How to be smart

Following on from last week’s blog I am going to focus on the issue of training and the challenges that we face in an ever-evolving market.

We can’t know everything and anyone who says they do is most likely talking out of the derrière! 

 I have worked with some brilliant people of the years, smart, intelligent and very gifted when it comes to designing a product or the creation of some super intelligent software. They are all amazing people with a skill set that sets them apart from others as they are true experts within their chosen field. The same is true of designers and creative people generally; they have vision and are driven to deliver their clients design.

One thing I have found with all of these smart and creative people is that they accept that education continues and that it doesn’t end when they leave university or college. They want to be relevant and up to speed on the latest trends and whenever possible drive technology to further enhance technology or their vision.

Often the challenge is where to obtain that knowledge and there are a number of specialist courses available on a wide range of different aspects of lighting and these are run by organisations such as CIBSE SLL and the LIA. You also have HND’s, BSc’s and MSc’s in Lighting and again these are often in addition to his or her original qualifications.

In addition to the more formal structure of education we have a range of manufacturer focused courses which again offer a great deal of technical input and provide real educational benefit. 

Certainly with the rapid uptake of LED’s in Lighting a good deal of the education on this light source was undertaken by the manufacturers of the technology rather than academia.

Manufacturers invested in education to enable both luminaire and scheme designers to better understand the technology and to utilise its features and minimal form factor to create amazing new luminaires and exciting lighting schemes.

Fast forward a few years and LED’s are well established and now the focus has changed to look at the way we control and manage lighting. The revolution in lighting control is being seen to run parallel to the Internet of Things and although this is in part true there is a considerable volume of lighting control that will be stand alone or integrated at a more local level.

Scalability is everything and understanding how to use different controls platforms to deliver lighting installations that will still be as efficient and relevant in ten years as they are today is a challenge.

Educating your market is a positive step in achieving that goal, I have used the term “Push/Pull” for many years as the ideal way to deliver a truly smart lighting control system. The Pull is from the end client or their engineers as they have the vision and understand what they need to achieve from the building; the Push is the tools and case studies that support that vision along with strategic partnerships.

The knowledge I have gained over the years I have put to good use and as well as lecturing on a number of lighting course over the years I have generally focused on controls and emergency lighting, although more recently I have been lecturing on the Internet of Things(IoT). To that end I created a series of approved CPD’s on a range of lighting related topics that I can offer to companies that might find them of interest. The CPD’s are free and do count towards your CPD credits if you’re a qualified engineer. The end user client will also find them interesting as I cover topics from DALI-2, through emergency Lighting, IoT, Security and also the fundamentals of how to specify lighting. In addition, I have created other training presentations on a wide range of topics that might also be of interest.

In all cases the aim of these CPD’s is to educate and provide knowledge that will help you make better decisions on how to manage lighting and how to design for the future. 

Picking up on a comment I made earlier, we cannot know everything, but we can put in place a framework to allow us to evolve and to embrace the latest technology. The Internet of Things is about connectivity and that will come in time; the important thing is to be ready to embrace the new technology.

If you want any further information on the CPD's then drop me a line on my work e mail or if you prefer my personal e mail

Stewart B Langdown FSLL

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