which was then acquired by Satco Products in 2008. Now at Satco for 15 years, Chris has been responsible for managing the Satco brand portfolio of traditional lamps and their transition to LED, overseeing the product development, compliance and purchasing of their ever-expanding line of LED lamps and Downlights. Chris is the Satco representative to NEMA and is currently serving as the Vice Chair of the Light Source Section.

After 300 episodes, you think you’ve heard it all, then Dr. Moore-Ede comes along with some more fascinating facts about circadian lighting. Did you know that you can whiten-up light by substituting violet for blue light while avoiding triggering the circadian system? Also, Dr. Moore-Ede tells Michael and Greg that perhaps 40% of adults sleep with the lights on. Don’t do that! For over 40 years, Dr. Moore-Ede has been a leading world expert on circadian clocks and the health problems caused by electric light at night. As a professor at Harvard Medical School (1975 – 1998), he led the team that located the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the biological clock in the human brain that controls the timing of sleep and wake. He pioneered research on how circadian clocks regulate the timing of body functions. Since 2010, he has led the Circadian Lighting Research Center team that identified the key blue signal that synchronizes circadian clocks and developed patented LED lights, which provide circadian-optimized light across day and night based on comprehensive medical research. The effectiveness of these circadian-modulated lights in improving health and well-being has been validated by installing them in the 24-hour operations of Fortune 500 companies and hospitals. He has published over 180 scientific articles and authored ten books, including the best-selling books, The Clocks that Time Us, and The Twenty-Four Hour Society. His latest book THE LIGHT DOCTOR: The Science and Solutions for Replacing Your Lights Now to Protect Your Health has been released as a serial on Substack at https://lightdoctormartinmooreede.substack.com

Katia joins us from Athens Greece, but it was in a London museum where she spotted some terrible lighting. You’d think that good lighting would be a top priority in a museum. That’s when she came up with “The Lighting Police.” There are “police” contributing from all over the world. Check it out. Maybe you can become an officer. Katia is an award-winning lighting designer, communication strategist, and advocate of the Lighting Design Profession. She is the founder of Archifos and her international work combines architectural lighting with Immersive lighting experiences and engaging marketing communications, collaborating with the best designers and brands to share their stories in an innovative and impactful way. She is involved in various community-based and educational projects in the lighting industry like the Women in Lighting, the Silhouette Awards, and the VLD Community and the Lighting Police Project. Katia loves sharing ideas and has been invited by various worldwide organizations and universities to talk about light, communication, light art, mentorship, and inspiration amongst others.

When Robert White started in the business, he had a mullet, earrings, and a jacket with a diagonal zipper that started at the shoulder. In other words, he’s been around a while. So he brings a lot of knowledge from the world of lighting design. He even knows enough to offer some insight to us lighting distributors. Wait till you hear his fantastic idea for lighting a building to avoid uplight. Robert has been practicing lighting Design for over 30 years and is Principal at Illuminart based in Troy Michigan. He has a BFA from College for Creative Studies and has received over 40 lighting design awards including several Guth Awards of Distinction. His wide-ranging design experience includes projects throughout the US as well as the Middle East. He also enjoys teaching and is adjunct faculty for LTU, and CCS.

Neil Peterson is CEO of LED Lighting Supply where they sell - you guessed it - LED lighting. But they don’t sell to just anyone. LED Lighting Supply excel’s at commercial, industrial and sports lighting. And the market is booming. Neil prefers to stay in that lane and remain really good at it.

Neil has over a decade of lighting experience spanning lighting and pole product strategy, layout design, controls, and a wide range of product applications. As CEO of LED Lighting Supply, Neil leads a team supporting the commercial, industrial, and sports markets, with a focus on solutions for Industrial, sports, and harsh environments, including oil refineries, factories, and power plants. In his role, Neil has a particular interest in product planning, supply chain strategy, and sales management providing a bird's eye view into the ebbs and flows of the lighting industry.

Obtaining government contracts can be a challenging endeavor as the competition is fierce. However, a business partnership that includes a disabled veteran can provide your company with a valuable advantage. By doing so, this fulfills a requirement that government contracts often seek, while also offering a disabled veteran the opportunity to be a business owner. This arrangement creates a win-win situation. Nevertheless, it is important to note that being awarded government contracts still requires you to be a competitive and excellent service provider. As Chris rightly points out, success in this field is never guaranteed and requires dedication, effort and some old school tactics. Chris is VP of Sales & National Accounts and a partner at American Veteran Lighting. In 2004, he launched RAY-LITE Industries, Inc. and in 2017 formed a Partnership with Ray Marchan and launched American Veteran Lighting, Inc. Ray, a distinguished Army Veteran and accomplished professional, is the Chairman of American Veteran Lighting and plays a pivotal role in driving the company's marketing efforts. Drawing from a wealth of experience and leadership skills gained during his military service, Ray brings a unique perspective to the lighting industry. Passionate about delivering exceptional lighting solutions, he strives to enhance the lives of customers through innovative products and outstanding service.

You run a city. You need to know where all your street lights are. You want to know where the car, bike and pedestrian collisions areas are, what time of night they happen. And you need it tomorrow. Call Nick and Evari GIS will take that data and improve your safety record, reduce light pollution and enhance your energy savings. Nick Mesler, PE is the Director of Operations with Evari GIS Consulting, a data technology company specializing in street lighting, ADA infrastructure, and active transportation. Nick is based in Portland, Oregon. Nick specializes in transportation safety, with a background in mobility planning and transportation operations. Nick manages and oversees the delivery of infrastructure and safety projects all over the United States.

Brad does not work for a designer or manufacturer, so he considers himself “off the leash,” so buckle up: He thinks we’re in a race to the bottom in cost and quality. With the move to manufacturing in China, all the R & D money is gone. Sustainability is nearly non-existent. The industry is in a dark place. But despair not! Brad has some ideas to get us back on track. Brad Koerner has held a 20-year career in architectural lighting design and innovation in lighting technologies. He was at Philips Lighting in the innovation and corporate venture groups. He was the Lighting Market Manager for Color Kinetics, and a lighting designer in the Boston area at Lam Partners, Light This!, and Ripman Lighting Consultants. For the past several years Brad has been helping companies drive product innovation via his firm Koerner Design. Brad received his Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University, where he received the IALD Education Trust Fund Grant and the IESNA Richard Kelly Grant.

Patrick once worked in laser cutting sheet metal, then building recreational vehicles which eventually led to Syndesis, his company that creates solutions for integration. How? Well, you’ll have to listen to this podcast to find out. Webster and Ron talk with Patrick about efficiency, communication and “plug and play - without the plug!” Patrick P. Treadway is President and owner of Syndesis LLC. Pat opened Syndesis LLC in September 2020, to offer the Lighting industry a resource reflective of the diverse factors lighting, controls, and manufacturing companies face today. Syndesis brings Product Development, Product Management, Industrial Design, and Project Management expertise to its clients commercialization efforts.

Mark originally wanted to be a painter and painting to him was like subtracting light as paint is added to a white canvas. Conversely, in lighting, one is adding light to darkness. And this led Mark to understand you can’t talk about light without talking about darkness. Michael discusses with Mark how we have lost much of our understanding of the value of darkness as lights have gotten cheaper and more efficient. Mark formed Speirs Major with Keith Bradshaw which grew out of Speirs and Major Associates. Speirs Major are recognized as being one of the world’s leading lighting design practices, using light and darkness to enhance the experience of the visual environment.

This one is so packed that we are already planning part 2. Pieter and Mike are taking Seaborough from a purely R & D company to more of a business partner with the lighting industry. If you’re a manufacturer, you might want to consider becoming one of those partners when you hear about their innovative LED technology. Dr. Mike Krames has been working in LED for 30 years and as he says, he was laughed at in the beginning. No one’s laughing now.

Pieter Six is well versed in the world of lighting and is passionate about the development and disruption of new lighting innovations. Before joining Seaborough in 2020 as CEO, he worked as Chief Commercial Officer for Ellipz Smart Solutions, a scale-up company in the field of data communication via light (LiFi).

Dr. Mike Krames has more than 25 years of materials, device, and applications experience, with emphasis on solid-state lighting devices and products, including advancing the performance and color quality of LEDs for general illumination.

Tom joins Michael Colligan to talk about “the big lie,” mercury, arsenic, politicians, education, and rock and roll! And also, who’s going to win out - China or the aliens? Tom is the owner of BLC America Inc. and Green Energy Lighting Corp. He’s also a musician who was bitten by the music bug on Feb 9, 1964 when the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. And he’s been writing music ever since. Stay tuned at the end for Tom’s interview from the NAILD Convention in September 2022, and a bonus song.

With a guy like Steve Mesh, it’s hard to keep the discussion to an hour. In this episode, Webster taps into Steve’s vast knowledge of lighting controls to find out how he became a lighting controls specialist and what can be done now to formalize the education of lighting controls specialists. Steve knows so much that he is a much sought-after lecturer and teacher. Oh - and he can fly planes! Steve has been a lighting designer and educator for 42 years. He was the Senior Lighting Program Coordinator at the Pacific Energy Center in San Francisco from 2008-2011. Steve is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society and was the IES/Northeast Regional Vice President. He was also part of the development team for the California Advanced Lighting Controls Training Program. Steve has taught lighting for 38 years. He won an IALD award for the Palm House at Dowling College and an EPRI award for Brower Commons at Rutgers University. Since 1992, he has given several workshops at LightFair and has spoken at Lux Pacifica in New Delhi, India. He is also a private pilot.

Bernd is an astrophotographer based out of Cologne, Germany. Bernd tells Michael how hard it is to find dark skies for his astrophotography. Even driving 2 days from Cologne, he can’t find an ideal dark area to take pictures. Bernd has taken photos from high in the Austrian mountains, but the bright lights of the ski hill grooming machines moving up and down the hills is hard to avoid with his time lapse photography. Bernd Pröschold is an astrophotographer and author. From 1998 to 2003 he studied communication science, sociology and cultural studies at the University of Münster, Germany. Shortly after he started to produce astronomical time lapse videos, an activity which turned into his profession very soon. His footage has been distributed by TV stations, planetariums and picture agencies.

Chad Palmer from Energyficient Systems joins Michael and Greg to talk about selling, the heightened value of lighting distributors, and maintenance engineering. Chad specializes in electrical products made for those who work in and build barns. And you might have seen him in Season 11 of “Fireball Run.” Chad Palmer is the President, CEO at Energyficient Systems, Inc., a lighting distributor with a national footprint serving the ESCO market and Energyficient Products, LLC. a manufacturer of lighting and electrical products for the agricultural industry.

IoT. What’s that? Internet Of Things. This is an emerging market. Yeah, it’s not exactly lighting controls, but it’s all becoming interconnected. Lights, HVAC, emergency, WiFi, elevators… even refrigerators are becoming connected. If you’re in controls, you might want to put “knowledge upgrading” on your radar. You can start by listening to Mike Skurla in this episode. As Chief Product Officer at Radix IoT, LLC–Michael Skurla helps consolidate global Marketing & Product Viability, focusing on forthcoming product strategy and intellectual property for markets including unique R&D initiatives, cloud/managed services, merger & acquisitions targets. Previously, as CTO, Skurla set product strategy. He has over two decades of experience in control automation and IoT product design with Fortune 500 companies, focusing on the intersection of software and hardware, emphasizing data aggregation and analytics for mission-critical industries.

If you need a certain color from an RGB LED light, you just mix the right combination of red, green and blue, right? Not so fast! What about dimming? Solveig explains the challenges with dimming steps, variances in dimming rates in chips, the intensity of each color, and what the human eye sees. That’s why Solveig and Schnick Schnack Systems are working on high-quality RGB lights. Even though her favorite color is pink, Solveig Busler loves all colors of the visible spectrum. As Member of the Executive Board at the German LED manufacturer Schnick-Schnack-Systems GmbH, she provides TV-Studios, rental and production companies, as well as architectural projects with LED modules and luminaires as well as control systems. 20 years in the lighting and entertainment industry have made her an experienced and knowledgeable partner for ideas and projects of all sizes.

Are building owners and engineers still not seeing the benefits of lighting controls? Gary explains the reluctance to embrace the technology when the long term benefits are hard to weigh against the upfront costs. As Gary says, how do you compete against a 99 cent on/off switch? Education! (So spread the word on The Lighting Controls Podcast!) Gary Meshberg, LEED AP, LC, CLCP, IESNA is vice chair of the Lighting Controls Association and director of industry and market engagement for Digital Lumens/Encelium. A 32-year industry veteran, he previously served as director of marketing, VP of sales and specification business manager for major lighting manufacturers. He chairs the IES Lighting Commissioning Committee, previously served as past education chair for the Dallas IES Section and founded and served as chair of the Home Lighting Control Alliance

If you’re not a member of IMARK, maybe you should think about it. As Steve tells Michael and Greg, current members love it. They love the rebates, but IMARK is more than just rebates. IMARK provides training portals, product sourcing support, group health insurance and a group 401(K) to name a few benefits. Steve Ruane is the VP, Marketing and Member Services for IMARK Electrical. In that role, he is responsible for the group’s s marketing programs and group meetings such as GainShare and Gateway to Growth, Leadership Conference), member education (IMARK University) , and corporate communications both print and electronic.

We’re really geeking out on this one. Steve Terry from ETC is all about codes and standards. Name a code in emergency lighting and Steve probably had a hand in shaping it. He chats with Webster and Ron about the history of lighting control and the confusion that can result from the complexity of ever-evolving standards. Steve Terry is currently the Director of Standards & Industry relations at ETC. From 2001-2017 he held various executive positions at ETC, including VP of Research & Development, where he led the team responsible for global product development.

Wind turbines are a zero emissions solution to energy needs. But with solutions, new problems always arise. We’ve all seen the giant wind turbines towering into the sky and with any tower, there is a risk for air traffic. And how do we solve that problem? With lights. Sometimes blinking. And that has been a problem for residents in Germany who live near them. Thomas Herrholz and Dark Sky GmbH from Germany is a company that has been developing techniques to activate obstacle lighting only when it is really needed for air traffic. Their solution enabled them to realize that the lights on some wind-turbines can be turned off up to 98% of the night time. So most of the time the obstacles are illuminated for nothing!

Ellis is back! If you’ve met him, you know about his contagious energy and enthusiasm. Well he is bringing that energy and enthusiasm to a new campaign to help you, the distributors. Ellis talks to Michael and Greg about the state of the market, building trust and ramping up TCP’s support for its distributors. Born in Shanghai, Ellis spent the early years of his life living through the cultural revolution in China. He came to the U.S. to study in 1979, following in the footsteps of some members of his mothers’ family who had emigrated about 30 years earlier. TCP was formed in 1993, and he became its President and Chief Executive Officer.

Title 24, 2011…DDC Revolution…LP 16…OPR…Commissioning…LP 8, formerly DG 29… It’s enough to make your head spin. Lyn makes it all clear. She even states the exact measurement of a “crap-ton.” But seriously, you want to listen to this and tap into Lyn’s vast knowledge of standards and regulations. Lyn is an MEP Coordinator for DPR Construction. She uses her 20+ years of experience to start up and build quality into integrated systems for HVAC, electrical/lighting, control systems, fire protection, backup power, and technology. In her spare time (lol), she’s the chair for the update to DG-16 (the standard for lighting/controls commissioning), on the board of the Building Commissioning Association as well as co-chair of the annual conference, co-chair for the new standard on control sequences for lighting control systems (LP-16), teaches classes on lighting controls, and supports Techbridge, an afterschool STEM program.

Have you ever had to go through a giant facility and count fixtures and estimate the replacement cost? Well Melvin’s company Patabid can help you with that. Using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, that task can now be automated. Now you’ll have more time to listen to Get A Grip On Lighting!

Melvin is the President/CTO of PataBid. Prior to co-founding PataBid in 2018, Melvin worked in the construction industry for 15+ years as an estimator and project manager. As an entrepreneur, Melvin co-founded PataBid and is the full stack developer on the platform, specializing in the development of the internal ML/AI systems. In addition to developing the platform, Melvin is responsible for building the deployment systems and developing key business partnerships.

Webster and Ron talk with Dan about how Toggled came to be, from TLED’s to dimming to entire building lighting controls. But with growth comes challenges. Dan and our hosts talk about retrofitting, ballasts/not-ballasts, bluetooth, data collection, cyber security, and even dealing with asbestos in an old building. Daniel Hollenkamp Jr. is responsible for Toggled’s day-to-day operations; he oversees sales, marketing, manufacturing, and research & development. Previously, Hollenkamp was Toggled’s lead manufacturing engineer, where he ramped up the company’s mass production efforts. He has more than 12 years of experience in electronics manufacturing and seven years of experience in the LED industry.

Mark discusses with Michael, practicing mindfulness when under the night sky. He proposes that astronomy was the first science, out of necessity. The night sky is the only view that hasn’t changed and now a large portion of humans can’t even see it. Mark says, whatever your view - clouds, streetlights - just be in the moment and enjoy what you have. (But still, let’s eliminate light pollution!) Mark Westmoquette is a mindful stargazing expert, astronomer, author and Zen teacher. Mark holds a PhD in Astrophysics and was a professional astronomer before switching gears, and now teaches yoga and mindfulness full-time. Mark has been studying Zen with Zen Master Daizan Skinner from Zenways for over 10 years.

We’ve all heard of the War of the Currents - the battle between George Westinghouse (AC) and Thomas Edison (DC) in which Westinghouse mostly won. Well Edison would have been happy to get behind Bolis Ibrahim and his quest to get back to DC power. With lower power demand from LED and the push for sustainability, it looks like the comeback of DC makes sense.

Bolis Ibrahim comes from an electrical engineering and project management background in both the electronics manufacturing and electrical contracting industries. Bolis is passionate about the rise of intelligent buildings that utilize DC (direct current) power distribution, advanced sensors, and intelligent automation to dramatically reduce energy consumption to achieve net-zero operations.

Henrik Clausen is leaving Get a Grip on Lighting. In this episode, he and Michael look back on his time as host. It was fun and emotional. They touch upon lighting for the office, teaching about lighting, selling darkness and our relationship to fire. Don’t worry, we’ll get Henrik back now and again. Henrik Clausen B Eng; M IDA, M IESNA, Associated Professor, AAU Henrik has been involved in lighting for over 30 years in both commercial and academic positions.

Welcome to The Lighting Controls Podcast, where we discuss all things lighting controls. Webster and Ron will be joined by various guests from the lighting industry. In this, our first episode of the new series, Webster and Ron look back at the Conversation Series and look ahead at the future of the new Lighting Controls Podcast.

Jeff Nefouse, Vice President at A-M Electric, is a third generation President after his Grandfather Ed Saag (a founding member), and his father Greg Nefouse. Maybe in 20-25 years, we’ll see Jeff’s son as the fourth generation president!

Michael and John discuss with Etta how to engage people with Dark Skies so as to bring them back. Etta is taking steps to do just that with her company, Visit Dark Skies, where you can immerse yourself into a true nature experience with her audio-guided stargazing. Etta Dannemann, Dipl.-Ing., has been in the lighting industry for 10 years before founding VISIT DARK SKIES GmbH, a company dedicated to the experience of the natural night sky. As a lighting designer, she has been interested in light and darkness and especially in light-related biological processes like the darkness adaptation of the human eye.

Have you ever had a contractor ask, “Where’s my stuff?” As Matthew says, his product OrdrTrak will help you find “stuff.” In other words, it’ll help with - just like the name says - order tracking. In 2022, we want “instant gratification,” and more of it. Can the technology keep up with the demand? As Michael says, the problems seem to be perpetuating themselves faster than the solutions can catch up. It’s a complex challenge. Matthew spent 35 years in the electrical industry. In 1988 he started writing software to help his agency, which led to interest in other agencies purchasing the software. And that eventually brought him to TradeTech Solutions and developing OrdrTrak.

The final episode in our Technical Update Series, previously streamed.

The smarter our buildings become, the more data they generate. Lighting controls data could prove valuable for facilities managers, manufacturers, and lighting designers. For example, button press data can reveal insights into occupancy levels, when and where lights were turned on or off, and adjustments to light settings. These data can prove valuable for facility owners hoping to cut down on energy waste, or for lighting designers who commission future lighting systems. But as valuable as the data are, the building industry is still learning how to interpret and leverage the data. Greater insight into this data could lead to more informed decision-making on the efficiency of our buildings.

There’s air pollution, water pollution and noise pollution. Why hasn’t light pollution been recognised the same way? This is the question Michael Colligan and John Bullock tackle with Yana. Of course it takes awareness, but also commitment. And it just might be that the best way to get commitment is to get it in the books legally. It’s a complex problem that Yana is dedicated to studying, and maybe… solving? We didn’t even get into her research on space law. We’re going to have Yana back! Yana Yakushina is a practicing lawyer and researcher in the field of environmental and space law. Currently, Yana is working on her Ph.D. thesis on the legal recognition of light pollution as an environmental problem at the University of Ghent (Belgium).

Specifications! Integrations! Complications! Sean Wynne brings his unique perspective as a sales rep and discusses, with Webster and Ron, the challenges of navigating among the various entities on a project. Sean understands the benefits of having an integrator on a project. He is a specifications sales agent, but as Webster says, he is almost an integrator's agent! Sean has had 15+ years of lighting industry experience. He began on the manufacturing side, switched to agency side, back to manufacturing and finally, within the last year, returned to the agency side and joined Reflex. His primary account focus at Reflex is the lighting design market.

Germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) lighting is a promising new technology with the potential to contribute to healthier buildings and cleaner air for occupants. New PNNL research finds that GUV is potentially more effective and energy efficient than turning up ventilation systems. However, since the technology is so new, commercially available products have not been properly studied or vetted.

As you’ve heard on this podcast before, existing satellites are incapable of detecting the blue light of LED’s and thus produce incomplete imagery of light pollution. Ken explains to Michael how he and his colleagues are sending balloons almost 30 kilometers into the sky and beginning to map light pollution in a very unique way.

