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| Since the dawn of time both fire and then candlelight have been used by man to set and enhance their domestic scene. Romance blossomed in the caves just as it does in a Nottinghill brasserie today. Whilst the food has probably improved,, the basic lighting principles remain unchanged. Fit the best system that the budget can afford to supply task, ambient and accent lighting on demand. Today’s technology provides for electronic methods rather than sticks and tallow, but the motivation is the same. Nothing can alter our mood as effectively or swiftly as a change in the lighting. Whether it is the anticipatory excitement of lowering the lights to blow out our birthday candles, or experiencing full blown irritation and the surly waiter raising the lights in a restaurant to signal his desire to bring you the bill, a change in the lighting scene can bring about an immediate effect. Ask Sean Connery, even James Bond would struggle in 1000 lux! |
But scene setting has its uses beyond the romantic and seductive. Pressure on living space has ensured that our homes are required to be multifunctional. A single living area can perform many roles – Dining Space, Home office, Entertainment, Food Preparation and somewhere for children to do their homework. Designers and architects are able to design the space to cope with this multi use, but a scene setting system used as a support tool can make the job so much easier.
Specifying scene set dimming is more of a necessity now than ever before. In the past a designer has been able to ‘get away’ with using rotaries. A sophisticated client simply won’t put up with this any more. You can’t easily ‘two way’ a rotary – what good is that in a bedroom or entertainment space? What about the aesthetics? Six lighting circuits in a drawing room means six rotaries on the wall, not a pretty site. There is only one solution and even the large developers use scene setting regularly now. |
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Essentially there are two types of scene set system. Firstly there is the remote dimmer racks sited away from the designated area (possibly by the distribution board, or in a cupboard) Leax's SceneMaster 8000 and MiniMaster range. A signal cable is run from this to the local control plates and scene setting or programming is done either by laptop or from the control plate itself. This type of system can be networked, can control high loads and a variety of lamp types. It can also drive blinds & screens, offer time clock functionality, daylight linking and touchscreen control. The more basic, but equally effective and budget sensitive, system is the wall dimmer providing programmable scene setting in one area at a time Leax's 4x4. Whichever system is specified it is important to remember who will be using it. The client won’t care what the programming software is like, they will not be interested in how easy or complex the installation process is, they won’t even care how the system addresses the technical specification for the job. At the end of the day, the most important concerns for the client are….Does the control plate look good? Is it easy to programme and recall a scene? What sort of after sales service will I get if it goes wrong? It really is all about aesthetics. |
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| Because of the fundamental importance of lighting to any project it is vital that a dimming system is considered as part of the lighting design. There are wiring implications when specifying a system whether it is a remote dimmer rack sited near the distribution board, or a local wall dimmer. Both systems are likely to have slave plates and too often we see projects where not enough of these have been allowed for. If a room has more than one entry point (garden doors, ensuite bathrooms etc) there must be a control plate by every door. Don’t scrimp on the budget and put only one plate beside the double bed! The whole point of these systems is that they are user friendly, add value to a project and are ‘a bit special’, something to be shown off by clients and estate agents alike. It is worth remembering that the end user is likely to know very little about the system ultimately installed (and probably cares less). At Leax we welcome the opportunity to be involved in the system design and specification at an early stage. Whilst we seldom get to meet the end users, we have a lot to offer a custom installer in terms of programming services and design options. |
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