Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide - 2024

Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide 2024

Produced

Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide 2024 Table of Contents

04 | Introduction

06 | Experts

48 | Product Showcase

Basics

08 | Follow the Light

By Tom Doherty

The purpose of this article is to give you the information you need to know to start a successful lighting business and to give your customers the same great experience they have with your AV installations.

14 | What You Need to Know Before Selling Lighting

By Peter Romaniello, IALD

So, you’ve decided to add lighting to your custom installation business. That is a smart move, but before you dive in, here are some things to consider that I have learned in my more than 30 years as a lighting designer.

Tech

18 | DALI-2 vs DMX: A Question of Control

By Casey Serrano, American Lighting

How to determine which lighting control protocol is right for your projects.

Sales

22 | Delighting Your Clients With Lighting

By Jay Williams,

Director of Luxury Residential Business Development, Lutron

The sales team is the face of your shop, so when a new technology or product category is being introduced and offered, they need to understand the impact it has and why it matters.

Business

24 | The Modern Design Team

By Glenn Merlin Johnson, Founder and CEO, Adaptive

Design

Group

The only way to success in the luxury home market is with an engaged, educated client who understands the need for a complete design team, demands professional documentation and specifications, and creates an appropriate budget with the design and build team — all before breaking ground. This article introduces the professionals that make up the “Modern Design Team.”

26 | Trade Partners: Follow the Money Trail

By David Warfel,

Founding Designer, Light Can Help You

Growing into a successful lighting fixtures business is often compared to the process of incorporating shades into an integrator’s lineup, but there are a number of key differences that poke holes in this parallel. Perhaps the most important is the fact that lighting, unlike shades, is a critical utility in addition to an aesthetic tool, followed closely by the potential pain involved in ripping out a ceiling to replace faulty lighting hardware. Somewhere near the top of the list is another key differentiator: architects, interior designers, builders, and electrical contractors each have a stake in lighting — and each stake is different. Success in the category requires careful consideration of each player, the development of a focused marketing strategy, and caution around potential pitfalls.

30 | The Multi-Faceted Lighting Integrator

By Mike Libman, National Sales Director, DMF Lighting

On luxury residential projects, there are multiple stakeholders involved in providing a lighting solution. Because of that, significant coordination is required to ensure a smooth lighting deployment. As an integrator, you need to define your role, which when combined with lighting control and shades, provides a turnkey lighting solution that will achieve a smooth experience on the jobsite — and a beautiful experience in a finished home.

32 | Lighting Business Strategies

By Matt Bernath, President, VITAL

There are several ways for custom installation businesses to add lighting capabilities to their product and service roster. Let’s look at the opportunities and challenges lighting presents to integrators, as well as the various strategies that have been successful in adding or growing the lighting fixture categories for integrators across the country. The goal here is to expose you to what is possible and might be the best fit for where you are today and where you want to go.

36 | Finding the Right Lighting Fixture Partner

After years of considering adding lighting fixtures to the custom installer’s product offerings, the category is now making progress throughout the industry. With lighting fixture manufactures courting custom integrators at events like Lightapalooza, we asked companies to answer a few questions to help you in your quest to find the right lighting fixure supplier for your needs.

Case Studies

44 | Architectural Lighting in Action

This beautiful penthouse residence overlooking the Gulf of Mexico received a full interior renovation. Monika Oberer, owner of renowned Light Up Your Life in Sarasota, Fla., knew that architectural lighting was needed to bring the many rooms to life. Architectural lighting becomes a part of the architecture as it is integrated into the very structure of the walls and ceilings.

46 | Elevating Your Vanity Experience

The evolution of smart home technology has revolutionized the way we approach lighting, extending its benefits beyond mere functionality. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the bathroom, where the integration of smart lighting, particularly at the vanity, enhances daily rituals and promotes well-being.

PHOTO COURTESY OF UPWALL DESIGN GROUP. ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING DESIGN BY ADAPTIVE DESIGN GROUP, INC.

Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide 2024

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CONTENT

MD, Content, AV Anthony Savona anthony.savona@futurenet.com

Contributors: Matt Bernath, Tom Doherty, Glenn Merlin Johnson, Mike Libman, Peter Romaniello, Casey Serrano, David Warfel, Jay Williams

Production Manager Heather Tatrow

Art Editors Marc Miller & Sam Richwood

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Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities.

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MANAGEMENT

SVP, MD, B2B Amanda Darman-Allen

VP, Global Head of Content, B2B Carmel King

MD, Content, AV Anthony Savona

VP, Global Head of Sales, B2B John Sellazzo

Managing VP of Sales, B2B Tech Adam Goldstein

VP, Global Head of Strategy & Ops, B2B Allison Markert, VP, Product & Marketing, B2B Scott Lowe

Head

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130

Best &

This is not my first Best Practices Guide, although it is the first Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide.

Years (and years) ago I was involved in the creation and production of the Digital Signage Best Practices Guide, which had an important-but-simple mission statement: Help those commercial integrators and tech managers who were just getting into the nascent digital signage category. The premise of that guide is the same as this one; articles from industry experts mixed with thought leadership stories and case studies from sponsors, all of which are leaders in the space.

When we started the Digital Signage Best Practices Guide, we tied its distribution around the Digital Signage Expo event in Las Vegas. Events such as that generate industry excitement and bring people together who have similar goals and interests.

If only there was a great lighting event we could tie this edition to. Oh, wait…

The inspiration for this guide came from a combination of my experience in the digital signage industry, my experience in the lighting industry with Residential Systems, and Lightapalooza — the growing lighting event that is focused on the custom installation market.

The Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide is like a micro version of Lightapalooza that can live on your bookshelf or on your laptop. And that is no accident. My first call when I was interested in starting this was to Tom Doherty, director of new technology initiatives for Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) and the driving force behind not only Lightapalooza, but also behind lighting becoming a part of a custom installer’s wheelhouse.

Fortunately, he was supportive and offered some helpful content suggestions. And the Lightapalooza exhibitors made for an excellent field of prospective sponsors.

In this issue, you will hear from Tom, and also lighting designer extraordinaire Peter Romaniello, David Warfel, founding designer of Light Can Help You, and VITAL president Matt Bernath. Not coincidentally, you will also find them hosting sessions at Lightapalooza.

And that is just the beginning of great talent that we have assembled in these pages to help you with sales, technology and business practices when it comes to lighting in the CI world. We also have a couple of case studies that show off some well-done concepts.

I hope you get a lot out of this guide because I loved putting it together and would like to do it again (and again). We are about to start on the 2024 edition of the Digital Signage Best Practices Guide, so we know the concept can have legs if the audience is interested.

If there are any topics you would like to see covered — or want to let me know what you think of the Residential Lighting Best Practices Guide — please drop me a line at anthony.savona@futurenet.com.

Anthony Savona, Content Director, Residential Systems

Best Practices: Meet the Experts

Matt Bernath

Matt Bernath is not just a figure in the luxury home-services industry; he’s a force of change. With a career that mirrors a journey of continuous growth and a deep-seated passion for making an impact, Bernath’s unique blend of financial acumen, strategic foresight, and an innate ability to ask the transformative questions sets him apart.

Drawing from a rich tapestry of experiences, from pioneering in car audio retail to leading VITAL toward new horizons, Bernath embodies integrity, authenticity, and optimism. His purpose-driven approach to life and business inspires others to embrace every opportunity for selfimprovement and growth. Audiences leave empowered, equipped with actionable insights to achieve their own aspirations and to contribute to their communities.

Thomas (Tom) J. Doherty

Tom Doherty is an expert in building businesses and even industries. He is currently the director of new technology initiatives for Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA). His professional career spans 40 years in CE with leadership roles in a successful integration company (Doherty Design Group), co-founding a trade association (CEDIA), co-founding one the industry’s first convergence companies (Escient) and more. He can be reached at tom@ htsa.net.

Glenn Merlin Johnson

Glenn Merlin Johnson, founder and CEO of Adaptive Design Group Inc., has been artistically and technically providing his craft as a professional architectural lighting designer for exclusive luxury clientele nationally and internationally for over 38 years.

Johnson has discovered the only way to achieve success in the luxury home market is with an engaged, educated client who understands the need for a complete design team, added with the architect and interior designer. Johnson calls that addition the “Technical Team,” which consists of seasoned artistic custom home lighting designers and CEDIA experts in audio/video and systems integration.

Johnson has coined this the “Modern Design Team” and stresses that there is no other way to successfully execute a luxury home today with artistry, intelligence, finesse, and expediency, exceeding the clients’ expectations along the way with current and emerging technologies.

Michael Libman

Michael Libman is a national sales director for DMF Lighting who works with custom integrators to provide lighting solutions to their clients. He believes lighting is about enhancing the elements that people love about their homes.

Peter Romaniello, IALD

Romaniello has over 30 years of experience in both architectural and theatrical lighting design. His company, Conceptual Lighting, LLC, is a diverse architectural lighting design firm that develops lighting systems for a variety of commercial and residential spaces. Houses of worship, restaurants, educational facilities, health care facilities, and exterior landscape lighting are all common project types handled by the firm. Romaniello’s theatrical lighting design background allows for an approach to lighting that is both aesthetically pleasing and technologically correct.

David Warfel

David Warfel is founding designer of Light Can Help You with diverse lighting experience. Design credits include performances at Carnegie Hall and The Saint Louis Black Rep, architectural designs at MGM Grand and Luxor in Las Vegas, Chicago’s Hyde Park Arts Center, and escape rooms for multiple Royal Caribbean cruise ships. His residential-focused company designs hundreds of homes each year across the continent. He is former head of lighting design at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign.

Jay Williams

Jay Williams is the director of luxury residential business development at Lutron, leveraging over a decade of domestic and international lighting expertise, including three years dedicated to selling fixtures for luxury residential homes. With a keen focus on connecting with specifiers, Williams excels in demonstrating the transformative benefits of immersive lighting systems throughout various project stages. He collaborates closely with custom integrators to maximize opportunities in controls, shades, and lighting solutions.

Follow the Light

A practical guide to adding lighting to your offered services.

By Tom Doherty

Idon’t believe it’s a stretch for people in our industry to sell, install, and support lighting. Some people in the CI business thought it was a stretch when the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) first announced that I was joining the group and that my first initiative was to help our members design, specify, and sell lighting fixtures to their customers. I think one person even joked, “Oh what…are we going to start framing houses, too?”

So, while it is not a stretch, it is also not an automatic buy. Lighting is more than simply finding a manufacturer that you can buy fixtures from. You can do that, but you are setting yourself up for some pain. With lighting, you can make some mistakes that are really difficult to fix — or at the very least very expensive to fix.

The purpose of this article is to give you the information you need to know to start a successful lighting business and to give your customers the same great experience they have with your AV installations.

Why Lighting

I had a successful AV integration company that I sold off in the early 2000s and, after taking some time off, I decided to reenter the industry in an entirely different way. I thought that there was a business model of evangelizing lighting control and only selling Lutron HomeWorks lighting control (and then, ultimately, their recently introduced motorized shades). I didn’t do any AV integration except for consultation.

It was during that time — around 2003 through 2005 — that I observed that there was a wide range in the quality of lighting in the different markets that I was serving across the U.S., and I determined that was primarily because of awareness and that certain markets had professional lighting designers on their projects while others didn’t. Most

projects in the United States don’t have professional lighting consultation — at most, the interior designer will weigh in on what the decorative fixtures should be and where they should be located. But the recessed architectural lighting in the home is usually just general ambient lighting and most of it is still treated as a commodity. There is more thought given to what people spend on plumbing fixtures, kitchen appliances, and, now, outdoor living than on lighting.