Ken Walczak is the Senior Manager of Far Horizons at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago - a hands-on science, engineering and research program for students, volunteers and the public. He is a board member of the International Dark-Sky Association and an associate member of the IES.

DOE will be launching the next phase of L-Prize, the Prototype Phase, this summer which will include some new enhancements and participation opportunities for industry with a $2 million Prize pool. This is an opportunity for lighting designers, manufacturers, and innovators to advance the U.S. clean energy economy for next-generation LED lighting. L-Prize will reward innovations that move rapidly to improve lighting performance, resulting in energy, carbon, and cost savings for American businesses and consumers. Guest speakers Gabe Arnold and Kelly Gordon can give a brief overview of the history of the L-Prize, how it has helped bring innovative products to U.S. homes and buildings, and what the opportunity space is for LED lighting. Arnold and Gordon can also describe past winners and what judges are looking for in the Prototype Phase.

Craig gives Webster and Ron his 9000 foot view of the lighting industry. From education to evolution - Craig gives his take on network controls, sensors, bite-size training video clips, and writing, among other things. By the way, check out his fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/682045.Craig_DiLouie Craig DiLouie, LC, CLCP is a journalist and educator in the lighting industry and serves as education director for the Lighting Controls Association, a council of NEMA dedicated to educating the public about lighting control technology and application. He is also a lighting columnist for tED Magazine and Electrical Contractor.

Episode 2 of our Technical Update Series previously streamed. Michael Myer and Axel Pearson discuss “Lighting System Integration.” DOE's Better Buildings' Integrated Lighting Campaign is a national effort to accelerate the adoption of advanced lighting controls and sensors and of the integration of lighting with other building systems. The campaign shares resources, provides technical guidance, and recognizes the exemplary adoption of integrated lighting. Guest speakers will share success stories, integration use cases, and advanced lighting strategies of this year's participants. Listeners will come away with actionable information they can use in their own lighting upgrades and retrofit projects.

Michael discusses with Catherine Pérez Vega the question: Is light a pollutant? Catherine is researching the effects of artificial light on organisms and there is little doubt that it is. And there’s little doubt that it affects the organisms called humans, as well. Obviously modern society needs some artificial light at night, but all the other organisms don’t. As Catherine says, “how do we apply artificial lighting for our benefit, but at the same time take care of the night time?” Catherine is currently a Doctoral candidate in Biology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany with her research taking place at the Light Pollution and Ecophysiology research group of Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB). Her work involves the interphase of ecology and architectural lighting to mitigate environmental solutions for urban lighting design applications.

Episode 1 of our Technical Update Series previously streamed. Kate Hickcox and Aaron Smith discuss “Sustainability in Lighting.” Historically, the lighting industry has focused on the impacts of carbon emissions produced from the use of lighting technologies but understanding embodied carbon impact is critical because once embodied carbon is released in early stages, there’s no opportunity to decrease those substantial early impacts through energy efficiency modifications. Join us each Thursday at 11 am Eastern

Michael and Greg discuss wireless and wired lighting controls with Greg Galluccio from Energy Focus. Wireless is hackable which is a problem in critical infrastructure. Wired controls require pulling wire through a building. The solution? Powerline controls. No Cloud. No hub. As Michael says, it’s a bit like edge computing where the technology and the smarts is at the point of use. It’s not simple stuff, but Greg and Energy Focus are figuring it out. You can speak to him about it at the Energy Focus booth at the Achlight Summit.. Greg joined Energy Focus in 2021 and serves as Senior Vice President of Product Management and Engineering, responsible for developing, directing and implementing Energy Focus’ product strategy, engineering development and portfolio offering.

Lighting showroom manager Michelle Cruz, ArchLIGHT Summit manager Laura van Zeyl, and designer Andrea Hartranft join us in this episode.They are working on Women in Lighting events and programs at this year’s ArchLIGHT Summit in Dallas. Beyond telling us what to look forward to at the show they help us understand that the lighting world is welcoming to women and having spaces for women to be alone is still valuable and useful for the whole community. They also discuss the importance of having good food at industry events, getting students and emerging professionals to show up for these things, and what ArchLIGHT Summit might look like.

Lighting is getting more complicated all the time. Our guests Tony Esposito, Founder of Lighting Research Solutions, and Jason Livingston, Principal at Studio T + L, are here to help us understand the IES’ bigger book of color rendering — TM-30. Lamps and luminaires tested under these procedures can result in 140 different measurements; but none of those will probably end up printed on boxes on your shelves. Perception changes based on conditions and these measurements can help designers create useful comparisons that go far beyond high and low or good and bad color rendering. Please listen as we all celebrate fidelity, vividity and possibility in lighting.

Seeing is believing, so both of our guests will be at the ArchLIGHT Summit in Dallas, TX this September with a brand new demonstration room. NAILD will also be there for our own convention, so please drop by and check it all out.

This special release of our series features Diane Knutson, a regional dark sky advocate / business owner turned Dark Sky International Board President. In this episode Greg Ehrich and Michael attempt to disentangle the need for jargon as a sales gimmick and the hurdle of hurdles jargon puts in the way of advocates and educators. Whether we end up calling what we do Night Sky Protection, Night Time Restoration or just Flipping the Switch the value of darkness at night continues to be there for the world to rediscover.

Christopher Cuttle has had a lifetime in lighting and he has a shelf full of awards and recognitions to reflect it. Listen to this episode and you’ll understand why. Henrik Clausen talks with Kit about his unique way of looking at light and how it’s applied to a space.

Christopher “Kit” Cuttle, MA, PhD, FCIBSE, FIESANZ, FIESNA, FSLL, is a lighting educator, designer and author. During a long career, he has held the positions of Head of Graduate Education in Lighting at the Lighting Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; Senior Lecturer at the Schools of Architecture at the University of Auckland, and the Victoria University of Wellington, both in New Zealand; Section Leader in the Daylight Advisory Service, Pilkington Glass; and Lighting Designer with Derek Phillips Associates (now DPA Lighting Consultants), both in the UK.

Michael and John are thrilled to have Professor Foster on the podcast. He brings his deep scientific knowledge and understanding of circadian photobiology. Russell tells us about his discovery of the third photoreceptor in the eye for which he got a lot of pushback from the scientific community in the 90’s. They don’t push back anymore. Professor Foster is the Head of Oxford’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, the founder and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Institute and is a Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford. His research addresses how circadian rhythms and sleep are generated and regulated and what happens when these systems fail as a result of societal pressures, ageing and disease.

OPR. What are the Owner's Project Requirements? That's what Julia Gordon posits on every project. Julia, along with Webster and Ron, discuss where a lighting designer goes from there. What’s the best way to design and implement the controls? Who should design and implement the controls? How do you work with the electrical engineer? This stuff will make your head spin. Fortunately, you’ve got this episode of the Conversation Series to clear a few things up for you. With 25+years as a lighting designer, Julia’s background has given her the ability to bring an extraordinary level of attention to detail and create enthusiasm in all phases of her projects; from initial design development, through photometric analysis, project document preparation, specification, and the final site aiming of light fixtures.

Efficiency. Isn’t that what everyone strives for? Well, the lighting industry is going digital with productivity improving applications. Ben and Paul discuss how they have come up with a way to curate lighting product content - kind of a mix of Spotify/Wayfair/Pinterest for lighting specifiers. Fueled by manufacturers and agents this might be the ticket. Might be time for you to check gosourcery.com. Ben Fischer brings over 7 years of partner level experience in the lighting industry and has a strong, entrepreneurial mindset with a vision for strategic growth and innovation. Paul Hudson brings over 20 years of lighting experience and strong relationship-building skills with clients and manufacturers.

This is David’s second time around on Get A Grip On Lighting. David talks, with Michael and Greg, about his dislike of recess cans (“why do you want to light the carpet?”). David's experience has led him to put down his light meter and use his eyes to measure what is bouncing off the walls. Michael doesn’t quite agree with discarding the light meter, but they do agree that the important lighting is vertical lighting. David Warfel is Midwestern farm boy turned lighting designer, author, and educator who passionately shares the gift of light. Whether blogging at languageoflight.blog, writing for Fine Homebuilding, Technology Designer, and Houzz.com or designing residential and entertainment experiences from coast to coast, David simply wants to help others live better lives through the scientific and artistic application of radiant energy.

Our old friend is back! John Arthur Wilson joins Michael and Greg to complain about the state of the controls manufacturing industry. Why isn’t there a standard yet on this critical infrastructure? Let's think about the end-user, the CUSTOMER! John Arthur Wilson is a lighting-industry influencer with a curiosity for lighting and its myriad connections with society. Motivated by community and a desire to provide value, he offers a unique perspective that blends pragmatism, creativity, and big-picture thinking.

In this episode you get three unique perspectives on urban lighting. Co-host Michael Colligan in Canada, co-host John Bullock in the U.K and guest Kate Hickcox from The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. They discuss the challenges of lighting populated areas. Will more light decrease crime? Will less light? Perhaps it has to do with the kind of lighting. Listen to this, then join the conversation. Kate Hickcox joined PNNL as a Lighting Research Scientist in 2020. She is a creative thinker in the field of lighting, with over 18 years of experience in both lighting research and lighting design. No matter which hat she’s wearing, her goals are simple – to provide equitable and universal lighting solutions that support humans and the environment. Kate’s unique background blends the artistic with the practical and allows for discovery of unique design solutions and innovative research-based strategies.

Amardeep Dugar talks with host Henrik Clausen, about the poetry of lighting. As he explains it, language is compositional just as lighting is. And so Amardeep has been examining the connection between poetry and lighting. He is also looking at architecture itself as a light source. He believes this may be achieved with bioluminescence. Could that mean the end of light fixtures? Amardeep also instructs yoga and has taken up the guitar. A trained architect and an advocate for all the elements of lighting – design, education and research – Dr. Amardeep M. Dugar is the founding principal of Lighting Research & Design. Aside from working on high profile projects and teaching at several architecture schools, he has been instrumental in conducting lighting workshops educating students and professionals about the importance of lighting. He is also the co-founder of an online platform for lighting called the Virtual Lighting Design Community. He has been elected to the IES Board of Directors and is part of several committees within the IES.

Javid discusses, with Webster and Ron, the technological evolution of controls, from the ancient Greeks using mirrors to control light for the stage, to “old telephone” style patching, to digital controls. If you haven’t guessed, Javid, like many of you, comes from a theatrical background. Wait till you hear how he lit a production of “The Crucible.” You’ll wish you’d seen it. Javid Butler is a lighting designer and energy engineer who holds LC, CEM, and CMVP certifications. He has contributed to the development of many lighting standards including RDM and sACN, and chaired the task group for E1.27 DMX512 cabling standards.

Trinity Warranty started out offering extended warranties for HVAC, refrigeration and generators. About 10 years ago, with municipalities pushing for LED, they saw an opportunity to offer parts and labor warranties. With a little number crunching, they figured out how to sell 10 year labor coverage and 5 year extended parts coverage. If you’re installing for a municipality or a stadium, get your customer to listen to this episode. Gus Vassilopoulos is the Digital Marketing Manager and Richard Jurek is the Strategic Account Manager at Trinity Warranty Solutions.

As Bastian Groiss says, people see light as an enabler for vision. But light - sunlight in particular - is so much more. It triggers hormonal reactions, allows your immune system to recharge and gives the mitochondria the energy to repair your eyes. Of course healthy light during the day allows healthy darkness at night to do its thing. And stop wearing sunglasses! Bastian is of German origins with a rural upbringing. He is a former project manager, self taught wood worker and handyman, spiritual explorer, student of the Diamond Approach, ambassador for regenerative agriculture, circadian rhythms, natural light and reconnecting with nature.

Here’s a little peek into the state of the industry in Australia. Rob touches on Chinese products, bringing along the next generation of lighting professionals, and the misconceptions around human-centric lighting. Oh, and you’re going to want to take up paragliding by the end of the podcast. Originally from the UK, Rob moved to Australia in 2005. He set up HI Lighting with his business partner in 2010, which rapidly grew to be the largest commercial lighting supplier in South Australia.

Connect with Rob: Website – www.hilightingsa.com.au
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-hill-a233a713/
Instagram: @h.i.lightingsa
Linkedin: @h-i-lighting-sa

Connect with Henrik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-clausen-3927372/
www.fagerhult.com

Sponsor: Keystone www.keystonetech.com

John Bullock, guest co-host on this episode, asks the question, “How do we shift the argument so that we can start to talk about the reality of what we experience rather than the propaganda of what people tell us is a problem.” And from there, Michael, John and Nona discuss the history of street lighting, the unproven link between light and safety and the spiritual notion of light equaling safety. Perhaps, as Nona says, we need to reveal the “invisible infrastructures.”

Nona Schulte-Römer is currently working and teaching as senior researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin in a social scientific project on the public understanding of 5G and light exposure in urban contexts. She has a background in humanities, sociology and journalism. In her previous research she has focused on public lighting, light pollution, sustainable chemistry and aquatic micropollutants. Her focus is thereby how these phenomena become issues of public concern or remain ‘invisible’ infrastructures.

Mentions in the podcast:

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, “Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century”, University of California Press

Our citizen science project website:

https://nachtlicht-buehne.de/startseite/nightlights/

Our citizen science app can be found and tested or used here: https://lichter.nachtlicht-buehne.de/

Is Power over Ethernet the future for network controls? Wendell Strong tells Michael and Greg about the challenge of integrating PoE into the world of AC powered lighting. But PoE networking is perfect for lighting for health and wellbeing. Wendell is a 40 year veteran of the Commercial Lighting Industry and serves as the GENISYS PoE Lighting Manager for Innovative Lighting, a LED lighting manufacturer of 30 years based in Iowa. He has served as President and Executive Board member of the National Association of Independent Lighting Distributors (NAILD) and was instrumental in creating two Lighting Specialist Training Programs used by both Manufacturers and Distributors alike.

Are the good old days of rebates over? Is the move to LED efficiency reaching its conclusion? Peter Brown is back to discuss this and more with Michael and Greg. With over thirty years in the lighting industry, Mr. Brown has sales and marketing experience in distribution, manufacturing, auditing, design and installation; both in the C&I and public sector markets.

Derek and Devin give us a unique inside look at the life of a small lighting manufacturer. They give us their perspectives on the DLC and accreditation agencies in general, and what a pain in the *ss it is to get products certified.

Louvers International was founded in 1986 with reliability and good design in mind. What started out as a small business has evolved into a team that works together to build connections between their customers and the lighting and plastics industries.

Michael and Michael - or “Marlin” as he likes to be referred to - delve into the practical and spiritual aspects of restoring darkness. Practical, as in not running someone over because you can’t see them from the glare of car and street lights, and spiritual, as in seeing the stars and the Milky Way allowing us to connect with the universe and our ancestors.

Michael Marlin (aka Marlin) has been actively involved in Dark Sky advocacy for 35 years, initially as a theatrical director/producer of an international touring show that raised awareness of the loss of darkness due to light pollution, (LUMA: Art in Darkness) and today as a dark sky ambassador for the International Astronomical Union and International Dark-Sky Association. Marlin is the author of “Astrotourism: Star Gazers, Eclipse Chasers, and the Dark Sky Movement” the first book on the topic of the new emerging market of ‘Star Tourism’.

Not your typical Get A Grip On Lighting podcast, but you’re going to want to hear this one anyway. You can sell light bulbs over the counter, but if you want those big retrofit contracts, sometimes your customer needs financing. That’s where Ross comes in. With an LED upgrade, he can arrange it so that your customer saves money and you make money. Everybody wins. Ross is excited and enthusiastic to play a role in transforming the energy efficiency industry, which has been frustrated with "lack of budget" issues, long sales cycles, and low close rates due to the upfront project cost. His expertise in commercial financing along with his deep understanding of the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries provides a "high-value low-brain damage" funding program to remove the upfront cost, and deliver immediate cash-flow positive results for the customer!

Jennifer Amann is a senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. How does the work of the ACEEE impact lighting distributors? It means a big push on LED. That leads to energy efficiency and, a big part of the ACEEE’s mandate, getting mercury out of lighting products and keeping it out of the environment. And removing mercury containing products from the environment means you sell more LED’s.

At the ACEEE, Jennifer develops and supports strategic directions for the organization’s efforts to improve efficiency in homes and commercial buildings. Since joining ACEEE in 1997, she has written and presented extensively on buildings and equipment efficiency technologies, policies, and programs.

In this special episode of Get A Grip On Lighting Conversation Series, Webster and Ron discuss this article https://inside.lighting/news/22-04/lighting-controls-become-bricks-smart-home-company-disappears

which describes an incident in which customers were left high and dry when the smart home company disconnected the cloud servers and left millions of smart home setups broken. Can something be done to prevent this in the future?

Here on Restoring Darkness, we’ve talked about the impact of light pollution, how to restore darkness, and now, in this episode, Michael discusses, with Dr. Stone, the ethical aspects of restoring darkness and maintaining lights at night.

Dr. Taylor Stone is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Science and Ethics, University of Bonn. He studied architecture and worked in the environmental non-profit sector before completing a PhD in Ethics of Technology at Delft University of Technology. His research focuses on the ethics of urban lighting, and what it means to value – and ultimately design for – darkness. Taylor’s writing has appeared in a variety of academic journals, and in 2019 he received a Recognition Award for Research from the Professional Lighting Design Convention (PLD-C).

Webster and Ron talk to Norman Russell about finding the balance, in lighting design and integration, between the designer, the engineer and the owner. It’s a challenge getting everyone into the same room. And of course, education, education, education! Mr. Russell has contributed lighting design expertise to a wide variety of public and private projects. He completed graduate studies in lighting for theatre and television and compiled a significant list of lighting design credits.

How do you gain credentials as a lighting designer? You go and learn under Henrik or Glenn. Our host and his guest talk about the evolution of education in lighting design - from the days of being self-taught to a proposed law in Texas that would require lighting designers to be licensed.

Glenn Shrum transitioned from architecture to lighting to pursue the creative opportunity of light’s profound effect on space and people. He maintains a dual professional identity as Associate Professor of Lighting Design and Interdisciplinary Practice at Parsons School of Design in New York City and founding principal of Flux Studio.

Michael, Greg and Dan discuss the ins and outs of keeping a trade show and conference like LightFair on track. If you’re not sure whether or not to go, maybe this will help you decide. Oh - and the early bird rate has been extended, so get on it!

A 34-year tradeshow veteran, Darby is the show director for LightFair, the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show.

In part 2 of this podcast (find part 1 here: https://restoringdarkness.com/episodes/41-from-prison-yards-to-national-parks), Michael and Tim continue their conversation. Tim gives his perspective on outdoor lighting and energy savings in Massachusetts while Michael does the same from his Ontario Canada perspective.

Tim is the Vice President of the Massachusetts chapter of the International Dark-sky Association.

Find Part 1 here: https://restoringdarkness.com/episodes/41-from-prison-yards-to-national-parks

Connect with Tim:
https://idamass.wordpress.com
web.mit.edu/wallace

Sponsor: Evluma www.evluma.com

Dan talks about the early days of controls when all it took was simply changing the voltage on incandescent bulbs. With Webster Marsh and Ron Kuszmar, Dan talks about the present where LED’s, aesthetics, energy codes and human health have come into play.

Dan Blitzer is Principal of The Practical Lighting Workshop, founded in 1993. The firm provides consulting services in marketing, strategy, communication, and education and serves both manufacturers and non-commercial clients.

This one was so interesting, Michael let it go for an hour and 15 minutes. So we’ve broken it into 2 parts. In this, part 1, the conversation ranges from clean, affordable energy to controls to a popcorn analogy and the “windows effect.” Tim is the Observatory Manager and Technical Instructor at MIT's Wallace Astrophysical Observatory. Watch for Part 2, available soon.

Connect with Tim:
https://idamass.wordpress.com
web.mit.edu/wallace

Sponsor: Evluma www.evluma.com

The Schneiders tell us about how Scott started Lighting Unlimited and how Cory took over the reins and grew the business. Scott still goes into the office, but his title has transitioned into the “Chief Golf Officer.” As in any family business, there’s friction, but Mrs. Schneider came up with a creative way to deal with that. In 1989 Scott started Lighting Unlimited as a Lighting only distributor. He built it to four locations throughout the Phoenix metro area. Cory joined his father at Lighting Unlimited in 2008. He took on a leadership role in 2014 as well as receiving his LC from the NCQLP in 2017. He was the president of NAILD in 2018 and the VP of the Phoenix chapter of the IES.

Live shows are back and people are loving it! As Burt says, it’s the “touchy-feely” aspect of the live and in-person aspect of the LEDucation Trade Show and Conference that people want. What’s the Secret Sauce in LEDucation? Two of the main ingredients are Burt Grant and Caroline Rinker. Book your trip now to New York for the next LEDucation in March 2023. Caroline Rinker has over 40 years experience in the New York City lighting community in manufacturing, distribution and independent sales. Burt Grant is the President/Owner of Metro Area Sales and is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of LEDucation, Past Vice-President of DLFNY, and Past-President of IES Long Island.

On Steve’s second visit to Get A Grip On Lighting (see him in episode 129), he discusses everything from controls to UV to EV. With the scalability of LED, Steve believes we are on the cusp of a renaissance in lighting. He’s been around a while, so listen up.

After serving in the Air Force and attending the University of Texas in Austin, Steve helped start FSG in 1982 in San Antonio Texas. Today he leads the lighting and distribution business.

Ron installs and commissions lighting controls. He is an integrator who knows his stuff. In this Restoring Darkness episode, he and Michael make the case for controls in exterior lighting systems and wonder why the lighting industry largely ignores this application. Ron Kuszmar oversees Port’s Architectural and Theatrical Lighting Design & Installation departments, as well as their Lighting Control Systems and Equipment Sales teams.

