This entertainment-friendly backyard belongs to an unassuming home on a quiet street in Columbus, Indiana. The owner purchased the lot next to his own and decided to remove the home and expand his current backyard to create an expansive space where he could entertain guests and family that would allow plenty of elbow room and gathering areas for lively conversation or to simply kick back and put their feet up to enjoy a quiet evening alone amidst a beautifully lit space.
Outdoor Week: The Full-Sun TV Experience
The primary motivation for lighting this space was to create an atmosphere where large groups of people could gather and would have ample illumination for conversing and moving about the property safely after dark. Secondarily, the owner simply loved the look and feel of the subtle atmosphere created by low-intensity lighting at night and wanted to adopt this feeling throughout his different spaces around the property. He also didn’t want to be in “party mode” all the time, so it was important that he could vary the lighting scenes and intensities to fit the occasion and mood of who was in it.
Challenges
The key challenges for this backyard illumination included:
- Balancing illumination levels evenly throughout the backyard space for all guests
- Eliminating and mitigating light glare from the light fixtures that are viewed from multiple angles around the yard and pool area
- Engineering the power layouts and circuit distribution so that the various zones could be setup and dimmed or shut off via the home’s central control interface
Solution
To balance the lighting around the backyard, the Lighthouse Design Studio used a combination of soft output light sources that were attached to surrounding walls, wood structures, under steps, and along walkways to provide light for safe navigation.
Uplighting was used to illuminate trees and other landscape elements that provided the backdrop visuals around the yard space. In the main gathering area, bistro-style string lights were installed above the dining area to provide further enhanced illumination for events that required a higher level of luminocity.
Outdoor Week: Bringing the Indoors Outside
There are a total of nine power centers on the property that are all connected with Cat5 data cable to link the system together for the home’s Control4 home automation system, making it easy for the client to select specific preset moods and scenes at the touch of a button.
Results
This project was awarded the top prize (Award of Excellence) in the Outdoor Living Lighting category from the AOLP (The Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals) in 2024.
For more information, visit https://lights.design.
Lighthouse Design Studio Enters the CEDIA Channel
Lighthouse Design Studio, which specializes in high-end outdoor lighting design and services, is expanding into the CEDIA channel. Lighthouse’s proposition is to partner with custom integrators and provide the direct sales support, detailed system design, product sourcing expertise, and after-sale services — including supervising and/or managing the installation — required for large, complex luxury lighting projects. This all comes together in enabling integrators to confidently pursue bigger and better deals, driving new high-profit opportunities and recurring revenue to own their client’s home experience — inside and out.
Outdoor Week Case Study: A Stealth Outdoor Theater in Paradise
Since its formation in 2001, Lighthouse has carried out over 50,000 outdoor lighting installations. Led by Tim Ryan, executive director and principal lighting designer, the company is staffed with seasoned landscape and architectural lighting designers, located around the U.S., each with decades of experience. Lighthouse is recognized in the outdoor lighting field for winning over 35 awards from international professional organizations. As board members and technical advisors for several of the leading outdoor lighting associations, Lighthouse is helping to craft the policies and technical standards for the next generation of outdoor lighting designers. Lighthouse has a catalog of over 15,000 visual assets of design projects and examples of their work, including details about the benefits of working with Lighthouse, which can be seen here.
Lighthouse recently joined the CEDIA Association as an Industry Related Professional member company and is fully committed to working closely with integrators and their architect, builder, and independent manufacturer sales rep firm partners. Throughout the year Lighthouse will be exhibiting at industry events, hosting in-person and online training, and participating in podcasts.
Lighthouse kicked off its channel launch as a sponsor of the 2025 Florida and NY/NJ CEDIA Tech + Business Summits. There, Ryan conducted the free 45-minute course: “How to Sell Landscape and Architectural Lighting to Your AV Clients.” The course also takes place from 10:30–11:15 AM on April 22 and 24 at the New Jersey and Long Island venues. An overview and registration of the session can be found here.
CEDIA integrators and independent manufacturer rep firms seeking a faster, more successful start in adding bigger and better outdoor lighting projects to their businesses are invited to reach out to Ryan at [email protected] or 317-378-0323.
For more information, visit www.lights.design.