Some of you may say that you work with lighting designers regularly. But do you work with them on every single project?

No — there are some projects where there isn’t a lighting designer. The architects have laid it out and it goes through the same iteration where the interior designer, the general contractor, the homeowner, and the electrician all weigh in, and there are a whole bunch of cooks in the kitchen.

Lighting is way too important to leave to committee. It needs an expert champion, which is where the integrator comes in. There isn’t a single project I’m on that wouldn’t benefit from somebody taking the lead on the front end of the project and really pinning down what the lighting should be.

Coming to Terms

You will notice that lighting designers don’t exactly speak the same language we do. You may have heard some of these terms before, but they are applied differently with lighting. Here are a few key terms you should know:

Delivered Lumens: Manufacturers typically give a spec for source lumens — which is measured right at the LED element. Delivered lumens have to do with the output of a fixture when it is in the housing, so it is a much more realistic spec.

CCT: CCT is Color Correlated Temperature, which is typically expressed in Kelvin. For the most part, people in residential will pick between 2700 and 3000 Kelvin. The lower the number, the warmer the appearance, and the higher the number the cooler or more bluish the appearance. Two fixtures from different manufacturers can have the same color temperature rating and yet they can appear slightly different. That’s why it’s important if you are using LED fixtures that you try to have the same brand and the same models/configurations in the same space.

Beam Spread: With most general lighting, there is no beam spread — it just throws light in all directions — but with precision fixtures a professional lighting designer will want to

Basics

control where light is going and where light is not going for highlighting architecture, accenting art, or when they’re doing their calculations of what the spacing between the fixtures should be. This is a geometry exercise based on ceiling height and how far apart the fixtures are.

CRI: CRI, or Color Rendering Index, has to do with how well a light can render a color. This is a standard that was first developed for fluorescent lighting, and it is based on eight pastel colors. Depending on how well they render each color, they’re given a percentage and then they’re given an overall average score. The CRI on a halogen source or the Sun virtually has a CRI of 100; early fluorescent lights might be 60 or 70; early LED lumina sources usually were 80, however, current offerings typically achieve 90 CRI or above.

R9: R9 is tied to the CRI number. There are 16 colors — eight of them are used to come up with the typical CRI score and these can be manipulated and aren’t really that accurate to real life. Some manufacturers will list an R9 value. R9 is like deep rich red. You can have a really high CRI with an LED fixture, but a terrible R9. And if it doesn’t render red accurately, then your flesh tones and your vibrancy aren’t great. So, the higher-end fixture companies will publish an R9 number as well.

Photometric Spec: All legitimate fixture companies will publish what’s known as a photometric spec and it’ll show you what the fixture’s light distribution is in a space based on all the components installed.

These are the sort of numbers that you need to understand and know how to apply because there are certain rules for how many foot candles are ideal for a task surface area in a kitchen versus how many lumens are necessary for general lighting and so on. The American Lighting Association (ALA) and ISE publish all of these recommended numbers, so you know what is right.

The Demo: Seeing Is Believing

It’s one thing to talk about it, but you need clients to sense your credibility and have them hire you or pick you over anybody else they might talk to. You need to be able to demonstrate and educate not just the client, but also impress the project’s architect and interior designer that you know what you are talking about and that you have the skill set that the project deserves. Architects and interior designers think they have a good sense of CCT, the impact of a fixture trim, etc. They’ve read about it, they’ve heard about it, and they might think they’ve seen it, but they’ve rarely seen it in an A/B comparison.

It’s a powerful tool to be able to demonstrate these things. Demonstrate what they’re used to and then show them different grades of performance above that. Show them what each light does and what the differences are. This way, when you talk through your design and what you are recommending

to use in various areas in the home, they have now seen and understand what you’re talking about.

When doing demos, dimming performance is a huge thing. Most LED fixtures dim very poorly in comparison to what they’re used to if they’ve ever used a dimmer on a traditional incandescent or halogen lamp. It seems perfectly smooth, and, as it dims, it warms. It’s linear and it’s really smooth. However, with LED it’s not like that at all — the color is static and the intensity of the illumination will drop, but it will not shift in color. For some people, that seems odd.

It’s possible to have an LED fixture emulate what people are used to in terms of smooth performance on dimming and color shift, but you’re getting into higher performance and higher cost fixtures — ones where you can program the slope of the dimming curve.

Understanding the Client’s Needs

Once you have won the client with your amazing demonstration, you’re now on the hook to do the design. Before you start, there are a whole host of questions that you need to gather about their project in terms of its construction, its architectural design, what the interior designer’s intent is, and what the client’s likes and dislikes are.

Paint colors are a huge thing. If it’s an all-white room, you know you don’t need as much light because the light from the fixtures is going to reflect off of the white surfaces. If it’s a dark-paneled room, depending on the light levels that you want to achieve, you’re going to have to factor that in because those dark surfaces are just going to absorb all of it — it’s amazing how much dark spaces can suck out light.

The most basic thing that you have to do is get the furniture plan for the project. There are so many architectural lighting plans and electrical plans that people go off of that just have dots on the reflective ceiling plan for lights, and there’s no furniture drawn on there — they’re just lighting the space. And that just doesn’t get it done on a well-designed lighting plan. You need to know where furniture is being placed and you need to know where artwork is intended to be positioned.

You will also need to know other important architectural details. For example, one of the killers is what is used for the ceiling materials. A lot of times people just assume it is going to be 5/8-inch wallboard and then, after you’ve roughed in the recessed fixtures, they say now we’re going to add lap board or we’re going to put in a coffered ceiling and the beams are positioned where you thought the fixtures were going to be placed.

So, then you have the lighting laid out on the plan, it all looks great, and everybody loves it. Then when you go to install it, the electrician, plumber, and the HVAC guy are there and suddenly there are floor or ceiling joists in conflict with where you want to put the fixture. What do you do now? You are going to have to shift them over, but if you shift them over, it may look like a mistake was made or it’s not going to do what you need it to do. That’s why it’s critical to be a part of the project early on.

Ideally, you’re able to convey your lighting plan before the job is framed. Ideally, you’re able to capture what the mechanical specs are going to be — where’s that sewer line going, where’s the HVAC ductwork going, where are the steel beams going — and often no one asks any of those questions

Decorative Fixtures

A few typical rules for installing fixtures.

Wall Washing: The rule of thumb for wall washing fixtures is that the distance between them is equal to the distance that they are away from the wall. So, if the fixtures are 24 inches away from the wall, they need to be 24 inches on center to achieve effective wall washing. Typically, you will have to look at the manufacturer’s specification and see what they recommend as the distance from the wall or the separation range.

Accenting Art: The best angle of incidence for light to accent artwork is at 30 degrees. So, you have to calculate how far the center of the art is from the floor. Typically, that’s around 5 feet 6 inches. The center of art can vary, but that’s a good guess. Therefore, based on the ceiling height, you aim the light beam at 30 degrees.

Decorative Fixtures

• How low should a chandelier hang over a table: Hang a chandelier approximately 30 to 34 inches over a table with an 8-foot ceiling height. If your ceiling is higher than 8 feet, mount the chandelier an additional 3 inches higher for each foot of ceiling.

If you have a large, two-story foyer, the chandelier should hang at least 5 feet down from the ceiling or should be centered in the middle of any large picture window that might be in the foyer and in street view. For a small foyer, the light should hang no lower than 7 feet above the entrance floor.

Pendants hung above an island or bar should be 28-34 inches above the countertop. They should be centered over the middle of the island and distributed equally across the length of the counter.

• How high should sconces be mounted: Generally wall sconces are installed at a height of 66 inches to 72 inches (5.5 feet to 6 feet) above floor level (rooms with vaulted ceilings can take a higher placement). However, if the average height of people living in your home is well above 6 feet — or below 5.5 — you may want to adjust accordingly! —Tom Doherty

and they just deal with it in the field. And typically they’re dealing with it in the field because it was just commodity lighting — just some cans and who cares? But our client spent a premium on layered lighting and high-precision fixtures, and these things either go where they need to go or it’s going to be a giant issue.

I’ve lived all this, and that’s why I’m writing about all the things that I’ve learned on the business side of it — the inner relationships with all the stakeholders such as the architect, the builder, the homeowner, the other subs, and the lighting fixtures supplier. It can be very painful.

You are almost never in the ideal situation when you start, but after you complete a project here or there, I have observed that everybody ultimately gets it. I have countless clients who have said, “I can’t imagine us doing what was originally planned other than what you designed and implemented for us,” and then the builder comes around, too. What ends up happening is they start contacting you much earlier in the process.

Mind Your Documentation

When you provide the lighting design and the fixtures on a job, you must have an extra level of attention and project management above and beyond what you do when managing AV and home automation. For most of the things that we put in, we don’t have to worry about the building materials because they’re not as impactful as they are on lighting. Also, keep in mind that there is a lot more coordination with the electrical contractor.

When you deliver the fixtures to the site, you have to have an electrical plan that is correlated to the fixture specification sheets, and do a lot of handholding because if the electricians put the wrong fixture in the wrong location, it is really painful and expensive to fix — and they have to be fixed. Plus, there are always things in the field that will be discovered during the construction that will require you to tweak the design.

The Right Partner

If all this sounds daunting, the right partner can help. HTSA partnered with the ALA a few years ago and has put many of our members through their training. And the training is important because we are in the best position to elevate the performance and quality of lighting in our clients’ homes — more so than the manufacturers themselves.

We don’t want lighting manufacturers to experience custom integrators who don’t know what they’re doing — who don’t know how to design lighting, who order the wrong fixture configurations, and that want to return them because they don’t have their act together. We as an industry must not let that happen.

HTSA is making sure its members will only be viewed by manufacturers and clients as lighting professionals by partnering with the ALA and developing customized, multi-level education and certification programs. As much of HTSA’s membership is already certified as CLS or Certified Lighting Specialists, they are experiencing the tremendous business benefits of an expanded lighting program in their companies. n

What You Need to Know Before Selling Lighting

Some tips on how to maximize your chances for success in the lighting market.

By Peter Romaniello, IALD

So, you’ve decided to add lighting to your custom installation business. That is a smart move, but before you dive in, here are some things to consider that I have learned in my more than 30 years as a lighting designer.

Tunable White Lighting Limitations

Tunable white lighting is one of the most popular buzzwords in the industry today. However, if you push your clients toward it, understand that it is very limited.

If you break it down, at the most we have some recess fixtures and some linear fixtures that can be tunable — and that’s it. How do you complete a design with just that? A good lighting design takes those limitations into consideration, but that is very difficult because you are essentially saying that the decorative fixtures are not part of it.

The other factors that make tunable white difficult for us are that it needs a control system to work properly and it’s prohibitively expensive. Those two things need to change for it to become more popular with designers and consumers.

We also need to stop selling tunable white lighting as a wellness product as it has nothing to do with health in a residential environment. Even in a home office situation, where clients may be spending the better part of their day, the wellness issue is very much in question. For someone to get any real benefit in terms of circadian rhythm, light must enter their retina at a particular wavelength. Even if you change the office lights to tunable white, having the lighting on the walls doesn’t do anything for the client’s eye. It’s what’s hitting there

that counts.

The American Lighting Association has a guideline for home office lighting, and it essentially says that you should use some kind of luminous desk lamp — frosted glass with a tunable white bulb in it — because that’s going to work directly with the eyes. And while proper lighting can prevent eye fatigue and proper use of tunable white lighting can provide some mental relief, that is not its primary role, and promising anything more will not benefit the client or your company.