Hey lighting folks who put together luminaire schedules and specification packages listen up: Zach and Forest tell us about their startup, Parpec, which is designed to “automate part number entry, datasheet lookup and annotation tasks to eliminate hours of tedious and error-prone work.” Through machine learning and AI, Parspec will save you hours of tedious data entry for each item on your spec sheet. Enter a part number and - bing bang boom - Parspec fills in the rest. But hold your horses - Parspec is still a start-up, so go over to their website and check it out before it goes live.

Forest Flager pursued a PhD and spent some time on the research and teaching team at Stanford University, followed by a stint at the technology driven off-site construction company Katerra, where he led the company’s software and design automation efforts. Forest founded Parspec Inc. in 2020 with the mission of simplifying the process of discovering and sourcing the best available construction products and materials.

Zach Mix leads Sales and Business Development for Parspec. After spending the past decade working for lighting & electrical companies including Green Creative, WattStopper, & ElectroRep, Zach is energized by providing top-tier software technology to help lighting & electrical companies perform their best. When he’s not working, Zach switches to Dad-mode and enjoys time with his family.

Lighting controls need a standard protocol. That’s what Webster & Ron, along with guest Steve Mesh argue is needed. Steve is doing his best, serving on several associations and committees, and also being a leading educator and lighting designer, to bring that about. As Steve says, he’s brought a lot of people to the trough, but he hasn’t been able to get them to drink.

Steve attended Parsons School of Design in New York City and has been a lighting designer and educator for 42 years. He designed the lighting for a wide variety of projects in the U.S. and internationally.

Terry brings his vast amount of knowledge and experience to the question of industry alignment in the quest to reduce light pollution. Michael talks with Terry about the importance of educating everyone, from manufacturers and distributors right down to municipalities, which are some of the worst offenders. Let’s get on board with the 6 strategies for darkness restoration and preservation!

Terry is involved in illuminating engineering/lighting design, lighting education and lighting research. His professional career of 60+ years includes GE Lighting at Nela Park where he was Manager of the GE Lighting Institute. In 1998, he started his own consulting company, Lighting Ideas, Inc and became involved in lighting research as Director of the Lighting Research Office for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). These days, in addition to consulting work, he acts on behalf of the American Lighting Association as their Director of Engineering and Technology and is the Executive VP of the J.H. McClung Lighting Research Foundation.

This one is truly for the lighting dorks! When it comes to value engineering, do we go with 0 - 10 volt analogue OR digital lighting controls? With Michael moderating, Webster and George have a spirited debate on the issue.

C. Webster Marsh is the owner of Penumbra Controls, where he brings 14 years of applied experience with lighting and controls, and he enjoys using his wealth of knowledge in the architectural lighting design industry.

George Filtsos started EcoGrid Technologies in 2019, and they have already helped companies save well over 14 million kWh of consumption. “What sets us apart in a big way is the advanced wireless controls, giving clients the best ROIs in the business.”

Terry is a member of just about every lighting association, foundation or society you can think of. And so he should be, having the vast amount of knowledge that he does. And Terry shares some of it with you! Terry, along with Michael and Greg, touch on LED glare, the proper way to light an office, socket vs integrated lighting and the problems that arose from HPS street lighting in the 70’s.

Terry is involved in illuminating engineering/lighting design, lighting education and lighting research. His professional career of 60+ years includes GE Lighting at Nela Park where he was Manager of the GE Lighting Institute. In 1998, he started his own consulting company, Lighting Ideas, Inc and became involved in lighting research as Director of the Lighting Research Office for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). These days, in addition to consulting work, he acts on behalf of the American Lighting Association as their Director of Engineering and Technology and is the Executive VP of the J.H. McClung Lighting Research Foundation.

Connect with Terry:
Linkedin: Terry K. McGowan, FIES, LC
American Lighting Association: https://alalighting.com/

Sponsor: Satco www.satco.com

Did you know that at 80 years of age, only one-fifth of the light reaches your eye as it did at 20? Eunice Noell-Waggoner has passionately studied the problem of inadequate lighting quality to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm, particularly in nursing homes. You’ll be fascinated by some of her findings.

The first half of Eunice’s professional career involved interior and lighting design for public buildings and commercial spaces. The second half of her career has been focused on addressing the needs of older adults, especially focused on lighting for aging vision and health, through the Center of Design for an Aging Society, a not-for-profit organization she founded.

Where does the resistance to the adoption of darkness friendly lighting come from? Michael poses this question to Peter Brown. Michael and Peter discuss how and if it’s even possible to get the industry on board.

With over thirty years in the lighting industry, Mr. Brown has sales and marketing experience in distribution, manufacturing, auditing, design and installation; both in the C&I and public sector markets.

If you want to learn about the scientific aspects of lighting, check out Leukos. Henrik Clausen chats with the editor-in-chief, Kevin Houser, about his stringent vetting of submitted papers. At a 70% rejection rate, you can be assured that you are reading a rigorously peer reviewed journal. Besides his gig as Editor-in-chief of LEUKOS, Kevin [PhD, PE (NE), FIES, LC, LEED AP] is also a Professor at Oregon State University with a joint appointment as Chief Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Connect with Kevin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinhouser/
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kevin-Houser-2
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6097-1560
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JT_AA7QAAAAJ&hl=en
Twitter: @kevin_houser
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinhouser/

In this episode we delve into the love-hate relationship with lighting agents. Can distributors build relationships with agents when agent turnover is so high? Billy & Jay and our hosts do their best to solve the problem!

Interested in the magic of lighting since the theater in high school, Billy found Architectural Engineering at Penn State, became passionate about lighting design, and embarked upon a career in Architectural Lighting. In May of 2013 Jay Andrews co-founded Next Generation Lighting in Atlanta. Next Generation Lighting is a commercial and industrial lighting agency representing 90 manufacturers covering the Atlanta/North GA market.

Scientific coordinator for the Mont-Megantic International Dark Sky Reserve, Rémi Boucher has been passionate about the starry sky and the night experience for many years. Do people believe that light pollution is actually pollution or a metaphor? Michael and Rémi dive into this question and tackle the complexities of maneuvering through municipal and state/provincial governments, environmentalists, lighting manufacturers and distributors, private landowners and… you can see how complex this is. Listen to Restoring Darkness and then help us bring back the night sky.

Twitter : @remiboucher

Personnal website (photography) : remiboucherphoto.com

Work website (dark sky reserve) : meganticdarksky.org

Chris Dobroth has built a swanky website, social media plan and business strategy for selling decorative light fixtures. He is an experienced eComm leader across multiple industries over the past 16-years, with a background in both start-up environments and large matrix-based organizations. In his own words, Chris is “living the dream.” Over eCommerce, Chris has sold gaming products, furniture, office supplies, and even funeral urns, but he has finally entered the world of lighting. Listen to this episode to find out what it takes to ship a 20,000 dollar chandelier.

In a past life, Jake cut his teeth working long hours in finance before pivoting towards his passion by earning a master's degree in industrial design. That has led him to create Solar Echo, a company that is focusing on the circadian rhythm. Yes, you’ve heard all about the circadian rhythm, but this is different. If Michael and Greg are excited about this, then you know there’s something to it.

David is the CEO and Founder of Countifi (formally Countalytics), an image analysis and data analytics company that focuses on helping hospitals, airlines, and universities manage inventory processes more efficiently. If you hate counting inventory like Michael does, you need to check out this episode. David doesn’t know anything about selling lights, but he can sure help you with your warehouse. Big Brother is watching - but in this case, it’s a good thing.

Mark is an award winning international lighting designer who leads the lighting profession across BDP. He has over 35 years’ experience and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Mark tells us about his fascinating journey from theatre - operating a spotlight - to an international, award-winning, architectural lighting designer. Listen to Mark’s philosophy and, as he says, “the awards will come.”

Ms. Martinez-Nobles began her career as an intern at Fisher Marantz Stone in 2005 and is now a Principal in the firm. Her endless scribbling and sketching as a child led to a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Wouldn’t it be fun to just do design drawings all day! But, in her position, Paula has to deal with clients and suppliers. Listen to how Paula navigates between owners and architects and pick up some pointers for steering through your next project.

Abdul Dremali is an Palestinian/Egyptian artist with a passion for the night sky. Currently based in Reno, Nevada, he travels the world in search of dark skies for his astrophotography. Abdul advocates some sensible solutions for restoring darkness. We should all follow his example of his relationship with the moon and the stars. And check out his photos at what is perhaps the suavest URL ever - abdul.cool

Henrik Clausen has been involved in lighting for over 30 years. He is the founder of the Fagerhult Lighting Academy and currently holds a position as professor in Lighting Design at AAU in Copenhagen.

As an accomplished keynote presenter, CEU provider, and former on-air CBS design expert,

Deborah Burnett shares insights as to how the body and brain are directly impacted by the built

environment.

Henrik is going to be a regular, and for his first kick at the can, we’ve brought him together, with Deborah and Michael, and the result is a very interesting conversation on glare, vertical light, indirect light, physiological effects of light and more…this one is pretty dense.

Check out this related video where Henrik and Deboarah go even deeper - https://youtu.be/F5xPaUppgjs

Connect with Henrik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-clausen-3927372/ https://www.fagerhult.com/ Connect with Deborah: deborah@benyaburnett.com http://www.deborahburnett.com http://www.benyaburnett.com Sponsor: TCP www.tcpi.com

Christopher Lewis is a graduate of Colorado State University Tech Journalism Program with studies in TV/Web/Broadcast. After many successful years working for others, Mr. Lewis founded Evergreen Applied Technologies in 2014.

Chris talks about his early success in E-commerce (selling while you sleep!), the history of LED’s, and the balance of always being honest but still needing to sell. Chris is currently working on the concept of moving people through a space via AI controlled lighting - also known as “cueing”, which we here at Get A Grip On Lighting have been advocating for, for some time.

Personal Social - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lewis-a7b600199/

Business Social - https://www.linkedin.com/company/evergreen-applied-technologies/

Websites -

Retail: www.lightdisty.com | www.electricalgopher.com

Distribution: www.evergreenappliedtechnologies.com

Manufacturing: www.prosportstech.com

Art is the President/Owner of the National Institute of Crime Prevention (NICP, Inc.), a global training and consulting company specializing in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Art contradicts Michael’s anecdotal assertion that lighting up an area like a prison yard makes people act like criminals, with some solid stats that lighting up a high crime area actually reduces crime. But that could be at the cost of light blasting into your bedroom at night. Can we find a balance?

Web: www.CPTEDTraining.net

Linkedin: Art Hushen

Linkedin: NICP, Inc.

Facebook: NICP CPTED Network

C. Webster Marsh brings 14 years of applied experience with lighting and controls and is the owner of Penumbra Controls, where he provides lighting controls design and specification for a wide range of project types. Ron oversees Port’s Architectural and Theatrical Lighting Design & Installation departments, as well as our Lighting Control Systems and Equipment Sales teams. In this first episode of our Conversation Series, Web and Ron discuss design and integration of controls, plus going the extra mile for your client. Got a big light installation coming up? You want these guys on your side.

Al Uszynski is an experienced executive with over 25 years of experience in the lighting industry. He is Principal of inside.lighting, an online media company that provides valuable insights and information to lighting industry professionals. Just like the title says, Al, Michael and Greg review 13 lighting predictions made by industry professionals you’ll know, like Trevor Palmer, the President of Acuity and Daniel Salinas, the interim Executive Director of the IES. Keep this episode linked in your browser and see if any of these have come true this time next year.

Founder of Equilume Ltd, Dr. Barbara Anne Murphy is Head of Equine Science and Programme Director of the BAgrSc Animal Science-Equine degree at University College Dublin. Her research has led to a revolution in the Thoroughbred industry. By administering blue light with the Equilume Light Mask, you can cue certain circadian and biological rhythm’s in your thoroughbred champion in order to breed at the optimal time, all while keeping your horse happy and healthy. In fact, many of the principles Dr. Murphy discusses with Mike and Greg could possibly be applied to humans.

Following teaching at the University of Florida, opening a roadside restaurant with a neon theme, apprenticing at a neon shop, opening his own custom neon sign business, and collecting old neon signs, he finally opened the Neon Museum of Philadelphia. Len tells us about the fascinating culture of neon, the dwindling supply of glass and artisans and how neon is quickly being superseded by LED.

Ruth is a lighting consultant with a background in engineering, lighting design and academia. She’s passionate about the role of daylight and sunlight in bringing buildings to life, and the impact of daylight exposure on the health and wellbeing of building occupants. Ruth, Michael and Greg discuss the challenges of measuring negatives and positives. That is, you can measure the effects of taking away flicker or blue light, but how do you measure the effects of improving people’s health with human centric lighting or air purification?

David Warfel is Midwestern farm boy turned lighting designer, author, and educator who passionately shares the gift of light. David has extensive experience in lighting design, from theater to Las Vegas to cruise ships to pizza joints. In his own words, “there’s nothing magical about design.” His ideas are reasonable and sensible and aimed at making lives better. You want nice interior lighting, this is your guy.

Hannah Moon is a PhD Candidate at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in Dr. Megan Porter’s vision lab. Her work focuses on understanding the physiological and molecular aspects of light perception in birds and has won multiple awards at scientific conferences. In other words, she’s trying to understand what birds are seeing. As you’ll hear, it goes beyond just the molecular structure of the bird's eyes. And yes, it’s but another species that can’t make it to the sea because of our nonchalance towards light pollution.

Todd Straka currently serves as global industry director for UL’s Lighting and Electrical Products Retail business. Michael and Greg grill Todd on product safety, the verification processes, labeling, surveillance and enforcement, and counterfeit labels. This stuff will make your head spin but this episode will give you a better understanding of the topic.

Dr. Meredith Kernbach is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg in the lab of Dr. Mya Breitbart. For her doctoral dissertation, she studied how light pollution may affect zoonotic disease dynamics, specifically West Nile virus in House sparrows. Dr. Kernbach has found that even low light levels have allowed sparrows to hold the disease longer which means more mosquitos acquire it. And you can guess what that means for us. Turn off your lights!

Dr. Andreas Jechow is an interdisciplinary physicist with a broad expertise in photonics, the science of light. Earlier in his career Andreas worked in laser physics and quantum optics, for example on imaging the "shadow of a single atom" with lasers. In 2015, Andreas transitioned to environmental sciences where he applies his knowledge of light in research on light pollution. Some of the fascinating studies Andreas is involved in include the impact of light on bats and insects and also on aquatic ecosystems. You’ll love the story of his daughter’s astute observation of the moon, and you’ll be jealous to hear that the city of Berlin where he lives is one of the darkest cities in Europe.

Active in the lighting business since 1982, Clay is the Owner & Managing Member of Starbeam Lighting and he served on the NAILD Board from 1997 to 2005 and as President from 2002 to 2003. In this podcast, Clay gives a brief history of Starbeam Lighting. We discuss loyalty and pricing, how training evolved, from reading the old catalogues to LS Evolve. Clay gives us some insight into where he thinks horticultural and human centric light will be going. And of course, he recommends you join NAILD!

Dr. Sam Illingworth is an Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University, UK. He is a leading expert in using poetry to develop a dialogue between scientists and non-scientists. Sam write’s books, tweets, blogs, composes poetry, podcasts, creates games and still finds time for running. If you want to engage your left AND right brain, give this episode a listen.

Mary Beth was the Manager of the GE Lighting Institute in Cleveland, Ohio for 18 years. She was responsible for the overall operation and curriculum development for this training and education center that hosted over 4000 visitors a year. Mary Beth and Michael and Greg take a little trip down nostalgia lane recalling the days of the Edison Awards and training at the institute. She might be retired from GE, but Mary Beth hasn’t stopped. You can still learn a thing or two from the professor.

B.D. is a proven leader and team builder, successfully navigating an ever changing high-tech business climate. He is currently running SaticShield, the country’s leading clean power manufacturing facility and Montana’s most proficient solar company. You might not have heard about dirty electricity and you probably haven’t thought about the impact of dirty electricity on lighting and electronics and human health. No one really knows what electricity is but B.D. sure does understand how to clean it up. Get ready to start installing his products after you hear this.

Gail Walker is the founder of Nantucket Lights, an all-volunteer citizen advocacy group recently formed to combat the growing light pollution on Nantucket, the island off the coast of Massachusetts that is a popular summer destination for many. A former litigator for the U.S. Department of Justice, she began working on light pollution issues there after retiring a few years ago. Gail discusses with Jane how she uses her litigation skills to convince people on Nantucket Island to take steps to preserve the night sky. With a yearly influx of up to 50,000 seasonal residents each year, it is a challenge to simply enforce the Light Ordinance Bylaws. Will Gail get it done? Listen to this episode and you be the judge.

Brian Huff is President of Adventure Lighting in Des Moines, Iowa. Brian is your new NAILD Board Member, although this isn’t his first time serving. From the perspective of a family owned lighting distribution business, he gives us his point of view on sales, distribution, sustainable lighting, the future of the replacement process and, of course, his plans while serving on the NAILD board. Welcome Brian.

Hilding Neilson is an interdisciplinary scientist currently working with the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and is Mi’kmaw from the Qalipu First Nation band. Hilding is working at the intersection of science, astronomy and Indigenous knowledge. He tells us some fascinating Indigenous stories about the constellations, and how many more have been lost and overshadowed over time by what he refers to as “Astro-colonialism.” Hilding also tells us about his favourite star, Polaris, and why our sun is a “weird” star.

Meet your new NAILD board member. Devin Wall is the President of Louvers International where they manufacture commercial and industrial light fixtures, light fixture components, and do complete plastic fabrication. In this episode, the guys discuss Louvers history in manufacturing lenses, solutions to headaches from poor lighting, and growth in the UV disinfection play including “disinfection theatre.” Listen to this episode and we think you’ll agree that Devin is an excellent addition to the NAILD board.

Dr. Tyler Nordgren is an artist, author, astronomer, and night sky ambassador. He holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Cornell University where he did work on dark matter as well as a B.A. in Physics from Reed College. In this episode, we discuss the role of his artwork in public education about the night skies, how inhabiting Mars is a longshot with questionable benefits, and you won't want to miss Tyler's description of solar eclipses and why they are so important for humanity.

Nam has over 20+ years of experience in technology product development across various industries: Military, Automotive, Medical Devices, and now Lighting. Nam joined Cooper Lighting in 2013. Nam has been working on augmented reality. This is like Pokemon Go for the lighting industry. It’s going to make sales easier than ever.

https://www.cooperlighting.com/s/lightarchitect/index.html.

Megan Porter PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research program is focused on understanding the evolution of animal eye diversity, particularly from a molecular perspective. In this episode, Megan tells us about the vastly different vision perceptions that animals have from humans and the massive impact light pollution has on their vision. Wait till you hear about the Mantis Shrimp.

Enjoy this quick one with your hosts Michael and Greg. The boys talk about how to get back to dark night skies with everything from advocacy to guilt and shame. Could we eventually see enforcement through regulation? The Chinese manufacturers are going to love it!

Long-time friend of Get A Grip On Lighting, Spencer Miles ruminates on his time on the NAILD Board, what he’s going to do with all his free time now, and where he sees the future of lighting going. Oh - and he was convinced to sell smoke detectors - and it’s going well!

Douglas Arion, PhD is the founder and director of Mountains of Stars, a public science outreach and education program that engages the public with ‘environmental awareness from a cosmic perspective’. In this episode, Douglas logically explains why all other living creatures are equal to humans. He warns us of the pitfalls of the plethora of satellites that are going to be orbiting earth. And you’re going to want to order the Galileoscope, a VERY affordable telescope that Douglas helped create and bring to market in order to bring the night sky to the less financially fortunate around the world.

Alan is Senior Vice President at Satco. Alan is “graduating” from NAILD’s Board of Directors this year. He looks back on his time with the board, the relationships forged, and the opportunities presented. Alan talks about his post-board future with Satco and if you’re ever in Long Island, he would be happy to take you for cold cheese pizza.

Dr. Micah Brodsky is a wildlife veterinarian who focuses on marine animal medicine, research, and conservation and is the Director of Conservation Medicine at Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response and a lecturer at the University of Hawaiʻi. Dr. Brodsky tells us about the dire consequences of light pollution on Wedgetail Shearwater birds, sea turtles and Monk Seals, to name a few, in Hawai’i. As he says, it’s not Disney out there!

Dan Blitzer is Principal of The Practical Lighting Workshop, founded in 1993. The firm provides consulting services in marketing, strategy, communication, and education and serves both manufacturers and non-commercial clients.

You’ll be hard pressed to find someone with more experience in the industry. He’ll tell you his mother told him to be a teacher but he wanted to be in sales. Well guess what he does now? And having learned himself from the best, Paul Hafner, you won’t be able to find a better education yourself.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-blitzer-57526414/

Kelly Beatty has been explaining the science and wonder of astronomy to the public since 1974. An award-winning writer and communicator, he specializes in planetary science and space exploration as Senior Editor for Sky & Telescope magazine. Kelly talks about the lack of blue light detection in most satellites leading to under-reported levels of light pollution, and he touches on the ongoing bug apocalypse. And you’re not going to want to miss the next eclipse after you hear about his eclipse-chasing adventures over the Antarctic.

Over the last 17 years Jason has been a leader in providing turn-key lighting retrofits amounting to millions of dollars worth of energy savings that have also garnered millions in incentive money for clients across Ontario, Canada. Respecting the channel and working to build quality lighting systems for customers, Jason speaks to the LED lighting revolution from the perspective of a unionized electrical contractor. Something that hasn't been unpacked on the show as yet. He tells us how he has dealt with condo boards and how he has maintained his integrity by insisting on quality products and quality installations.

Sohana Arni, LC, MIES has had experience in many aspects of the lighting profession. At Cooper Lighting she has held roles in product management, marketing manager, Manager of Architectural Markets over a few architectural brands, and currently is the Director of Marketing and Design for 3D printing.

You probably never thought you’d learn all about acoustic design on the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast. In this fascinating episode, Sohana talks about Cooper Lighting’s designs for acoustic material integrated into light fixtures. Get on board. This is going to be another arrow in your sales quiver.

