Making the right choices

Peter Broome, Director at UK smart lighting controls manufacturer, Rako shines a light on getting it right.

With the Rako Modular range, each keypad is designed to offer a premium quality aesthetic with the user experience optimised

The nature of the home, and how we now live within it, has changed dramatically in recent years.

The home is now a multi-functional space which allows different family members to work, play, educate and entertain, or be entertained, often all at the same time. Deploying smart home technology in an intelligent way can add the much needed flexibility to these spaces, making them suitable for different purposes and creating different moods and environments.

As lighting is part of the building infrastructure, it is only natural that it is one of the first elements to consider when specifying smart home applications. Lighting design has also become a serious consideration when creating a new home or upgrading existing rooms.

This has driven investment in lighting control technology that can deliver the right ambience, together with the levels of comfort and convenience that people now see they need, want or will require in the future for multi-functional spaces. With this investment, homeowners have turned to integrators to help make the technology experience as easy to use, reliable and enjoyable as possible.

As each home and client is unique, so are the lighting control challenges. That is why it is important for integrators to offer choice and flexibility to their clients when it comes to product selection.

In the first instance, it’s important to understand whether a wired or wireless lighting control system is the right choice for the project, or whether it is a hybrid combination of the two.

A wired system does require cabling and can cause disruption in an existing building whilst also incurring more costs, whereas a wireless system is cheaper and easier to install. These options need to be considered from the outset and it is helpful to work with a manufacturer, like Rako, that can offer the same keypad design for wireless and wired systems, meaning there is no compromise on the finish.

Keypad flexibility is an important lighting control trend. Integrators need to make sure they can deliver the functionality and simplicity of operation that’s right for their project and their clients. Rako’s recently launched Modular keypads are designed to offer that high degree of versatility, including a choice of control options and finishes that sets it apart from the competition.

This brings us on to aesthetics and keypad design. New keypad designs offer different button sizes which can be combined in multiple ways to create custom button layouts, perfectly tailored to an installation.

Again, with the Rako Modular range, each keypad is designed to offer a premium quality aesthetic with the user experience optimised by a comforting, robust and tactile button press. All Modular keypads are available with black buttons and seven hand-finished metal surrounds – satin chrome, polished chrome, antique brass, polished brass, matt black, matt bronze and matt white.

Every client also now expects to be able to use their phone to control everything and the recently enhanced Rako HUB interface is a key, feature-rich enabler of that benefit.

The demands of consumers may have changed but these new higher expectations provide integrators with an opportunity to deliver high quality and flexible lighting control solutions to their clients.

Picture courtesy of Matt Livey and dpa lighting consultants

RAKO LIGHTING CONTROLS

MAKING THE SMART HOME DREAM A REALITY.

Designers and installers can specify projects with confidence knowing that Rako can control all light sources including smooth dimming of LEDs. System integration is easily achievable, linking lighting to audio-visual, security systems and curtain and blind control.

Rako’s scope of projects is far reaching, from hotels and spas to churches, residential and luxury MDU developments.

With users enjoying the ability to recall a scene, or mood of lighting at the touch of a button, a swipe of a smartphone or by voice command.

Designed and manufactured in the UK, Rako offers an unparalleled range of products backed by a project planning and support service that is second to none.