Clients Need Help to Prioritize Lighting Like They Should

When we moved my lighting design business down to Charlotte, N.C., from Connecticut, I did a lot of market research in the area. Charlotte is the 15th largest city in the country and the suburbs are quite affluent because it is the second largest financial Hub in the United States, second only to Wall Street in NYC. Plus, it is home to NASCAR. But even here there are limits to what people are willing to spend on lighting and lighting design.

I have found that the threshold for someone to consider hiring a lighting designer or even using quality lighting fixtures is around $500 per square foot. And when I looked at houses here, I saw $4 to $6 million houses where the cost per square foot for lighting was topping out at $400. At prices like that, the average person is not going to hire a lighting designer. For a person to hire a lighting designer, he or she must care about lighting and understand the impact it has on a space.

Basics

The Charlotte real estate market continues to grow and has gotten even more expensive. It’s not slowing down the way that the rest of the country is because so many people are moving down here. What I’m finding is that people who are moving from areas in the Northeast where they might have had a lighting designer before in their super-expensive houses are hiring lighting designers here because they understand the difference they make. But the average homeowner — and even builder — doesn’t think lighting design is a necessity.

Like with any category added to your business, you have to walk before you can run, and before you can even walk, you have to first get people to accept the idea of good lighting.

Choose Your Vendor Well – The Quality of the Light Fixture Is Very Important

Selecting a lighting manufacturer to partner with is a difficult thing to do. While the main priorities in such a decision typically are made around profitability and in protecting your market situation, quality always comes into play — just as it does when choosing AV products, although you are undoubtedly more familiar with what makes for a good speaker or other AV component.

How do you know if a light fixture is high-quality? What are the things that you should look for? It comes down to four things — color, dimming, distribution, and glare control. Those four things can always be applied whether it’s a recessed fixture, a linear fixture, or a decorative fixture. Those are also the four things that people will complain about if they are not done right.

Color and dimming are the obvious ones. Distribution is my definition of how much light is provided and how it is projected, and to get it right you need to understand delivered lumens versus initial lumens. Otherwise, you won’t know what you’re looking at. Glare control refers to how regressed the light source is and whether you get an unwanted reflection off the inside of the trim/ballfe/reflector.

Make Sure You Understand Why the Lighting Plan Looks the Way It Does

For the entire time I’ve been in this industry, a free lighting design has been attached to selling products. That has been a traditional part of the sales rep’s duties — even in commercial sales.

In the residential market, typically people go to a lighting showroom and they’ll sit down with a lighting specialist who will help to lay out the project. The good thing about that method is that it’s usually one-on-one with the homeowner, so, there’s an understanding of what the end user wants.

The problem for a custom integrator that is selling lighting and is relying on lighting plans from its fixture partner is

that the homeowner is left out of the process. It is just the integrator talking to the manufacturer and the client is on the outside of that.

The integrator now owns those lighting plans and has to be the one who sits in a project meeting and explains to the clients why it was done that way. So, when the interior designer says, “I would never do five lights along that wall,” and they start crossing out every other one, the integrator has to be the one to say, “No, the reason why this was done is because you can’t exceed this spacing based on the ceiling height to be able to wash that wall.” If you don’t understand that, you’re going to let the designer have their way. Then the lighting will be poor, and you are the one who’s responsible for that.

Getting Certified

Becoming a member of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) is very difficult and I would not recommend it to integrators because, beyond the difficulty, right now the rule is that if you are a member you cannot sell or supply product. That rule is being scrutinized now and will likely change, but for now, it stands.

So, what can you do to show your clients that you take lighting seriously? The American Lighting Association has different certification levels, including one called a Lighting Specialist Certificate, which only requires a one-day class and an exam. The next step up from that is called a Certified Lighting Consultant, which is harder to get but is certainly attainable. Right now, there are only about 150 CLCs in the country, so getting that level of certification would make your company stand out.

While it is true that lighting is a complex category, it is also a profitable and creative one. The custom installation industry has always been great at taking something intangible and making it tangible for its clients. I do not doubt that residential integrators will bring this kind of awareness to lighting. n

PHOTOS

DALI-2 vs DMX: A Question of Control

How to determine which lighting control protocol is right for your projects.

By Casey Serrano, American Lighting

DMX System

DALI System

Data Speed Fast - Up to 250kbps Slow - Up to 1.2kbps Number

Wire Topology

Type of Control

Cable Requirement

Automatic Addressing

Dimming Control

Daisy Chain (Polarity Sensitive)

Centralized Control System (Information stored in Controller)

Specialized DMX Cable or CAT5/6 (300m Max)

Manual Addressing (on-board or remote via RDM)

Daisy Chain, Tree, Star (non-Polarity Sensitive)

Decentralized Control System (Information stored in Devices)

Any 16/2 AWG Cable (300m Max)

Automatic or Manual Addressing

Color Control Yes Yes (DALI-2)

Peripheral Devices (Sensors, Daylight, I/O Devices) No (Sub-Device of Control System) Yes

System Advantages

Scope

Flexible & Dynamic Color Changing or Pixel Control Systems

Specific Control of Luminaries and/or DMX Devices

Energy Management / Lighting Controls for Building Automation

Typically part of a large BAS (Building Automation System)

The continuing advancement of smart lighting technology has been a major driving force in the development of modern lighting. Since the 1980s and 1990s, two main lighting control protocols have been used across multiple industries: DMX512 and DALI. DMX512, or Digital Multiplex 512, is a nonregulated, universal lighting protocol that pretty much any programmable luminaire can connect to. On the other hand, DALI, Digital Addressable Lighting Interface, is a regulated protocol that only works with specific types of devices. DALI’s ecosystem goes beyond lighting control and is designed to improve energy conservation using building automation with additional periphery devices such as dimmers, occupancy sensors, and daylight sensors. At this point, DALI-2 is the most recent iteration of DALI and provides crucial advancements in functionality. Each protocol has its own benefits and drawbacks, making each protocol useful in different scenarios.

Before diving into the best-use scenarios for each, it’s important to know the difference between DMX and DALI-2. The main difference between the two is that DMX is unidirectional and DALI-2 is bidirectional. This means that communication for a DMX system is one-way, from the DMX controller to the lighting fixture. Whereas in a DALI-2 system, the controller, lighting fixtures, sensors, and switches all communicate bidirectionally between each other. Because of this, each system functions drastically differently.

DALI-2’s bidirectional communication allows for a simplified installation process. Since DALI-2 is a decentralized system, it doesn’t require any specialized cable or wiring. Any 2-wire cable will work on a DALI-2 system up to 300 feet. This makes installing a DALI-2 system easier and sometimes more affordable, depending on the size and capabilities of the system. With DMX’s one-way communication, a specialized, shielded cable (up to 300 feet) is needed to connect the system together. Although this isn’t a huge inconvenience, it can make all the difference on bigger projects and systems.

Configuration and programming are the next important steps between choosing a DALI-2 system vs. a DMX system. DALI-2 is generally easier to configure and program. Since it is a regulated protocol, any DALI-2-approved device is built and designed to easily integrate with DALI-2’s “device type” system. Currently, there are eight different device types, DT-1 through DT-8, that all represent different levels of functionality. A DALI-2 controller is designed to recognize all eight device types and is therefore able to be automatically configured, setting parameters per device type. Each DALI-2 system can have up to 64 devices on it, making it an extremely versatile system.

Applicable in multiple industries and types of lighting devices, DMX is also a very adaptable protocol. Setting up and programming DMX, however, is more complicated than a DALI-2 system because of the nature of DMX’s one-way communication. A single DMX “universe” is made up of 512 channels that need to be manually programmed to work with a DMX controller. Some DMX controllers can handle multiple universes, while others are designed to control a single 512-channel universe. Unless a user is already well-versed in DMX programming, this step can be more complex than programming a DALI-2 system.

Determining where a smart lighting system is being installed and how it is going to be used is the next step in choosing between a DALI2 and DMX system. DALI-2 is particularly well-suited for applications where different levels of control for individual devices is needed, such as commercial spaces, offices, and retail environments. The protocol’s compatibility with various types of lighting fixtures, including LEDs and fluorescent lamps, makes it a great choice for diverse projects. The interoperability of DALI-2 ensures that products from different manufacturers can work seamlessly together, offering end-users greater flexibility in customizing their system. However, because of all these elements, DALI-2 has a much slower response time and dimming curve. In the settings mentioned above, this usually isn’t an issue. However, if real-time lighting control or effects are desired, DALI-2 is likely not the best choice.

One of the strengths of DMX lies in its real-time control capabilities, making it an ideal choice for dynamic lighting displays and special effects. Whereas DALI-2’s dimming curve is slower, DMX’s dimming curve is much faster, creating much smoother dimming overall. The protocol allows for the synchronization of multiple fixtures, creating immersive and visually stunning lighting sequences that are only possible with DMX’s fast response time. DMX is especially well-suited for applications where dynamic lighting changes are paramount, such as stage productions, live events, and specialized home lighting systems.

DALI-2 is particularly well-suited for applications where different levels of control for individual devices is needed, such as commercial spaces, offices, and retail environments.

DALI

Devices Devices

For specific projects that prioritize energy efficiency, ease of installation, and individual fixture control, DALI-2 is an excellent choice. Its bidirectional communication allows for advanced monitoring and diagnostics, as well as “smart” error control, making it more reliable overall and suitable for applications where maintaining optimal performance is essential.

On the other hand, DMX is the protocol of choice for applications that demand dynamic and intricate lighting designs. The real-time control capabilities of DMX make it indispensable in entertainment venues, stages, and environments where creative lighting sequences are a focal point. Unfortunately, this also means that DMX will trigger any command it receives with zero error control, which can lead to loss of fixture control and unwanted flickering or flashing if programmed incorrectly. Despite its limitations in addressing and scalability, DMX remains unrivaled in its ability to deliver visually captivating lighting displays.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to choosing between DALI-2 and DMX. Each protocol has its strengths and

applications where it excels. In many cases, a hybrid approach may be the most pragmatic solution. Integrating both DALI-2 and DMX within a project allows for a comprehensive lighting control system that combines the precision of DALI-2 with the dynamic creativity of DMX. This approach can be particularly beneficial in spaces that require both functional, task-oriented lighting and captivating, dynamic visual experiences. When taking this hybrid approach, it is important to note that while DALI-2 has very little problems controlling a DMX system, DMX is not designed to control a DALI-2 system. Because of this, it is recommended to integrate a DMX system into a DALI-2 system and not the other way around.

As lighting technology continues to advance and the demands of various industries evolve, understanding the unique capabilities of DALI2 and DMX512 will become increasingly critical to lighting designers, contractors, installers, and integrators. Both DALI-2 and DMX512 stand as pillars of control in the lighting world, each contributing to the overall spectrum of possibilities. n

The real-time control capabilities of DMX make it indispensable in entertainment venues, stages, and environments where creative lighting sequences are a focal point.

Signal

DALI Signal

DALI Controller

DALI Bus PSU

Delighting Your Clients With Lighting

What your sales team should know before they begin offering lighting to end users and the home building trades.

By Jay Williams, Director of Luxury Residential Business Development, Lutron

The sales team is the face of your shop, so when a new technology or product category is being introduced and offered, they need to understand the impact it has and why it matters.

Selling lighting offers a great opportunity for revenue growth, but will also challenge us to work closer with project stakeholders. Beyond the obvious reason of profitability, dealers who work in lighting get on to projects earlier, as it is often one of the first things that gets decided. Offering lighting opens doors sooner and allows you to lock in complementary items such as control systems and shading solutions.

Another reason is that the LED world is like the Wild West, something that many of us learned from installing lighting control systems. Being able to specify your own lighting solutions allows you to take more control of the project and guarantee a better outcome for your client.