Bettymaya Foott works for the International Dark-Sky Association as Director of Engagement. Preserving dark skies is her life goal and she finds that astrophotography is the most poignant way to express a love for the night, as well as educate about the impacts of light pollution. If you want to take some great photos of the night sky, listen to Bettymaya here for some of the best places to go and amazing tips and tricks for astrophotography.

Angelica Santana holds a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering with a focus in Lighting/Electrical systems from The Pennsylvania State University. Angelica is a lighting designer with CM Kling in Washington DC. Angelica describes her work as “painting with light” when she goes into a space. As a yoga instructor, she also uses light as an important aspect of meditation. Want to de-stress you or your employees? Shoot an email to Angelica at unionyogadc@gmail.com

Matt is the outgoing President of NAILD. He held down the fort through the pandemic crisis, keeping NAILD thriving over the past 18 months. You’ll hear about Matt’s own thriving business, plus NAILD’s leading position on Dark Sky education and advocacy. And hey, don’t forget to join NAILD!

Ashley is the Director of Conservation for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) where she collaborates with advocates and volunteers around the world to help them promote effective uses of outdoor lighting and protect pristine dark skies. Ashley tells us about her work in dark sky awareness and education through the lens of Sensory Ecology. And listen to her great plumbing analogy for wasting light.

Sandra Vásconez is a senior instructor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is co-creator and co-director of the Rocky Mountain Lighting Academy. Education at the Academy is designed for professionals already in the industry. So, if you want some fresh air and a deep dive into lighting education, head on over to Boulder and learn a thing or two from Sandra.

Dr. Fischer operates The Zoological Lighting Institute, a 501 c(3) dedicated to supporting the sciences of light and life through the arts for animal welfare and wildlife conservation. This one is broad ranging. What are the five domains of animal welfare? What is a ZALA station? And why should banks become bird friendly? To find out, give this episode a listen.

In 1994 Bob Crespo eloquently stated that his son Ray was “doing nothing” and asked if he wanted to start a business doing something environmental since Ray “loved the environment.” And so, Energy Conservation and Supply was born. Since then, Ray and company have been working on things like controls, UV disinfection and EV charging stations.

Samyukta is an advocate with the International Dark Sky Association, and a member of their International Committee. She currently works in Slovenia, designing experiences to help people connect with darkness and the night sky. Have you ever heard of Forest Bathing? Well Samyukta can design a dark sky experience where you can go “Star Bathing.” Give this a listen and you’ll learn about “archeoastronomy” and “ethnoastronomy.”

If you were fascinated with the previous episode with Peter, listen to this one. He’s an expert in the field of human perception, but when you’re talking about bringing back the night sky, you’re bound to go into weird and wonderful areas of conversation. This episode touches on flotation tanks, meditation and lucid dreaming. The hour will fly by.

Justin is the President of Stouch Lighting, Inc, a LED and UVC distribution and implementation company. Stouch Lighting has had some pretty good success with UVC in the health field. There’s hygiene theater in a public school hallway, and there’s reducing infections by quantifiably inactivating pathogens in a hospital setting. Justin is working successfully towards the latter. Listen to this episode then go make some room for UVC in your warehouse.

Kevin Houser [PhD, PE (NE), FIES, LC, LEED AP] is a Professor at Oregon State University with a joint appointment as Chief Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Dr. Houser is an expert in light and color. He has conducted research on human perceptual and biological responses to light. Do color rendering metrics have a racial bias? How can lighting make everyone look radiant, healthy and attractive? What opportunities are there for truly equitable color rendering for humans? Tune in for a lively discussion that questions a core value of lighting.

Daniel has over 25 years of experience in the lighting industry as lighting designer, manufacturer, sales rep, teacher, and consultant. He currently serves as ICF Lead Lighting Consultant for ENERGY STAR. In this episode, the wide-ranging topics include LED flicker, CRI and The Department of Energy. Daniel is also Chair of the NCQLP Examination Committee. No, you’re not going to get any answers to the exam, but it couldn’t hurt to listen to this episode!

Welcome to the premiere episode of Contrast Ratios with hosts Edward Bartholomew and John Arthur Wilson. Edward is the Principal of Bartholomew Lighting (https://sites.google.com/view/bartholomew-lighting) and John is the founding director of Fernhill Shopworks (https://www.fernhillshopworks.com). Edward and John reveal some of the "awkward" and raw topics from their podcast.

Oliver Moorhouse is the Head of Business Development for BrainLit North America Inc a subsidiary of BrainLit AB, the developer and IP holder for BioCentric Lighting™. We’ve talked about human centric lighting before, which Brainlit likes to call “BioCentric” lighting. Never mind controls on the wall, Oliver talks about wearables - now you just walk into a room and the lighting changes to just how you need it. The applications are widespread, from helping premature babies go home earlier to enhancing the abilities of elite athletes. And wait till you hear who’s the brain behind Brainlit.

Dr. Rajaram Bhagavathula is a Senior Research Associate in the Division of Vehicle, Driver, & System Safety at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Dr. Bhagavathula has conducted some fascinating studies on the effects of light on drivers. He talks about the effects of glare and light bands on driver behaviour, the hypnotic effect, the moth effect, dashboard lights… you'll never drive the same again.

Ali joined Heliospectra as CEO in 2017. With him he brought his passion for people and technology with 22 years of international business leadership experience to his position at the helm of Heliospectra. Ali and Heliospectra are on the cutting edge of horticultural LED lighting. With their light spectrum controlled lighting and software, “communicating” with plants to make them healthier and tastier is possible. Far out stuff.

Robert is the founder and CEO of the Canadian Scotobiology Group Inc. that raises awareness of the impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) on wildlife and human health. Robert talks about “Eco Lights,” how much light you actually need in order to read, the shelf life of hormones and many other fascinating darkness related topics. He even references the Moody Blues.

Angie Koch is the President and founder of Premier Lighting. Angie shares her entrepreneurial story, and what her role encompasses in the company. Greg, your Get a Grip On Lighting host is also an owner of the company, so they both share how he came on board, all those years ago, what they’re up to and where Premier is going.

James Tu is a visionary entrepreneur and the Chairman & CEO of Energy Focus. In this episode we discuss the challenges and opportunities of the Human Centric Lighting "umbrella" which includes circadian, cuing, tuning, wellness and injury prevention. The choice vs prescriptive circle is squared. Finally, James refers to the scientific literature and to the massive opportunity the lighting industry has to make a significant impact on human health and wellness. Jimmy Tunable has arrived.

Peter has a PhD in Psychology studying human perception, action, and the link between them, with over a decade of experience in conducting research in these topics. Blue light, glare bombs, perception, infrared medicine...these are just a few of the fascinating things touched upon. We only scratched the surface with Peter. He’ll be back.

Robert Soler is a co-founder of BIOS Lighting. Almost everyone has trouble sleeping - including your customers. The Bios Institute will train you to be a “Circadian Auditor” to assess lighted environments from a human health perspective. And guess what? That’s going to lead to sales!

Frank Agraz has worked in the energy efficient lighting community for 25+ years and serves as Director of the C&I Engineering department at Eco Engineering. Frank tells us about his stint as the Exam Committee Chair. He won’t give away any answers, but he’ll tell a bit about the background of creating and administering the exams. Gotta get your LC!

Andy has been involved in astronomy education and outreach for over 25 years, and in the planetarium field for over 20. Andy tells us about his successful techniques for teaching kids about the night sky. He’s also had some wins in cases involving “light privilege” and just plain ignorance. Inspiring.

Mike Quijano currently serves as the Strategic Marketing Director for Cooper’s Ephesus Sports Lighting business. From community soccer fields to professional football stadiums, Ephesus Sports Lighting has learned to mitigate the problems with overheating in high wattage extreme application LED’s. They have enhanced controllability by a magnitude while simplifying it and are addressing the challenges that come with abiding by local light pollution ordinances. Plus a lot more. This is a good one for the lighting dorks.

Jan Denneman is Founder and Chairman of the Board at Good Light Group as well as Honorary Ambassador Global Lighting Association. We’ve been arguing for a while that quality darkness is essential to good sleep. Jan contends that good light during the day is also essential to our circadian rhythm for a good night's sleep.

Barry Johnson is the volunteer webmaster for the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council, as well as a lecturer and consultant on outdoor lighting issues. In his retirement, Barry is a crusader against light trespass and pollution. If you live in Pennsylvania and your neighbor’s flood light illuminates your bedroom wall, give Barry and his fellow POL Council members a call.

Contact Barry @ http://www.polcouncil.org/

Simon is the Chief Technology Officer and founder of Silvair and Chair of the Mesh Working Group at Bluetooth SIG. Michael and Greg have been expounding the need for controls in lighting for some time now. Along comes Simon and Bluetooth mesh networking. Revolutionary stuff.

Valerie Stimac Bailey is a travel, space, and astrotourism writer. She founded Space Tourism Guide in 2017, and her first book Dark Skies: A Practical Guide to Astrotourism was published by Lonely Planet in 2019. Valerie thinks that space travel will be available as a “bucket list” goal to the average person in the not too distant future. In the meantime, let’s make the night sky accessible to everyone so we can all experience “the Milky Way effect.”

You already know our old friend Tom Butters. He has years of training experience in the lighting industry, including a stint at the Philips Lighting Concept Centre. Now Tom has funneled all that knowledge into The Lighting Agora (lightingagora.com). Tom and his organization can help you do your job quicker, better and more confidently and that, of course, leads to better revenue.

Our guests, Brian Walker Ph.D and Kelly Gordon are here to talk about the L-Prize. Brian is the manager of DOE’s Lighting Research and Development program and Kelly is the Program Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. What is the L-Prize? Go here - https://www.energy.gov/eere/ssl/l-prize-competition - for the description. But suffice to say, if you want a piece of the 12.2 million dollars in prize money, INVENT A BETTER LIGHTING SYSTEM!

Deep Anand is an astronomy lover and dark sky enthusiast. Deep has been working to spread awareness about light pollution, from his home base in Delhi India. Deep is passionate about bringing the night sky back for the children. Maybe he’ll even get this issue onto the Prime Minister of India's desk. Deep has even written poetry about the night sky and the stars. And get this - he’s only 17!

Don’t let his young age fool you. Doug is the Vice President of Marketing at Light Efficient Design. Doug, who’s on the Board of NAILD, talks about the need for education in the industry to bring more awareness to the dark sky issue. From prison yards to parks - can we move the needle with best practices, comprehensive ordinances, thorough education, public awareness and a tiered accreditation by application type?

The three brains behind Lightserve, Kevin, Bill, and Jason have grown Lightserve into a 100 million dollar company in just 10 years. You can get some tips from how they treat their employees, contractors and customers. Maybe you can learn a thing or two from their acquisition strategies. These guys are the perfect business storm!

Dr. George Schaaf is a veterinary pathologist working in the Comparative Medicine department at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Schaaf studies the effects of light on animals and transfers the learnings to human physiology. You’ll hear about the effects of light and glare on deer, chickens and Syrian hamsters - as well as your beloved pets. He tells us why night matters for animals and about his efforts towards “re-wilding” the environment.

Ian Ashdown is a consultant with over forty years’ experience in lighting design, research and development, and software engineering (He built the original version of AGI32). He holds more than 160 patents and patents pending. Listening to Ian, deploying advanced lighting into practical tools and software seems like a side project, something he does for fun! Right now, Ian’s passion is horticultural lighting. If you want to improve the taste of tomatoes, listen to Ian!

Dajana is a teaching assistant and PhD student at the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad, Serbia. She is passionate about preserving the night sky and “bringing back the stars to our kids!”. Hear about her creativity in teaching about the night sky using animals, astro hikes, jazz and shared gratitude. You’ll be inspired.

Tony Lawrence is an entrepreneur, technologist, and prophet of quantum possibilities through his current role as CEO of Light Rider. Yeah, you’ve heard physicists on TV talking about the quantum world and thought, “I have no idea what they’re talking about!” Well, review your notes because you are going to be selling this stuff in light bulbs soon. Tony tells you how the light bulbs you will be selling will make computer hacking and ransomware a thing of the past. Intrigued? Listen to this one. Mindblowing!

Ruth Taylor currently serves as a program manager on the Advanced Lighting Team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where she currently manages the Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) Program. Ruth is your first line of defense against crappy products and design. Get an inside look at how products you sell are tested at the PNNL.

Ryan Andreasen is the founder of Night Sky Science (https://nightskyscience.com/). Astrophotography and Night Sky Preservation is Ryan’s main mission along with getting folks to look up at night. In this episode you’ll hear about the wonder of “touching” the Orion Nebula and about how the night sky can induce powerful emotions. When advocating for dark skies, avoiding words like “dark” or “pollution” can help bureaucrats accept the message. You’ll even hear Michael read some T.S. Elliot. This is a good one.

Taisha Bezzo is the National Sales Director for Evluma. She’s been with the company since 2014. Taisha has an MBA from Harvard, a pilot’s license, and she does Ironman Triathlons in her spare time. She’s going to tell you about LED’s, controls, and thermal management. Taisha is very smart, so listen up!

Justin Wendt has served as Rohinni’s Chief Technology Officer for over five years where he leads and directs Rohinni’s global teams in Research and Development of next generation die placement equipment and the products the technology is used to create. You won’t believe the mind-blowing technology being created - mini and micro-LED’s that are as small as 30 microns thick. The applications are just beginning to be explored.

Mark Clipsham - Architect, builder, consultant, master planner. While battling through his allergies, Mark has a thing or two to say about the growth economy, the constant drive for profit and what drives him nuts about the current state of lighting. Mark offers some ideas on sustaining the environment and bringing back the dark skies.

Deborah Burnett, ASID, AASM, is an internationally recognized registered design professional, Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the field of Light + Health, and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Deborah is going to let you in on some fascinating facts about the “spring surge,” proper lighting in horse stalls, the moon’s importance in photosynthesis, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and how the industry selling lighting for your circadian rhythms has become a racket.

This week we are joined by Kelly Roberts and Laura McDonald Stewart of the advisory board for the ARCHLight Summit at the Dallas Market Center this fall. We discussed the value of cross-professional networking events; there’s value in designers and architects meeting other professionals in this field. As well this year's programming being more broad than just lighting concerns.

Of course any in-person event right now has to confront the ongoing pandemic; and we all discussed how the attitudes of the organizers and the policies of the event location are coming together for an engaging, but secure event.

Learn more about the ARCHLight Summit here: https://archlightsummit.com/

Check out Frank’s Night Sky Resource Center (www.nightskyresourcecenter.org) for some awesome astrophotography. Frank advocates seeing the night sky as a resource just like water and air. He tells us about his personal sense of “awe” in seeing the night sky and how you too can lose your self awareness in experiencing the sublime. It’s better than Ayahuasca tea!

Brian Amundson of Pacific Lamp Wholesale and president-elect of NAILD is with us to discuss his experience working in dark sky lighting projects.

As distributors we sell what customers ask for; and even if we wanted to pursue dark sky instals we are not always clear on what really is compliant versus just “friendly.”

Brian shares his experience working on coastal projects with turtle- and bird-centric lighting and as well as partnering with a native tribe to fix up a ski hill. From the conversation discussion move from lighting projects as an exercise accounting versus an exercise caring, the tourism value of night times, getting rebates and regulators into dark sky projects, winning over hipsters and influencers to the cause, and pushing back on security concerns.

Steve Perry is the product trainer for the current sales staff at 1000Bulbs and works as liaison officer for its legendary CEO Kim Pedersen which includes among other things, new product lines, marketing strategies and vendor relations. Steve talks about sales strategies and techniques, incandescent lighting, Zoom, Amazon and learning from disagreeable people. If you want to learn, you might as well learn from the biggest. Don’t stop believing! (Sorry Steve!)

Jim is one of the world’s top authorities on lighting design and applied illuminating engineering. He invented the BUG system that directly affects dark skies. Jim tells us how many birds are killed by the Twin Towers light columns and how vertical light is better than horizontal light. Listen to what happened when Jim joined the board of IES, or when WELL inspectors asked him to close the blinds, or what happened when a cheap metal halide bulb exploded. Don’t mess around with Jim!

If you have crappy sleep or like wearing sunglasses you should probably listen to this. Dr. Rosenthal talks about sleep apnea and electric blue light, hormones and electric blue light, melatonin, proteins, cancer and well, electric blue light...you see where we’re going with this. You need to give this one a listen!

Where does it cost $1500 bucks to change a light bulb? Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are one of the most useful chemicals ever invented. Big surprise LED manufacturers make ridiculous claims about lamp life; what else is new. And we talk to Marty about the limits of LED's in hazardous locations along with the challenges of sourcing parts and materials for existing legacy lamps and ballasts which still dominate these applications.

Astrophysicist Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel has been involved in light pollution issues since the mid-1990s and has contributed to over 100 articles, many related to light pollution. He is the leader of “Cities at Night,” a citizen-supported project coordinated with NASA and other space agencies that use ISS night imagery to raise light pollution awareness.

Alejandro discusses his personal experiences with light pollution, and his analysis of pictures of cities at night taken from the International Space Station. These pictures led to a discussion on crime statistics and its relation to electric outdoor light at night. European cities with significantly varying amounts of outdoor light at night had no noticeable difference in levels of violent crime. While this observation is anecdotal, it leads to the conclusion that more study is needed to challenge, not confirm, the standard assumption that more electric light means less violence and crime. It was further postulated that the reverse may be true.

From red tape to blue LED’s to Red China. We talk about entrepreneurship in the time of cheap China and Google Ventures. Chuck also touches on environmental problems and how to get the customer to care.

Is LEDucation going forward? It sure is! Craig and Wendy tell us how in this time of Covid. The March virtual show was a success. Now they’re going live in New York in August. Is it 100% a go? As Craig says, “100% unsure!” But you know Craig and Wendy and the rest of the committee will pull it off. How? Listen up!

Harun Mehmedinovic is an astrophotographer, speaker, documentary filmmaker and dark sky advocate. He finds his deepest connections to nature while looking up at night and is doing his best to spread the word and save it for everyone.

In our conversation we discussed his status as a ‘hack’ compared with night-time photographers from the scientific community, the pale imitation of daytime we’re creating in our cities, the value of travel, how his work does seem to unify everything, his ideas about working with police and security experts, and plus fun fact about fireflies.

Find more from Harun at his website, https://skyglowproject.com

Edward Bartholomew - lighting designer, educator, advocate - is the owner of Bartholomew Lighting in Massachusetts. In this episode we talk about improving student scores, better worker productivity, reducing crime, fixing public utilities and of course, improving profitability - all through better lighting. We might have just solved everything in this episode!

What do GU24s and email marketing have in common?

Not much, but this week we have the inventor of the GU24, David Shiller on the line to discuss his current career in marketing and product development.

Beyond online engagement, we also delve into policy problems, socketed vs fixed fixtures, DC wiring and where standards need to change.

Our dark sky series has spun off into Starving for Darkness, but that doesn't mean we won’t be checking in with Michael and Jane periodically to discuss what is going on with light pollution concerns.

The movement for darker nights has been going on for a long time, but it still feels new in terms of awareness, consumer uptake and habits. We all sell light all day; it's harder to convince anyone that they need less of it, and we need regulators in the DLC and various levels of government to help us change the definition of waste to make it clear unnecessary light is part of the problem.

Greg Galluccio is a 30 year veteran of the industry, with work experience at UL, Leviton, and MaxLite, and now he’s working as a consultant in product development and marketing at his own company, Lotevo.

Lighting is now a commodity good and that means lighting needs to be practical and sellable for everyone in the industry.

Over the course of this conversation we discuss issues with vendors, feature creep, patent traps and trolls, regional problems, and why nobody wants to harmonize.

Greg and Michael also went through his Youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIYFIyKU2SpL9ToLOr9dwGw ) to discuss the reasons you can’t sell controls, what it means to create a gamechanging product, and the Internet of Breaker Panels.

This one is a classic lighting dork discussion, please enjoy.

Burt Grant is the owner of Metro Area Sales, lighting representatives in the New York Metro area, and a co-founder of LEDucation. Caroline Rinker is a Principal at O’Blaney Rinker Associates. Despite being competitors in the same market, Burt and Caroline have come together as co-chairs of LEDucation. It kinda feels like we are talking to a couple of NAILD members. Burt and Caroline describe how LEDucation has grown over the past 14 years into a leading education and marketing conference. They think it's the best lighting event in the world while we think it has a good shot at being second to NAILD Innovation. They touch on what kind of professionals attend, how they’ve fared during Covid and what their plans are for returning to an in-person conference in the coming year.

Ruskin Hartley, Executive Director of the International Dark Sky Association joins us to discuss his work and experiences in the association.

Right now the IDA is working to grow beyond their roots in amateur astronomers in several directors. The group is forging partnerships with other bodies with an interest in lighting to further their goals, looking at the input of ecologists and medical experts, broadening the ethnic and gender diversity within the organization, working with designers to understand how to light outside with quality and responsibility in mind, and reaching out to regulators to keep the sky dark and the parts of the ground lit appropriately.

Beyond the organization he talks about how we have the tools at hand to improve light at night through controls, teaching everyone about what they're missing in a post-LED boom world and his own personal encounters with the value of a night sky.

Thomas Sauvageau of Sauvageau CFO, LLC is more than a bean counter, more than an income tax accountant, he’s here to help businesses be their best. Right now that means letting everyone know about the benefits you may qualify for. There are new small business credits specifically related to the pandemic. The Employee Retention Tax Credit is a potential goldmine for distribution businesses right now. Any business that has been shut down under a government mandate and kept employees on qualify for a refundable income tax credit.

Thomas explains to Michael and Greg how to qualify and file for this credit, how to navigate IRS issues, and what your accountants should be doing for you the other ten months of the year.

Learn more at https://ertcfiling.com/ or his facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sauvageaucfo/

Wattsaver’s Steve Robinson returns to the show after two years to discuss some of the predictions he made at the time as well as how his business has been going lately.

