The Philosophy at Work

A major part of that alignment is an understanding of the high-end residential market — and what defines great architectural lighting design in luxury homes.

“Lighting should be applied to elevate and enhance the user experience,” says Luke Thomas, design director with John Cullen Lighting. “It is so much more than an evenly distributed grid of downlights across the ceiling or the specification of the most efficient delivery of lumens per watt.”

The “more” that Thomas speaks of is his firm’s knowledge of light’s component parts: “If you can understand that ‘lighting design’ is actually the application of light and shadow, you’ll be able to achieve much better results. The play between these two elements creates contrast, allowing us as designers to manipulate the user experience and direct people's attention to what we want them to see, while subtly disguising things we don’t want them to focus on. For magical results, lighting needs to be small, low glare, and so discreet that it goes unnoticed.”

Beams and Optics

Thomas further explains that there are two primary types of luminaires that play a crucial role in shaping and controlling the effect of the light in a space. “A narrow spot beam can be used to concentrate all available light from the source into a very tight space, providing maximum intensity and contrast, which is perfect for accent lighting. It’s what we’ll use for pin-spotting a coffee table, a piece of artwork such as a statue, or for uplighting a door reveal.”

“Conversely, a wide beam optic could be used over the same light source to give a very diffused lighting effect which can be used for general light when directed straight down, or for a soft wash of light over a wall, curtain or wardrobe,” he adds.

The enemy of great results: glare. “In all cases, limiting — or if possible, completely excluding — glare is important,” says Thomas. “Our eyes are automatically drawn towards the brightest elements of a space — we don’t want a glaring spotlight on the ceiling or a linear LED that is not concealed within a joinery unit. The effect of the light should be the focus, not the source of the light.” The expertise needed to eliminate that issue is another reason for the partnership.

Tunable Light

A lot has been written about “human-centric” (or circadian) lighting on the Crestron blog (here’s a notable example), but it’s important to remember that tunable lighting is a tremendous design tool, too.

As Thomas explains, “Human-centric lighting is a way of helping align our internal body clocks with artificial lighting using the tunable light sources within artificial light fixtures to mimic the colour of natural daylight. It’s a powerful tool, but not always relevant to what the client wants within a residential setting.”

“The ways we can manipulate colour in a given room have grown exponentially since the introduction of the modern LED fixture,” says Short. “It’s not just about helping with waking and sleep cycles — it’s a way to set mood and have the lighting match the use of a given room during a specific time of day or event.” Bright white light in the living area might be terrible for evening entertaining, for example, but extraordinarily helpful in the kitchen as the host prepares the food. “Additionally, the impact that the colour and temperature of light can have on a treasured artwork can be nothing short of profound,” says Short. “Colour and temp become true design elements.”

Workflow and Collaboration

Another aspect of the relationship between John Cullen Lighting and Crestron is the former’s understanding of the role of the dealer/integrator in achieving results. “We check in with the integrator prior to kicking off a design with the client. We don’t want to start proposing functions that may not be possible within the system that the integrator has agreed to provide.”

That stretches to the look and feel of every control interface. “It’s particularly important to have conversations about elements such as keypads,” says Thomas. “What style are they? Will they also control blinds or other equipment? How many buttons will be available for lighting scenes?”

Thomas also believes that it’s essential to ensure consistency throughout the property — both in terms of aesthetics and functionality. “If the top right button on a keypad is the bright scene in one room, it should be the bright scene in all rooms,” he adds. “Clients should be able to reach for a keypad and press the button they need without having to read the engraving.”

The Platform is Key

And with Crestron, all of those controls are driven by an extremely powerful platform. “It was always our intention to design the Crestron Home OS to keep the designer’s vision intact,” says Short. “That includes scene building, native integration of multiple protocols for tunable white or color, and, maybe most importantly, simplified commissioning without the need for custom code.”

“Beyond that, we need to develop the lighting scheme and produce a load schedule so that the integrators know what to specify,” says Thomas. “We will then liaise through the project to develop the designs, capture changes, and then commission the system.”

“We sometimes get asked to provide light levels to input into the control system prior to commissioning,” Thomas explains. “While we should know what the intent of each scene will be, it’s almost impossible to say what dimmed level each group should be set to without seeing it in person. The levels will be affected by ceiling heights, floor and wall finishes, decorative lighting, artwork — everything. So it’s all a guess until you are actually there in the home.”

The Eye as Final Arbiter

Whatever advanced technology is driving the experience, Thomas always keeps in mind what’s most important: the experience itself.

“The most important metric is how the lit effect looks and feels,” he says. “It’s more important than what is on a table of information on a data sheet. We don’t select equipment based on numbers; everything must be tested and verified by eye. In the lighting industry, there is a long history of suppliers manipulating data to make their equipment appear more desirable. For example, they only publish efficacy and CRI (colour rendering index) data for cooler-temperature LEDs, where the data is more favourable. Good quality CRI, consistent colour matching, and clean, striation-free beams make the lit effect feel vibrant and alive.”

“For luminaires, we want adjustability in direction and focus of beam to allow us to finesse and perfect the final effects once the interior installation has been completed,” says Thomas. “Small adjustments to tilt or fitting a corrective lens can make a big difference. We also find ourselves debating over whether a light should be dimmed to 22% or 23% — those subtle adjustments can really change how the scene looks. Ensuring we install quality drivers and dimmers is paramount. This enables the refinement of low-end dimming, particularly for darker lighting scenes.”

A “Designer-Friendly” Platform

While it’s easy to see why Crestron collaborated with John Cullen, the benefits for Luke Thomas and his colleagues were immediately apparent from their side as well. “As a lighting designer, I feel like I have spent most of my life waiting for an engineer with a laptop to input the settings I am asking for and the dreaded ‘upload.’”

Now the good news for Thomas: “The Crestron Home OS is very user-friendly, and with a small touch screen tablet, or even my phone, I can walk around the property programming and saving the scenes room-by-room in a live edit mode. The design of the colour-tunable lighting controls is really intuitive. It’s very easy to use and independently select the colour temperature and the intensity for each group.

“There is no getting lost in multiple layers of an app and becoming frustrated,” he adds. “It’s a good balance between access to the features I need for scene setting and not being overly technical. It has a manageable number of settings that make it easy to find the ones I need.”

Common Pitfalls

To achieve the right results — from installation to ease of programming to meeting the client's demands — quality control is imperative. “The most common pitfall is probably ‘value engineering’ that swaps what we have specified for ‘look-alikes’ that will never deliver the same effect, or where some of the accent lighting is removed to reduce the budget — it also reduces impact,” says Thomas.

But lighting can be a tougher sell than, say, high-end hardwood floors or top-of-the-line countertops. “With lighting being mostly an intangible substance, it can be difficult to convey its importance,” Thomas explains. “We’re trying to sell something whose source we don’t want you to see.”

The solution? “The most effective course correction is an in-person demonstration,” says Thomas. “To understand lighting, you have to feel it. That’s why our showroom space is so powerful. Some clients come in, and after 10 minutes, they just want to leave us to it.”

“This is what designers, builders, architects, and integrators will get a small taste of at the Crestron booth at ISE,” says Short. “Talk to us, and the team at John Cullen Lighting. Ultimately, our this initial collaboration is all about delivering luxury lighting experiences that clients love.”