With more custom installation businesses taking on lighting fixtures in addition to the lighting control they already provide, we take a look at some of the more recent introductions to this area of the market.
DMF Lighting iX Series 2-Inch Retrofit Conversion Kits
DMF Lighting’s iX Series 2-inch Retrofit Conversion Kits expand the retrofit applications available to custom integrators. Eliminating the need to tear up ceilings and remove old housings, the unique DMF solution converts existing 4-, 5-, and 6-inch fixtures to a 2-inch opening, creating new sales opportunities for the CI integrators to utilize iX Series products in the residential market.
The retrofit kits are available in three configurations:
- Four-inch/Five-inch to two-inch conversion, round
- Six-inch to two-inch conversion, round
- Six-inch to two-inch conversion, square
Round kits are provided with a round collar and mud plate conversion cover, and Square kits come with a square collar and mud plate conversion cover and are compatible with the Standard Flange, Flangeless, and Micro Flange iX Series trims in all colors.
New Tech Week: Tech Showcase — Residential Systems Best of Show Winners at CEDIA Expo 2023
Lutron Lumaris Tunable White Smart Tape Light Solution
Lumaris tunable white is Lutron’s first smart tape light solution. The Lumaris tunable white tape light makes allows pros to install and program additional layers of lighting in popular tape applications like undercabinet, cove, vanity, and more. The solution includes both LED tape and the controller, purpose-built for Lutron RadioRA 3 and HomeWorks QSX systems. It is offered in two color temperature options: Soft White (1800K – 3000K) and Daylight (2500K-5000K).
Blackwire Designs Blacklight Design Tool
Designing and specifying linear lighting systems has always been a challenging process, prone to errors, and requiring intricate calculations. The market inundates designers with numerous products, each featuring different attributes, such as varying AC or DC voltages, diverse watts per foot, and unique control requirements like DMX. Blackwire’s Blacklight Design Tool is a game-changer, empowering any dealer to visually design an entire linear lighting system with just a few simple clicks.
The Blacklight Design Tool streamlines the linear lighting design process from start to finish. Users begin by importing the floorplan of the installation site and draw out each fixture. The tool quickly and accurately lays out, configures, prices, and generates a purchase order for the custom lighting system design. This user-friendly software calculates all the necessary equipment required, from tape LED strips, extrusions, and lens covers to wiring, controls, mounting hardware, and accessories. It even manages complex electrical calculations for wattage, tape length, voltage drop, supply wiring gauge, power supply amounts and load capacity for connected control devices. With built-in error correction, Blacklight minimizes costly miscalculations and ensures accuracy.
ABiCUS by AiSPIRE
ABiCUS by AiSPIRE is a universal DMX Gateway that facilitates communication between lighting fixtures and integration control platforms. Uniquely configured via onboard Profiles that embed a fixtures dynamic range, its footprint and an automatically spaced starting address, ABiCUS removes many of the complexities when setting up a DMX network. Designed for broad platform integration, ABiCUS offers unique profiles and presets to simplify total system configuration.
ABiCUS operates with all of AiSPIRE and WAC DMX products, including:
- Atmosphere and Aurora Recessed fixtures
- AiSPIRE Linear LED Tape & DPI sheets
- RPS low voltage lighting solutions, including recently released Alpine Micro
- And the award-winning WAC-STRUT lighting, power and control system
Platform integration couldn’t be easier with tools such as SDDP, automatically exposing an ABiCUS configuration. A traditional DMX emulator allows for channel testing, verification, and live personalization that can also be stored, recalled, or made a custom Preset.
Environmental Lights Offers Advatek PixLite Controllers
Environmental Lights has added Advatek PixLite controllers to its offerings for pixel lighting solutions. Advatek’s pixel controllers have been used to drive the magic behind some of the world’s most spectacular LED pixel lighting installations, galleries, shows, and events. From Meow Wolf to GoLive Productions, Advatek products have helped bring complex lighting projects to life and will now be available from Environmental Lights.
Advatek PixLite controllers can control up to 96 universes for pixel LEDs, support over 65 pixel protocols, and provide electrical fault protection on all ports. Additionally, each product comes with a 5-year warranty.
URC Lighting LT-300
URC’s all-in-one, combined lighting solution — the URC Lighting LT-3300 — allows the installer to select either dimmer or switch configuration and easily program to create unique atmospheres for entertaining or quiet family events.
Homeowners can launch customized scenes, receive notifications about their systems, and control intuitive lighting programs. Through URC’s Total Control System, URC Lighting is networked to provide complete integration, allowing scenes like Good Morning, Dinner Party, and Good Night to launch highly customized lighting sequences. URC Lighting devices displays notifications for programmed triggers via a LED light. With a touch, URC Lighting enables smart control and automation across the Total Control system.
Crestron Horizon Keypad and Dimmer
Homeowners believe a well-designed keypad should be unobtrusive when it’s not in use and completely intuitive when it is, which requires careful attention to everything from the ergonomics of the device to its ultimate fit and finish. These considerations set the course for the new next-generation Crestron Horizon keypads and dimmers, which offer an elegant design with a distinctive tactile experience, improved configuration and installation, and elevated customization options.
Horizon keypads and dimmers prioritize clean design featuring improved color, finish, and alignment in visually appealing layouts. Using feedback from homeowners, dealers, and architects, every aspect of the redesign was meticulously engineered, from the single faceplate offering an opulent visual appeal to the subtle button protrusion providing an enhanced texture and feel when pressed. The buttons are also arranged in a single-piece design that improves alignment and consistency, elevating the tactile experience across every configuration.
Deep functionality has been built into the backlighting of the keypads and dimmers, allowing the color temperature of the backlight to be adjusted. The new “dim-to-warm” theme uses the local ambient sensor to automatically set the button backlight to cooler or warmer based on the intensity of the room lighting. To help homeowners enjoy a restful night of sleep, Crestron has eliminated the shine of the keypads, as well as reduced the light bleeds between the buttons and the faceplate to refine the appearance in dark or dimly lit rooms.
Vantage Introduces Keypad Alliance
Legrand’s lighting control brand Vantage has announced its new Keypad Alliance. In addition to Vantage’s wide portfolio of keypads, specifiers and installers using a Vantage system can select the keypad options available within the growing alliance to best fit the project. Vantage has formed strategic alliances with luxury partner keypad manufacturers Meljac, Forbes & Lomax, and Basalte.
Programming the keypads is simple using the latest version of Vantage’s Design Center software. With Design Center, partner keypads can utilize the same lighting control programming as Vantage keypads to meet the needs of any project.
