A new alternative to the cone By Jeff Campbell
A technical breakthrough by Color Kinetics makes achieving even lighting much easier. Clever geometry replaces the usual cone of light with a form that is L-shaped. OptiField makes calculation and planning much simpler, and can also save money. Beams of light are shaped like cones. Everyone knows it – not just lighting professionals. A cone is the traditional beam shape, whether the light comes from a humble flashlight or an advanced luminaire. But a conical beam of light is inherently challenging when trying to light a surface uniformly because it spreads light unevenly – bright in the middle, fading fast at the edges. To address this issue, lighting professionals often find themselves doing some careful aiming and adjusting in the field. Even then, hotspots, banding and other artifacts can distract the eye and mar an installation. In short, the cone can be a conundrum. Lighting designers asked us for a way to illuminate interior and exterior surfaces more uniformly, without sacrificing brightness. After years of intensive research and development by our engineering team, we created Color Kinetics OptiField – breakthrough optical technology that sets a new standard for uniformity. OptiField rethinks the traditional V-shaped beam. Instead of a cone, it delivers an L-shaped beam that creates a rectangular panel or field, illuminating surfaces with the kind of bright, flawless light that makes lighting designers and their clients very, very happy. What does OptiField uniformity look like? You see the same brightness at all points, without distracting variations. You see bright, white or dynamic color light. You see carefully controlled fading at the edges of the delivered light, making it easier to integrate multiple luminaires. What don’t you see? Hotspots or variations. Just pure light – and lots of it. Lighting designers work hard to achieve illuminance uniformity in commercial LED lighting projects. Now OptiField makes it a whole lot easier.
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When our customers first see OptiField, they’re amazed and a little stunned, since they’re accustomed to a cone-shaped beam of light. But then they begin to imagine the possibilities. Seamless wall washing that creates an inviting interior for a high-end restaurant. Bright, evenly illuminated office towers that stand out on the skyline. Clearly delineated vertical bands of color running up the façades of large buildings. They begin to envision all the applications that might benefit from bright, extremely uniform light. They appreciate that OptiField gets rid of complicated overlapping cones of light and time-consuming on-site aiming. And they see the potential to lower cost and energy use, since OptiField projects often require fewer luminaires. The technical breakthrough that enables all of these possibilities is an innovative optic shaped roughly like a button nose. Despite its underwhelming appearance, this carefully calibrated free-form optic is the result of years of extensive research. It’s designed to output an unconventional beam shape like no other – one that goes beyond the capabilities of the traditional cone and the limitations of forward-throw asymmetric optics. OptiField lets you bring unequalled uniformity to your high-profile lighting projects. It opens up new possibilities for attention-getting effects that were nearly impossible in the past. It helps you define your signature style and take on ambitious new projects. It’s simple. Uniformity starts with OptiField – breakthrough optics for beautifully even light. Learn more www.colorkinetics.com
Standard optical systems create cone-shaped beams of light (left) that illuminate a wall unevenly, while Color Kinetics OptiField (right) creates a radically different beam shape that covers the wall in bright, uniform light.
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