Latest News
We are currently published in the international Arc Magazine (Aug/Sept) and queued for publication (Oct/Nov) about our own smart home use-case. However, our draft article: DALI’s euology or Matter, matters pushes boundaries.
With 1990s foundations for lighting controls, Matter represents a serious threat to products like: KNX, Dynalite, Cbus and DALI. Hundreds of companies profit from them and sponsor relevant media outlets. The Gillard Group may turn to tech journals to share our views here. If you would like to know more about Matter and lighting controls, please contact us.
The international ARC magazine’s Aug/Sept issue, from page 107, features our article about fast-unfolding events, tomorrow’s luminaire and impacts on lighting designers.
The Gillard Group has won more awards than years of operation (2005). The results reflect our professionalism and team effort and ability to listen to and deliver on client’s objectives.
A builder visited our home and was impressed with the gallery lighting and various innovations. We sent him our fee proposal for his latest house – his own! Much larger projects are earmarked for 2024 and we look forward to sharing them as and when they unfold. We have business in New Zealand and return early December.
The global Matter Protocol continues to gain pace. The Principals’ home is Matter-ready. The house is one of the first in Australia to incorporate this game-changing smart home automation solution. If you want to know more, please contact us.
Jenni and Mark will be overseas mid-Aug and return mid-Sept. Hence our writing now. It is their first significant holiday in six-years. The Gillard Group, having advised clients, has temporarily scaled back operations. We look forward to accelerating business on return.
Meanwhile we transition two separate city church icons from design to lighting construction. Significant electrical work is required to deliver on design intent and make good on old electrical infrastructure. There are the usual funding, heritage and compliance challenges to contend with, but nothing too unusual.
This month we said goodbye to Thomas, our Senior Lighting Designer, who is is going to do his PHD.
Principal, Mark Lloyd, was interviewed and asked to contribute to IES’s new quarterly journal. Jenni caught up with IES management and fellow legends of architectural lighting, like Dr Kit Cuttle. At the Conference, it was very clear how the tech-world is fast-reshaping the lighting industry.
If you would like to know more, please contact us.
Matter is underpinned by Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung and others. These behemoths create their own event-horizon in market-spaces. Relevant competition is inexorably sucked into a black hole leaving only a dimming trail of their existence.
For example, DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface), an international standard used for digital lighting control was conceived in the 1980s. While the lighting industry continues to invest in DALI, all standards (and systems), have a life. Matter is a real threat to DALI and lots of well-known control solutions used in the smart home and built environment.
Tridonic, a significant global lighting-industry player, has not only committed to Matter-compatible lighting solutions it has already launched Matter-compatible product. Accordingly, Tridonic products become networked and voice-controlled with other Matter-compatible white goods, entertainment systems, HVAC and safety products, to name a few.
If you have not read about Matter, we urge you to find out more or contact us.
Last month we shared lovely feedback from a Brisbane based residential client, here’s another from this month, a regional farmer:
“Absolutely delighted. Guests on weekend went straight to paintings. The art had previously not attracted as much attention. Thank you so much.”
After extensive flood damage, another client has been progressively rebuilding her wonderful riverside home in Brisbane. We have been working alongside her reinventing spaces and creating illumination magic:
“I just want to give huge compliments for your selections, the kitchen is awesome; the ensuite lights are fabulous. Thank you for your considered planning for our home, it is such an upgrade and we are delighted.”
The Gillard Group is renovating a Principal’s 1901 Queenslander. It will have state-of-the art gallery lighting and novel daylighting solutions. This project will complete end year.
Did you know that over 50% of NZ’s apartments failed minimal daylighting provisions? While most of Australia receives abundant light, this does not always translate into built structures. The more you know about the value of good design, the more likely you will do business with us.
The international award winning St Mary’s church (Warwick) continues to attract positive media attention.
Two Principals will continue to work over Christmas because there has been no slow down in demand for our services. We should be able to share more exciting news 2023.
The Gillard Group wishes all our clients, supplier network, artisans and your friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Similarly, we have begun to interview builders to renovate our spaces. We have to find a new temporary office location. Next year looms as a very busy but ultimately rewarding period for the business.
Lastly, Jenni and Mark spent a morning with Bond University experts exchanging ideas and solutions and partnership opportunities. We look forward to updating you about potential outcomes next year.
Meanwhile, we are drafting new Lighting as a Service contracts and completing a lighting and electrical audit on a church. We have appointments with a cooperative organisation for a major makeover of their large retail centre and a Doctor with his house and separate medical complex.
Various major institutions predict the useful end of traditional lamp technologies end 2025. Time is evaporating for owners of large lighting portfolios to migrate to low-energy LED. Contact us now.
