Lighting controls were showing the colourstyle controller at the recent Bar 09 Show at The highland Showground in Edinburgh.
The Colourstyle controller is the perfect controller for back bar effect lighting. The controller allows complex colour effects to be setup using the setup wizard and then provides a very usable interface for day to day use.
The system can also be programmed with timed rules to allow automation.
DMX as a standard was developed for the entertainment industry and has been adopted for use in large architectural projects over the last few years.
Lot of articles on the internet cover the electronic details of what DMX is which is of interest to those wishing to create products that send or receive and wish to comply to the standard. This is of no interest to lighting designers and electrical contractors. The architecture of a DMX control system is governed by the other side of the standard EIA485 this describes the electrical system that DMX uses as it’s bedrock. This is the roadway that the communication runs on; if this underlying infrastructure is not correct then the communications trying to use it will falter and the system will never be stable and reliable.
DMX Standard was originally adopted for use by “lampys” at touring events where large entertainment systems are setup up for a show or a series of shows before being all packed up into a number of trucks and moved to the next show.
Power distribution for these shows is all done using flexible rubber cable and Ceeform cables connecting different parts of the systems using portable distribution units. The construction industry has a more cost effective and longer lasting method using steel wire armour and fixed distribution boards around a project.
The distribution for a project is designed in a drawing office by an electrical engineer.
Power Distribution Drawing
The engineer designs the system by completing calculations and specifying suitable cabling and distribution panels to ensure that the system will work correctly and safely.
DMX is used by the construction industry primarily to control colour change lighting. By it’s nature a single colour change unit uses three or four channels of DMX and puts a unit load on the DMX controller of the system.
In the same way as the electrical distribution example above DMX requires design. It’s a simple thing to say but frequently the architecture of a DMX system is left to chance. When a ring main is required in a electrical system often the exact numbers of outlets and types of outlets will not be specified or indeed if a small change is required then the installing electrician will make the design change in a flash. This is simple as a the architecture (limits on length, number of outlets, spurs) is well known by that electrician through years of installing these simple systems.
DMX is a simple architecture however colour change systems can use a large number of DMX recievers and control channels. In addition to this systems should be designed to allow section testing by isolation and also to ensure downtime in certain areas of the system will not affect control over other parts of the system.
Simple DMX systems have a single cable connecting a number of fittings allowing a controller to control attributes on all these fittings independently. In reality all but the most basic DMX systems require boosters, splitters and termination to allow a stable system to exist and to ensure minimum installation time.
DMX is a not a proprietary control standard it is used by countless manufacturers and the size and complexity of DMX control required in a project is on the increase all the time.
So don’t chance it ! Were here to help!
Lighting control have carried out specification creation , programming , testing and end user documentation for this top end luxury residential development in Edinburgh.
A substantial detached Victorian house, restored and redesigned by Livit Construction utilising the very best in modern fixtures and fittings to form a state of the art home, ideal for modern family life and entertaining with interlinking and flexible accommodation. Standing within landscaped garden grounds in one of Edinburgh’s most exclusive areas, The Hermitage offers magnificent views of the City skyline including Edinburgh Castle and The Braid Hills along with extensive off road parking.
Lighting control have programmed scene and fade control in each area using the mode lighting Evolution lighting control system. In two local areas the mode Scenestyle was chosen as a solution a demo of this product can be found here.
The programming has been completed for the viewing of the property but is of course fully customisable 
once the new owners take control of the property.
Additional features which can be added include timed control, remote lighting control via the Internet, Exit corridors and daylight harvesting.
Lighting control have completed programming of the function areas at the Ramada hotel inverness.
The system has scene control using the Tiger lighting control system.
The Tiger system is a great system for small independent spaces where control over commercial 0-10V fittings is required along with traditional halogen dimming.
The metro centre in Newcastle is undergoing a major revamp of the Eastern Yellow Mall. The electrical works undertaken by Balfour Kirkpatrick involved a large Lighting control System controlling all mall public area lighting and all colour change mood lighting.
