6 minute read
The Value of Telling a Better Lighting Story
By JACK O’HANLON Principal, The O’Hanlon Group, Inc.
Having spent almost 4 decades marketing lighting products as a rep and agency principal in a small market, as often occurs on the rep landscape these days, my agency was asked to consider a joint-venture arrangement with a much larger agency in an adjacent territory. As any agency principal would tell you, a commission-only business model has to expand the sales base to remain a viable player, whether by additional staff or, as seems more common these days, through merger or acquisition of what had previously been a competing agency. Being keenly aware of our “dinosaur” status, a small rep agency in a small market, we joined forces with a nearby much larger agency and, by mutual consent, were given the opportunity to operate with a pleasant level of autonomy within our territory.
It’s not unfair to say that a sort of “veteran” status has been reached following the aforementioned 4 decades of accumulated experience and knowledge. In my case, I felt a need to offer my knowledge of the use of design software to assist reps (and later, manufacturers and electrical distributors) with their normal design requests, typically to confirm light levels for a proposed lighting system, though in some cases to be able to show the resulting visual impacts of the lighting products they were recommending.
Given the past ten to twelve years of LEDs’ explosive growth into mainstream acceptance, better information is ever more critical, and it is imperative for the rep to provide accurate, more meaningful information to their client base. In referencing the old sales saw, “You eat what you kill,” as a commission-only company, many agency principals would probably prefer that their salespeople are actively selling to their client bases and not in the office trying to figure out how to use the design software. Finally, I thought, a potential place to apply “all this knowledge!”
Do Better Lighting Deliverables Assure You The Order?
Of course not, but if providing better, more thorough information than the “other guys” counts for anything, it should sure as heck improve your odds! In the example to the right, we were asked to help with providing rendered images for a 7-story boutique hotel remodel. The experienced rep salesman suggested to the architect a possible design solution using a very narrow beam LED floodlight mounted just below the building parapet, aimed directly downward. He then engaged the manufacturer’s applications staff and received their resulting calculated illuminance on the vertical plane of a section only of the building facade. Certainly meaningful to a point, but the architect was looking for much greater detail as it applied to a specific exterior paint finish and the need to understand any potential issues of glare for guests.
Color-changing raytraced image
We were asked to expand the details of the manufacturer’s presentation. We did so by considering the entire building facade and even added the arched window openings to provide further architectural context. By “seeing” the 5° floodlight beam’s virtual performance, the architect then had an assurance of this product’s capabilities, justifying the luminaire cost, and eliminating the need for any physical mock-up.
Do The Numbers Matter All The Time?
Mostly yes, but sometimes, no. In the re-purposed bank space below, for example, the horizontal foot-candle values are indeed minimal (<5FC), though this setting is one for evening entertaining, and thus the lighting focus is on the wall hangings and the piano in the center of the space. Telling this lighting story with the resulting foot-candle calculation only would tell nothing of the ambient effect of the entire lighting system, particularly when the color-changing and fresco backlighting impacts are revealed.
“We Only Need The Foot-candles...”
As often might be the case, a rep may be asked to recommend a product for a specific design need, with the follow-up request to confirm the specifier’s luminaire placements are adequate to the task. At this point, a design software, such as Lighting Analysts’ AGi32TM, would typically be utilized to provide the calculated empirical results, normally in foot-candles.
In years past, however, these results would have rarely included details such as interior walls, office windows, exterior (perimeter) glazing, or varying ceiling heights, all of which can dramatically impact resulting lighting levels. Today’s design software provides the capability for these details and many more, thus telling a more accurate and meaningful lighting performance story.
In the example to the right of a single floor of an office tower LED upgrade, we thought it critical to the empirical ‘story-telling’ to be sure any items which might obscure (or sometimes enhance) the resulting light levels be considered for the client, a large real estate management company. Thus, all the interior walls, structural columns, office, and perimeter windows were considered in the calculated results. The simple addition of a carpet texture (with an adjusted reflectance to the standard 20%) on the floor provides some architectural context, particularly in the generated rendered images.
As a lighting professional, it’s incumbent upon everyone to be accurate, especially as it applies to not only marketing lighting products, but to telling a more holistic lighting performance story. By delivering lighting information beyond merely single product or package cost, you raise your professional quotient to your customer base, from specifier to end-user, all while dramatically improving those elusive odds time and again to secure the order.