In this business quarter, the Gillard Group passed 100 projects since launch in 2005. It is just over six projects a year, but in fact, the business has steadily accelerated. In 2022, a dozen projects have been completed or are underway. We have never actively marketed. The business grows from reputation, client referrals and happenstance. We have also accumulated more awards than years of operation. But what we most value is our relationship with our loyal clients.
Her works reflect decades of mentoring by Lola McFarlane and practicing the arts of conception, composition, drawing, painting and sculpting. She exhibits her art here and abroad and runs a small group of local artists. Jenni’s passion for art and architectural lighting are complimentary and form part of the award-winning success of the Gillard Group. Here is Jenni with partner Mark before opening night:
- do not receive commissions
- do not receive gifts/benefits from product suppliers
- have no restrictions regarding the products we recommend, and
- do not own, are not owned by, and do not have any interests or associations with any lighting product suppliers.
Our lighting designs satisfy clients’ briefs and compliance obligations using optimal numbers of quality lighting product. The more that you know about the variable quality of LED, upfront and downstream costs of lighting and NET positive outcomes we achieve, the more you will appreciate engaging truely independent lighting design firms, like ours.
A Spanish company found us. They want an Australian test site for their circadian-friendly lighting solutions. An Italian lighting designer and Assistant Professor working in Milan wants to work for us. Both overtures are early days.
Jenni and her cadre of artists and sculptors successfully held a four day art exhibition at Randall Gallery including two formal evenings over nibbles and wine. Over a hundred and fifty patrons attended. Jenni and fellow artist Dooley Zantis, will also co-show at Randall’s in August. Jen’s passion for art and lighting know no bounds.
Interestingly, a substance called perovskite when layered over silicon super-charges solar cells. Perovskite absorbs a different part of the light spectrum than silicon. The two elements boost electric conversion from 29 to 39%. Unlike silicon, which requires 1,000 degree celsius during its purification process; perovskite requires less than 200 degrees.
Just as ever-greater efficiency is critical to renewable energy; light and lighting are fundamental in driving down costs and lifting ecological benefits.
Chaotic global events continue to disrupt business. One employee is down with COVID and supply chains remain fickle.
Earlier in the year, we audited and prepared a detailed report on the status of a major church and provided a quote for lighting and electrical rejuvenation. We concluded it was not “if but when” it would catch fire or electrocute someone. The building caught fire recently, but it was quickly extinguished. Our engagement has accelerated and we look forward to turning the church into a safe, functional and exciting place to worship.
We have too much work to go to Greece to pick up our latest international award in the heritage lighting category. We could have had our photos taken in front of the Acropolis, a co-award winner!
The draft of the National Construction Code 2022 is circulating for comment. We look forward to updating you.
Cree, a dependable supplier of LED chips for decades, recently sold down this part of its business to Smart Global Holdings, now SGH. Cree had already sold down its LED lighting and bulb division. The company has rebadged itself as Wolfspeed. Like the fate of the lighting divisions of GE, OSRAM and Philips, Cree is another casualty of creative destruction hastened by LEDs rapid global uptake. It should be of no surprise that the latest buyer (SGH) is a tech-company. The name Cree will live on for now, as a SGH product name.
As we advised, there is a global paradigm shift underway as we accelerate towards the Internet of Light and enter the Photonic Millennia. Many more firms will fall and form over the next decade. Light-based technologies will underpin the digital world and beyond. We are well-prepared and very excited about our continuing good-fortunes.
We have been contracted to do lighting on another church used for corporate purposes, await a decision on another church similar in scale to St Mary and been invited to bid on a third. It certainly feels like Christmas. More doors also open for our Lighting as a Service (LaaS) business.
The Gillard Group runs two business lines: design and LaaS. LaaS contracts sit under Aglow. Even though the two businesses are conjoined, we have reached a stage where we must market via separate web sites. We received our first Aglow web site and continue to work with the developer. This site will rely on video content. Production of content is scheduled for the New Year.
We re-engaged Chris, a product design specialist. He is focussed on creating various 3D based luminaires and other challenges.
Exporting coal generates $50B Aus dollars per annum. Successive governments have failed to diversify beyond our primary revenue sources: coal, gas and iron. Australia runs the 93rd least complex economy in the world. We are trapped. If we commit to reduce coal and gas production, we cannot diversify our economy fast enough to recover lost revenue. Hence political reliance in technologies, that are either embryonic, discredited or yet to materialise.
If only our political class could pivot faster to re-afforestation, renewable energies, tech-industry and value-added manufacturing. Regarding lighting, here they would find, like India, the potential for massive energy and carbon reductions from rapid uptake of LED. Ignoring product suppliers need to up-sell, we could reduce the volume of light points and rationalise over-lit existing spaces. If we regulated, like France, a national illumination policy aimed at returning the night sky, we would improve human-amenity and help re-cover insect and migratory creature populations. If we could design and manufacture our own LED products and educate young people in photonics and light-based technologies, we would start diversifying our economy and provide jobs required tomorrow.
