Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast (Get A Grip On Lighting)

Nigel Harvey is the Chief Executive at Recolight, a lamp recycler in the UK. We wanted to know how effective extended producer responsibility programs really are and whether or not they’ve hit a limit on the number of compliant operators. We weigh the pros and cons of enforcement and persuasion when it comes to recycling, and the strategies that come into play on both sides.

Aside from the business of recycling Nigel likes to take moral stands. Online marketplaces are letting some groups sell lamps without buying into the UK’s scheme for ensuring bulbs get disposed of properly; at this point we need to call on laws that force responsibility onto platform holders. Similarly, Nigel has been arrested twice at Extinction Rebellion protests in London, as much as we try to mitigate carbon and build things better, demand is for carbon is only going up - he’s sick of it and felt he needed to make a stand, his morals are trumping his obedience to the law. We also talk politics and the nature of leadership, and the time scales both work at being wrong for the problems we face.

Dr Jacob Liberman is here to explain the nature of light and consciousness to Michael and Greg. He starts with the idea that seeing is more than just vision before explaining his background overcoming his astigmatism, his work as an optometrist, and growth in spiritual self-reflection.

The conversation stray fairly far from the nuts and bolts of lighting and more into the relationship between humans, light and darkness and how that can motivate us to design and build better lighting systems.

You can find more of Jacob’s work, including his books at https://www.jacobliberman.org/

Alp Durmus is a Lighting scientist and assistant professor of architectural engineering at Penn State. He came on the show to discuss his research in optimization of lamp color; reducing light use by aiming for the most reflectivity of the object you’re lighting.

We care more about seeing things than we care about energy use, the idea of saving power and making things look better is an appealing one, but are his methods too complicated to apply in the field?

Aside from our own struggles to make the most of IES TM-30, we discuss provoking reactions with light alone, the role of marketing, why quality means something different to each of the different professions in lighting, and the ethics of manipulating people with lighting systems.

The IDA and NAILD have not only signed a memorandum of joint understanding, but will be working together for the next five years on joint efforts for darker, better nights. LS Evolve will have a module on the technical aspects and best practices of dark sky-friendly outlighting, but for now Michael Colligan and Jane Slade will be hosting a series of special releases on the moral, psychological, and physiological reasons to pursue dark sky lighting projects.

In this first part, we discuss how brightness is bad for the human lifestyle, how to appreciate darkness indoors, how light at night changes wildlife, as well as the heritage and connections we have to the night sky.

Light pollution is the easiest thing to solve, and everyone can benefit from it. Tune in for the next few weeks as we explore the power of darkness.

Christina Calaway of Spark Media is a real old school lighting dork, which means our conversation begins with pulsed-start metal halides and other semi-forgotten lamp and fixture features. Before this turns into another scrub session, we transition to her current job in the industry: freelance marketing specifically catering to the lighting industry.

The marketing departments of lighting vendors and manufacturing have always had a power over language that comes from having to convince people that lights had value beyond being on or off. As LED adoption is evening out that gift for wording needs to be paired with controls and other features if you want to see success. We share our misadventures in copywriting, tips on working on social media, and the meaning behind web metrics.

We close out on the power of a good spec sheet and why you should sit on your own complaint line from time to time.

In the second part of our special dark sky series we are joined by Paul Bogard, author of The End of Night and What if Night. Our discussion opened with our sense of safety - it’s easy to think that more light makes us safer, but glare makes it harder to see and without other meaningful changes related to security increasing light levels is more about having done something than done something effective.

Darkness can be a place for contemplation if you let it in. Jane and Paul discuss their evening rituals, moon watching habits and how taking a moment with the outside can be much more beneficial than we really think.

We also discuss light on its own as a communications medium, hate on Vegas, the hubris of controlling nature, and the broadening implications of good sleep and good health.

Paul explains that he doesn’t want us all back in the stone age, but does want to see buildings that are genuinely beautiful, part of that is building awareness through appearing on podcasts but by approaching regulators well-weaponed with knowledge.

Find Paul’s Books here: http://www.paul-bogard.com/

Aleddra’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Dr. Matthew Maa is here to talk about being different in the Disinfection technology business right now. He tells us what separates PECO tech from UV-based options. Aleddra uses PECO and UV-A and UV-C in different cases because not all applications are the same.