Back in episode 90 (https://getagriponlighting.com/episode-90-steve-robinson-lighting-badass) made a guess that 30 percent of fixtures in his service area were LED, now it’s closer to 50, but oddly more outdoor than indoor projects seem to have been done. On the topic of projects, he walks us through his methods and management, how he deals with catastrophic product failure, replacing old-gen LEDs and Induction lighting systems as well as his metric fixture woes.

Another prediction from his first appearance was that he only had three years of rebate programs left - one year from that deadline he still thinks a future for incentives.

We also discussed how he’s kept working through the pandemic and his single UV-C for disinfection sale.

In Episode 169 (https://getagriponlighting.com/episode-169-it-might-it-might-not-al-uszynski) we discussed a number of predictions for the industry this year, Michael’s thoughts on Edward Bartholomew’s prediction drew a reaction from a few of our colleagues and we thought the best way to unpack that would be with Edward himself.

While his thoughts on growing inclusion in the lighting industry were more aspirational than anything else; we do need to consider where last year’s statements in solidarity of protests in the US and this month’s statements for black history month. They’re nice and reassuring, but without follow-up action they are worse than meaningless.

Jennifer Jaques of lighting application sciences and new IES membership director joins us to discuss her career. Starting off with her work in software tools the discussion goes through her and Michael’s views on education in this field as well as Greg’s take on the nature of passion before talking about the benefits of membership with IES these days.

They went through the new Lighting Library, building better perks, the end of print handbooks and what events in our industry will look like going into the future.

After a successful run of special releases on Get a Grip on Lighting (https://getagriponlighting.com/) Jane Slade and Michael Colligan have launched a new podcast series about dark sky.

Jane has been writing and speaking about the need for darkness in design for almost exactly five years and Michael has been trying to break into the movement from the distribution side for the past two.

This conversation between the two gets into their histories with the movement, what they believe and how this will inform the new series.

Adding more and bluer light to nights around the world has had numerous unforeseen side effects in wildlife, human health, aesthetics, and other deeper dimensions.

We need to confront this problem we’ve been neglecting, this series will be our part.

David Nathaniel, CEO of Ascot Capital is here to talk about operating Stanpro, Lumentruss, Aimlite, Beghelli’s Canadian branch, and Gabriel Scott brands.

He discusses what it means to keep up a diverse portfolio, his reputations for being hands-on and that has changed lately. He’s learned how to lead instead of just running his companies. We delve into what makes good business sense right now and his acquisition style with regard to transitioning with owner-operators - it is a bit different from Greg and Michael’s simple four point plan to running business - but it does make more sense from the outside.

The industry has gone from hunkering down to slashing and burning in terms of pricing and downsizing; and the larger economic situation of fragmentation and new protectionist measures combined with a new focus on residential lighting is really interesting to watch right now.

Spencer Miles, President of Pacific Lamp and Supply in Seattle and immediate Past President of the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors checks into the studio to see where things are at. We talked about distribution, a lot about UV, circadian, health effects and how distributors can survive and even thrive during the pandemic. Spencer grudgingly admits that he misses the manufacturer representatives and all of us feel the loss of in person human interaction.

Ellis Yan and Lesley Matt are here again to talk about business in 2021.

Shipping costs are rising as shipping speeds are slowing for everyone, there’s really nothing to be done about it. Beyond the macro scale problems, we're noticing small-scale disruptions all around us. The conversation moves past shipping and into currency exchange rates, busting myths about Chinese New Year, and setting your margins right.

On the upside from this year Ellis is excited to share the new things his company are cooking up, the uptick in residential product sales, figuring out consumer preferences, and what it means to go both ways on a product line.

Optician and author, Doctor Jacob Liberman joins Jane and Michael to discuss his thoughts on darkness in his work.

He shares how he keeps darkness in his regular routine, his thoughts on dreams and where he thinks they fit into inspiration and understanding.

This conversation gets wild with thoughts on mysticality, metaphysics, pretending to be himself, light as homeopathy and living without the benefit of safety nets.

The last time Lux Review’s editor, Ray Molony appeared we promised we’d have a beer with him when we met again. LuxLive might be cancelled, but we still did pour a round before starting to talk about business travel problems, the person-to-person value in conferences and what it takes to run a virtual award show.

Beyond plague-related woes, Ray gazes into the future of the IoT finding sales features that match consumer pain points, offices that look more like hotel lobbies, dark sky moving from a trend to an institution, and new EU rules for end of life and modularity for light fixtures.

Professor Mark Rea is getting ready to move from the Lighting Research Center to the Light and Health Research Center at Mt Sinai, but before that he joins us to discuss his latest report on UV disinfection products (read that here: https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/publicationDetails.asp?id=949&type=2 ).

He goes into detail about wavelengths, devices, safety tolerances, application issues, concerns about breeding superbugs, the value of not saying the word radiation too loud, and other engineering and measurement questions.

We as an industry will be talking more and more about health and wellness, and that comes with preventing illness as much as does with improving circadian rhythms.

Al Uszynski returns to the podcast to discuss the 11.5 Predictions for 2021 article that ran on his site, Inside.Lighting. Spinning off from those predictions we discussed:

● Dark skies
● Dynamic lighting in the workplace
● The speed of economic recovery
● Adoption rates for human-centric lighting
● How our industries adapt to social changes
● Collaboration at a distance
● The future of trade shows
● Where the DLC goes from here
● How the channels of business are shifting

Plus, a little fun at the expense of social media’s past, and Greg and Michael’s misadventures in China.

Ron Gibbons is the director for the Center for Infrastructure-based Safety Systems and an associate professor at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and here is to discuss his work and experience in the dark.

As a Canadian, he grew up with outsized access to dark spaces, sharing stories about being so far from any light source he hit a tree in front of his face. Now, as a researcher he is very happy to be spread across any number of field studies, ranging from his two miles of test road on campus to comparing roadside-grown soybeans to other soybeans. What he has learned, when it comes to light at night, we all need to put health first, health is more than absence of illness it is about promoting wellbeing for all affected. When we put up a light we all need to balance the needs of everyone and everything under that light.

The episode also discusses the idea of lighting crosswalks the same we light a stage, the lack of maximum limits in lighting regulations, building awareness before and after policy changes go into effect, the controversial position of banning all those RGB lighting rigs on bridges, and building enough design knowledge in the lighting industry to be helpful in making nights darker.

2020 was a hard one for all of us, but to help us to look at the future is The Edison Report’s Randy Reid is here to help us look into 2021.

Beginning with his Director’s Notepad piece, we go discussed:
● Changes in business travel, the lack of networking online,
● The power of virtual education options,
● Randy’s Man(crush) of the Year,
● The blast of price increases coming at us in the next quarter,
● Pushing back on China not just as policy but as a social movement,
● The future of UV and hygiene theatre
● Mergers, acquisitions, support measures and corporate zombification,
● Randy’s new video news project,

Thank you all for listening to us, we hope you’ll join us in for the rest of what 2021 brings.

We welcome our first ever electrician on to the show, George Filtsos was there at the beginning of Daintree and has been working to push controls into more projects through all of the booms and busts in that field.

We discussed how dimming is an unknown factor in improving the lifespan of LEDs, his refusal to take the quick turn and burn retrofit contracts, the nuts and bolts of wireless controls, sales technique and the layers of complexity involved in his work.

Gabe Arnold joins us from the Pacific Northwest National Labs after his recent work in DC lighting and PoE systems. But before we can that get to that we had to bring up his past at the DesignLights Consortium in the early days of the qualified products list, he explains why utilities needed the DLC’s help, where lighting dorks missed out on their rationale and some hindsight about the rush for high lumens for few watts.

But when it comes to DC power, it’s not going to replace the grid, but as we add more solar panels and energy storage it will become more common to see some systems on run on Direct Current just to avoid adding more inverters than we need. We suspect this will really take off once LiFi gets added to the ix as well, but even Gabe, tech prophet that is, won’t guarantee that one.

It’s time to bring the question of design into this series. Nick Dunn has been trying to balance the question of people’s need for light and natural darkness as an ecological concern since he spent one sleepless night walking around Manchester.

Discussing his work with the Institute for Social Futures and the IDA with Michael and Jane he explains how he builds awareness for dark skies in society that vilifies the very idea of darkness, the need for night-time urbanism, and experiments with alternate exterior light sources.

We all need to confront a number of different mentalities to make darker skies happen, we need a sort of general absolution for the glare guilt of sales teams, a new way to inform end users about the harms bad systems might take (think cigarette labels), and reconsidering enforcement and incentives for brightness violations.

How do you keep a company running for 150 years?

CN Robinson has been in distribution since before electric light bulbs existed, first in seeds and then ladders and other equipment. Executive VP and Director of Sales Peter Gray is here to explain how he keeps looking forward and finding new ways to keep his business vital.
He’s not planning on going back into horticulture, but he is adding more project business, bringing back some electrical supply and adding new people to his team.

Peter is a former President of NAILD and a former board member for NCQLP, and he shares his experiences in professional development and networking, and how that time helps him keep his staff more and more engaged and educated in their field.

Sibylle Schroer is an ecologist from IGB, and joined us to discuss the role the increasing amounts of light at night plays in the experience of human and non-human wildlife.

We discussed citizen science and the need for multidisciplinary approaches in the field as well as the barriers in perceived security and legislation. What emerges in the conversation is a need for night studies, not just late economics, but a genuine understanding of the purpose for each light turned on outside at night. We can create something that helps shift workers, respects wildlife, and is useful for safety needs.

Change happens faster than you think, we can come to better understanding of exterior lighting and create systems that make more sense.

This episode features the return of the UL's Adam Lilien and the introduction of the GSA’s Bryan Steverson as they discuss creating better workspaces with light.

The GSA has partnered with the Lighting Research Center and the UL over the past five years on different human-centric lighting projects. Our conversation ranges from reconsidering the importance of horizontal luminance, what we know for sure about improving people’s experience indoors, adapting existing fluorescent systems and issues related to UV-C disinfection tech.

The International Dark Sky Association’s Technical Director joined us to discuss the mechanics of dark sky-friendly projects. Start from tasks; most outdoor lighting is based on pathfinding, not offering reading lamps to the general public; while color temperature has become a focus point, the direction is still the real issue when discussing skyglow issues; and he’s not with the Dark Ground Society, you can create beautiful and useful lighting systems everywhere and still respect your neighbours.

We discussed the process of designing a lighting system, where distributors can fit into that conscientiously, the entanglements surrounding ordinance enforcement, awareness-building as spreading a curse, and fighting back against daytime design habits.

Aleddra’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Dr. Matthew Maa is here to talk about being different in the Disinfection technology business right now. He tells us what separates PECO tech from UV-based options. Aleddra uses PECO and UV-A and UV-C in different cases because not all applications are the same.

We discuss the current market for disinfection, different types of applications and what we really need from these technologies. We also brought up the idea of selling some quick hygiene theater versus actually creating proper long-term solutions. One seems like a smart play for quick learners in the industry, but it looks like Johnny-Come-Lately and his snake oil consultant will be going after both. We do discuss safety surrounding UV lighting, and what happens to all these lamps and fixtures in five years when airborne viruses aren’t at top-of-mind.

In the second part of our special dark sky series we are joined by Paul Bogard, author of The End of Night and What if Night. Our discussion opened with our sense of safety - it’s easy to think that more light makes us safer, but glare makes it harder to see and without other meaningful changes related to security increasing light levels is more about having done something than done something effective.

Darkness can be a place for contemplation if you let it in. Jane and Paul discuss their evening rituals, moon watching habits and how taking a moment with the outside can be much more beneficial than we really think.

We also discuss light on its own as a communications medium, hate on Vegas, the hubris of controlling nature, and the broadening implications of good sleep and good health.

Paul explains that he doesn’t want us all back in the stone age, but does want to see buildings that are genuinely beautiful, part of that is building awareness through appearing on podcasts but by approaching regulators well-weaponed with knowledge.

Find Paul’s Books here: http://www.paul-bogard.com/

Christina Calaway of Spark Media is a real old school lighting dork, which means our conversation begins with pulsed-start metal halides and other semi-forgotten lamp and fixture features. Before this turns into another scrub session, we transition to her current job in the industry: freelance marketing specifically catering to the lighting industry.

The marketing departments of lighting vendors and manufacturing have always had a power over language that comes from having to convince people that lights had value beyond being on or off. As LED adoption is evening out that gift for wording needs to be paired with controls and other features if you want to see success. We share our misadventures in copywriting, tips on working on social media, and the meaning behind web metrics.

We close out on the power of a good spec sheet and why you should sit on your own complaint line from time to time.

The IDA and NAILD have not only signed a memorandum of joint understanding, but will be working together for the next five years on joint efforts for darker, better nights. LS Evolve will have a module on the technical aspects and best practices of dark sky-friendly outlighting, but for now Michael Colligan and Jane Slade will be hosting a series of special releases on the moral, psychological, and physiological reasons to pursue dark sky lighting projects.

In this first part, we discuss how brightness is bad for the human lifestyle, how to appreciate darkness indoors, how light at night changes wildlife, as well as the heritage and connections we have to the night sky.

Light pollution is the easiest thing to solve, and everyone can benefit from it. Tune in for the next few weeks as we explore the power of darkness.

Alp Durmus is a Lighting scientist and assistant professor of architectural engineering at Penn State. He came on the show to discuss his research in optimization of lamp color; reducing light use by aiming for the most reflectivity of the object you’re lighting.

We care more about seeing things than we care about energy use, the idea of saving power and making things look better is an appealing one, but are his methods too complicated to apply in the field?

Aside from our own struggles to make the most of IES TM-30, we discuss provoking reactions with light alone, the role of marketing, why quality means something different to each of the different professions in lighting, and the ethics of manipulating people with lighting systems.

Dr Jacob Liberman is here to explain the nature of light and consciousness to Michael and Greg. He starts with the idea that seeing is more than just vision before explaining his background overcoming his astigmatism, his work as an optometrist, and growth in spiritual self-reflection.

The conversation stray fairly far from the nuts and bolts of lighting and more into the relationship between humans, light and darkness and how that can motivate us to design and build better lighting systems.

You can find more of Jacob’s work, including his books at https://www.jacobliberman.org/

Nigel Harvey is the Chief Executive at Recolight, a lamp recycler in the UK. We wanted to know how effective extended producer responsibility programs really are and whether or not they’ve hit a limit on the number of compliant operators. We weigh the pros and cons of enforcement and persuasion when it comes to recycling, and the strategies that come into play on both sides.

Aside from the business of recycling Nigel likes to take moral stands. Online marketplaces are letting some groups sell lamps without buying into the UK’s scheme for ensuring bulbs get disposed of properly; at this point we need to call on laws that force responsibility onto platform holders. Similarly, Nigel has been arrested twice at Extinction Rebellion protests in London, as much as we try to mitigate carbon and build things better, demand is for carbon is only going up - he’s sick of it and felt he needed to make a stand, his morals are trumping his obedience to the law. We also talk politics and the nature of leadership, and the time scales both work at being wrong for the problems we face.

Adrià Huguet-Ferran is CTO of Kumux, a software company that allows you to optimize almost any LED lightsource for color-tuning. The goal is for more human-centric or circadian-friendly systems, but Michael and Greg think his company’s process needs to be reduced to a one-button solution. That may not be so simple as we bring cultural and geographical biases and individual preferences to lighting systems all the time, forcing color and intensity to follow the clock is an uphill battle for some end-users.

Beyond that, Adrià teaches an online course on energy efficiency and he describes his teaching process. Also, we advocate for more buttons, and offer the two goals that must be hit to save our current existence.

Tom Boyle, of GE Current, a Daintree Company joins Michael and Greg for this week’s episode.

After clarifying what a Chief Technical Officer is responsible for, he shares his perspective on twenty years of change in the lighting industry, and Daintree’s renewed focus on LED and controls he gets into his company’s entry into UV-C Disinfection.

We discussed the various options that are emerging for UV-C and how it should be deployed as a layer in a range of cleaning solutions. Tom brought up the idea of building up people’s comfort levels as we spend more time indoors and how he goes about clearing up confusion for end-consumers. Michael offers the idea of a certification or a rating for UV products, while Greg considers the value of hygiene theatre and signaling cleanliness. Adding disinfection feels like an economic necessity but the market is expanding faster than testing can keep up with it and having a GE logo on a spec sheet makes selling this a whole lot easier in a number of ways.

Human-centric light is a selfish idea. Jane Slade is an expert in how anthropogenic light at night is harming all wildlife to some degree. In this rebroadcast of our live stream from last year’s IES Annual Conference she shares her work with Michael and Greg.

We keep learning new things about the damage ALAN does, whether that’s sending dung beetles walking in circles or slowing down the motion of free radicals in the air, but the solution is always the same: turn off the lights, then tell other people to do the same, pretending otherwise will just make it all worse.

She also explains why some of the security value of light is an illusion, the role controls and smart systems can play, pushing conservation past the photogenic animals, and the trouble with scientific conclusions are getting less obvious to the average person.

Bryan Colligan founded Atlas Lighting in his basement in 1977, it didn’t leave that basement until 1999 when host Michael joined the company.

Greg takes the lead asking questions about forty years worth of changes to the lighting industry, founding his own company, working by hand, being a frequent flyer on Air Chicken, and training salespeople.

Beyond his career Bryan shares his insights into business relationships, succession in a family business, and the power of working the order desk.

This week we have a crossover episode with Sam Koerbel of Lytei.
Before he was an architectural engineer he was a mascot for his college football team, and that sense of building character and expressing enthusiasm is what drives his podcasts and video series. Embodying excitement to encourage others is fun in it’s own right, but it can also be very valuable.

Michael and Greg spoke with him about spreading lighting design to the masses - everyone knows a poorly lit room when they see it, but know the why and how to fix it. Between talking about podcasting procedures and the power of video, they argued about whether we need educational credits in lighting and what tattoos really mean.

Find more of Sam at https://www.lytei.com/

Tom Ciurczak, industry veteran and president of BLC America has dropped an album. He’s been a singer and songwriter his whole life, and his daughter nudged him to actually releasing an album. Call me Ishmael is a mix of work from his whole life showcasing a number of styles and moods.

Michael and Greg have heard the album, liked it, and asked him on the show to discuss songwriting, the pros and cons of different creative approaches.

Beyond the stalkers, smugglers and outlaws to liars, losers and thieves that inhabit his music there are the characters that work in the lighting industry. Tom shares his past leaving computer sales, finding himself working for Osram in their first year in America, and his experiences in the speciality lighting market.

He also gets into his thoughts on working in the distribution and sales business; the power of relationships, how you can break ties and beat online prices on them and how those relationships have led to being able to use OEM contracts to keep his income stable.

Tom’s music can be found here: https://tomciurczak.com/

Ellis Yan is back to finish telling the story of his career, starting back in 1979 as the Chinese government begins to emphasize quality of life for its citizens Ellis was in school to become an accountant and working in a computer lab (this was in the punch-card era of computing, just in case you thought Ellis was ever behind the cutting edge). He tells the story of how he met his wife, made friends with a man called Big Buddha and how he and his brother started a company in 1986, making MR16s when they were still 4 dollars per unit. He explains how he managed to make the right moves in the right places and the right times - selling unpatented, manually-blown spiral CFLs from a factory that took up every piece of land he could buy in Shanghai to Home Depot in the months after California suffered historic blackouts.

Once we caught up to the present we talked about the future of lighting - purpose-built luminaires, becoming more than just a source of light, and more.

He also shares his thoughts about working with family, offers anecdotes about his father’s odd way of offering advice, and some insight into Chinese politics.

Last week Michael tested positive for COVID-19, Spencer Miles has had employees come up positive, and Greg’s been lucky so far. We’ve spoken about doing business during the lockdown, but now we can speak to more immediate damage control experiences.

Spencer and Michael share how they resumed business, worked around downed employees, and their experiences running the order desk again.

Procedures and policy are extremely varied region-to-region, hopefully you don’t have to deal with anything like this, or are at least lucky to have a public health authority as professional as Michael has dealt with.

Please, listen to the episode, then find some time to reflect on everything afterward.

This week, we reversed roles and let our guest ask us questions.

New lighting and energy consultant, Ryan Krueger, has a list of questions for us. Listen in to find out:

● What makes distribution unique
● How we learned all this before starting the podcast
● What catalogues and courses looked like in the pre-LED era
● Approaches to fieldwork when we started out
● Greg’s easy choice to get his LC certification
● How to deal with bad audits
● What those plastic seals do
● How tapped is the market, really?
● Strangest requests, odyssey emails, and how Michael became an accessory to marijuana distribution
● Our largest orders
● Longest contact-to-close times
● And a round of ‘how to retrofit this hypothetical’ building.

We also discuss the four phases of a career in the industry, and a few our personal favourite aspects and events in our careers.

“The current pandemic has created a tipping point for networked controls in lighting.”

That’s what Peter Brown sent us in an email earlier this month, rather than reply we got him on the line to talk this out for the show. Our assumptions about lighting have been inverted; the cost rule of 3 dollars for utilities, 30 for rent, and 300 for personnel is out the window and we need to spend more on new utilities just to get that 300 back into the building. Beyond that we get into recovery planning, UV disinfection, and hygiene theater.

There is a question none of us can answer that emerges from the end of our chat: will there be code requirements for any IoT for public health applications? We’ll see where things go from here.

Ellis Yan returns to continue his life story for us. Picking back up on the farm in the mountains, he shares how the experience built up his resilience and made him more open to new experiences, but the plot takes a small turn when his family living in the US try to arrange for a visa for him - something that wouldn’t pay off until he was attending University in Shanghai and his application got reviewed under new rules for students. After a few misadventures with the local bureaucracy he had to cut his story short for another appointment as he landed in the strange world of Cleveland.

Stay subscribed for part 3.

Bernie Erickson of Facilities Solutions Group is in the middle of expanding his company's offerings in UV disinfection options, so we had to ask him on the show to share what he’s been working on.