Small positive steps in areas making a difference are better than political rhetoric, the PM’s gas led recovery and faith in magic wands.
Meanwhile, Australia postponed applying minimum EU standards on LED product. We remain a dumping ground for variable quality product (and EU fluorescent). LED uptake is a fast and effective way to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. LED accelerated from 2000 and most countries in the developed world are closing in on 100% LED use. We cannot find Australia’s LED take up rate.
As all Australian quality luminaires are imported, the pandemic’s disruption of the global supply chain worsens. The whole chain, from factory, to ports and especially ships at sea, sow uncertainty and long delays. If you are thinking of building, renovating or underway, please engage us as early as possible in the process. We are hearing lots of builds in trouble and without lights, you cannot occupy spaces.
We have all received our first or second shots and collectively appreciate the psychology lift vaccination delivers.
“Jenni and her team are very professional in the conduct of their design work and with each stage of the project I witness how cleverly they go about crafting a masterpiece using light.”
Back-lighting the stain-glass windows in the bell tower required a very novel solution. As a heritage listed building we were not allowed to screw or nail to the interior. Accordingly, how do you safely run power over many floors from top to bottom and mount luminaires? We were able to resolve these complexities and the final result exceeded expectations.
In other news, a company has moved closer to commercial viable transmission of kWhs of power wirelessly over distance. LED continues to use less electricity to produce more lumens and near and far-field wireless transmission continues to improve. The possibility of affordable wireless LED lighting in the built environment is unfolding.
The election of the Biden administration has replaced climate skeptics with evangalists at the head of the Department of Energy. As the world’s largest economy and major resting home for non-LED product, LED uptake will accelerate. While the EU was predicting the end of most non-LED end 2025, we are confident it will now be brought forward. If your business is still using non-LED it is time to change.
Australia ranks last for climate action (2021) out of 193 United Nations member countries and second last (pipped by the USA) in the Climate Change Performance Index 2021. Biden is embracing the need for change, leaving Australia in the global wilderness. If you have a large lighting portfolio, wish to save energy and money, reduce CO2 emissions and position your business for new light-based technologies, contact us.
By September 2021, Osram will no longer be listed on global stock exchanges. Formed 1919, the venerable lighting company was bought by ams. Osram’s owners are also selling down her investments in IoT. As we predicted, it is a significant challenge for the traditional lighting industry to pivot to tech. The lighting industry clings to its sockets and other standards, but these too will be lost to the tech and telco giants in due course.
The Biden administration has grasped global warming, convened a 40-nation summit and set stringent carbon reduction targets. Central here will be their acceleration of low-energy LED uptake. Progress will bring forward predictions about global LED saturation. Australia remains a backwater.
Using Gartner’s hype cycle, many light-based technologies are moving from the trough of disillusionment and up the slope of enlightenment. If your business is serious about innovation – contact us.
We are looking into ITU’s standard for LiFi and made contact with IEEE about their impending release of an equivalent. We watch as various lighting standards fragment as economic powers jostle for the high-ground. Uncertainty reigns. It is what we predicted which gives us an edge navigating ahead or advising clients.
The lighting supply chain continues to be severely disrupted as nations close their economies to manage COVID and companies continue to fold or amalgamate.
Tom, our new junior lighting designer, has been modelling a container home. He is also keen to do the daylighting analysis. Narae has done fantastic work on remodelling a Queenslander and together with Jenni, preparing a lighting redesign of a restaurant bar.
A significant home lighting project is almost finished. However, the property market is so vibrant the owner has already sold up. They will move out just as the last lights are installed.
We continue to distribute our book the Internet of Light to our LaaS community and influencers and look forward to their feedback. We are also looking forward to feedback from a Swedish company about our proposed use of their day lighting solution and the outcome of our bid for a Government consulting tender.
We were also invited by a local company and submitted a fee proposal to light a sports arena in Israel.
We signed up more lighting design work commencing January; a restaurant franchise and a Queenslander. We continue construction oversight on a church and organised 3D printing for replacement parts. COVID continues to make everything skittish and like most businesses, we adapt and adjust.
Professional lighting designers must be more than illumination artists and specifiers of artificial lighting product. The role must embrace day lighting and light-based technologies and downstream issues, like maintenance and carbon emission and landfill reduction. Many factors, including profiteering and ignorance, resulted in many modern buildings relying more on artificial than day lighting. Regulations about illumination levels have remained fixed to measures on the floor (lux); even though the bulk of human tasks are performed at desk height.