We discuss the current market for disinfection, different types of applications and what we really need from these technologies. We also brought up the idea of selling some quick hygiene theater versus actually creating proper long-term solutions. One seems like a smart play for quick learners in the industry, but it looks like Johnny-Come-Lately and his snake oil consultant will be going after both. We do discuss safety surrounding UV lighting, and what happens to all these lamps and fixtures in five years when airborne viruses aren’t at top-of-mind.

The International Dark Sky Association’s Technical Director joined us to discuss the mechanics of dark sky-friendly projects. Start from tasks; most outdoor lighting is based on pathfinding, not offering reading lamps to the general public; while color temperature has become a focus point, the direction is still the real issue when discussing skyglow issues; and he’s not with the Dark Ground Society, you can create beautiful and useful lighting systems everywhere and still respect your neighbours.

We discussed the process of designing a lighting system, where distributors can fit into that conscientiously, the entanglements surrounding ordinance enforcement, awareness-building as spreading a curse, and fighting back against daytime design habits.

This episode features the return of the UL's Adam Lilien and the introduction of the GSA’s Bryan Steverson as they discuss creating better workspaces with light.

The GSA has partnered with the Lighting Research Center and the UL over the past five years on different human-centric lighting projects. Our conversation ranges from reconsidering the importance of horizontal luminance, what we know for sure about improving people’s experience indoors, adapting existing fluorescent systems and issues related to UV-C disinfection tech.

Sibylle Schroer is an ecologist from IGB, and joined us to discuss the role the increasing amounts of light at night plays in the experience of human and non-human wildlife.

We discussed citizen science and the need for multidisciplinary approaches in the field as well as the barriers in perceived security and legislation. What emerges in the conversation is a need for night studies, not just late economics, but a genuine understanding of the purpose for each light turned on outside at night. We can create something that helps shift workers, respects wildlife, and is useful for safety needs.

Change happens faster than you think, we can come to better understanding of exterior lighting and create systems that make more sense.

How do you keep a company running for 150 years?

CN Robinson has been in distribution since before electric light bulbs existed, first in seeds and then ladders and other equipment. Executive VP and Director of Sales Peter Gray is here to explain how he keeps looking forward and finding new ways to keep his business vital.
He’s not planning on going back into horticulture, but he is adding more project business, bringing back some electrical supply and adding new people to his team.

Peter is a former President of NAILD and a former board member for NCQLP, and he shares his experiences in professional development and networking, and how that time helps him keep his staff more and more engaged and educated in their field.

It’s time to bring the question of design into this series. Nick Dunn has been trying to balance the question of people’s need for light and natural darkness as an ecological concern since he spent one sleepless night walking around Manchester.

Discussing his work with the Institute for Social Futures and the IDA with Michael and Jane he explains how he builds awareness for dark skies in society that vilifies the very idea of darkness, the need for night-time urbanism, and experiments with alternate exterior light sources.

We all need to confront a number of different mentalities to make darker skies happen, we need a sort of general absolution for the glare guilt of sales teams, a new way to inform end users about the harms bad systems might take (think cigarette labels), and reconsidering enforcement and incentives for brightness violations.

Gabe Arnold joins us from the Pacific Northwest National Labs after his recent work in DC lighting and PoE systems. But before we can that get to that we had to bring up his past at the DesignLights Consortium in the early days of the qualified products list, he explains why utilities needed the DLC’s help, where lighting dorks missed out on their rationale and some hindsight about the rush for high lumens for few watts.

But when it comes to DC power, it’s not going to replace the grid, but as we add more solar panels and energy storage it will become more common to see some systems on run on Direct Current just to avoid adding more inverters than we need. We suspect this will really take off once LiFi gets added to the ix as well, but even Gabe, tech prophet that is, won’t guarantee that one.

We welcome our first ever electrician on to the show, George Filtsos was there at the beginning of Daintree and has been working to push controls into more projects through all of the booms and busts in that field.

We discussed how dimming is an unknown factor in improving the lifespan of LEDs, his refusal to take the quick turn and burn retrofit contracts, the nuts and bolts of wireless controls, sales technique and the layers of complexity involved in his work.

2020 was a hard one for all of us, but to help us to look at the future is The Edison Report’s Randy Reid is here to help us look into 2021.