Despite being an early decision in a project lifecycle, lighting is traditionally underappreciated. However, lighting can completely transform a space and can be tailored to suit the homeowners needs. It’s critical for dealers to be able to offer this and to prove the impact it will have on homeowners’ daily lives.

Finally, for some reason, when we think of technology it’s usually concerning control panels, video doorbells, speakers, big-screen TVs…technology in lighting has accelerated tremendously with the introduction of LEDs. Dealers are known as technology experts, and there is no better way to group all those things together than by getting into the lighting business.

Getting Started

There are many different lighting manufacturers, which can make finding a vendor partner a daunting task. When you look at fixtures today and how they’re traditionally sold, not many of them have channels that are built for the custom integrator. So, as a starting point, you want to be looking for a partner who knows and understands the industry that you work in and who values what you offer as a company.

The next thing you want to consider about a lighting fixture partner is what sets them apart — what is their story? What is their background? And then, of course, you need to consider what kind of performance and quality they offer.

The right partner will also be able to assist in getting your sales and installation teams trained. We can go out and train on all the technical capabilities — CRI, lumens… all the lighting terms that are in the market — but all that is foreign to many clients. At Lutron, we have persona-based training that allows us to focus on the skill sets that are unique to programmers, engineers, and salespeople. This

allows us to tailor and deliver the appropriate content to the right people.

Many dealers don’t have experience in the fixture industry, so our training teaches the sales team about what has been happening in the fixture industry and the different market dynamics. For instance, we talk about the way things are priced through traditional lighting channels versus pricing in a direct dealer model. We also discuss how a project has a team of people to bring it all together such as an electrician, interior designer, lighting designer, builder, and architect. You need to understand that recipe of relationships and who has the most influence when it comes to the lighting package. This can vary quite a bit from region to region or even project to project.

Presenting to Clients

Lutron as a company is looking to rewrite what the understanding of lighting is in homes today because it is undervalued and underappreciated. For this to happen, the salesperson needs to understand where the clients are coming from — what their experiences with lighting

are — and from there get them into a space to be able to experience all that lighting can do.

And what does good lighting do? It evokes emotion, it creates memories, and creates a connection to spaces. You want to grasp onto those things when you’re making the sale. We’ve tailored a pitch where we walk the client gradually through what lighting is today and then we show them what lighting can be. They usually tend to gravitate to a couple of different features throughout the presentation creating the emotion and connection for them.

You’ve got to slow down the conversation with clients and create these visions of how they’re going to use their home — where you can help create those memories, how you can help them enjoy being home even more through lighting. It’s all about the experience itself.

To really paint this picture, you are going to need to have — or have access to — a great demonstration system. We like to show people what lighting can be like in their own homes and then how it can actually change things. I remember doing a vibrancy demo using a client’s favorite art piece. After dialing in the vibrancy on their piece, they allowed me to show different colors on this painting. Through this, we were able to turn one art piece into 30 different ones. It creates so much excitement for people. It’s amazing for them to see the other things that lighting can do.

Making Everyone Look Good

Dynamic lighting allows homeowners, builders, architects, and interior designers to see what they want to see, and there’s no one else that does it better than us. Poor lighting can make wall finishes look awful — and it makes the architectural structure look terrible as well if it’s not highlighted correctly. For example, we can manipulate white light to either add another layer of stain on the flooring or remove it to make it look more aged, make sure that the paint colors on the wall look exactly how they should, and ensure the expensive soft treatments that the interior designer has purchased fit in the room properly.

And now, instead of just being an end user that you’re hoping to get a referral out of, you just impressed all those trades who are working on multiple projects at a time, just like you are. That’s a key critical aspect of how you can provide additional value in a project and really show off how you can help everybody look incredibly good on the job. n

Learn more and apply to become a Lutron dealer at https://residential.lutron.com/us/en/become-a-dealer.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LUTRON.

The Modern Design Team

These four trades are necessary to bring clients’ dream homes to reality.

By Glenn Merlin Johnson, Founder and CEO, Adaptive Design Group

Ihave been artistically and technically applying my craft for the Adaptive Design Group’s exclusive clientele nationally and internationally for more than 38 years. It has been a most exhilarating career to be added to exemplary design and build teams and affect our clients’ living environment by adding our trademarked layering process of light with thoughtful dimming controls.

The only way to success in the luxury home market is with an engaged, educated client who understands the need for a complete design team, demands professional documentation and specifications, and creates an appropriate budget with the design and build team — all before breaking ground. What a novel idea in the approach to any home!

I also strongly believe that the “Modern Design Team” must consist of the following professionals, who are also known as the Owner Collaborative.

The Architect

Scope: Floor plans; reflected ceiling plans with treatments called out (wood, stone, drywall, level 5 plaster); sprinkler locations; HVAC; grills and air bars; interior sections; exterior elevations with surface details (wood plank, core 10, stone, or stucco); callouts and finishes; window and door specifications; structural and full framing details; floor surface (stone, wood, and carpet); initial furniture and cabinetry block outs; window, door, and baseboard details and specifications.

Responsible for: Owner/design team meeting coordinator; site coordination; sharing electronic Revit or AutoCAD files.

The Interior Designer

Scope: Complete to-scale electronic furniture layouts, specifications, color palettes, artwork locations, fabric selections, and area carpet sizing and selections; final cabinet details; shop drawings and finishes; hardware selection; carpet selections; stone, marble, granite, metal, and wood matching and approvals; decorative lighting recommendations; and complete specifications on their electrical dimming requirements.

Responsible for: Design team meetings; onsite coordination.

The Lighting Design Dimming Controls and Electrical Designer

Scope: Client and team education on lighting design process,

philosophy, recessed fixture recommendations, integrated dimming control options, and architectural lighting design options; decorative lighting fixture options and lots of imaging of completed projects relating to the client’s new home; review with owner and team on fully coordinated professional lighting plans; lighting specifications; integrated dimming control engineering; lighting keypad designs and full engraving details, including lighting, motorized shade, and fireplace control functions; full cabinet detail with lighting applications; collaboration with AV Integrator on button inclusion for roomto-room audio and volume controls; programming of lighting controls that match lighting design, including scenes, pathways, and home and away controls; assisting client with operation and personal app control.

Since the professional lighting designer is handling the electrical needs of the lighting, dimming switch floor and wall receptacles, fountains, pumps, and other integrated control devices, it is best if they continue to provide the balance of the home’s electrical needs.

Responsible for: 100 percent buildable plans and specifications; design team meetings; on-site coordination, upload lighting program; troubleshoot with supplying and installing contractor; aim, tune and final scene setting of controls.

Note: Lighting design and interior design professionals should not be supplying lighting products, dimming controls, or shade systems. There needs to be a complete demarcation between the designers and contractors. Any other way leads to owner disappointment, rivalry, warranty issues, on-site issues, and lots of finger-pointing.

The AV, Systems, and Network Professional

Scope: Client and team education on the latest in audio, video, home integration, home automation, voice controls, security, network, temperature controls, sports simulators, home theaters, acoustics, material selections, seating selections, motorized window shades, treatments, and exterior shutters;

Business

access controls; water monitoring; pool and spa controls; full wiring plans and details; equipment locations and electrical power specifications; Wi-Fi router and repeater locations; cybersecurity protections; surge suppressors; back-up battery power and solar coordination; satellite and Internet coordination.

The AV Integrator is the only design team member that walks a fine line between designer and contractor. Most provide full design and specifications but also supply and install the majority of their specifications due to the complexity, training, and certifications over and above the house electrical contractor.

Secret to Success

The Modern Design Team is the secret sauce to the success of a happy client and an extraordinary living experience. We come together as a team, setting egos aside, listening to the client’s needs, educating on the latest advancements of our crafts, and designing accordingly.

We deliver a fully coordinated client-approved, designed, specified, and budgeted package that can be bid out, built, and executed by the build professional under the watchful eye of the design team.

Adaptive Design Groups’ success in the custom home arena has not only been due to our leadership and invention, but also to our years of accomplishments with the world’s most exclusive clients and their custom homes.

Sure you can build a home with only half of the design team — most homes are completed in this old-fashioned way (architect and interior designer) — but I can guarantee that the process is painful, the job site tension is high, and the building superintendent is working nights and weekends trying to herd the cats (a.k.a., subcontractors) and sorting technologies. The budget is busted well before drywall and the owners are upset. The project after drywall now becomes a renovation because plans and details for lighting specifications and dimming controls were not thought out. Layers of light don’t exist — just a massive number of holes in grid patterns and toggle switches. They just wanted to build their dream home, and now it has become a nightmare.

I have witnessed this disconnect and frustration over and over again these past 38 years — across this country and overseas. “Most of these homes after a year or two are put up for sale to leave the issues for the next guy.”

Adaptive Design Group’s thoughtful invention of layering light has been the hallmark of its homes. The Adaptive Method is a trademarked, eight-layer process of light application — including Architecture, Decorative, Art, Path, Task, Interior Decoration, View, and Exterior mixed with thoughtful dimming control.

This is the magic of Adaptive Design Group. n For more information, visit www.adaptivedg.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF UPWALL DESIGN GROUP. ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING DESIGN BY ADAPTIVE DESIGN GROUP, INC.

Trade Partners: Follow the Money Trail

Architects, interior designers, builders, and electricians — how to make the most of each relationship.

By David Warfel, Founding Designer, Light Can Help You

Growing into a successful lighting fixtures business is often compared to the process of incorporating shades into an integrator’s lineup, but there are a number of key differences that poke holes in this parallel. Perhaps the most important is the fact that lighting, unlike shades, is a critical utility in addition to an aesthetic tool, followed closely by the potential pain involved in ripping out a ceiling to replace faulty lighting hardware. Somewhere near the top of the list is another key differentiator: architects, interior designers, builders, and electrical contractors each have a stake in lighting — and each

stake is different. Success in the category requires careful consideration of each player, the development of a focused marketing strategy, and caution around potential pitfalls.

Architects

Architects are often the first trade partner involved in a luxury project, whether new construction or remodeling, and sometimes months or even years ahead of the first integration conversation. Knowing their billing structure, stake in the lighting fixtures sale, primary concerns, and potential pitfalls can help you build a relationship that pays dividends far into the future. When starting the conversation with architects, be sure to consider the following:

Architects bill hourly. Most architects make money based on their time and expertise, not through the sale of any product as most integrators do. This means their financial engine is entirely different — most architects will not understand margin, for example. Be careful, then, when asking architects for time. If they spend an hour with you, that is an hour that costs them money. If they bring

over their entire team for three hours, they have just spent thousands of dollars of lost revenue.

Architects rarely sell fixtures. This is an important advantage for integrators, as it means that architects are the least likely to be upset when you get involved in selling fixtures. At Light Can Help You, we encourage our dealer partners to build relationships with architects for this reason — and because architects can recommend integrators even before builders are selected.

Architects care about their aesthetics. Most will feel a great deal of pride in the shape of the home, and that can be both an advantage and disadvantage for the integrator. On the plus side, better architectural lighting can highlight the features the architect loves, like floating ceilings and stone walls. Be wary, however, of their concern over clean ceilings. More light fixtures could threaten this value.

Architects are not all the same. Market to market, architects play a variety of roles in home construction — or none at all when plans are purchased or provided by the builder. Some are highly involved from beginning to end, and they will have the client’s ear and trust. Others take more of a “design-and-dash” approach, creating a set of drawings and then withdrawing to let other trade partners carry the project through the finish line. Know your architects and invest more time in those who stay with the project until the end.

Some architects think they know lighting. Most architects we meet, once they understand what we do, will admit that lighting is (no pun intended) above their heads. But there are a few who think they do not need professional help, and those cantankerous architects are best to avoid. They will fight you at every step of the way. For the others, be sure to show images of your work, learn to speak in architectural terms, and use lunch & learn CEUs to change their minds about light.

