After a trip to the International Lightfair in Chicago yesterday, one thing is clear: Light fixtures have grown extremely sophisticated in their design and capabilities. The days of standard dimmable fixtures are gone. Today, it’s all about tunable white light and colored LED lighting engineered to promote health and wellness, evoke ambiance, and even put our circadian rhythms back on track (a la circadian lighting). As evident from its dynamic display at Lightfair, USAI Lighting along with new partner Savant are ready to take home lighting to the next level.
The Missing Link of Home Lighting
The technology behind these capabilities is immensely more sophisticated than standard dimming features, which can complicate the process of integrating these super smart, highly functional, and beautiful new light fixtures into a smart home ecosystem.
Finding a way to easily alter the color temperature (Kelvin) of white lights or the WRGB color of fixtures to emulate a sunny day or lift your mood, for example, has become the “missing link” in today’s world of modern, state-of-the-art home lighting.
As a spokesperson at the USAI booth at Lightfair put it, “Light fixture manufacturers were busy developing new technology on one island, and home systems manufacturers were developing technologies on another island; the two never intersected, leaving a void between a sophisticated fixture and simple control.”
Savant CEO Robert Madonna adds, “Fixtures are such an important part of a house, to do it right, you need the right combination of control and lighting. What you can do with fixtures these days has introduced consumers to a whole new world of home lighting.”
Bridging the Gap Between Fixtures and Control
“There has been a growing consumer demand for colored and tunable lighting, so home systems integrators have found themselves struggling to deal with unfamiliar communications protocols and processing units that drive these types of fixtures,” says Savant director of product marketing Tim McInerney.
Intending to bridge the gap between this new generation of smart fixtures and simple control is Savant and USAI. The two companies have joined forces to develop cohesiveness between USAI’s extensive line of innovative LED solutions and Savant’s well-established, intuitive control systems.
USAI Fixtures Available from Savant
In both joint product design and market initiatives, Savant and USAI Lighting will provide integrators with seamless end-to-end lighting solutions that both solve the compatibility issues integrators face with disparate solutions and deliver a control experience via Savant’s TrueImage user interface.
Savant integrators will be able to offer their clients a wide selection of residentially focused USAI Lighting fixtures from six unique, popular product families encompassing hundreds of fixture options.
Savant and USAI Lighting will be providing online project design, ordering tools, and other support services for integrators as part of this initiative, with dealers being able to purchase USAI light fixtures directly from Savant.
At the USAI exhibit at Lightfair, Savant demonstrated a specially curated TruImage system that at the touch of a button on a touchpanel could tune the lighting color and temperature to emulate a variety of conditions. The scenes were chosen based on significant research by USA Lighting to include: circadian, soft day, soft night, energize, sunlight, and relax. Tunable white settings included warm, sunrise, natural and early A.M.
Scene Control on Steroids—Use Your Voice to Set the Lights
Savant and USAI Lighting will be utilizing Savant’s scene engine and USAI Lighting’s color research to serve up pre-defined light color and scene content that can be implemented as is or easily adjusted based on personal preference and project design. In addition to the Lightfair demo tablet running Savant’s TruImage platform, users can change dimming levels, Kelvin temperatures and WRGB colors also from their phone, Savant touch screens and Pro Remote as well as Savant Scene access via voice command.
“The combination of Savant and USA Lighting’s advanced controls and lighting technology provides an intuitive way for homeowners to experience the power of personalized lighting—light that is as dynamic and ever-changing as we are,” said Bonnie Littman, President, and CEO of USAI Lighting.
“For the first time ever, homeowners can curate their lighting for any activity, whether it’s for better living, working or playing, and we are thrilled to partner with Savant, bringing this experience to the market in a high-quality and meaningful way.”
