Specialty and Architectural Lighting — Design

Soraa’s reputation as a premium manufacturer of LED directional lighting rests largely on its VIVID line of LED MR and PAR lamps. On the traditional color rendering scale, VIVID series lamps have a 95 CRI making them suitable for most color critical lighting applications including art galleries, museums, restaurants and high end retail. Other brands also offer LED lamps with CRI in the 90’s. What sets Soraa apart is how they have added other color science...

The ability of the human eye to see the world in color and to perceive the smallest variations in the color of objects and illuminated spaces enriches the visual experience beyond measure. A major factor in the perception of color is the light source that is illuminating the object or space. The perceived color of an object is the color of the light reflected or transmitted by the object when it is illuminated. For example,...

We've written here before about one of the toughest problems for manufacturers of LED replacement lamps: achieving light intensity comparable to halogen in the MR16 form factor - particularly for narrow beam distribution. The initial blog post was written in 2014, then updated in late 2016. The update concluded by stating that new breakthroughs in GaN on GaN technology had allowed the manufacturing of single point source LED MR16's – an important step toward replicating...

The next time you walk through your downtown after dark take a minute to notice the lights – on buildings, on poles and post tops, along sidewalks. How many of these light fixtures put the illumination only where it is required to meet the purpose of the fixture installation? There is a good chance you will see light spreading well beyond the intended target. Much of the light will be illuminating the night sky, where...

Warehouses using rack storage systems present unique lighting design challenges particularly for retrofits intended to improve the lighting scheme. The layout of most product storage warehouses comprises a shipping and receiving area (may be the same or separate areas), a low, open storage area for bulky items and a high rack storage area, usually occupying most of the warehouse space. Rack storage systems are often built to take advantage of high ceilings. Forklifts (or robotic...

This past weekend, I was at the Field Museum in Chicago and wandered into some of the leas populated, darker exhibits that the museum houses. Both the Ancient Americas and Pacific Spirits exhibits are quiet and dark, featuring clothing and art from these cultures. A much more popular exhibit on Ancient Egypt is similarly dimly lit for the most part. But why are these exhibits so dark? The dinosaur exhibit is brightly lit, popular, and...