The greatest role professional lighting designers can contribute is activism, for example, encouraging authorities to: embrace the profession and radically upgrade Codes; encourage good design; leverage new technologies and innovation; and return our dark star-filled night sky. Designers must also convince manufacturers to forget up-selling and the bulb-turnover business model of the last century and embrace ethical and sustainable lighting practices.
Our bid for a bigger office space was knocked back and we continue to shop. Interestingly, in our area, there are acres of land-banked commercial spaces. Almost all of it has been idle for years. The owners want their price and are happy to sit until satisfied. It also means buyers face a needle in the haystack to find a genuine sale.
We put in a bid for a commercial space and will know the owner’s position soon. If unsuccessful, we will keep shopping. Our City Council venture has been well received and we continue discussions. Our innovations are multi-layered and add value beyond illumination. We look forward to exploring how we can help this Council over the coming years.
We have used time wisely, consolidating our R&D at our long-term test site, fast-tracked system development with our CTO and got excited about some new light-based technologies that appear game-changers. Tom, one of our long-term staff, flew to Germany to start his Masters in Lighting course in Wismar. He will be another proven satellite resource we rely on to do design work while we sleep; we are not far from becoming a 24-hour production house. Keep safe, stay distant but in-touch.
“Your book was revealing and actually made me think. It made think a lot, which was great. I loved the anecdotes, I loved the cathedral stories, I loved the Da Vinci insights. The greenie in me loved the potential to reduce emissions. It really is a thought provoking read. The book flows nicely and takes the reader on the journey seamlessly and sensibly.”
The book is currently with University of Queensland and we are very close to producing a small first run for influencers and existing and potential clients.
Since 2005, our business built itself on reputation and client referrals. A pandemic and depression are special times. We have moved to actively market ourselves for the first time.
The solution mirrors external light conditions as the sun cycles through morning, midday and afternoon. Sensors on the solar panels relay power to and data about the day sky to the LED which then reconfigures light output. Unlike conventional skylights, occupants can switch their LED equivalent, off. The solution is low-cost and ideal for areas where people congregate indoors in spaces lacking natural light. We will monitor the reliability of the solution and seek occupant feedback.
In the same complex, we are upgrading grow lights in the Atrium and continuing to measure the decline in installed LED performance.
If you want to save money and build competitive edges, contact us.
COVID19 has accelerated demand in this area. The use of germicidal light is moving out from air-conditioning and water treatment in backend infrastructure to mainstream lighting applications. First movers can secure product, or at least be further down the queue. Only good lighting design ensures that luminaries treat air and all surfaces and minimises risks to occupants. Poor design can have serious consequences.
There is no or limited Government legislation applying to this field. Only those, like us, in contact with the relevant scientific research, suppliers and professional bodies possess the knowledge, expertise and professional insurances to implement solutions.
The Gillard Group can design in this capability for greenfield developments and retrospectively. We have software that calculate the optimal dosage and use existing technologies to pulse or sustain treatment. Areas like kitchens, toilets, garbage spaces, common rooms, lifts and escalators and where vulnerable or large numbers of people coalesce, will benefit long-term from extuinguishing contaminates.
If you want to deal with lighting experts and build competitive edges, contact us.
Our CTO released the latest version of the MinMin Light System for us to test and review. It looks very swish and contains many hidden and additional features. Two of our staff were formally accepted as junior lighting designers by the International Architectural Lighting Designers (IALD), the world’s largest organisation of its type. We were all very excited for them.
Regarding LaaS, we commenced documenting our research and development. Keep safe everyone.
Jenni’s team has commenced lighting design on a house with another in the queue, lighting construction is underway in a Hotel and another phase of Church lighting is in design, to name a few. We are in discussions with exciting potential jobs in NZ and Pacific Islands.
Our visit to New Zealand was productive. We met architects and church and art gallery authorities. We are doing a lighting design for a home in the South Island. We also bid to light a civic building.
NZ is buzzing, especially Auckland, as it prepares to host the America’s cup. We lunched with a tech-CEO who relocated his business from Brisbane to Auckland to lower costs and leverage superior broadband (103 mbps). Speedtest Global Index for fixed broadband speeds shows Australia (41 mbps) has fallen from 62nd to 68th place. Australia now ranks with Vietnam, India and Kazakhstan!
Tech-start ups, here and abroad, are reimagining and disrupting the status quo. The traditional lighting industry and those involved in, or reliant on, lighting design services, should plan for more storms ahead.
We closed on a high, winning the 2019 LIT International Lighting Design Award for Energy Saving for the Thornhill Apartment Complex. A Russian tower block and an American church also joined us on the podium.