He breaks down the differences between surface and air disinfection as he sells it, as well pointing out secondary gains from adding air purification. What he has noticed is that his customers seem to have their own phases for adoption of UV purification moving from portable units to more permanent installations. He also offers some advice on how to sort junk products from good ones in this sudden boom in the market.

Beyond that we offer a diversion on controls, ‘hygiene theater’, and tips for introducing the technology to new clients.

Al Uszynski returns as a podcast guest to speak about his perspective on and his personal history in the lighting industry.

Launching Inside.Lighting to keep track of rep agencies, but ended up writing news to keep the site relevant. Once agents are up for discussion we have to dig into the friction points between distributors and rep agents, and how our modes and models of business are changing in response to changes in the manufacturing business.

Now that the classic big three have left the lamp business, we’re not sure who's really leading the industry or how to help the smaller guys build reputation with our clients. Beyond those questions we have to work past the DLC and and utility programs and build an industry that does more than save energy.

The LRC has put together a very cool web-based tool for designing a space for healthier living (https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/healthyliving/), after playing around with it ourselves, we asked the minds behind it for an interview.

Allison Thayer and Dr. Mariana Figueiro joined us to share how they created this site and how they plan to expand it.

We discussed how hard it is to improve productivity in humans and that we should just stick to lighting occupants can work in enjoyably. Some that means balancing individual needs against bigger trends, some of that means understanding how light relates to different age groups.

We’re not a nocturnal species, and maybe we need to back away from Edison’s triumph over unproductive evenings.

We’ve always known that Ellis Yan has a story to tell. We take a break from lighting technology and delve into history, as Ellis explains his life under The Cultural Revolution under Mao. It starts with the day he was sent to school without lessons, moves through years of bullying teachers, and attacks on capitalists and intellectuals before being shipped out to the mountains.

He lived with nine other teenagers in a two-room building in a remote farming village where he had to learn to farm, cook, slaughter pigs and roll his own cigarettes. As he was getting the hang of life planting rice, his mother sent a stack of textbooks so he could study for university qualifications.

Stay tuned for more in part 2, coming soon.

Henrik Clausen has thirty years of experience as an electrical engineer, educator, and a consultant. And when he wrote for LED Professional calling for brighter, more personalized light at work (read it here: https://www.led-professional.com/resources-1/articles/personal-lighting-profiles-might-be-the-key-to-creating-a-natural-work-light-balance), we knew we had to ask him about it. While it’s true that an aging workforce will need more light, we ended up debating how to implement these ideas.

What we didn’t expect was for the discussion to go as broad as it did once we got through that debate. We discussed our relationship to light, from the anthropological and evolutionary implications of firelight, to how human-centric lighting research is rooted in the location the test was done, how culture changes how you light your home and how that will emigrate with you, to the nature of God.

We did circle around to more grounded topics, like finding more funding for research, the need for multi-disciplinary teams, and why education is so boring.

Al Uszynski has trained salespeople at the university level and he joined us to share his insights on selling right now.

He shares some adaptations to current restrictions as well as creative ideas for selling online that will be even more useful when we can get face-to-face. But the real question that comes out of this conversation is: Should we be asking sales staff to be marketers? Can we really learn new tricks? And what are we losing as we pass through the quarantine?

We also call for a new mode of etiquette and offer some advice on how to work in other people’s comfort zones.

Let’s sell our way out of this problem.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is moving past energy efficiency research and into researching better life indoors. One of their projects was looking into ‘realistic’ lighting in an Neonatal ICU. Andrea Wilkerson, senior lighting researcher, shared her findings for sun-like colour and brightness automation. Beyond what happened during the test we explore some of the broader implications of circadian entrainment and it’s ability to signal behaviour and mood in subtle ways.

We also settle the question of whether or not we can meaningfully or honestly label something as ‘Circadian-Friendly’ and continue to probe into why we see so many women in lighting research.

Kevin Poyck just had his legs under him as CEO and President of Signify’s Americas Market Group when the outbreak threw his business into chaos. He shares his thoughts on virtual offices, managing at a distance, and the shape of post-pandemic normalcy. What really brought him to our show today was a recent study at Boston University that confirmed how effective a new Signify UVC lamp really is, which leads to a vintage Philips UV disinfection manual and the modern rush for germicidal lamps.

It’s time for us all to turn a page as we proceed out of our current crisis.

Ray Molony edits Lux Review, and in one month into lockdown he wrote what he considered to be the eight effects the lighting sector will see coming out of the current health crisis. Read that here:
https://www.luxreview.com/2020/04/14/8-effects-of-the-crisis-on-the-lighting-sector/.

After seeing it we had to invite him to push back and expand on his ideas, we shared our thoughts on established brands losing footing, payment terms changing, calls for quality over savings, local production, what the basics of lighting even means to both our clients and vendors, and how we can adapt to the near future. We did also add a ninth effect, but you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out.

Beyond the article itself, we haven’t had a chance to really grill an expert from Europe, so we took a chance to talk about their market and trade shows.

As an industry and a people we don’t have a path to recover from current circumstances, but we know what to watch for for now.

Signify’s Robert Lee returns to the show to elaborate on an article he wrote for LEDs Magazine on what SSL lighting will look like in 2030 - you can read it here:

https://www.ledsmagazine.com/smart-lighting-iot/article/14168528/picture-the-future-of-ssl-within-the-mirror-world-magazine

We get into the technologies that will converge to make the next decade of lighting a mirrorworld of augmented reality.

We also go over topics like consumer apathy in the face of new features, cost increases, the burdens of maintaining the IoT, what to do with all that data, privacy, security and the question of conflicting circadian prescriptions.

Jim Colantoni starts our conversation with him explaining the background of his company and how they’re working to create lighting tools for health and wellness. We get into the background and particulars of UVC technologies. Michael and Greg delve into discussions of safety concerns, future building codes, the lack of efficiency of LED in this case, confrontations with buzzwords, and the growing importance of listening to the customer.

The King of Lighting, Ellis Yan, returns to the main series and he brought Lesley Matt, Senior VP of Sales at TCP Along with him. They share their current virtual lunch and learn series, and the company’s own rebate and incentive program before diving into the real lighting dork content with us.

We discussed offering more colors, building drivers, modularity and replaceable parts in outdoor lighting, the meaning of ‘Full Spectrum’, creating something will match the usefulness of MR16s, and creating a new story for lighting as we move out of the efficiency era.

We’re taking a short break from our usual lighting dork topics this week to chat with Tyler Gildin about his documentary The Starfish, which profiles his grandfather’s journey from Nazi Germany to Sweden, across the USSR, and over the pacific ocean to reunite with his parents.

Chatting about Herb Gildin’s life in America and building Satco leads to discussions of overcoming adversity, building a business and personal brand, treating employees like family and the drives and motivations that created a successful company.

We also chatted about making the documentary, family anecdotes, and legacy.

The Starfish is available as a rental on a number of video on demand platforms, find out more here: https://gildinmedia.com/thestarfish/

Tom Beckett and some colleagues in his side of lighting spent three years setting up an ANSI certification for flashlights, and once they were done they turned that team into the Portable Lights American Trade Organization to maintain standards across seven metrics as the industry moved into LED.

We talked over testing procedures, the issue of enforcement versus advising members, and learning to work with color-rendering as a relevant metrics in the world of portable and battery powered lighting as well as other trends he’s seen in the field like the rise of high-end handhelds, the complexity of the retail space, and the disposability of some products.

All of it ends up sounding familiar to us dorks putting light in ceilings.

In April, the Illuminating Engineering Society and the International Dark Sky Association released a joint statement on the five practices to best confront light pollution. We’re here to speak with IDA’s Ruskin Hartley and the IES’ Brian Liebel about that, and the broader implications of electric light at night.

Light pollution is real pollution, it’s something we create that harms people and animals, and as much as we can raise awareness among consumers we may need to call on regulators to make lighting better. We also discuss the power of solutions to breed problems, confronting biases, how to sell the more costly option, overcoming techie questions around spectral value at the order desk, and the evolutionary psychology surrounding warm light.

4-time guest Mark Lien returns to act as the lighting industry’s very own futurist. We discussed the ease of charting the direction of change as opposed to predicting its pace, the marking of epochs, where our particular businesses stand at the moment, lighting controls leaving lighting’s hands, and other long term trends for our field.

Also on the discussion slate: contemporary geopolitics, macroeconomics, and the plague.

Westlite’s Brenda Puckett knows that there’s no constant in our industry but change, and that if you can’t be an agent for change your company won’t thrive.

We joined her at her office earlier this year to chat about doing more than selling bulbs to people, conservation in the era of throwaway tech, trying to keep things simple as SKUs pile up and we replace whole fixtures, as well as the question of state’s rights.

We’ve noticed a spike in requests for UV lamps and fixtures recently and aside from reading the side of the box over the phone, we don’t have a clue what to tell anyone. Fortunately, Karl Platzer and Fred van Lierop of UV Lamp Consulting were kind enough to share their considerable expertise on the subject with us all.

The two of them talk through the nuts and bolts of the UV spectrum, it’s applications, and how technology gets tested and certified. Bringing it back to lighting dorks; there’s a lot of pressure right now for quick fixes - but for our current needs; there’s nothing we can be totally certain of, and the claims from certain marketers are about the technology overall instead of their particular product. Let’s not sell anything irresponsibly, and let the experts handle these technologies.

Keeping this one short and sweet this week. Michael and Greg share stories about selling while under quarantine orders. It’s a surprisingly good time to upgrade systems or relamp a facility. Get on the phone and let people know you’re essential and that you can keep the lights on, nevermind any presumptions.

Light Efficient Design's CEO Tim Taylor is our guest today. He talks about starting his company, his current supply chain issues, and his ideas about lobbying the US Congress for lighting infrastructure projects as a form of economic stimulus.

Sociobioligist, futurist, and author of The Watchman's Rattle and On The Verge, Rebecca Costa is here to help us take a big step back to view the pandemic's effects on not just our jobs, but society.

She and Michael delve into questions of leadership, confidence and shared morals as we get through this crisis and prepare for the next.

38 years ago, Steve Byrne started working in the warehouse of American Light. After a name change and a few promotions he’s the COO of Facility Solutions Group. He invited us to his offices to share his experiences and insights into the industry.

He’s seen a number of disruptions and new learning curves emerge but believes we may be seeing a reconstruction of the distribution channel that puts partnerships ahead of brand name recognition. We also talked about the gaps between experts and consumers on the subject of integrative lighting and the IoT. The near future is unpredictable, but Steve does see some bright spots as the first round of adopters to LED are beginning to get used to the idea of relamping and switching entire fixtures out to maintain light.

Jon Sayah came prepared for this one. We spoke about the reduction in the scope of short-term planning, the new shift schedules at Saylite's production facilities, and boxing metaphors.

Mark Verheyen; President of Panasonic Lighting Americas, President and CEO of Universal Lighting Technologies, as well as President and CEO of Douglas Lighting Controls is our guest for this installment of our leadership under Covid-19 pandemic to discuss his particular circumstance of manufacturing in Mexico with a mix of international components and working to keep staff safe.

Jonathan Palmersten, CEO of Gripple shares his experiences in local manufacturing, revenue loss in an employee-owned company, and hanging plexiglass barriers for food service and grocery staff.

Peter Brown joins in on a roundtable discussion of best, worst and likely short-term scenarios as governmental response to this pandemic escalate.

Frank Guastella, Director of Operations at Revco Lighting invited us into his showroom to talk about working with residential clients. He gets an interesting mix of homeowners and contractors walking through his showroom every day. And what we learned is that while his target market is different from our commercial clients, he’s still dealing with the same questions of rebates, purpose-built fixtures, and keeping staff trained and aware of legacy light sources.

Margaret Wong, Founder and CEO of McWong International has more experience working with Chinese manufacturers than anyone else, this series wouldn’t be complete without her take on this situation. She shares her insights into the current state of the supply chain and how this might change the IoT.

Ira Greenberg, CEO of Keystone Technologies joins our series of industry leaders as they respond to the corona virus outbreak and its effects on manufacturing and distribution. Beyond his work with Keystone's Virus Task Force he shares his thoughts on corporate bailouts and the strengths of family-owned businesses.

Brought to you by The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors: visit https://NAILD.org

This series of special releases is about profiling the leadership that is emerging in the face of this pandemic. In this episode the King of lighting and CEO of TCP, Ellis Yan rejoins us to share his experiences and thoughts from when it began to affect his business at the end of January through to today.

Brought to you by The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors: visit NAILD.org

A Special Release from Get a Grip on Lighting, we'll be sharing our thoughts on how COVID-19 is affecting our industry as the situation develops.

Today, we grabbed Fulham's Antony Corrie for his perspective on working in the current situation.

Brought to you by The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors: visit NAILD.org

A Special Release from Get a Grip on Lighting, we'll be sharing our thoughts on how COVID-19 is affecting our industry as the situation develops.

Today, we're talking about where lighting distributors fit into the 'essential services' label.

Sunset Lighting has been in the business for thirty years. And it’s current VP of operations and this week’s guest, Kyle Landig has been working there since he was in high school.

Our friendly banter passes through working specifically in retail spaces - building a business to be a right fit for the client, staffing at all hours, working with people who care more about color quality than anything else, the retailer’s version of the IoT, and on-site challenges.

Beyond that Michael and Kyle riff about the opportunities and perceptions surrounding second generation entrepreneurship, family business troubles, and the cultural dynamics of mergers and acquisitions.

When is a clock not a clock?

When it’s acting as an analog display for network time. Mark Higgason of Encompass AV is on the show to discuss how changes in Power over Ethernet regulation is opening up more applications in this section of the Internet of Things. We speak with him about scalability, how businesses are adopting PoE applications, the granularity of control available for these systems, as well as how the industry’s excitement for new technologies always exceeds our knowledge.

We do leave the conversation somewhat skeptical, but there may be some spaces that benefits from light powered by Cat7.

A rare four person episode this week as we are joined by Sanjeev Thakkar and Steve Holman of Xeleum, an Eiko Company. We discuss their XiFi protocol, the functions it offers, and how interoperable their products are with other systems. After that we step back into talking about the previous booms in controls, moving beyond controls as a venue energy savings, and the heart of the Internet of Things.

We also talk about whether or not it might be time for a standards body for cybersecurity and getting IoT projects in front of general contractors.

Our excursion into augmented reality and biophilic design with Cree Lighting’s Kory Liszt. He’s an inventor and the designer of the Cadient luminaire, because we can’t get this piece of hardware out of our heads. Our conversation with Kory starts with bringing bits of the outdoors in to make people feel better, using light as a dynamic element in how you experience a room. We do get into the specifics of the Cadient, including positioning, follow the sun mode versus the other customizations you can run with the device or how you might not want to offer that choice in an office environment.

We’re growing in our understanding of light and how we relate to it, there’s still a long way to go for some spaces and times of day, but the future looks bright.

This week we’re taking circadian research from the conference hall to the order desk with Cree Lighting’s Shirley Coyle. We chat about WELL building standards, better ways to light interiors, preferences getting in the way of doing people good, and moving past efficiency concerns.
The real impetus for this conversation was CREE’s Cadient fixture, it’s a dynamic skylight alternative that replicates a day cycle - setting aise how we might be tricking people with it, we discuss building up consensus on integrated lighting starting with day-active indoor workers and moving further out to help everyone.

We’re already having an impact on people with electric lighting, let’s find a way to have a better one.

This week we sit down with Brian Brandes, Senior VP of Product Development at Satco and this episode really is about the nuts and bolts of his job. We talk about end-to-end projects, market research, the creation of Nuvo, fashion in luminaires, the long-term future of legacy and poetry.

In an industry where LED continues to find new ways to be a disruptor, the only real solution is to do the right thing.

CBC Lighting’s Abraham Schnitzler visited Michael in-studio to talk about some good old fashioned lighting distribution. We get into the legacy marketplace, driver availability, California standards, trade wars, and municipal retrofits. Abraham, Greg, and Michael swap stories about condo applications, the detective work that goes into quoting, customer service, and the value of business associations and old friends.

Wishing a warm welcome back and a heartfelt congratulations to Spencer and John; the first for returning to the show as guests, the second for gaining ownership of Pacific Lamp and Supply. In this chat we dig into how job title changes aren’t really changing their responsibilities or relationship with each other.

After that we get into changing times, growing into online sales interactions and keeping up the human-to-human facets of business-to-business operations. Our chat get into rising acquisition costs and the end of MROs, the future of group re-fixturing and whether that means anything for the environment, and warranty frictions between customers, manufacturers, rep agencies and the distributor.

The conversation closes out on a discussion on the value of NAILD.

This time around we have a quick bonus episode with Randy Reid, editor of The Edison Report and executive director of The National Lighting Bureau to discuss the upcoming NAILD Convention’s recently announced itinerary, the first ever Tesla Awards, and the NLB’s Trusted Warranty program.

J Marshall Hunt is a man with a plan plan to reach contractors by being better than the ‘big guys.’ But in order to prove that fact, he has to be on their radar. J explains a few of his secrets in segmented marketing and narrowly targeted web campaigns, plus his youtube series Watt’s New with J.

The conversation also spends a lot of time on the corporate culture he’s built on the power of gratitude, delegation with elevation, watching out for floaters and what it means to stay in your LANE.

After a tour of Satco’s warehouse we have concluded that they have everything.

No really, everything a lighting dork could ask for is one of their many shelves. Beyond offering a tour, Bill Gildin did join us for a recording session to talk about the history of the company, how their share of the legacy support market has grown even as demand has fallen and how that support has become a value add for their buyers.

The conversation also gets into some other aspects of the industry; shifting tariffs, working with foreign manufacturing, inventory management as well as tracking sales numbers over money earned and the potential end of socketed fixtures.

We’re in the midst of a few paradigm shifts but maybe the key to surviving and thriving afterwards is to stick to the basics.

Christopher Preston is an environmental philosopher and author, we found him when an excerpt from his book The Synthetic Age about how animals are evolving to use the growing levels of electric light present at night, we had to get him on the show.

We get into human scale versus geological scale problem, the case of interference in natural selection, the varying weights of obligation to do better to the planet across humanity, and failure of awareness-building.

We also talk about getting involved in dark sky and efficiency regulation, banning the wallpack, and the question of who and how to judge what’s best in lighting for all of us.

Margaret Wong got started in the business 36 years ago with a single extension cord. She got that Chinese-made cord listed by UL, a first in the field, and the rest is history.

This episode features discussions of Hong Kong then and now, doing missionary work for capitalism, worker culture in China, and a potential paradigm shift global economics. We also delve into McWong’s future, advocating for Bluetooth mesh, lighting’s ubiquity as the driver for the IoT, and selling people on smart spaces.

In between all that Margaret shares stories about the early days of ballasts, how “WongMc” could not see the light of day, and other barriers to understanding she’s encountered.

From the floor of Horticann in Denver, we met up with Rebate Guru, Juan Carlos Blacker to talk about lighting in horticulture space. The space is very different from the rest of the field because light isn’t a tool for sight it’s a means of production; which makes it simple to tackle - sell bulbs that generate the most crop.

We also get into how indoor growing facilities are created, their particular service issues, boom and bust cycles particular to lighting grow-ops and where the future of indoor agriculture practices.

The showroom at City Lights in San Francisco has changed a fair bit over the last decade - the shelf space for replacement bulbs has steadily shrunk, while the number of fixtures on display has grown by leaps and bounds. There’s a lot of tradeoffs between purpose-built LED luminaires and something more modular. Michael, Greg, and our guests this episode get into the tradeoffs between treating lighting like an appliance going into the future.

They also learn about the ever shrinking number of non-prohibited bulbs in the California Republic, the withdrawal symptoms associated with a rebate addiction, the power of value engineering in the face of e-commerce, how high high-end residential really goes, and color preference genuinely being a matter of preference.

2019 was a great year for us. We have learned so much and met so many interesting people from all corners of our industry. We’re just going to take a few minutes to reflect on all that. Thank you for watching, listening, leaving comments, writing emails, and telling other people about all this. There’s still a pair of short episodes ready for 2019, but we’ve got big things coming in 2020 (name pending), so look forward to it.

California is leading the way, not only as an economic powerhouse, but for energy regulations as well. In our Discussion with MJ Paul at Omega Pacific we got into the end of rebates, how to get out of electrical supply by focusing on lighting distribution, and keeping the start-up mentality 30 years into a company’s life cycle.

As we continued our chat we got into the particulars of working the bay area, the regional nature of the business, and building strong customer relationships in the digital era.

The fact of the matter is that controls aren’t guaranteed to generate savings. There’s a number of reasons for this; the space is always occupied, the control mechanisms themselves draw too much energy, or people who might flip a switch end up letting the sensor do the work and lamps run for 5 minutes longer than they have to. But that’s okay (mostly), because Lighting Wizard, Stan Walerczyk is back to talk about the non-energy benefits to a set of controls. He along with Greg and Michael go through alternate benefits like color-tuning for alertness, zone controls for safety, and biophilia by mimicking nature.

We’re still not clear what side Stan is on in this discussion, or how to measure human productivity, or why lighting seems to be the default application of smart controls. But at least we had an interesting chat.

Brian Stern and Webb Lawrence of the LED Supply Co in Denver came to lighting after working in IT and radio respectively. They jumped in by dealing in to the local cannabis market, before abandoning that space outright for the opportunities of ‘regular’ retrofit business, and also not having to compete with HPS’s stranglehold on indoor horticulture.

In this episode, they chat about creating value adds as a distributor, partnering with interior designers and the surprisingly varied applications that emerging from UV-based disinfection lamps.