Interior Designers

After architects, the next trade partner relationship we consider is often that with interior designers. Like architects, there is a huge range in interior design businesses and skillsets, from folks who are handy at picking out paint colors to fully trained professionals with skills in virtually every aspect of architecture. There are several key differences between interior designers and architects, and knowing these can help the smart integrator plan for strong relationships.

Interior designers bill hourly — and sell product. While each interior design business is unique, many will bill hourly for the design time and, unlike architects, also make margin on products they sell from window treatments to furnishings…and often lighting fixtures. Be sure to find out how they make their money before stepping into the fixture conversation.

Interior designers love decorative fixtures. Many interior designers will hear that you are involved in fixtures and instantly feel threatened if they do not realize you have no interest in selling “their” decorative fixtures. Reassure interior designers that they are in charge of the “look” in the home, and you are just there to make sure all of it looks its best.

Some interior designers sell downlights. Most will spend more time and energy on decorative fixtures like chandeliers and lamps, but some will also consider themselves qualified to specify downlights and tape light. Be extra careful around these interior designers, as your entry into the game will be seen as a direct threat to their bottom line.

Homeowners love interior designers. In our work, we often see homeowners trust the interior designer above everyone else. This is important to an integrator because, if you make an enemy of the interior designer, you have likely made an enemy of the homeowner, too. This can negatively affect far more than just your lighting fixture sale, so be careful.

Interior designers know more about lighting than anyone else — maybe. Integrators who pick up a luxury fixture brand or two and position themselves as lighting designers will quickly be discounted by interior designers, and that is good for no one. The best interior designers can be quite skilled at lighting, so consider working with a professional lighting design team with qualifications above the interior designer.

Builders

Trade partner relationships with architects and interior designers look like easy pickings when compared to builders and contractors. Builders have a completely different set of value metrics and financial stakes in the fixtures business, and that means integrators should consider a different approach when beginning conversations with them.

Builders make money building. This sounds trite but encompasses several financial strategies builders use to generate income and profit. Some are “cost-plus” builders who simply add a management fee to everything sold to the project. This can mean that your fixture package is going to cost the homeowner 10-15 percent more than your quote, so be sure to consider this upfront. Others will make their profit on construction materials or labor and may not be looking for any profit on fixtures, so be sure to know which is which.

Builders care about the budget. Their reputation is usually based on quality, of course, but even more important is their ability to deliver a project on time and on budget. When integrators get involved in selling fixtures, it will cost more and that is an immediate threat to the builder’s reputation. Tread carefully here and start conversations with builders as early as possible. Ask if there is a way you can protect their reputation while offering better fixtures to their (your) clients.

Builders care about time. Second to budget is time, and adding lighting design and performance architectural fixtures is highly likely to take more time. Again, be very careful here and have open conversations with the builder. Selling luxury fixtures to the client without talking to the builder first will often result in an angry builder, and that will not be good for your business down the road.

Builders care about reputation. On-time and on-budget are critical, but the best builders will also be concerned about the quality of their projects. Those builders are likely to be more open to a lighting conversation, so concentrate on how their clients will be more satisfied and their projects will stand out above their competition to open doors.

Electricians

Of all the trade partners involved in lighting fixtures, electrical contractors are often the partners with the most to lose — or gain. Success with electricians takes a multifaceted approach focused on protecting their bottom line, adding revenue to their business, and making their lives easier.

Electricians profit from markup and labor. Electrical contractors often provide the architectural fixtures like downlights and tape light, putting a markup on top of the cost they pay to the local electrical supply house. They are unlikely to use margin, but more commonly use a markup of 10-20 percent. This is key for an integrator to understand because a 10 percent markup on a $50 downlight is $5. If you take away the fixture sale and replace it with a $700 downlight, you could easily cover their lost profit and still have plenty of margin left over for yourself.

Many electricians like to work. Why? Because electrical contractors often make money on hourly labor for their team. Knowing this can help you build a strategy and may be a reason to work with professional lighting designers friendly to your business. When our team is hired, the electrician always gets to charge more labor hours, and this is good news for most of them.

Electricians are expert installers. When you provide more complicated fixture packages to a project, this will make many electricians feel less competent, and this is not fun for anyone. Spend a little extra time with them showing them fixtures. Consider a handoff meeting where you have sample fixtures, spend a few minutes demonstrating the install, and put their minds at ease.

Not all electricians are the same. As you move down market, you may notice that electricians are less likely to appreciate extra labor hours. If they are strapped for labor, you may be an unwelcome threat to getting the job done, so tread carefully.

Lighting Designers

Most custom residential projects will have, in some form, engagement from architects, interior designers, builders, and electrical contractors. A very small percentage may have a lighting designer already hired, and those trade partners need to be carefully considered when you get into the fixtures game.

Lighting designers are paid hourly to design and specify fixtures. They believe that a large part of their value is in choosing fixtures, so if you do an end-run around them, they may be very, very upset — and share that with the client.

Lighting designers know light. Lighting design is an unregulated profession and thus there is a wide range of actual skill sets. Successful professional lighting designers dedicate their entire lives to this, and few integrators will be able to match that investment. Be careful here, as you may not fully understand the metrics they use. If you don’t know the difference between beam and field angle, or can’t compare TM30 reports, be wary of positioning yourself as a lighting expert.

Lighting designers want to use fixtures they know. The lighting designer’s reputation is based on how the final project looks, and that means the fixtures are very important. If you want to sell fixtures to their projects, before you talk to a client, ask them to stop by and demonstrate the fixtures themselves. Provide working samples with a cord, plug, and dimmer so they can test them out on their own. Then ask for their thoughts. If the lighting designer has held and operated the fixture, they will feel more comfortable using it.

Lighting designers can be your friend. Our integratorfocused lighting design business is rather unique in the industry for our whole-hearted support of your business, but more lighting designers are coming into the space hoping to find more work, and that can be an advantage. Talk to several lighting designers to see who might be more willing to collaborate and let you sell fixtures.

Lighting fixtures (and lighting design) are not new to the custom integration channel, but the recent explosion indicates that lighting will play a very large role in the business for the next few years at least. We hear from numerous integrators seeing major growth in the category, some even doubling their revenue after fully engaging in the fixtures category. While your business is unique and you are the best equipped to develop a strategy, careful consideration of trade partners can help you get started on the right foot. Investing in relationships with architects, interior designers, builders, electricians, and lighting designers can pay dividends for years to come. n

David Warfel is founding designer of Light Can Help You, a unique lighting design business that supports custom integrators selling lighting fixtures to custom residential and commercial projects.

The Multi-Faceted Lighting Integrator

Embrace

a comprehensive approach to successful lighting solutions.

By Mike Libman, National Sales Director, DMF Lighting

On luxury residential projects, there are multiple stakeholders involved in providing a lighting solution. Because of that, significant coordination is required to ensure a smooth lighting deployment. As an integrator, you need to define your role, which when combined with lighting control and shades, provides a turnkey lighting solution that will achieve a smooth experience on the jobsite — and a beautiful experience in a finished home.

Here are some of the roles that may fall to the custom integrator:

Design: Lead by Design

Most luxury projects lack a dedicated lighting designer, making your role in design critical. It’s not merely about selecting high-quality fixtures; their placement is equally vital for achieving the intended result. Act as a consultant, collaborating with clients and design teams to comprehend the home’s nuances — its architectural features, finishes, furniture, and art. Understand how the home serves the client: Is it a tranquil retreat or a vibrant entertainment hub? Ensure the lighting fixtures work with the control systems

Experience it at Lightapalooza

This topic is to be addressed at Lightapalooza with a panel moderated by Tom Doherty, Director, New Technology Initiatives, HTSA. The panelists include Mike Libman, National Sales Director, Residential Systems, DMF Lighting; Kristin Reinitz, General Manager and Co-Owner, Admit One Home Systems; Josh Christian, CEO, HTA; and Brian Anderson, Lighting and Shading Sr. Project Manager, Cyber Technology Group.

and natural lighting with shades. Whether you employ an in-house designer or outsource, this step is crucial for a seamless integration of lighting into the home.

Product Procurement: Simplifying Specifications

Upon finalizing the design, you are tasked with supplying the fixtures. Manufacturers have streamlined the specification and procurement process for integrators. This stage is about ensuring the right product is available at the right time, enhancing project fluidity.

Project Management: Orchestrating Coordination

Effective project management involves overseeing timelines and ensuring that all products are available on-site when needed. It’s about preemptive coordination with installers to guarantee a smooth operation. Your deep understanding of the installation process and fixture types, informed by the initial design phase, is essential here. Many manufacturers can help with staging material and labeling fixtures by type before they arrive at the jobsite.

Commissioning and Aiming: Fine-Tuning for Perfection

After the installation of fixtures comes commissioning and aiming. This is where you adjust the lighting to highlight key

features of the home, like artwork and architectural details, or to accentuate statement furniture pieces. You’ll play with contrast and lighting intensity to perfect the ambiance. This is a task of growing importance with the rise of digitally addressable fixtures.

Supporting the System: Providing Long-term Value

Your relationship with the project extends beyond installation. As an integrator, you offer long-term support, adjusting aesthetics as needed or servicing fixtures. This ongoing commitment offers clients peace of mind and doesn’t overburden your team, given the low complexity of supporting lighting systems.

By embracing this comprehensive approach, you offer significant advantages to all stakeholders. You become the singular point of responsibility, eliminating finger-pointing and ensuring a seamless experience that keeps jobs on track. Positioning yourself as an integral part of the design team not only leads to successful lighting solutions, but also enables early discussions about other categories like audio, video, and others. Ultimately, the most significant measure of success is the enhanced quality of life your clients experience in their homes, a testament to the thoughtful design and selection of lighting fixtures. n

Lighting Business Strategies

Which is the most impactful way to add lighting fixtures to your custom installation company?

By Matt Bernath, President, VITAL

There are several ways for custom installation businesses to add lighting capabilities to their product and service roster. Let’s look at the opportunities and challenges lighting presents to integrators, as well as the various strategies that have been successful in adding or growing the lighting fixture categories for integrators across the country. The goal here is to expose you to what is possible and might be the best fit for where you are today and where you want to go.

Opportunities

According to Grandview Research, the entire U.S. residential lighting fixture market will grow at least 5 percent per year through the end of the decade. Many customers choose to buy lighting solutions from brick-and-mortar electrical stores because they often require help with product installation and prefer opting for after-sales service. Of course, big-box retail is dominating the market share for the average consumer, but that is not the case for the luxury consumer.

This is where the custom installation opportunity lies, in the luxury fixtures space where you can guide decisions that best align with the aesthetic and performance requirements of the luxury consumer. There are many advantages an integrator can realize when adding the lighting fixtures category, and here are just the top three:

Design Team: When you are the go-to resource for design-centric lighting in the home, you immediately go from being an optional trade to a necessity. You are involved much earlier in the process and considered to be a

member of the design team. A large portion of your budget is often derived from the overall construction budget and you get to interact on a more professional level with the rest of the design-build team. This can be a Trojan horse for everything else you offer.

Single Source of Truth: As the supplier of the controls and lighting fixtures, you become the single source of truth for what will work together and what won’t. This provides value to the contractor and owner in fewer headaches and necks to strangle and ultimately leads to a more streamlined outcome with fewer compatibility issues in the eleventh hour. The outcome is often happier end-users, less project management waste, and a better finished product.

Increased Revenue: We can’t ignore the fact that successfully adding a new category is very likely to increase revenue and hopefully profit. The dollars added to your top and bottom line can be substantial if done well. However, many custom integrators make the mistake of thinking this is “easy money.”