The win vindicates our focus on providing sustained value to our clients. We wish all our clients a very Merry Christmas.
We have started professionally packaging our R&D. Our main test site, an apartment complex, has served us well. The Executive Summary will be written 2020 and reflect our hard work over many years.
Yuval Harari says in his book Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow:
“Humans can see only a minuscule part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectrum in its entirety is about 10 trillion times larger than that of visible light. Might the mental spectrum be equally vast?”
As shared below in September, once you unlock both spectrums, you appreciate why mankind is entering the Photonic Millennia.
The fact that this lamp is very high-energy, environmentally unsound, dumb, designed deliberately to have a very short-life and makes no economic sense over cost-of-life – appears irrelevant.
The decision also flies in the face of the global momentum to LED and smart-LED and gives a lifeline to the remaining legacy industries churning out fossil burning old lamp technologies. Interesting times.
“…. Just as the Stone and Iron Ages defined humanity’s industry, leveraging the electromagnetic spectrum is the key resource defining our way into the next millennia. …..
Mankind’s new-world industries rely increasingly on the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. The unfolding Internet of Light and our creativity accelerates opportunities exponentially – we are entering The Photonic Millennia. As mankind reaches for the stars, it is now possible to imagine, that one day we could use the resources of infinite space and restore our finite Earth. This is an exciting vision to unite a planet.”
Jenni is also advancing the Gillard Group’s book with the publisher and we look forward to sharing it with our Lighting as a Service clients.
A highlight was the presentation from the representative from an American city. This city appears to have taken bold steps with technology to improve the experiences of ratepayers and reduce costs. We caught up with the speaker over dinner and look forward to corresponding.
Understandeably, Councils are drawn to technologies that can be used on street light poles and by association, suppliers of lighting technology. Despite the lighting industries recent embrace of technology, the tech-industry will overtake and dominant this space. When the music stops, many Councils and cities may find themselves locked into proprietary solutions, exposed by security vulnerabilities and holding obsolete investments.
Mark became a founding Advocate after winning the rights to host the World Computer Congress, bringing 1,200 delegates to Brisbane and in recognition of his ongoing contributions to the global tech-industry.
As also a paid ghost writer, Mark’s views continue to be published in national print media, professional magazines and social media forums.
Mike, another Principal, is on secondment preparing Australia’s $50 billion AUS bid to host the Olympics in Queensland. Meanwhile, Jenni is arranging further business opportunities here and abroad. Our collective investments keep our client’s at the leading edge of technology, lighting and value creation developments.
We were delighted to obtain Form 15 for an office space in the golden triangle of Brisbane. The next phase is construction (2020).
We visited St Mary’s church in Warwick, a town and administrative centre for the Southern Downs Region. The church dominates the town. On-site, the furniture had been removed. Cherry pickers and scaffolding were operating inside. Painters and electricians were scrambling to get things done. The lighting outcome will be amazing.
At another church in Bundaberg, our master electrician is busy wiring up our lighting design.
We attended an IES briefing on the impending National Construction Codes (2019). We already exceed these much lower energy targets. Accordingly, we offer clients NCC 2019 compliant designs.
A new client has given the Gillard Group a small but challenging Yoga Centre overlooking the Brisbane River.
The updated National Construction Codes, incorporating many changes to lighting, apply 1 May 2020. Enforced lower energy footprints for lighting will challenge ‘design’ pretenders. As predicted, artificial illumination combined with light-based technologies, is making design complex.
Our designs already achieve a much lower energy footprint than the new NCC 2019 demand.
As raised last year, the Gillard Group is the feature article of the international Arc Feb/Mar 2019 edition (pp40-49). We were recognised for our new global services (even though we launched LaaS, for example, 2015). It just shows how strong our leadership position has become.
We are also looking forward to posting photos of our latest commissioned designs.
The layout has been approved and design work has commenced. Half a dozen specialisms will help deliver a state-of-the-art work space over looking the Brisbane River.
We also finished design work for a bespoke mount for lights for a church. The mount design is in keeping with church iconology and a clever solution to resolve a challenging lighting location.
The Federal election will most likely take place in May. The Australian Governments have been laggards in accelerating LED uptake, banishing high-energy traditional lamps and applying minimum LED standards relative to most of the advanced nations in the northern hemisphere.
We recently completed a consultancy where hundreds of cheap LEDs flickered. Our findings showed incompatibilities between the building control system and LED and deficiencies in the LED products themselves. Australia could be a leader in the Internet of Light, but wallows in the dark. Consumers are left battling and baffled.
Pioneers, like ourselves, continue to fight against lack of momentum and resistance to change. Smart organisations who realise what is unfolding and act, will gain a competitive advantage.