Eric Myklebust believes each building can be its own power grid. When asked why that might be necessary he will not cop to believing in the end of days that is the climate crisis. Talking about the facts of the matter, as opposed to projections; we can say for sure that less pollution is a good thing, solar panels can be very useful to that end. But the hurdle to green energy isn’t storage, it’s inverting the power to make it work with an AC grid. Which brings us back to the first thing Eric wants us all to do - the developed world is on the cusp of a major paradigm shift as we electrify our transport and pivot to renewables, so why not overturn the results of the current war and convert our homes to DC power supplies without relying central generation?

Neil Mattson, PhD, is a professor at Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science, a greenhouse extension specialist, and this episode’s guest. Joining Michael and Greg from the floor of HortiCann in Denver, we start our chat with the cyclical attempts LEDs have made at breaking into this field, and how maybe this is the time they dethrone high-pressure sodium lamps, even it means rebuilding a bunch of heating systems to do it.
As a researcher we ask him what the real metrics are for horticultural light - lumens per watt is great for warehouse, but when that warehouse needs to produce rather than store food, it becomes a question of biomass efficacy and micromoles per joule. The conversation drifts away from the particulars of the GLASE project and more into how our understanding of light is creating new specialties in engineering, design and agricultural sciences; these may not turn into full fields of study, but will turn into professions fairly soon. The LEDifiction of the built world is coming for indoor farming, but given how much energy some of these facilities use we’re going to need better sources of power if we’re really going to improve climate conditions. Also in this episode, a discussion of the future of cultivation, the co-evolution of human beings alongside plant-life, and other ideas from the show floor.

This week’s guest thinks what we do is too simple, nevermind the two years and a hundred podcast episodes, Mark Marmer does his work in design and build contracts for electric vehicle charging stations for condominiums.

Our chat with him talks about the paradigm shift that electric cars represent, especially as driving becomes automated, but also working a contract start to finish over bidding to a specification, Toronto real-estate and the value add a charging station represents, as well as how fast the switch to electric is really coming. Mark breaks out his crystal ball to share his vision of transportation for the next twenty years.

The show does close on a lighting topic as he asks about how Greg and Michael work with sensors and controls and how there’s a difference between simplifying this and merchandising complexity.

Jessica Collier of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is fresh off her award-winning thesis and right onto the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast to share her work in color preference under electric light. She’s building up a library of descriptive tags based on the IES’ TM30 specification, so that vendors and consumers won’t be left in the dark when it comes to all the metrics on the side of a box. We’ve done enough to encourage LED adoption with savings, now it’s time to make lamps that feel good to sit in.

On the floor of Nalmco’s Convention in Minneapolis we met up with two of its directors, Bill Sgro and Scott Mendelsohn, to talk about the generational aspect of our industry and the value of networking at conventions like these. We also get into the incentive bubble, the future of what we’ll be making and selling as IoT adoption reaches a tipping point, current challenges and foreseeable problems. The episode closes out with some commiserations on the lack of leadership and standardization in lighting and where that leaves us all vulnerable to exploitation.

Stan Walerczyk has done everything in the lighting business, but today he’s here to talk about the color blue. Specifically, he wants to talk about the 480 nanometer wavelength and how it figures into spectrally-enhanced, blue-enriched lighting for human performance. As a member of the Human-Centric Lighting Society he spends most of him trying to research how high kelvin temperatures can be used to help people that operate at night. Mike and Greg prod him about how inconclusive the research seems to be, it’s more about feedback on correlations than strict double-blind data comparisons. Stan shares that frustration, so much of the work in this field gets done by people pushing products, rather than pure researchers; he’d like to be able to offer a daily schedule of ideal color and brightness shifts for your bulbs, but we’re all just stuck adjusting to what feels best.

They do touch on a few other issues, like the work going on in non-circadian applications that are more directly related to health, other light hazards, and how humans aren’t the only ones that need lighting accommodations; we need turtle- and seabird-centric lighting as well.

The Nefouses of A-M Electric represent 45 years and 3 generations in the business. Michael and Greg met up with The Louisville Light Man and the Godfather of NAILD in their shop to talk about the pace of the LED Invasion, the value of distribution, peaceful transitions of power, and the need to reinvent your business regularly.

As they get into the story of A-M Electric, they bring up project pitches as a storytelling, tricky dealings with vendors, the nature of the Kentucky marketplace.

The pair also share their perspective on working with what you do have before leaving on their love for the business.

Satco has been moving in a number of directions lately, pressing beyond lamps into bulbs and electronics. Another move is sending VP of Sales, Alan Karen, to Toronto to join Michael in-studio for this episode all about the necessary moves the best lighting manufacturers are taking.

We also chat about busting through the perceived tiers within the industry, finding seams, the changes in the manufacturer to distributor relationship, what goes on a cut-sheet these days, and feeling old school for keeping up face-to-face connections.

Our guest on this episode, Brilled Lighting’s Joseph Cullumber, got into manufacturing backwards. He ran an automation company and got frustrated with finding existing fixtures that met his needs, so he bought a factory to make what he wanted.

In this conversation, he, Michael and Greg talk about overseas ownership and management, what you would call a dealer versus a distributor, standing out in the current field and transparency issues that plague the industry.

We have reached 100 regular episodes of this little series. Thanks to everyone that helped along the way; especially to you for listening, watching, commenting, and sharing all this time.

This episode we’re throwing ourselves a little party in the form of a roundtable discussion with some like-minded scrubs from across the lighting industry. Our chat gets into the future of our field, the real and perceived scope of led-ification in the built environment, our mixed feelings on rebates (and their looming end), certifications and regulations, before looping back to what’s really next for us all to make and sell.
What do you say? One hundred more?

Orro is not an occupancy sensor, it’s a presence sensor. Colin Billings left his previous work in the new media industry in favor of founding Orro after a series of frustrations with connected lighting at home. An Orro switch uses algorithmic learning to adjust lighting at home, slowly accumulating data and adjusting rules the way a human might commission passive controls without having to be connected to the internet. There is a boom and bust cycle in selling controls, but maybe this cycle ends with some sort of beachhead for smart tech. Light is life and it needs to adapt to our lifestyle.

Simon Slupik, co-founder and CTO of Silvair, wants us all to live in the future with the power of low-energy Bluetooth. However, 90 percent of lighting controls are still analogue - switches and dials - this episode starts with a discussion as to why that is still the case. What follows is an informative nuts and bolts discussion of Bluetooth mesh technology, fixture firmware, planning, commissioning, platforms, and how Silvair’s way might be the best way forward.

Have we filled our workplaces with photonic deathray diodes?

Have we turned our homes into caves? Maybe a little.

Scott Zimmerman is an engineer who partners with health researchers and other scientists to model the effects near-infrared light not just on the eye, but skin, blood vessels and the brain and he’s concerned about how the observed good effects NIR are being set aside as we convert the built environment to LED lighting with IR films over the windows. We may be trading efficiency for our well-being. His solution: a hybrid LED-incandescent lamp that comes with a few other surprise benefits on the design side.

Exciting times at this year’s IES Annual Conference in Louisville. Michael and Greg met a lot of people, learned the power of the IES’ volunteer team, learned a lot, and did a lot of live streaming, and the material was too good to not make sure it was all available in one place for you.

Doctor John Davenport returns to the podcast, and while his work on eliminating flicker has succeeded beyond our current capacity to measure, there are other facets of human health he’s trying to improve upon, namely safety lighting. Retrofits on tubes often leave the original battery-powered bug-eye lamps in place, and while those do have LED equivalents, John had a better idea that works in more places - a tube with it's own sensors and it's own built-in batteries.

Michael and Greg take this as a great chance to sell some new hardware and crash into another stream of the lighting industry.

The lighting industry is going through drastic changes, but they are predictable changes. In today's episode we talked with Peter Brown about where the lighting industry is at and what’s most likely coming in the future. Time to go back to the future.

Founder of The Startup Within, Steve Epner helps companies ignite their entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to working with distributors from a variety of industries (including lighting) he also teaches Corporate Entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University. Whether you consider yourself an entrepreneur or not we all have the spirit within us.

Randy Breske is a “retired” lighting industry veteran and is now spending his time as an ambassador for NALMCO (the interNational Association of Lighting Management). We had the pleasure of talking with Randy at the NAILD convention and discussed the lighting industry from the contractor’s point of view. It can be argued that the contractor’s role is the most important one in the LED lighting upgrade craze so pay attention and take notes.

With all of the discussion and focus on the health effects on lighting, Ute Besenecker, Technical Manager of the DLC, finally summed up the proper way to define them. The current health benefits of lighting are more like supplements than medication. Their effects cannot be prescribed, but lighting can effect people's health.

There is nothing better than talking to someone who does what you do on a daily basis and sharing ideas. Steve Robinson of Wattsaver Lighting Products has been a constant presence in the lighting distribution channel for over 30 years. Someone both hosts of the show have looked up to, listened to and learned from over the last decade at NAILD conventions, Steve is a true lighting badass.

We use the word “save” way too much in the lighting industry and should consider the word waste instead. Mark Jewell is on another level when it comes to proposing an energy saving project. As an author, trainer and practitioner Mark has a way of getting to the point that matters and there is no better way to sell.

Futurist, author, and lecturer David Passig met up with Michael and Greg at the second Global LiFi Congress, June 2019, to follow up on his talk; The Prospect of the Future on LiFi Technology. Artificial intelligence will exceed a person in 2040, and will exceed the humanity as a collective by 2060 and the future depends on us being able to integrate information into the human experience and understanding. They also discuss transhumanism, paradigm shifts, the nature of consciousness, the singularity, and building the future like science fiction authors.

Anytime you have someone from the IES on the show you can be assured that you will learn something valuable about the industry from the top. As The Lighting Authority, the IES is committed to bettering the lighting industry by ensuring that quality lighting is implemented in the field. Alex Baker, Manager of Government Affairs and Public Policy for the IES, met with us at the DLC convention to talk about what’s new at the IES.

Dr. Maïté Brandt-Pearce of the University of Virginia met with Michael and Greg at the second Global LiFi Congress, June 2019, to really get into the nuts and bolts of LiFi. What followed was a rapid Q and A session about fixtures, latency, dimming, how she sees the near-future niche market rapidly reaching mass adoption, and the visceral satisfaction of actually seeing a data connection - LiFi lamps add more to a room than dial-up noise did.

Harald Haas coined the phrase “LiFi” in 2011, and now he’s telling us it’s ready to enter version 2.0. He joins the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast from the floor of the second Global LiFi Congress, June 2019, to catch us up on the history and development of light-based data transmission, its current applications in the fields of autonomous automobiles, privacy and security, as well as defense. LiFi represents a paradigm shift for the lighting industry comparable to the one photography underwent with the introduction of digital cameras - lamps are going the way of film stock and the industry needs to begin to consider itself a platform creator for the Internet of Things through the power of LiFi. If the tech sector is going to keep adding brains to everything, then LiFi should become both the nervous system and communication tool for all of these smart devices.

Hubbell runs an education facility bigger than Greg’s warehouse, for one reason: training is more important than ever in the lighting industry. Clayton Smith their director of business development sat down with Michael and Greg at LightFair International 2019 to share his thoughts on training and education in the lighting industry today.

By building a dedicated facility they can exploit the value of an in-person learning experience, webinars inevitably get shuffled to another tab while ‘real work’ goes on. Hubbell does offer video materials but the key is to keep short, easily digestible, and encourage further reading as needed rather dumping piles of details on the viewer.

They also delve into the challenges facing any new entrant to the industry, how to learn legacy products at arms reach, the value of touring production facilities whenever possible and how controls experts are becoming a must-have for any staff in the industry.

Brian Vaughn and Tim Miller of Current by GE joined us from the floor at Lightfair to convince Michael and Greg that the phrase “futureproof” might be a useful term when discussing connected lighting. Though, even they admit that “upgradeable” might be the better word for what they’re working on; equipment that works with multiple types of connectivity as well as new fixtures that have modular components that will become the form factors for the next generation of smart home technology. Additionally, that notion of upgradeability becomes an undercurrent for the whole conversation, Current by GE is upgrading by adding more software development, lighting sales teams and designers are upgrading by adding connectivity partners, and customers are starting off with color-tuning and voice operation on their lights are part of a plan to expand to more controls throughout their homes.

When we know Randy is in the same location as us we always plan to have a discussion with him and sometimes record it. After hearing an excellent presentation from Randy at the NAILD convention we sat down to discuss more about what the National Lighting Bureau is and what it will be under his leadership. Exciting times for NLB!

Michael Davidson and Jamie Britnell are both Directors at Synapse Wireless and they joined Michael and Greg from the floor of LightFair International 2019 to share their thoughts and knowledge on connected lighting; the unofficial theme of LightFair and (perhaps) the future of the industry.

The switch has been the only real control for lighting and we’re in a scenario more options are becoming viable on the consumer level. As much as connected lighting can make an argument for savings, there are other, better value that smarter lights can add. Michael and Jamie are more interested in systems that can inform users when lamps fail, or offer real time energy use data, and tools that store usage statistics to validate warranty claims, and all manner of personalized problem solving the IoT can offer.

If the field of lighting were to have one person as the professor of the industry, Jim Benya would be it. Scholarly, articulate and uninhibited; when you talk to Jim about lighting you are in for a true learning experience. He is on too many committees, boards and panels to name, but where there is decision making in lighting Jim Benya is often at the center of it.

David Gershaw is the Chief Innovation Officer at Light Efficient Design, and he joined Greg and Mike from his booth at Lightfair International.

While LED’s story of Solar-powered exterior lighting is told from the show Philadelphia it starts in Africa six years ago where they were partnered to light miles of roads in Tanzania with off-grid solar-powered lamps. What started with three components, one being a buried car battery, is now an all-in-one fixture that can be placed virtually anywhere. David’s enthusiasm for the tech that’s inside his company's solar powered option is infectious. As part of the conversation Michael leads the group in digging into some atypical energy efficiency math for fixtures that hybridize solar and grid-sourced power, this leads to some speculation on a whole new kind of rebate program that could arise from these calculations. As the episode closes, the discussion shifts toward Dave’s role as an innovator and the strange and exciting technology that is emerging in the near future.

Aurelien David is the chief scientist for technology and R&D in LEDs and semiconductor optoelectronics at Soraa — a company founded by the inventor of the LED — and he was kind enough to appear on the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast from the NAILD booth at Lightfair International.

The episode starts by addressing a recent report by ANSES about the hazards of blue light, particularly LEDs at night. Aurelien and Michael agree that the sky may be falling once again, given that so much of the light we experience, whether it be classic Edison incandescent bulbs or the sun itself project a great deal of blue light. Aurelien takes the time to explain the so-called Blue Peak; how it affects circadian lighting, how manufacturers are working to avoid it now, as well as the future of violet and cyan light as a dodge to the problems associated with blue. The episode closes out on the topic of lighting as the highest achievers in energy efficiency and waste savings, and its capacity to adapt to new technology will see it through the current health effect hurdles.

Ellis Yan, founder and CEO of TCP International Holdings, Inc. returns to the Get a Grip on Lighting podcast with more of his expertise to share.

In this quick interview from the scene of Lightfair International in Philadelphia hits on international tariffs on fixtures...and maybe lamps as well soon. Ellis shares his thoughts on the health effects of lighting, the health of effects of saying there are health effects of lighting. Afterwards, Michael shifts gears to the change in lifespans in fixtures versus lamps and the ethics of operating in this new paradigm wherein purpose-built fixtures only last seven years. Ellis finishes off with his predictions about the future of LED continuing as drivers and fixtures start to stagnate.

No one likes to get punched in the eye, but according to Dr. Nisa Khan that’s what certain LED lights are doing to us right now. According to her “lighting dropped science a long time ago.” LED lighting is unlike any other light source we have dealt with and is not something we should take lightly. Is it time to bring science back to lighting?

In true form to the lighting industry, the UL is adapting and is now leading the charge to publishing a recommended best practice for circadian lighting. Typically known for their stamp of approval, they might not seem like the organization primed to do this but they have a plan in place and are aggressively following through. Adam Lilien, the Lighting Business Development Manager of UL, joined us today to discuss this groundbreaking attempt at defining the best practice for circadian lighting with actual facts.

Flicker in lighting continues to be a hot topic and it’s not often you can sit down and record a conversation with royalty so take the time to listen to this one. We met with Naomi Miller Lighting Designer/Senior Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory more importantly known as the Queen of Flicker at the 2019 DLC Convention. She discussed her super powers and why we need to fix flicker in lighting for good.

In this episode we discussed the ABC’s of LED tubes- diving into Type A, Type B, Type C and combo. Gino Marella from Current, Powered by GE gave us the run down on where are we at today and what the future looks like for the most popular commercial lamp type there is. It’s refreshing to hear from a company with over 80 years of lighting background on a new technology that many have jumped into with no lighting background.

It’s inevitable that every business will be upgrading their lighting to LED at some point in the future if they haven’t already. Now is the time to get in the door and make your pitch. If you don’t someone else will. There are many ways to get in the door, but it takes dedication, persistence and follow through. Most people can’t dedicate 100% of their time doing that, but there are companies who do just that- 100% of the time. Listen to this episode to find out what it takes to be successful at lead generation.

As one of the most influential organizations in the lighting industry, the Design Lights Consortium (DLC) is leading the charge in ensuring the right lighting is being implemented in the field. Now they are wading in to the next phase of the LED lighting revolution. In this episode we talked to the Executive Director of the DLC, Tina Halfpenny at the 2019 DLC convention about their plans for the future.

We always love it when the guest makes a statement that is a no-brainer for the title of the show, and Melissa Stickford did just that a few minutes in. Lighting is a superpower and is not something to take lightly (no pun intended). Lighting affects everything we do so if you are going to do something with your lights make sure you take the time to do it right.

When upgrading a facility to LED lighting, how often do you run into miniature incandescent and halogen lamps that you ignore? Miniature lamps are found all over the place and it’s time to stop ignoring them. Embrace them and better yet seek them out on your next lighting upgrade as there are quality LED miniatures available.

The episode number (68) not only tells you how many episodes we have done, but it also indicates how long Bill Warren has been in lighting! When a guest on the show has been in lighting two times longer than the host and co-host combined you turn the show over to him. Lighting’s purpose is to provide the ability to see the task at hand. With the push for energy-savings and rebates driving the lighting industry, we often lose sight of providing the appropriate light needed for the task being performed. Quality lighting matters to the point that it can save lives. Take a listen and learn from 3 people with over 100 years experience in lighting.

By everything we mean all lighting can be LED. Whether it all should be is a discussion for another time. In this episode we talk with Dan Jenkins from Current, Powered by GE about the differences between LED lamps, Retrofit Kits and Fixtures. Almost all existing lighting applications have LED lamp or LED fixture upgrade options and most have lamp, retrofit kit and fixture options so make sure you have a solid grip on the differences.

Anytime there’s a hole in the ceiling with a light fixture in place and you want to mess with it, make sure you understand what you are getting into. In addition to learning that Canadians call recessed can lights “pot lights”, in this deep dive you will learn everything you need to know when you are upgrading recessed cans to LED.

Highbays, Lowbays who cares what you call them just make them LED! We invited Jason Hendren of ILP to dive into the deep end of highbay lighting with us. We discuss everything you need to consider when you are looking at highbay lighting to come out of the water with the best solution for your application.

It’s time to take another deep dive! In this episode we discussed everything you need to take into consideration when you are looking to upgrade an exterior light fixture. There are many different types of exterior fixtures, but you can use the guidelines set out in this episode for all of them. Take notes and enjoy.

Connected lighting is a term used loosely in the lighting industry. It can mean a variety of things, but what should it mean? In today’s podcast, we talked with Robert Lee and Sree Venkit of Signify about the future of connected lighting. Where is it heading, what are the benefits and is it a niche market? These questions and more were answered during the show, but the common theme throughout is that connected lighting should be about connecting lighting to the people using the lighting. Enjoy!

There is one lighting application found all over the world that has a legitimate case for “connected” LED lighting - Sports Fields. On today’s show we talk to Shahil Amin of Hylite LED about the ins and outs of lighting sports fields, a majority of which are still lit by HID light sources. With the advancement of connected LED lighting there is a huge opportunity to gain business in this market.

We talk all the time about lamps, ballasts, drivers, bulbs, fixtures, sockets, but we often neglect one of the most important components of a quality light fixture – the lens or diffuser. Diffusers come in all shapes and sizes and have a dramatic effect on the illumination of a light fixture. It’s time to give the lens a little love.

In today’s episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Mike and Greg share tips and the complete checklist you should follow when you’re deciding whether to replace or retrofit your troffers to LED. LED lighting offers greater lighting performance and higher energy efficiency which is what most commercial spaces need.

In this episode of Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Greg and Michael acknowledge and call out ALL the biases that happen in the lighting industry. This is an excellent reminder for leaders, business owners, and influencers in the field, especially now that we just entered a new year.

Discover the different types of biases that we encounter: group bias, conviction bias, confirmation bias, and superiority bias. Whenever possible, we should try to overcome them. It’s high time to take a quick check so that we stay in business and, more importantly, stay valuable to our customers.

At the end of the episode, Michael also gives book recommendations for all of you so make sure to tune in!

What’s coming next for the lighting industry?

Our guest, Randy Reid from Edison Report, is confident that it’s going to be LiFi. With just light, which can be found almost everywhere, people are able to connect with wireless data. It’s quick, convenient, and hassle-free.

So, in today’s episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg pay a visit to Randy’s office in Tennessee to get the most updated information and news you need to know about LiFi.

Discover also the similarities and difference between LiFi and WiFi. Can these two technologies co-exist? How does LiFi’s security features compare with WiFi’s? What kind of users does the LiFi tech really cater on?

This episode offers a good introduction for companies who want to jump in this latest tech. Lighting companies might be having doubts whether LiFi can be suitable for retrofitting. Randy presents good points on how LiFi can be valuable not just to the lighting industry but the other sectors as well so tune in to start learning.

Lighting geeks and lighting nerds, are you ready to hear from the expert?

In this episode of Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Greg and Michael talk to Ellis Yan, the founder and CEO of TCP International Holdings Ltd. to speak about the current developments and challenges in the lighting industry.