Challenges

Of course, these great outcomes don’t come easy. Here are the three biggest challenges faced when adding or growing the lighting category:

Education: Educating your team on yet another system or subsystem can be daunting. Especially with how much nuance and potential for mistakes lie in the design and execution of luxury lighting systems. This investment in education can, and should, be intense. Make the mistake of taking it lightly and you will be in for a world of hurt as

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES

you fumble project after project learning the hard way and damaging your reputation.

Project and Asset Management: Managing lighting fixture projects requires a deeper level of engagement with the project stakeholders. Lighting fixtures have thousands of variations in size, form factor, capabilities, finishes…you name it. They are often custom-ordered by the job in large quantities, and tend to be fragile and with many different parts and pieces. Manning the inventory asset from purchasing quality, warehousing, and delivery, to the end result of ensuring the right things got installed in the right places at the right time, is a big mindset shift that requires bulletproof processes, or that additional profit you hoped to gain will bleed out of the organization. Mismanagement here can also lead to significant cash flow issues and a graveyard of mis-ordered or mishandled goods.

Reduced Lifetime Client Value: This might seem like an odd one at first glance, but consider this: When you sell an AV, control, network, surveillance, or other similar system, it has a defined useful life that is relatively short. Say 5 to 7 years or, in many cases, less. The opportunity for you to return for service and upgrades is quite high, including the opportunity to sell service plans for recurring revenue. Lighting systems are generally more reliable, require little to no service, and even when the home turns over there is often little chance for upgrades. This is typically a large upfront sale, but not much thereafter. There are some important exceptions and creative solutions here, but generally, this is true of lighting systems and one of the attractions for integrators. Even if a little short-sided.

While these challenges are significant, they can all be overcome with enough emphasis on dodging the pitfalls and aligning your priorities.

Market Strategies

Here are the strategies in the market that have proven to be the most successful — ones that avoid pain while providing as much upside as possible.

Retrofit:

• Huge potential market

• Low design requirement

• Innovative and easy to install

• Low risk

• Lots of competition and DIY

• Not a massive differentiator

• Unforeseen complexity

Retrofit is one of the market strategies that is easy to enter and with a massive addressable market of all existing homes. You have the ability to leverage your existing customer base. It is a simple market to enter with many innovative products that are easy to install and require very little lighting design expertise.

The challenges you face in this market include a huge list of competitors from Amazon to home stores to handymen and DIY. Retrofit lighting is also not a big differentiator, and with any retrofit project, there will be unforeseen complexity in a certain percentage of projects.

Accent & Landscape

• Easy to install with few variables

• Big WOW factor

• Large potential market

• Established competitors

• Customer education

• Considered luxury spend

This might seem odd at first to think about landscape, accent lighting, or tape lighting as a separate business model. It can be a very lucrative first step into selling the idea of better lighting to a client. These systems can be relatively easy to install, hard to screw up, and provide a WOW factor beyond the cost.

While the potential market is also large, there will be great competition, including the standard of “what good looks like.” Some level of client education is required to overcome the fact that this category is considered a luxury to some.

Upgrade

• Higher dollar projects

• Trusted advisor status

• Luxury project outcomes

• Design requirement

• Potentially fragile relationships

• Higher risk

The business model of upgrading lighting in a new construction environment is where things get a little more complex. Upgrades refer to a market model of upgrading fixtures on a custom home project, where you educate and offer a better solution than what was originally specified. These can be very high-dollar projects that allow you to become a trusted advisor and deepen partner relationships.

This is where you need to have lighting design expertise in-house or outsourced and carefully navigate the relationship between designer, client, builder, and electrician. Get these things right and this can be a very nice entry into full design/build projects. Get them wrong and you can make enemies quickly with other trades who also have a reputation and profit interest.

Design/Build

• Greatest risk/reward

• Early introduction

• Less competition

• Skilled project management

• Continuing education

• Long sales/project cycles

Full design/build projects are where your company creates the lighting plan for the project and executes on selling the fixtures, and possibly more. These projects have the greatest risk and potential reward, one of those being that you get introduced much earlier to these projects. Assuming you become very skilled and develop a solid reputation, your company will have less competition. A requirement for that reputation is managing projects well and staying on top of trends.

On the challenging side, the long sales and project cycles can present cash flow and personnel challenges you may not be used to. Also, to maintain your expertise and marketshare, you will need to invest heavily in ongoing education and the right staff to design and complete these top-level projects with the highest of standards.

As the supplier of the controls and lighting fixtures, you become the single source of truth for what will work together and what won’t.

Keys to Growth

While each of these models has different success factors and pitfalls, here are some foundational ideas to consider as you move into or grow your lighting business. These keys to growth will help you navigate any stage of business in the lighting category. We’ve either witnessed these first-hand in VITAL’s coaching work with integrators, or they have been shared with me by other dealers with the scars to prove it. This is real-world stuff!

• Diversify offerings: Diversifying what you offer could include choosing to eventually implement all the market strategies we discussed, along with various fixture types, controls, etc. Become an expert at each stage before adding something new. Diversification does not mean cherrypicking brands. Become an expert and go deep with the brands you support and who support you. There is a direct profit incentive and an efficiency and education incentive.

• Upsell to better stuff: Just like the AV and controls world, lighting fixtures come in various ranges of quality. Sell better stuff at a higher margin; it’s a win-win for you and the client.

• Add project management, design, and maintenance services: Adding services is key to profitability and differentiation. Outdoor lighting maintenance services are low-hanging fruit. Design and project management services are key to winning and delivering a great outcome. You will find that great lighting systems require deep integration with the project team from start to finish, often with many more design and project management hours than anticipated. A move toward “retainer”-based services should be considered versus fixed-pricing.

• Go deeper with brands: Going deeper with the brands you carry allows for the best pricing and drives higher margins, not to mention reciprocation of support from those brands.

• Right light, right spot: Put the right lights in the right spot…do you need Ketra in the laundry rooms? Don’t always shoot for the home run on every project.

• Mindful of metrics: With any new category it’s important to be mindful of your metrics to determine what is working and what is not. You need to know the profitability of this category on your P&L and carefully track inventory. You also need to know the number of incoming leads, close ratio, job size, and all your sales metrics. This is key to determining where to focus for the highest leverage. n

For information on the services VITAL provides, visit http://growwithVITAL.com.

Finding the Right Lighting Fixture Partner

With more companies recognizing the benefits of working in the CI channel, it is the right time to find a vendor that suits your business.

After years of considering adding lighting fixtures to the custom installer’s product offerings, the category is now making progress throughout the industry. With lighting fixture manufactures courting custom integrators at events like Lightapalooza, we asked companies to answer a few questions to help you in your quest to find the right lighting fixure supplier for your needs. Note that we left out some key companies that are in this space but that are already well-known (Lutron, Crestron, and the like), focusing instead on those that are relatively new to integrators.

All of these participants are at Lightapalooza 2024.

AiSPiRE/WAC Lighting

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

Recessed, atrack, tape lighting, backlighting, landscape lighting, low-voltage interior lighting systems, decorative lighting, smart ceiling fans, and builder-grade lighting products.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

We’ve dedicated a complete sales and service team to the CI channel that is completely company-specific and limited to only custom integrators. We’ve also worked hard to develop relationships with the major lighting control companies, as well as developed our own technology gateway to tether to the integrators’ control platform of choice.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

We request a minimum buy-in to be a full-fledged dealer with authorized access to the dealer portal for pricing, stock, and more. We can build up to that and also offer demo-case options as well. There are pricing tiers based on volume to offer additional profit opportunities as dealers grow.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services?

Do you make demo kits for integrators? We do takeoffs, crosses, and layouts, and offer design services.  We complete interior layouts, as well as exterior layouts for landscape lighting. Services include run lengths, wiring diagrams, power supply plans, and more.  We do have demo kits for many of our products, including a new state-of-the-art landscape demo kit dealers can take to clients’ homes and set up a front (or back) façade in a matter of minutes to wow and win over their clients.

What kind of training do you offer?

We prefer one-on-one training with the dealer through either scheduled online meetings or in-person when it works. Our online training usually involves a territory sales manager with the dealer and working through one product category at a time. This might include training such as “The 4 Experiences of Light” (how to sell lighting in the CI Channel), website review, rfamilies, WAC-STRUT, linear, landscape, and more. Bite-sized meetings work better than trying to tackle the entire product line at one time.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

Typically, integrators like to pay via credit card. Once a payment link has been satisfied, we ship stock items in 48 to 72 hours and MTO (made-to-order) products within two weeks, and we ship from one of our four warehouses located across the country (New York, Georgia, Texas, and California).

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer?

The best way to start the process of becoming a dealer is to send us an email at Integrators@waclighting.com or go to our website at www.Aispire.com and use the “Contact Us” tab.

DMF Lighting

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide? We provide modular downlighting, cylinders, and outdoor fixtures.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

As one of the first lighting manufacturers to embrace the integrator channel, we have built products, tools, and teams geared specifically toward supporting our integrator partners. With modularity at the core of our designs, we make it simple to specify, procure, commission, and support lighting projects.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

If you are interested in becoming a DMF dealer, please reach out to your local rep firm or regional sales manager.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services?

Do you make demo kits for integrators? We offer layout services with detailed documentation for our dealer partners. We believe successful dealers lead with design. Great products in the wrong places fall short of creating the lighting experience we want clients to have. We also offer various demo kits to be able to show fit and finish, as well as performance, for our fixtures.

What kind of training do you offer?

We offer a monthly onboarding training as well as in-person trainings. While we want dealers to know DMF, we also provide training on how to be successful in the lighting category as a whole.

Who are the lighting influencers?

What are their purchase criteria? How do you maximize value brought to the job? How do you get involved earlier in the design cycle?

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

This is one of DMF’s biggest strengths. Because we are modular, housings ship within 48 hours from our East or West Coast warehouse. Depending on quantity, modules and trims ship within five business days. We have earned a lot of business by solving fulfillment issues from our competitors.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer?

If you are interested in becoming a dealer, please reach out to your local manufacturer’s rep or your regional sales manager.

Environmental Lights

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

Environmental Lights is all about quality, low-voltage fixtures that provide users with maximum control over their lighting. In keeping with this intention, we’ve developed proprietary low-voltage fixtures that range from 500 to 10,000+ lumens and can be powered via DMX-controlled power supplies using 16-gauge wire. Additionally, we offer lower-cost low-voltage fixtures that are ideal for the production builder or MDU markets.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

At Environmental Lights, we pride ourselves on the success of the integrators we work with. We take a basic concept for a residential or commercial space and provide a tailored design and bill of material to get you started. From here, we are available to assist integrators through each and every step of the installation and post-installation process.

AISPIRE/WAC LIGHTING

What is the cost to start as a dealer, and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

Zero and zero! There is a very low barrier to entry when it comes to working with and using our products. We don’t believe in putting up a bunch of red tape before providing quality products to our valued partners. That said, we do offer training and coaching sessions to ensure our integrators feel comfortable in the field.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services?

Do you make demo kits for integrators? We offer full lighting design packages for both our downlights and linear lighting offerings. The first projects are free and follow-up projects require only a nominal fee. We always offer tailored BOMs at no charge.

What kind of training do you offer?

As much as is needed to make our integrators feel comfortable using our products. Depending on your location and type of project, we may be able to do in-person training, or we’re always more than happy to hop on a quick Zoom call. Additionally, we have a plethora of curated online resources that can be extremely helpful.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

For stock products we can ship out same day if we receive the order before 2:30 PM Pacific Time. We have a very robust inventory, so out-of-stock products are a rarity at Environmental Lights. If you’re in need of a turnkey solution where your fixtures or strip lights are pre-assembled, our team of electrical assemblers work quickly to ensure it’ll only be a few additional days until you receive your products.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer?