As reported November, we have a range of projects carrying over into the New Year and others gearing up. Thank you for your business and ongoing patronage.
Australia lags most of the northern hemisphere in LED uptake but this will accelerate 2019. New light-based technologies continue to emerge. The world is just 2.5 years away from international ratification of a global standard for LiFi. Once ratified, the Internet of Light will be officially born and high-speed Internet connectivity using ubiquitous LED, will unfold.
Prepare now – join our Lighting as a Service community.
Owners of another major Hotel called us in to resolve a big lighting problem impacting business. The issue centres on the products they bought versus limitations of a well-known control system. We also advised a client that installers had compromised expensive products invalidating ten-year warranties.
The rapid uptake of LED and fast-evolving luminaries is driving up complexity. Old ways of doing business are falling short. Many more businesses and Body Corporates are going to be caught out.
Prepare for tomorrow, today – join our Lighting as a Service community.
McKinsey, the worldwide management consulting company, published the findings October. The report reflects a five-year study into the design practices of 300 publicly listed companies in multiple countries and industries.
If you want to engage a world-leader in lighting design, Lighting as a Service and achieving NET positive outcomes, contact us.
As the year draws to a close, the Gillard Group finds all but two of its lighting designs in construction. We were also delighted that after an eternity, our design for a former Bundaberg church was accepted by heritage authorities. Only loose ends need to be addressed with the owners to relight this beautiful space for commercial purposes.
The world’s fastest camera freezes time at 10 trillion frames per second allowing us to analyse the interaction between light and matter. Like Hubble, being able to see and simplify the complexity of light at such a micro level, opens new doors.
Prepare for tomorrow, today – join our Lighting as a Service community.
The paper challenges current human-centric architectural practices and presents examples of humanities capacity to design more-than-human friendly spaces. The Gillard Group’s pioneering planet-friendly lighting design initiatives at SEA Aquarium Singapore is cited. The authors also thanked Jenni Gillard:
“for an in-depth discussion and her constructive feedback and suggestions from an applied lighting designer’s perspective, which enabled us to test some of our thinking and ideas with a long-standing industry professional.”
Advances in 3D printing has allowed construction of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), or smart dust. MEMS contains miniature sensors which can detect light, vibrations, temperature and movement and store, process and transmit data. The implications of MEMS for humanity, is mixed and untested. Digital disruption accelerates.
Prepare for tomorrow, today – join our Lighting as a Service community.
We commenced negotiations for long-term support and development of our MinMin Light System and shopping for a larger commercial space. The company also won business with an international Hotel chain.
October 2017 our employee Kate had to return to England. We met her again in London at the Darc Awards in June this year. We now have her working for us part time. A qualified Interior Designer with lighting skills, Kate contributes while we sleep.
Speaking of Singapore, Jenni Gillard’s designs and views feature in their Lighting Today (Vol. 3, July/August 2018, pages 76-79).
The Federal Government’s 2019 National Construction Code sets tough targets for energy use for general and decorative lighting in buildings. If enacted, the Code is an unsophisticated club on new builds. Only the best lighting designers will be able to extract the energy savings required to provide headroom for decorative additions.
The EU and key Asian countries accelerate in this critical area. In Singapore, light poles will soon host non-cooperative facial recognition systems. India, China and Japan race towards LED saturation. Australia continues to export coal briquettes; and import sub-standard LED.
When it dawns on our nation that the globe relies on light-based technologies, including ubiquitous LED luminaires, foreign companies will own our market. Our communications with Government leave us disheartened. Only smart Australian businesses stand to benefit from the changes we have shared in our News since 2012.
Concluding, have a look at what we have achieved for the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and Thornhill Apartments.
LUX Designer Awards 2018, announced Spectrum as: Best Multi Residential Design, under the citation;
“the most spectacularly lit, low-lit-energy, aged-lit-friendly affordable housing complex in the world.”
Royal Philips, after selling off Philips Lighting, required the latter to rebadge itself. On 15 May, Philips Lighting announced its new name – Signify. Signify will still use Philips brand name for products. Just as GE announced late last year its withdrawal from lighting altogether, traditional lighting parents are off-loading their lighting businesses. The IoT and LED continues to disrupt the past and create a new smart future.
Japanese telecommunications company Sangikyo Corporation has launched a backend short-range high-volume optical-based LiFi solution. Called Backhaul, the system will standardise with IEEE 802.15.13 and communicate with LED light. Just another technology contributing to the global construction of the Internet of Light.
We delivered concept-designs to another client. As per the brief, there was a no-frills cost-sensitive solution and a grand-design. We look forward to hearing which direction they will take. We continue to help clients on many fronts and look forward to sharing further highlights.