TCP is one of the big companies that manufacture light bulbs. Ellis has always been welcoming with emerging techs and innovations. Learn from Ellis himself how TCP managed to stay strong during the transitioning period of CFLs to LEDs and still remain persistent in educating and providing the people with the best quality lighting available out there. He also shares how they manage to be competitive in the lighting market and be one of the top providers of LED.

Michael, Greg, and Ellis also talk about the pressing issues right now – from the US-China trade war to consolidations to automation. Ellis has some interesting forecasts and insights about the future of the lighting industry so make sure to listen in.

There’s still so much to know on how to retrofit your lighting so let’s not waste time and start watching the second part of the How Would Your Retrofit That? Special of Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast. And, if you’ve missed the first part (Episode #54), make sure to check it out on www.getagriponlighting.com or our YouTube Channel.

For today, Michael and Greg continue to provide solutions for your retrofitting problems. If you’re in doubt of what to do, their tips will definitely help so you could come up with the best option for your lighting. Upping your retrofitting game is the way to go besides, saving time, energy, and money is all we want. A lot of types of lighting fixtures were covered in this episode – from strip fixtures to troffers to wall sconces and many more – so start listening in.

It isn’t solely about illumination now. The lighting industry is gradually integrating new techs and going beyond its initial standard functions. So, how are the companies keeping up?

Today on the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg talk to Randy Reid, the Editor for Edison Report, about the pressing issue of how lighting companies are handling disruptive innovations like AI controls, LiFi, etc. They emphasize that there’s a noted increase of consolidation activity of companies in the past years.

Michael, Greg, and Randy also talk about the issues that are still being faced despite the astonishing developments. As they foresee, the future for the lighting industry is quite promising for those who continue to learn and provide value to their customers. Learn also great tips on what you should be looking for when contacting your lighting providers. Lighting is not one-size-fits-all. Remember that you can customize it based on your needs and liking.

When you’re about to do upgrades or retrofits, knowing the specifications of a lighting fixture is just the start. So, what are other things to consider when retrofitting?

In this episode of Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg share their insights on the retrofit strategies you should do depending on a lighting fixture's technical specifications. Everything is covered since a lot of different lighting fixtures are highlighted today. They emphasize that there are times when doing upgrades or retrofits are not suggested, and instead, replacement is the best step to go.

Discover the other external factors that should be considered aside from a lighting fixture's type. Is it still cost-efficient to avail the same kind of bulb? Does it already cause flicker or glare? Is it placed indoors or outdoors? For outdoor lighting fixtures, Michael & Greg suggest getting new fixtures instead of retrofitting.

In this episode of the show, Michael sits down with Wes, a self-proclaimed LED Tinkerer. Wes wandered into Michael's store in Toronto, Canada, and asked to speak to the owner. Michael, seizing the opportunity to create content, threw Wes into the studio and asked him to explain his tinkering.

Wes has taken the driver out of an LED fixture and connected it directly to DC current, and then tested the connection to show the LED chip's power consumption is only 1/4 of a Watt. Michael asks questions for details of what makes it work before giving Wes another project to tackle in the form of illuminating an LED tube.

Will Wes return with the project tackled? Hopefully we will see in a future episode.

Today on the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg walk down the memory lane of the lighting, design, and tech industry!

Discover what changed and what stayed throughout the years. We focus on the evolving applications, technicalities, & demographics in modern lighting. Michael and Greg share their experiences in how lighting designers, distributors, and consumers have changed their choices because of the growing options in lighting.

Learn what has improved in terms of aesthetics and performance for lighting fixtures. They also talk about the problematic shift in how people perceive ‘good’ lighting. Should consumers prioritize on high energy savings or on the good light output quality it offers? Michael believes that energy efficiency and lighting rebates, which came with the boom of LEDs, are just too questionable in how companies are offering them. Make sure to tune in to know more!

Energy Efficiency is the answer to sustainability in the future. And if you’re about to make the shift, make sure you know what’s the best utility incentive programs for you.

In this episode of Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg chat with Dan Mellinger, Senior Consultant at Energy Futures Group, about energy efficiency and everything about rebate programs. EFG has been providing energy-related expertise to clients across North America – governments, utilities, and environmental organizations for years now.

Discover today what’s working and what’s not with the available rebate programs for residential, commercial or industrial customers. Dan also discusses how EFG ensures energy efficiency & cost-effectiveness and how they package a good rebate program design for their customer. Challenges in energy monitoring and the implementation of rebate programs happen, so to make sure you make the best choice, Dan delves deeper into these topics. Aside from these, know also what’s the ethics behind rebate programs and what place do they hold in the future of the lighting industry.

It’s the 50th episode of the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast and so far, it has been amazing! Let’s celebrate today by making it fun and laid back. Michael and Greg chat with some of their buddies from NAILD over a couple of beers talking about anything under the sun related to the lighting industry. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a lighting distributor, manufacturer, salesperson, or a customer, you sure are gonna learn as they share their own opinions and perceptions.

Our guests today are as follows:
• Spencer Miles, Vice President of Pacific Lamp and Supply Company
• Cory Schneider, LC, CEO at Lighting Unlimited
• Brian Huff, President of Adventure Lighting
• Josh Brown, Vice President for National Distributor Sales of the Keystone Technologies, LLC

They’ve talked about a lot of the pressing issues in lighting like the rebate programs in different states, the concept of ‘future-proofing’, the threat of online marketplaces, the unwritten rules of staffing in the lighting industry, and many more. Discover also how they manage when they’re faced with the difficulty of choosing the best lighting product: Should they prioritize customer’s best interest or prioritize what fits in their rebate scheme?

The entire episode should be a good basis if you want to be in the know of the latest happening in the lighting industry so make sure to tune in!

Don’t just settle on flipping those lighting textbooks. Be more impactful in the lighting industry by learning and collaborating more with lighting professionals, mentors, influencers, and peers.

This episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast might give you that push you need to start building your network straight from the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Executive Director himself, Timothy Licitra. The IES, which was established in 1906, is the recognized technical and educational lighting authority and has over 8000 members worldwide.

So, is IES the right fit for you?
Find out from Tim himself how IES is stepping up their game to bring more value to it's members and to the lighting industry in general. They’re looking into improving their systems, adding more membership benefits, and increasing strategic partnerships. One of the key highlights also from the discussion is how eager IES is on making educational lighting tools and other resources easily accessible online.

Aside from these, Michael, Greg, and Tim talk how fast the rate of innovation is in the lighting industry (i.e. IoT-based lighting). Are IES and other organizations keeping up? Let’s find out as we watch this episode!

It was just 5 years ago when LED tubes were introduced and since then many commercial spaces have switched to LED tubes due to it's energy efficiency and environmental impact. However, in this short amount of time a lot of changes in LED tubes occurred.

In today’s episode of the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast, Greg and Michael talk to Dr. Matthew Maa, the Vice President for Sales & Marketing at Aleddra LED Lighting. The focus of the show is some solid “lighting dork” stuff: the history of LED Tubes, recent developments, and the place it holds in the future of the lighting industry.

Discover what similarities and differences the various generations of LED tubes have. Dr. Maa also gives an overview of the issues that need to be addressed with the current generation of LED tubes. And, if you’re also curious about the features of the 5th generation of LED tubes, and the future of LED tubes in general, then make sure to listen to this episode.

Today, we draw a fine line between the facts and myths of lighting’s effect on our behavior and health. It’s time to tell the consumers what’s true and what’s not.

Joining Michael and Greg in this episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast is Dr. Jennifer Veitch, the Principal Research Officer at National Research Council of Canada. Dr. Veitch has long been doing research studies about lighting’s impact on health – what are it's effects and how can it be improved.

One of the best takeaways from the discussion is that the best and healthy lighting for you depends on so many factors including the light’s spectrum, duration, intensity, color temperature, and your pattern of exposure. Incorporating each in your decision-making could get you the most sustainable lighting design for your place.

Discover also how important it is for lighting companies to choose the right technologies and why they should always communicate the technical side of lighting to customers. There are also some lighting misconceptions out there that Dr. Veitch clears up from the difference between electric lighting and delighting to the difference of color fidelity and color rendering so make sure to tune in.

With the threat of tariffs on importing Chinese goods, it looks like the lighting industry will be really shaken up. But is this kind of disturbance good or bad? What does it bring to U.S. lighting companies? How does it affect the consumer?

Today, we dive deep on this and more in this episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast with Michael, Greg, and our guest David Gordon, the President of Channel Marketing Group. His company has long been helping manufacturers and distributors in the lighting industry with strategic planning, marketing, and market research.

Listen to Michael, Greg, and David lay out the pros and cons of tariffs. Discover also the best options for your company, the future of fully-automated manufacturing, some great tips on how to train your staff, and the latest trends in the lighting industry as observed by David Gordon.

In this episode of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast, Michael and Greg talk to Brenda Puckett, the President of West-Lite Supply Co., Inc., to highlight women’s value in the lighting industry. As statistics show, executive and team roles are still filled mostly with men. How has it been for the women in lighting? Is there really a gender bias happening in the industry?

Aside from shedding a light on the issues of gender diversity, listen in on Brenda’s experience in the lighting industry. Brenda has known the ins and outs of lighting since she was 19. She chats with Michael and Greg about the birth of NAILD, how the lighting industry changed since the ‘80s, the regionalization of lighting business and the importance of communication between distributors and manufacturers.

Amazon is affecting every business to some degree and is a threat to the lighting industry. Anytime you are dealing with a threat you need to come up with a plan to act on it. In this episode we talked with Mike Connors the CEO of bulbs.com regarding Amazon’s impact on the lighting industry and how you can navigate your way through the Amazon.

One of the most time-consuming tasks of any company doing lighting retrofits is the audit and analysis process of the existing lighting. Everyone has their own system for doing this and often times the reason they do it a certain way is because that’s how it’s always been. If you stop and look at any process you have there is almost always a way to make it more efficient. On this episode we talked with Jeff Seifert of Snapcount to discuss how their software can make your lighting audit process more efficient.

In this episode we hopped on the Rebate Bus with Joe Pater and discussed the importance of utility rebates to the lighting industry. We took a wild ride discussing everything rebate related. Like the movie Speed, we must keep the rebate bus going at a certain speed or a bomb in the industry will explode.

Remember 2013? Thinking hmm, should I start selling my customers LED lighting? Remember all those charts and predictions that no one thought possible? 80% adoption by 2020 and so on? Well get out of your time machine and look at the predictions and projections surrounding electric vehicles and the gear required to make this donkey ride. All the arrows go straight up. Might be the lighting industries turn to take a bite out of someone else’s pie for once.

We hear a lot about healthy lighting and the potential effects it can have on people, but until we talked to Clifford J. Yahnke, Ph.D, Director, Clinical Affairs at Indigo-Clean we weren’t convinced. After this discussion we feel there is finally a true “healthy” lighting option. Visible Light Disinfection is legit and very effective at disinfecting clean room environments. While not for all applications this is a sign of where lighting is heading.

No it’s not Bill Hurd, although he would be tough to beat in any competition. A 30+ year lighting industry veteran, Bill has done it all. He has worked for a manufacturer, owned a lighting distributorship and is now working with National Accounts for Border States. We had a very NAILD-esque conversation discussing all of the hot lighting topics that affect us today and will in the future.

The lighting industry is a candidate’s market so there are a lot of lighting companies battling for talent. We had a great discussion with Paul Pompeo who is the President of the Pompeo Group an executive recruiting firm focused on the lighting industry. We talked about best practices for interviewing and hiring as well as mergers and acquisitions. All topics that are of interest to anyone in business not limited to lighting. In fact this might be the least lighting focused podcast we have done to date.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. As Concept Lead for Light at International WELL Building Institute, Gayathri Unnikrishnan focuses on the importance of natural and electric lighting on the well-being of occupants in the built environment. People are the most important asset for any business, so protect that and make your lighting WELL.

Rest up Paul. You will be missed.

Carol McGlogan is the President & CEO of Electro-Federation Canada and has had an impressive career in lighting. As we all know the lighting industry has changed dramatically and continues to, but not just on the technological side. Historically dominated by men, today many of the most powerful people in lighting are women. Carol commented on this and then, as usual, we got into the lighting geek stuff.

How many lighting companies have someone on staff with the title Chief Scientist? John Davenport is the Chief Scientist at Energy Focus and is a recognized global expert in light source physics and product technology. He has been at it for years starting with GE where he developed the “blue” Xenon headlamp currently used in cars and now Energy Focus with a range of LED lighting products including IntelliTube®, Energy Focus’ unique tubular LED retrofit Technology. In addition, he is author to over 125 patents and passionately believes that flicker is a choice.

What does Sci Fi and Lighting have in common - Craig Dilouie. Actually, the way lighting is going it sometimes feels like it’s more science fiction then science. In addition to writing novels, Craig Dilouie is a renowned educator, journalist, and marketing consultant to the lighting industry. He is the editor of the LightNOWblog and Lightsearch newsletter as well as the education director for the Lighting Controls Association. We always hear that lighting controls are the way of the future so who better to have a conversation with on this topic.

There are 1.2 billion people in the world without lighting. Dr Venkat Venkataramanan and his team from the Impact Centre at the University of Toronto are working towards solving this problem and utilizing science to better the quality of life for society as a whole. We are not just talking about selling light bulbs anymore.

Lighting industry veteran Chris Brown coined the term Illumigeddon several years ago and met up with Get A Grip to discuss where we are headed. Ilumigeddon has turned into Illumitunity as long as you can work your way through The Matrix. Enough with the analogies, just give this a listen.

30 podcasts on Light Bulbs?! Much like the picture above, the last 30 episodes are a blur. This last year went by so quickly that we figured it was time to briefly recap what we learned from episodes 1-30 of the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast with the Host Michael Colligan and Co-Host Greg Ehrich.

Pier LaFarge is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sparkfund. Their goal is to “netflixize” the energy technology industry. If this happens, the lighting industry will be in for a bigger change then the LED transformation. Get A Grip!

53 years in the game and Bill Attardi is as feisty as ever. As a Renaissance man his career is as full as it is diverse; salesman, manager, executive, owner, consultant and teacher. You bet we grappled with him.

Dr. Paul Rudy is the co-founder of SLD Laser along with Dr. Shuji Nakamura. They are commercializing a new generation of laser light sources for display, automotive and specialty applications; filling in the gaps left by the limitations of LED. What? LED has limitations? You bet, time to press play!

Cory Schneider is the current President of NAILD and the CEO of Lighting Unlimited in Arizona. He has developed a unique way to deploy LS1 that a lot of other NAILD members are copying. If you have some lighting people to train we suggest giving this episode a listen.

Dr. Dee Denteneer is the Secretary General of the Zhaga Consortium. Zhaga is an open, global, lighting-industry consortium that is standardizing LED light engines and associated components, including modules and drivers. The end goal of the Consortium is to turn global chaos in order. Fat chance or worth a shot?

David Nathaniel is the CEO of Standard; started out selling electrical tape with his dad from their home in Montreal. 37 years later he has the largest privately owned lighting manufacturing company in Canada. His business has drastically changed in the last five years and the hosts of this show were glad he took the time to tell us about the transition.

Paul Hafner is the creator of NAILD’s education programs: LS1 and LS2. He was instrumental in the transformation of the association from a club to an educational organization. A legend in NAILD circles, many of the members have Paul to thank for their success but especially the hosts of this show.

Randy Johnson is the President of US Lamp in Green Bay Wisconsin. Randy is an LC (Lighting Certified) and a State Licensed Designer of Engineering Systems. Sounds complicated so just think of him as the ultimate lighting guru and you should be good to go for this one.

Dan Ryan is not really a lighting guy. He has worked in the industry but he rolls more with the Silicon Valley crowd. He founded ByteLight in 2011 and flipped it to Acuity Brands where he stayed on as a VP of Product Development. On this episode we talked about IoT, Smart Lighting, LiFi, Indoor Positioning and, well, the Matrix. Dan is currently the Co-Founder & CEO of VergeSense

Get a Grip on Lighting rolled into Frankfurt looking for answers and the editor of the Edison Report was happy to oblige. We set up our gear at his booth, cracked a few beers and pushed record. Manufacturer's warranties, Lumens as a Service, the future of lighting and more. Push play Hombre.

Daniel Audette is a tax engineer. Do we need to say more than that? The hosts of the show thought all you needed was an accountant until they ran into Dan. Check out this episode to find out more about the deductions and incentives available to help Lighting Distributors and Contractors sell their projects.

Andrew Myers, CEO of ProGrowTech, is confident that LED technology is ready to revolutionize the Horticultural Lighting landscape. He laid out his argument on the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast. Andrew is convinced that all lighting professionals should find a way into the market that is set to “grow” exponentially.

Ira Greenberg, CEO of Keystone Technologies, and his VP of the Distributor Channel Josh Brown joined the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast to discuss the evolving and capricious nature of the lighting industry. While many manufacturers seem ready to pack it in, Keystone is growing and flourishing and the Hosts needed to know why.

Tom Butters, LC MIES, is the Director of Education for the IES. He is responsible for developing and delivering lighting education to the IES membership and the public at large in a multitude of modern modalities. Prior to his appointment at the IES, Tom was the Director of Canlyte/Philips Lighting Concept Centre in Toronto from 1999 to 2016. He is the immediate Past President of the IES Toronto Section and an awarding winning presenter and lighting educator.

Mariana G. Figueiro, Ph.D., is the Director of the Lighting Research Center (LRC) and Professor of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She has also served as Light and Health Program Director at the LRC since 1999. Dr. Figueiro is well known for her research on the effects of light on human health, circadian photobiology, and lighting for older adults. Her research is regularly featured in national media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American. Dr. Figueiro has also brought attention to the significance of light and health as a topic of public interest through her recent TEDMED talk.

Greg Yeutter is an "up and comer" in the lighting business. On this episode he shared his thoughts on the health effects of artificial lighting.

Dave Inman's expertise is in the horticultural lighting sector. On our show he talked about LED luminaires designed for growing cannabis and why this market is set to explode. He also hosts his own podcast "State of Cannabis".

Wendell Strong is a three decade veteran of the Commercial Lighting Industry and serves as the PoE (Power over Ethernet) Manager at GENISYS Lighting. He has served on the executive board of the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors.

Jason Bader is back on Episode 12 of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast. He is the President of the Distribution Team and a subject matter expert in the field of inventory management.

Jim Benya is flat out one the world’s top authorities on lighting design and applied illuminating engineering. He is especially known for his work in the field of design with a hardcore emphasis on daylighting, lighting efficiency and sustainable design. We caught up with him at the DLC’s gig back this summer in Portland.

The Godfather of the Lighting business, William M. Brown, is the guest on Episode 10 of the show. His story transcends lighting into the realm of classic American success story. His adventure starts in the 1950's and works its way through several industry transformations. Nevermind LED or CFL - Mr. Brown went through the original linear fluorescent lighting disruption! It was a real honor for us to speak to him and we hope you enjoy our time with a legit American business legend.

Dr. Arnold J. Wilkins is Professor Emeritus at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. he has spent an academic career studying the environmental causes of visual eye strain, proving through research that the temporal modulation (a fancy tech term for flickering) of magnetically ballasted fluorescent lamps was causational, not correlated to certain negative human health outcomes including headaches and seizures. He shared some thoughts on solid state LED lighting systems with the Get A Grip on Lighting podcast. Don't forget your fidget spinners!

The Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast is joined by special guest Christina Halfpenny, Executive Director of the DesignLights Consortium (DLC). Tina has been leading the team at the DLC since 2015. We discuss the evolution and power of the DLC, LED lighting, lighting controls, DLC 5.0, the influence of lighting distributors, and more!

The Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast is joined by Randy Reid, Editor of the Edison Report. We discuss Randy's extensive experience as Former President of the IES, VP of Resilient Lighting, Board Member of Lightfair, and of course the mystery man behind the Edison Report. We go into some great topics including why attend Lightfair, the current state of the IES, role of the DLC and UL, the importance of lighting distributors, lighting controls and IOT, subscription-based lighting and more. A fun-filled hour of amazing lighting discussion that will leave you craving for more!

Recorded at Lightfair in the NAILD booth, the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast is joined by Robin Watt, President of NAILD and Brady Nemeth of the DesignLights Consortium. We speak about DLC 4.0, the future of lighting, color temperature, new tech at Lightfair, horticulture lighting, and much more. Listen to our first podcast recorded straight from the Lightfair floor and our first one with two special guests.

Lighting Heavyweight and IES Industry Relations Manager Mark Lien visits with the hosts of the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast. The discussion worked its way from Quality vs. Efficiency, lighting as a service LaaS, DesignLights Consortium, US Green Buildings Council, the outlook for the IES, the future of the lighting business and more. Enjoy!

Spencer Miles, VP of Pacific Lamp & Supply and NAILD board member, joins the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast. Pacific Lamp has been in business for over 100 years and Spencer has seen his fair share of lighting moments. We discuss some interesting lighting topics like MRO versus project work, Illumigeddon (end of the LED revolution), subscription-based lighting concept, American manufactured lamps, and more. We even get a surprise visit by a mystery guest.

Greg Ehrich, Co-Host of the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast & VP of Premier Lighting, tells his lighting story on the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast. He goes through his experience as a lighting distributor, talking about the lighting industry, NAILD, rebate programs, evolution of LEDs, and more. There's even a sneak peak on the next episode's guest.

Brady Nemeth of the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) joins the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast. Brady is a program specialist with the DLC and we discuss many topics pertaining to lighting and the DLC, like the incentive program, NAILD, DLC 4.0 initiatives, control systems, Chinese lighting manufacturers, and funding sources of the DLC.

Jason Bader of the Distribution Team joins the Get A Grip on Lighting Podcast. Jason is the President of the Distribution Team and he's a subject matter expert. We discuss many topics pertaining to the lighting industry, like lighting associations and inventory management for lighting distributors.