Give us a call at 888-880-1880 or email ContactUs@ EnvironmentalLights.com

KLUS Design

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

KLUS is an architectural linear lighting manufacturer. We specialize in custom projects and have [one of] the largest offering of products in the aluminum extrusion category, along with a wide variety of LED tape offerings that range in color temperature and lumen output, and dynamic LED tape options ranging from dim to warm, adjustable white, RGB, RGBW, and RGBWW.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

Two words — “quality” and “service.” KLUS does not take the word partner lightly. KLUS offers the highest quality components and LED fixtures that ship in days, install easily, and perform as intended. Our support team is staffed by engineering professionals, and we strive to guarantee that projects are designed correctly and exceed the expectations of the client.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

To start as a dealer, we ask that our dealers sit through a 30-minute “Why KLUS” presentation with our regional manager. We recommend purchasing our marketing kits featuring some of our most popular products, and although we don’t have monthly requirements, we do have targets that we would like to see to keep integrators active and at their pricing level.

ENVIRONMENTAL LIGHTS

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services? Do you make demo kits for integrators?

Our sales team, rep network, and engineering staff can all provide design and layout assistance. KLUS offers a variety of display and demo tools to assist integrators. Options include large-wheeled product samples cases and small binder-sized extrusion/cover combo kits, as well as another binder-sized kit for demonstrating various tape options. Each kit includes our most popular options in either category. Integrators looking to display KLUS products in their showrooms have access to the same displays we take to shows. We also release an inspiration catalog yearly where we encourage our integrators to share project photos that help promote both KLUS and the integrator.

What kind of training do you offer?

KLUS offers recorded trainings, live online training webinars, and in-person sessions. Topics include in-depth product category training as well as application-specific discussions and option evaluations. We also have AIA-accredited CEU courses. Our website (www.klusdesign.com) offers a download portal with many training tools available. Be sure to download the KLUS Home Integration Catalog with 25 pages of training tips and 75 pages of product information.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

KLUS maintains inventory of our products in our production facility in Vero Beach, Fla. Our typical lead times are 2-3 days for standard component orders; 3-5 days for custom component orders; and 2-3 weeks for full custom-factoryassembled orders. We also have a limited quick-ship offering that will ship same day or next day depending on when the order is received.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer? Interested integrators should email KLUS at engineering@klusdesign.com and a member of the sales team or a rep partner will be in touch.

LITELINE

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

LITELINE excels in these three lighting categories:

General lighting – featuring seven unique product categories Accent Lighting – multiple solutions to properly teach or help the integrator learn to properly deploy the principles of accent light

Task Lighting – IES-award winning solutions from linear to the industry’s first wall-wash puck light, also teaching the integrator there are multiple solutions to achieve the proper look for their client’s space.

Business

What makes your company a partner for integrators? With the breadth of solutions LITELINE offers, the ability to communicate with the integrator in their language, we can accelerate the learning curve by making the lighting category profitable while helping integrators speak confidently as it becomes part of their offerings.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

The LITELINE direct dealer program was custom developed for the integrator to become a partner and have the proper tools to present lighting and win the project with more than product.

LITELINE direct dealer program requires an investment of $2000. This investment is to equip the integrator with the proper sales kits, and begin to teach the integrator our sales strategy to sell first, design second.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services? Do you make demo kits for integrators? LITELINE is exploring the design-services model. We believe the proper design cannot be delivered based solely on an RCP. There are several variables to properly design or lay out projects with LITELINE while covering the three major disciplines of lighting design.

LITELINE has a mandatory requirement for our integrators to purchase sales kits. We strongly believe success is based on being able to communicate and display lighting and concepts properly.

What kind of training do you offer?

We encourage all our integrators to attend training at our facility in Toronto, Canada. We also offer training for all our partners at their facility when they sign on and become a LITELINE partner.

KLUS DESIGN

Business

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

Currently LITELINE operates in a 7- to 10-day shipping window.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer?

Connect with our strong independent representative around the county, or contact Jason Feus at jfeus@liteline.com.

Luminii

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

Micro-optic downlights and track systems, linear fixtures, flexible LED fixtures, recessed downlights, cylinders, decorative pendants, LED backlighting, Plexineon, specialty fixtures built to dealer spec, high-performance strip, and channel.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

We do business the way that integrators are accustomed to.  We sell direct in the integrator channel — Luminii’s products are not sold online or directly from our website.  We’re easy to do business with. Jobsite documentation and labeling makes installation simple for field technicians.  We partner with integrators on lighting design.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

There are no opening order requirements, monthly or annual minimums.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services?

We offer lighting design services based on square footage and level of service required. Design fees are shared between Luminii and the integrator, as 50 percent of the fee is applied to the product sale.

Do you make demo kits for integrators?

Yes, Luminii offers multiple demo kits for Integrators. Individual product samples are free, up to two feet.

What kind of training do you offer?

Luminii offers individual and group trainings on our products and their applications. Our deep understanding of the Integrator channel allows us to tailor education to the dealer’s needs with a strong business case on how Luminii can enhance their sales and bottom line.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment? 2-4 weeks.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer? Email us at av@luminii.com.

Proluxe by American Lighting

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

Proluxe by American Lighting offers a broad range of lowvoltage, linear lighting solutions available in both colorchanging and white light options. Due to the simplicity of our system, dealers can easily integrate Proluxe products into their preferred lighting control platform.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

Proluxe prides itself on service and support. Our goal is to be an extension of the dealer’s team and provide them with the tools needed to feel confident selling fixtures. As part of our dealer program, we provide education, free layout services, and technical support throughout the process. With our team of specialists, dealers have access to product experts and layout consultants, along with control experts to help with integration and scene creation. From start to finish, we’re here to support the dealer as they venture into the world of lighting.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

The Proluxe Starter Kit is available to dealers for $295. This kit not only allows dealers to open an account, but provides access to our free layout services. The absence of minimum requirements offers flexibility to dealers, allowing them to utilize these tools as and when needed.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services?

Do you make demo kits for integrators? Proluxe’s layout service stands out as a unique offering for dealers, providing a range of options tailored to their needs. Dealers can choose from a simple bill of materials to a

PICTURED ABOVE: PROLUXE BY AMERICAN LIGHTING

comprehensive layout complete with wiring diagrams for the installer. This flexibility allows dealers to tailor the level of detail based on the specific requirements of their projects.

After receiving the quote, dealers can schedule a virtual call with one of our layout consultants. During this call, they can review product selections, plans, and layouts. This interactive session helps dealers gain a better understanding of installation requirements and programming needs, ensuring a clear and collaborative approach to the project.

What kind of training do you offer?

Proluxe offers educational courses for dealers and their staff, available both online and in-person. Installers benefit from hands-on courses covering tape light assembly and DMX addressing, providing practical skills and technical expertise. For sales staff, courses on “Linear Lighting Trends” and “4 Questions to Ask When Talking About Lighting” ensure they stay informed and are adept at understanding client needs. Looking forward to 2024, Proluxe is developing a certification program. This program will empower dealers to thoroughly train their employees in selling, installing, and maintaining Proluxe lighting systems. This holistic approach ensures that everyone involved feels comfortable selling, installing, and programming the system.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

Based in Denver, Colo., we stock more than seven months of inventory. After placing an order, a dealer can expect to have their order processed and shipped within 24 hours. If a dealer is requesting custom-cut or special-order items, the lead time is 2-3 weeks.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer? Dealers can reach out to sales@proluxelighting. com to get more information on becoming a dealer.

PureEdge Lighting

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide?

PureEdge Lighting is modern architectural lighting manufacturer. The vast majority of our products are 24V or 12V, and class 2 low voltage. Fixture categories that we manufacture include plaster-in recessed linear and curved, flush-mounted linear, surface-mount linear, suspended linear, suspended decorative, both surface and recessed track lighting, wall-mount vanity, art accent lighting, downlights, LED tape light, and a variety of outdoor products including flex neon and low-voltage outdoor track. We’ve recently released the Pure Smart collection, which combines all of our standard architectural products with smart controls. With that entry into the smart control marketplace, we’ve released a comprehensive offering of color tuning LEDs, TruColor RGBTW smart lamps, tunable filament smart lamps, and Wi-Fi-enabled wall controls.

PICTURED ABOVE: PUREEDGE LIGHTING

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

Dedicated to the simple notion that light and interior design are truly symbiotic, we have developed a dynamic set of lighting solutions that enable you to personalize your space, design your fixtures, and think outside the bulb. We provide our partners with products that keep them on the cuttingedge and allow them to provide their end customer with a truly unique finished product. Whether it be color changing LEDs, smart controls, or revolutionary channel profiles, we’re constantly evolving and releasing new tools that give our customers an advantage in the marketplace. Owner Greg Kay’s background as a Master Electrician allows him to look at the products not only from the perspective of a designer, but also the installer. He designs all the PureEdge product offerings in a way that makes the installation of them efficient and contractor friendly.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services?

Do you make demo kits for integrators? We offer free design services to our dealer partners. Our lighting design team is experienced, knowledgeable, and knows how to make your ideas a reality. We will take as little as a cocktail napkin drawing and supply a takeoff, scaled drawing, and load/control schedule. Much of the product we produce is custom and with that we supply construction and assembly drawings that demystify the installation process and make sure the initial vision and design is executed flawlessly. We understand the tools that our channel partners need to be successful and provide sample product, demo kits, and attractive programs for display product for integrators with brick-and-mortar showrooms.

What kind of training do you offer?

We have a comprehensive training program for the different categories of product that we manufacture. We pride ourselves in being a resource within the industry and on the front end of innovation. Greg Kay’s decades of experience really position the PureEdge team to be of service to our partners in helping to not only educate them on our product, but also in general lighting and interior design. Ondemand training is available through our website. We also offer a series of webinar trainings that educate our partners in a variety of different ways.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

Stock items are eligible for our quick-ship program and have a lead time of 2-3 days. Many of our luminaires are customizable and thus made to order. Those custom manufactured items have a standard lead time of 4 weeks.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer?

Reach out to us at design@pureedgelighting.com.

Verozza Lighting

What lighting fixture product categories do you provide? Recessed lighting featuring small-aperture, 48v low-voltage track lighting system, and a decorative luminaire collection.

What makes your company a partner for integrators?

Verozza Lighting is often considered a valuable partner for AV integrators due to its reputation for high-quality, customizable lighting solutions that seamlessly integrate with most lighting control systems. Their commitment to fixture innovation, reliability, product quality, and selection will enhance the overall aesthetic within high-end residential projects. Verozza Lighting has embraced the AV dealer channel with a comprehensive AV Dealer Program that includes direct sell prices, fixture sample cases, showroom display programs, and incentive rebates.    Whether the project requires recessed downlighting, 48v low-voltage track elements, or decorative luminaires, Verozza provides design solutions for any project. In addition, Verozza’s collaborative approach and customer support contributes to an exceptional customer experience.

What is the cost to start as a dealer and what are the monthly minimums that need to be maintained?

Purchase demo kits and maintain a minimum annual volume.

Do you provide takeoffs, layouts, or design services? Do you make demo kits for integrators? Verozza provides technical support. Layout assistance is available for the Moduline 48v track system. Demo kits are available.

What kind of training do you offer? On-site or virtual.

What is the lead time between order and fulfillment?

For recessed lighting fixtures, rough-in housings and drivers are in stock and available to ship within five days. Fixtures that are in stock also ship within five days. For non-stock fixtures, expect 8-10 weeks for delivery.

