Guest Authors

  By Monty Miao, International Trade Manager, Star Factory Lantern A design-methodology case study on using outline, surface response, motion, and full- system commissioning to keep a monumental, illuminated character visually legible from skyline scale to close-up viewing. When an illuminated character reaches 12 meters in height, adding more light does not automatically make it [...]

  This article was originally a LinkedIn post by Armin Ismail. Reprinted with permission. By Armin Ismail In 2025, I sold USLED CO LLC — a commercial lighting company I founded in 2018 — to a larger industry player. Seven years of building, and then an exit. I didn’t come from the lighting industry. I [...]

  By Jerry Chen, Co-Founder & CEO, Electrify AI has dramatically improved productivity in many sectors of the economy, and manufacturing is no exception. Among lighting manufacturers, the companies with the biggest productivity gains are the ones adopting digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual representation of your business. For lighting manufacturers, this includes [...]

  By Geoffrey Marlow, Founder & President, Marlow Advisory Group Editor’s Note: This article was originally a LinkedIn post by Geoffrey Marlow, reprinted with permission. Special thanks to Geoffrey Marlow.   For years we’ve been told that technology would eventually disintermediate the electrical distributor. Manufacturers would sell direct. Contractors would buy online. Digital marketplaces would [...]

  By Yash Rathod, Design Director, Mario Contract Lighting | VP, IES Roanoke Chapter After designing lighting for almost a decade in the hospitality industry, I walk into a hotel room the way a doctor walks into a waiting room. The first thing that catches my attention is lighting. And even though, it is one [...]

  By Richard Kovac, COO, Golden Lighting The following white paper excerpt is reprinted with permission from Golden Lighting. Abstract: Fixture-scale mistakes are the single most common lighting error in real homes, and they persist because most sizing advice gives homeowners one formula when the problem actually has three variables. This white paper lays out the [...]

  By Yang Lan, International Market Manager, Star Factory Lantern A daytime attraction is read through movement, surface detail and close-range interaction. After dark, silhouette, brightness, color relationships, viewing distance and control strategy take over. Planning both modes together can make outdoor attractions more coherent, serviceable and flexible. At Night, the Design Priority Changes Outdoor [...]

Figure 1. Feasibility boundaries for achieving 250 m-EDI.   By Bill Chan, President, LiteController Inc. Shortly after my recent IES FIRES article, “Circadian Lighting in Offices: Feasibility Boundaries and Design Trade-Offs” was published, an architectural lighting designer left a comment on LinkedIn: “Nowadays, it’s getting [to be] a real Mission Impossible!” That brief comment perfectly [...]

  By Gary Satanovsky, Product Design and Marketing Manager, NuWatt Lighting Since the earliest days of electric light, illumination has played a central role in keeping people and property safe after dark. Along the way, security lighting became governed by a simple, seemingly intuitive principle: brighter spaces are safer spaces. And while that assumption – higher [...]