On 20 April, the COAG Energy Council announced phase out of inefficient halogen and remaining incandescent light bulbs in Australia and minimum standards for LED. LED will align with revised EU standards expected 2018 and apply September 2020. The introduction of LED standards in Australia and New Zealand, even minimal, cannot be soon enough.
A US firm developed a bi-directional LiFi panel using industry standard white LED. The solution covers 48 m2 and services 15 users simultaneously. Given the rate of release of new light-based technologies, we can never do justice here by these emerging opportunities. As shared since 2012, digital friendly LED and digitised photons (light) will become a primary gateway between our physical and digital worlds.
While radio frequency currently dominates, laser, LED and other light-based solutions will prevail. The Internet of Light (IoL) is being built organically, globally and rapidly. Photons have too many advantages over electrons. Photons consume a factor of a thousand less in energy and can offer 10,000 more frequency spectrums. As billions of devices inter-connect, the foundation will be light.
The Gillard Group can give your business NET positive results and great lighting designs now. Simultaneousluy, under our Lighting as a Service, we continue to add value while preparing your business for tomorrow.
Globally, Japanese engineers have built a tiny electronic light. Named Luciola, the light has a 3.5 mm diameter and emits a red glimmer. However, 285 micro speakers, emitting ultrasonic waves, allows the light to hover. Engineers hope to add simple functions to create new display capability and other services.
The global uptake of digital-friendly LED and inventions like Luciola, combine to build the Internet of Light (IoL). We foresaw the IoL underpinning the Internet of Things, and began preparations 2012. In short, nothing is faster than light and few are better prepared for the assimilation of technology and lighting industries, than ourselves.
Under Lighting as a Service, we also collect additional data during design (when it is most cost-effective to do so) and use it to manage installed LED environments, predict life and create a rolling capital replacement program.
Below is an example of design-outcomes for a major retailer. Contact us.
Net present value | $82,399 | |
Payback |
2.69 years | |
Savings (5 years) | $216,563 | |
Existing lighting | 1,016 | luminaires |
72,397 | Watts p/h | |
New lighting | 704 | luminaires |
19,248 | Watts p/h | |
Reductions | 31% | luminaires |
73% | Watts p/h |
Santa told us that Spectrum won LUX Global Designer Awards 2018: best multi-residential design. The complex will feature in a special global awards publication. The award citation reads:
“Spectrum is the most spectacularly lit, ambient, economical, energy-lit-efficient and aged-friendly-lit affordable housing complex in the world.”
We are so excited about the New Year and trust our clients and friends had a terrific Christmas.
More doors open for our Lighting as a Service offering. The Gillard Group wins another apartment complex contract. Our Christmas hamper is full of business.
The Australian Government’s proposed 2019 version of the National Construction Code proposes significant reductions to illumination power density values. The proposed Code sows many unintended and delitorious consequences.
General Electric announces the sale of Current and the end of GE’s involvement with lighting. This confirms our predictions made 2012. More turmoils await the lighting industry. Risks for unsuspecting owners of large lighting portfolios grows. The time to contact us, is now.
As advised May 2017, our view holds that the update will not be significant enough to really accelerate uptake of quality LED in an optimal way. We are pessimistic that the parties will arrive at a sensible outcome. When you visit a house in a remote Indian village made out of Buffalo dung and see it is lit with LED and Australia’s uptake of LED languishes at 8%, you get the picture.
The Gillard Group signed up multiple new jobs with a major new international client. Another major job grows closer and we look forward to telling you about it soon.
Pictured (L-R) Jenni, John, Chris and Kate working on a Light Audit.
Sadly, recent changes to Australian Federal Government legislation, forced Kate to return to England. However, Tom, an under-graduate architect student with a love for and majoring in lighting, found us and recently joined the team.
LED uptake continues to build the Internet of Light which will underpin the Internet of Everything.
The downstream opportunities for innovative organisations to create transformative new client experiences through new products and services using light, is limited only by our imagination.
Accordingly, the Gillard Group continues to attract attention from major corporations with our world-leading Lighting as a Service offer and MinMin Light System.
The speed of these developments means the paradigm-shift takes awhile for potential clients to assimilate. Once they commit and become part of our LaaS community, the benefits become self-evident, says Mark.
The CSSL sent us this brief post-Conference video promo in which Mark’s presentation is cited as a highlight.
Jenni and Mark appreciated the Conference opportunity to better understand what is happening in ICT globally and its implications for our clients and deepen our network of subject-matter-experts. The range and acceleration of digital-based change is breathtaking, concluded Jenni.
Pictured (LtoR) Yohan Ramasundara, Secretary General SEARCC; Dr Nick Tate, President SEARCC; Mark Lloyd, Principal Gillard Group; and Yasas Abeywickrama, President CSSL.