How can integrators start the process of becoming a dealer?

Please contact Jeff Kosberg, vice president of sales, at jeff@verozza.com. n

Architectural Lighting in Action

An aura of soft illumination completes this penthouse renovation.

This beautiful penthouse residence overlooking the Gulf of Mexico received a full interior renovation. Monika Oberer, owner of renowned Light Up Your Life in Sarasota, Fla., knew that architectural lighting was needed to bring the many rooms to life. Architectural lighting becomes a part of the architecture as it is integrated into the very structure of the walls and ceilings. Oberer chose PureEdge Lighting’s Stomp Strip in 3000K static white to illuminate the rooms while also creating a cozy home environment filled with warmth and ambiance.

For the custom cabinets, Oberer used PureEdge Lighting Light Channel Millwork to infuse golden-toned illumination under each shelf, bringing the featured sculptures, plants, and pottery forward. Beautiful forms of art truly shine with designer quality LEDs. The Light Channel LED strip offers the highest quality and color rendering at 94+ CRI.

“This was a fun project to work on for me because the designer and home owner allowed me to give every room comfort and a good feeling once you enter it,” says Oberer. “Lighting is emotional and it shows well on this job.”

PureEdge’s LED Stomp Strip featured in this residential home illuminates at 553 lumens per foot at 3000K, 4.4W. Stomp Strip is often used for BIY (build it yourself) projects and can be cut onsite and easily installed. Light channel Millwork is a recessed, made-to-order fixture that features a clear or diffused white lens with louver options. n

For more information, visit PureEdgeLighting.com

Case Study

Location:

Gulf of Mexico, Private Residence

Lighting System:

PureEdge Lighting Stomp Strip and Light Channel Millwork

Lighting Designer:

Monika Oberer, Owner of Light Up Your Life, Sarasota, Fla.

This was a fun project to work on for me because the designer and home owner allowed me to give every room comfort and a good feeling once you enter it. Lighting is emotional and it shows well on this job.

—Monika Oberer, Owner, Light Up Your Life

Elevating Your Vanity Experience

Experience the transformative power of smart lighting.

The evolution of smart home technology has revolutionized the way we approach lighting, extending its benefits beyond mere functionality. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the bathroom, where the integration of smart lighting, particularly at the vanity, enhances daily rituals and promotes well-being.

Optimized Grooming Experience

The bathroom vanity, often underestimated in its lighting requirements, plays a crucial role in our daily grooming rituals. While focused, uniform, and bright illumination are essential for tasks like makeup application and shaving, traditional settings may not cater to individual preferences at different times of the day. This necessitates the integration of tunable lighting solutions to provide users with personalized control over their lighting fixtures.

Lighted Mirrors as the Ideal Fixture

Lighted mirrors have emerged as the preferred choice for bathroom vanities due to their ability to offer optimized lighting. The latest innovations in this space allow for tunable brightness, color temperature adjustments, and customizable LED colors, enhancing their contribution to health and wellness.

Benefits of Tunable Vanity Lighting

Brightness Control: Incorporating dimming capabilities provides flexibility in adjusting lighting levels according to specific preferences, tasks, or the time of day. This not only makes individuals feel more in control of their comfort levels but also positively impacts mood and productivity.

Color Temperature and LED Color Control: Color temperature, measured in Kelvin, significantly influences the mood and functionality of a space. By allowing users to select appropriate color temperatures, tunable lighting contributes to optimizing health and well-being. For example, cooler temperatures may enhance energy and focus during morning

preparations, while warmer tones create a more comfortable environment for winding down at night.

Personalized Scenes: Tunable lighting introduces the concept of personalized scenes, enabling users to create and easily access customized settings based on their preferences. This feature is particularly beneficial at the bathroom vanity, where needs vary throughout the day. Scenes such as “Morning Prep” or “Night Light” can be tailored to specific color temperatures, LED colors, and brightness levels to meet users’ functional, emotional, and physiological requirements.

Ease of Control: Smart lighting has transformed homes by harnessing natural lighting, improving design aesthetics, ensuring consistency, and providing flexible user control. Given that individuals spend a significant amount of time in the bathroom daily, it becomes a critical space to

Case Study

accessible via interfaces, empower users to effortlessly manage lighted mirror power, dimming, and preset scenes, allowing them to adapt their lighting preferences as needed.

Conclusion

Incorporating smart lighting into the bathroom vanity experience elevates daily routines, promoting well-being, and ensuring a personalized and adaptable environment. As technology continues to advance, the marriage of functionality and aesthetics in smart lighting solutions will undoubtedly redefine our approach to home illumination. n For more information, visit seura.com.

Shining a Light On the Latest and Greatest Products

American Lighting NeonFlex Pro-D Dual-Bending Neon Linear Luminaire

The NeonFlex Pro-D dual-bending neon linear luminaire is a nextgeneration solution for achieving seamless lines of direct-view lighting for any architectural-grade install. The Neonflex Pro-D features dualbend technology that allows for top and bottom “vertical” bending, as well as left and right “lateral” bending. With UV, flame, and saltwaterresistant jacketing, Neonflex Pro-D is not only durable, but easy to install, making it a versatile and visually aesthetic option for any interior or exterior application.

Somfy Sonesse 30 PoE Motor

The Sonesse 30 PoE motor enhances control for users to create custom commands and manage large spaces using a single application to help lower operational costs and improve efficiency. The Sonesse 30 PoE motor allows for a seamless installation process due to its low voltage and easy wiring, increasing safety and eliminating the need for an electrician. Plus, motors are immediately discoverable and ready for commissioning by using a web GUI; a physical setting tool is not needed. For building owners who are seeking a solution to reduce operational costs, the networking feature of PoE allows network cables to carry electrical DC power and IP data connectivity over an existing data connection with a single Cat5e/Cat6 ethernet cable.

Sun Shades by Nice

Sun Shades by Nice offer more design choices with the same simple, flexible integration installers have come to love. The custom roller shade line offers attractive smart shading solutions with advanced electronics, which can be integrated into a project during any stage of the building process. Sun Shades by Nice provide a wide range of design options with a simple, flexible integration for a truly seamless smart home solution. They are powered by the ultra-quiet and durable Nice tubular motors, which offer high reliability, adjustable motor speed, and can uniquely detect objects in both up and down directions. The Nice tubular motors come in a wide variety, including AC, DC, and battery, as well as both wired and RF. When paired with a Nice Home Management System, the discovery and setup functionality in the Nice Configurator application delivers a time-saving setup.

Lutron Lumaris Light

Lumaris tunable-white tape is designed to be a part of a Lutron connected lighting control system, and offers two color temperature options: Soft White (1800K – 3000K) and Daylight (2500K-5000K). Easy to spec, quick to install, and primed to deliver industry-best performance like 0.1% dimming — that’s the beauty of Lutron.

Séura Smart Lights for Lighted Mirrors

Séura’s Smart Lights are tunable, integratable LED lights that are designed to seamlessly enhance any custom Séura Lighted Mirror. Séura Smart Lights offer many benefits, including LED color control, brightness control, color temperature adjustments, and personalized scene creation. By incorporating comprehensive digital control, users can effortlessly adjust lighting levels to suit their specific tasks, preferences, or time of day, positively impacting mood and productivity. Séura Lighted Mirrors with Smart Lights integrate into the smart home ecosystem with ease of control via the WiZ Connect Smart Home Lighting App and Control4 Home Automation Platforms.

DMF Lighting iX Series 2-Inch Ret rofit 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:

• 4-inch/5-inch to 2-inch conversion, round

• 6-inch to 2-inch conversion, round

• 6-inch to 2-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.

PureEdge Lighting Pure Smart Architectural Lighting and Smart Controls

PureEdge Lighting architectural lighting and smart controls are connected by WiZ Pro, a global brand of Signify. Pure Smart features TruColor RGBTW, its 5-channel light engine that offers more than 16 million colors, 85,000 tunable white tones to choose from, and is optimized for use with the WiZ Pro wireless control ecosystem.

Pure Smart encompasses hundreds of PureEdge Lighting architectural products now available with WiZ Pro wireless controls, an assortment of TruColor RGBTW smart lamps, and Wi-Fi-enabled wall controls. WiZ Pro and Pure Smart to form a comprehensive wireless control solution with the WiZ app on your mobile device, the WiZ Pro Dashboard on your desktop, the Pure Smart wireless wall controls, and voice control through integration with all the main virtual assistants.

Products

Environmental Lights DualMode Universal

Dimming Drivers

Environmental Lights DualMode Universal Dimming

Drivers are highly versatile power supplies. These full-capacity drivers accept universal input dimming signals compatible with all major control systems. They also feature a toggle that allows users to switch between constant voltage reduction (CVR) and pulse width modulation (PWM) output modes. DMU Dimming Drivers enable seamless integration and precise control of LED lighting, regardless of the size and layout of an installation. PWM output can be used for loads within 25 feet of the power supply, while CVR should be used for any runs beyond that.

GE Lighting Cync Undercabinet EdgeLit

GE Lighting, a Savant company has released the Cync Reveal HD+ Full Color Undercabinet Fixtures and Pucks, which are the first and only full color and edge-lit smart undercabinet lights available in the North American market. Cync Reveal products offer clarity, millions of color options, and smart control in an easy-to-install undercabinet fixture. The smart fixtures’ slim profile and edge-lit design illuminates countertops with diffused pools of vibrant colors and pure, clean light. Up to 10 fixtures can be connected to one another for a robust lighting solution to enhance every occasion, featuring millions of color options, including a full range of whites. Easily installed with captive screws as a plug-in or hardwired, the space-saving fixture can instantly transform the mood and ambiance of any room.

Coastal Source Ketra Ready Modulus Bullet Light

Coastal Source developed the world’s first Ketra Ready outdoor lighting solution, the line-voltage Ketra Ready Modulus Bullet Light, developed in collaboration with Lutron. The UL-approved, 120VAC light fixture is available to dealers who are qualified by Ketra to purchase the Ketra S30 LED lamp.

“This commercial-grade, solid brass fixture is specifically designed to use the Ketra full-spectrum E26 or E25 S30 LED lamp to bring the highest quality light to any outdoor space,” says Franco D’Ascanio, Coastal Source co-founder and CEO. “Like all Coastal Source products it is designed to ‘Defy the Elements’ and last a lifetime in the harshest outdoor environment.

“Ketra Ready is a collaborative effort between Lutron and select manufacturers to develop innovative lighting fixtures compatible with Ketra Lamps,” says Ricardo Benucci, Lutron lighting business development manager. “For a manufacturer to have Ketra Ready fixtures, those specific fixtures need to be approved to work with one of the Ketra Lamps. Coastal Source’s Ketra Ready Modulus Bullet Light is a prime example of this collaboration. We are proud of our collaboration with Coastal Source to bring Ketra light to the outdoor environment.”

Crestron Light Studio

To help dealers maximize the lighting business, Crestron is offering a lighting campaign that invites dealers to create their own Crestron Light Studio in their showrooms. The concept here is simple: Crestron wants to help you demonstrate to your clients just how transformative the power of Crestron Tunable Lighting can be — especially when it’s paired with the Crestron Home OS — and it will give you the tools to help your customers discover a new world of lighting control and customization. By setting up a dedicated space in your showroom, you gain access to comprehensive support from Crestron to design the perfect environment that showcases the full potential of Crestron Tunable Lighting. You’ll receive exclusive benefits offered specifically for your Crestron Light Studio, including a discount on dealer prices for purchasing Crestron light fixtures to create the space. This allows you to curate a stunning display of lighting solutions while maximizing your investment.