Two Key Lighting Trends to Take Lightboxes to a Whole New Level!

McRae attends conferences annually to ensure we are always on the leading edge with our lightbox components – from improving energy efficiency, to enhancing color-rendering index, to dimming and smart lighting.

Our two lighting experts were like kids in a candy store scoping out all the new technology; their minds were whirling, already thinking about how to incorporate the lasted technology into our lightboxes.

We noted two main trends this year that we are excited about and want to share with you.

BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Technology:

BLE technology has recently gained popularity in the lighting industry.  McRae has been working on this technology for the past few years and there is no question that connected lighting is the future; the platforms, protocols and the data are evolving at record pace.  BLE can not only achieve the basic function of lighting controls, it can also create a mesh network for smart buildings. When luminaires/lightboxes are equipped with a BLE module, they no longer need to be in direct radio range since a wireless signal can be relayed from fixture to fixture. This technology could enable a control system to have very wide signal coverage, such as an entire building or a total school campus.

Beacon technology can also be embedded into the BLE module, allowing lighting units to have interaction with mobile devices. McRae is leading the way with the only patent to put beacons into lightboxes so they can track data metrics within a retail environment or device application.

Human Centric Lighting aka Color Tuning

There are three types of tunings:

  • Dim to warm – allows a luminaire to turn the light from cool white to warm white when the luminaire is dimmed
  • Tunable white – allows a luminaire to achieve any color temperature at any intensity within specified parameters
  • Full color tuning – mixes several independent colors within a lighting unit

It is proven that ambient lighting is effective in helping people not only to stay focused, but to relax and can even be mood-altering.

This lighting can also simulate different sky environments, imagine a brilliant sunrise, a clear blue sky, a stunning sunset or even an ominous dark sky.  This type of application can be used for architectural or commercial buildings; and can even change throughout the day using our amazing skylight lightboxes, expertise and cutting-edge lab equipment.  In fact, we recently had a customer who requested “daylight” lighting in his ceiling skylight lightboxes.  We created them to look exactly like “daylight” and when he saw them he absolutely loved them but realized that what he really was looking for was more of a “cocktail hour” lighting effect so we were able to assimilate, measure the lighting intensity and re-configure the color tuning which resulted in the ultimate effect he was looking for.

If you want to learn more about our lighting capabilities, expertise or how we can help you on your next human centric lighting project please contact us at 905.569.1605 or email us at sales@mcraeimaging.com.