For a commercial site, we reduced wattage 76% and lights 39%, achieved 5.2 watts per square metre and used only 30 watts for night-security. ROI is three years. The client said:
“Jenni and her team did a fabulous job. We still cannot believe the difference changing the lighting has made to the look and feel of the office. Definitely worth dealing with the experts.”
For a new home, the client said:
“…. we both can see the value that we are getting and consider ourselves so extremely lucky to have found you!!!”
For Spectrum Apartments, the client said:
“The external lighting is spectacular and highlights the building and the internal lighting is perfectly functional and creates great ambience in all units.”
For lighting as a service or great lighting design contact us and save money.
Pictured: Jenni (white dress) and Mark in the centre of the Sparc reception function.
The Vivid Festival now attracts over two million visitors and re-introduces the public to the power of light, at least for facade and decorative lighting.
The Principals also met Government Legislators and Lighting Council Australia representatives and contributed our views. The Government’s new draft lighting legislation is close. We trust it will be tough enough, broad enough and prescient enough to help consumers avoid bad market behaviour and poor quality LED. We doubt design and or lighting designers will be regulated. Without formal recognition, controls and penalties, poor design and bad practice will continue to erode consumer confidence.
The Gillard Group has become a world leader in lighting as a service. Our offering is unique. We are price leaders and seek to accelerate and deepen this part of our business. We seek forward-thinking owners of large lighting portfolios. Contact us and save money.
A good design from a product-independent lighting company like us, using quality LED, pays for itself quickly. Too many consumers are being put off or ripped off and left without recourse; despite LED being a perfectly sound and cost-effective solution.
Until resolved, vested interests continue to lobby Governments to go softly and make concessions to ensure a soft landing. Meanwhile, the cost of electricity continues to climb, short-life product and mercury fills rubbish-tips and the Earth’s temperature rises. Moreover, China, Japan, India, European Union and many other nations have aggressive targets for LED adoption. Lastly, most major lighting manufacturers are no longer investing in conventional lamps – LED adoption is inevitable.
“As the Gillard Group’s innovative MinMin Light System is beautifully constructed, we are delighted to accelerate and support its development into the future.”
Kate, a qualified Interior Designer from London, has joined us on a part time trial basis. She has already added value to an important client.
The Gillard Group continues to light an impressive list of landmark buildings. Soon, the exterior lighting for St Mary’s church will be completed in Warwick and sourcing product to complete St Andrews church in Bundaberg is well advanced.
The conference theme is Towards Digital Prosperity. Mark will share his research and insights into digital lighting and the exciting opportunities it represents for the world and the way we live, work and play.
Pictured with Jenni celebrating the International Lighting Award are fellow Gillard Group Principals Mike and Mark and BHC’s management.
The Gillard Group is also published in a special ten page feature article in the Turkish lighting magazine, KONSEPT PROJELER (Concept Projects) 52nd issue, Jan-Mar 2017. The Editorial team selected many projects from our body of work. In a question/answer format they also explored Jenni Gillard’s lighting and design philosophy and company goals. The magazine has 7,000+ readers from central and western Europe. The magazine regularly features great international lighting designers and architects.
The Gillard Group’s article Lighting Storms is published in INTERIOR FITOUT Jan-Mar 2017 pages 31-33. The Magazine has 20,000 readers.
In other news, India pushes for all LED 2019 (visit ujala dashboard), General Electric announces it will no longer build Compact Fluorescent Lamps and the European Union has banned Halogen bulbs and floodlights. Conventional lamps are being phased out and uptake of LED continues to accelerate under Haitz Law. We encourage owners of large light portfolios to come and talk to us in 2017 – we have so much to offer.
“The lighting for this recycled housing project is primarily to produce a safe, efficient and low-cost environment. It has achieved this but with a bonus that makes very basic dwellings and their connecting and public spaces seem like an upmarket unit block …….” IESANZ sponsors our project into the world’s largest International Lighting Design Award Program run by the IALD. Winners will be announced at a gala dinner LIGHTFAIR International, Philadelphia, USA May 2017. Equally exciting, at the Queensland IES awards night, our John Cullen accepted on Chris Jacobsen’s behalf, his win for a student luminaire design. Chris received $1,500 prize money and trophy. Chris, in his final year of a product design degree, and the team, was thrilled with the honour.
Pictured: Mark and Jenni doing a joint presentation at the Smart Lighting Summit. The Principals also met a Melbourne SME doing advanced smart lighting controls, a chandelier specialist and other business interests.
At CEBIT, IBM’s Pepper using IBM’s Watson (Artificial Intelligence) and natural speech technology impressed everyone Jenni at Light+Building, Frankfurt Germany, noting the latest in retail lighting