Lighting Control have been involved in the project providing Commissioning of the lighting control system including integration to the existing BMS system.
In addition to the commissioning work Lighting control provided an on-site engineer to make alterations to the complex design of the DMX RGB control and to provide lighting controls expertise alongside the contractors electricians.
Energy saving light bulbs have taken over the world in the last couple of years so much so that later this year (2009) the major retailers in the UK plan to remove filament light bulbs from there shelves.
However in most projects with lighting controls low energy light bulbs are not to be found. In fact most systems do not support them.
Dimmable energy saving light bulbs are still in the early days of development and are not yet as cost effective as their non-dimmable predecessors.
Lighting control systems can however give significant energy savings.
Contact us to discuss how you can implement energy saving in your next project.
Stylish, Central and ChicThe Apex Waterloo Place Hotel is a luxury property that sets the standard for the ultimate in city chic.
‘Urban glamour meets contemporary comfort’ is very much the philosophy behind Apex Waterloo Place. This luxurious four-star hotel boasts the facilities and attention to detail to rival those of a five star property.
Lighting control have completed a major lighting control project in this prestige Edinburgh Development.
The works included Extensive DMX Control, Scene setting and multi-page menu controls and time based control. This programming covers all the main public spaces of the hotel including bars, reception , gym and the stylish modern swimming pool.
Lighting control also provided extensive contractor support commissioning 3rd party dmx products and fault finding installed RGB colour controls.
Commissioning was carried out with the client interior designer during two sessions of scene setting to allow for arrangement of furniture and to allow evening settings to be adjusted.
The recent introduction of the 17th edition regulations means a number of changes in the protection of circuits.
Mode Lighting units such as the tiger and Evolution have no main isolator and hence even in the previous edition of the regulations a mechanical isolator was required to isolate the incoming power to the unit to carry out mechanical and electronic maintenance.
Lighting Control have completed a 2nd project for Electrical Contractor Fitzgeralds in the Newcastle area.
The pavillion required scene setting and timed rules to automate the outlets lighting system.
More to follow!
A recent project meant i had to explain a RS232 integration to non technical users.
RS232 is a very simple way of communicating between two systems.
You can think of it as a simple speech communication a good example being the exchanges of speech that go on in a parliment or any sort of debate.
Members of parliment wish to speak to the house but if they all speak together then the message will be lost or confused due to the inability to hear the different messages coming from each parlimentarian.
To solve this problem RS232 has hardware flow control or handshaking.
When each member of the house has a message they stand and raise there hand to say that they are ready to speak. The speaker of the house then indicates to one member that the house is ready to hear their message and in this way one message at a time is heard.
I an RS232 system only one line of commuication is established. Imagine a secretary and her boss dicatating a letter but the secretary has no short hand skills. Each small section of the letter dicatated by the boss is brought to an eand by the Secretarty saying “STOP” while she finishes writing that section on the word processor. When the secretary is ready to continue she indicates this to the boss and the next section .
In the RS232 system these “STOP” and “GO” messages are indicated by the high or low level of the CTS flag. The sending system has a similar flag (RTS) which indicates that it has data ready to send to the recipient.
| 9 Pin Connector on a DTE device (PC connection) | |
| Male RS232 DB9 |  |
| Pin Number | Direction of signal: |
| 1 | Carrier Detect (CD) (from DCE) Incoming signal from a modem |
| 2 | Received Data (RD) Incoming Data from a DCE |
| 3 | Transmitted Data (TD) Outgoing Data to a DCE |
| 4 | Data Terminal Ready (DTR) Outgoing handshaking signal |
| 5 | Signal Ground Common reference voltage |
| 6 | Data Set Ready (DSR) Incoming handshaking signal |
| 7 | Request To Send (RTS) Outgoing flow control signal |
| 8 | Clear To Send (CTS) Incoming flow control signal |
| 9 | Ring Indicator (RI) (from DCE) Incoming signal from a modem |