Beginning with his Director’s Notepad piece, we go discussed:
● Changes in business travel, the lack of networking online,
● The power of virtual education options,
● Randy’s Man(crush) of the Year,
● The blast of price increases coming at us in the next quarter,
● Pushing back on China not just as policy but as a social movement,
● The future of UV and hygiene theatre
● Mergers, acquisitions, support measures and corporate zombification,
● Randy’s new video news project,

Thank you all for listening to us, we hope you’ll join us in for the rest of what 2021 brings.

Ron Gibbons is the director for the Center for Infrastructure-based Safety Systems and an associate professor at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and here is to discuss his work and experience in the dark.

As a Canadian, he grew up with outsized access to dark spaces, sharing stories about being so far from any light source he hit a tree in front of his face. Now, as a researcher he is very happy to be spread across any number of field studies, ranging from his two miles of test road on campus to comparing roadside-grown soybeans to other soybeans. What he has learned, when it comes to light at night, we all need to put health first, health is more than absence of illness it is about promoting wellbeing for all affected. When we put up a light we all need to balance the needs of everyone and everything under that light.

The episode also discusses the idea of lighting crosswalks the same we light a stage, the lack of maximum limits in lighting regulations, building awareness before and after policy changes go into effect, the controversial position of banning all those RGB lighting rigs on bridges, and building enough design knowledge in the lighting industry to be helpful in making nights darker.

Al Uszynski returns to the podcast to discuss the 11.5 Predictions for 2021 article that ran on his site, Inside.Lighting. Spinning off from those predictions we discussed:

● Dark skies
● Dynamic lighting in the workplace
● The speed of economic recovery
● Adoption rates for human-centric lighting
● How our industries adapt to social changes
● Collaboration at a distance
● The future of trade shows
● Where the DLC goes from here
● How the channels of business are shifting

Plus, a little fun at the expense of social media’s past, and Greg and Michael’s misadventures in China.

Professor Mark Rea is getting ready to move from the Lighting Research Center to the Light and Health Research Center at Mt Sinai, but before that he joins us to discuss his latest report on UV disinfection products (read that here: https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/publicationDetails.asp?id=949&type=2 ).

He goes into detail about wavelengths, devices, safety tolerances, application issues, concerns about breeding superbugs, the value of not saying the word radiation too loud, and other engineering and measurement questions.

We as an industry will be talking more and more about health and wellness, and that comes with preventing illness as much as does with improving circadian rhythms.

The last time Lux Review’s editor, Ray Molony appeared we promised we’d have a beer with him when we met again. LuxLive might be cancelled, but we still did pour a round before starting to talk about business travel problems, the person-to-person value in conferences and what it takes to run a virtual award show.

Beyond plague-related woes, Ray gazes into the future of the IoT finding sales features that match consumer pain points, offices that look more like hotel lobbies, dark sky moving from a trend to an institution, and new EU rules for end of life and modularity for light fixtures.

Optician and author, Doctor Jacob Liberman joins Jane and Michael to discuss his thoughts on darkness in his work.

He shares how he keeps darkness in his regular routine, his thoughts on dreams and where he thinks they fit into inspiration and understanding.

This conversation gets wild with thoughts on mysticality, metaphysics, pretending to be himself, light as homeopathy and living without the benefit of safety nets.

Ellis Yan and Lesley Matt are here again to talk about business in 2021.

Shipping costs are rising as shipping speeds are slowing for everyone, there’s really nothing to be done about it. Beyond the macro scale problems, we're noticing small-scale disruptions all around us. The conversation moves past shipping and into currency exchange rates, busting myths about Chinese New Year, and setting your margins right.

On the upside from this year Ellis is excited to share the new things his company are cooking up, the uptick in residential product sales, figuring out consumer preferences, and what it means to go both ways on a product line.

Spencer Miles, President of Pacific Lamp and Supply in Seattle and immediate Past President of the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors checks into the studio to see where things are at. We talked about distribution, a lot about UV, circadian, health effects and how distributors can survive and even thrive during the pandemic. Spencer grudgingly admits that he misses the manufacturer representatives and all of us feel the loss of in person human interaction.

David Nathaniel, CEO of Ascot Capital is here to talk about operating Stanpro, Lumentruss, Aimlite, Beghelli’s Canadian branch, and Gabriel Scott brands.

He discusses what it means to keep up a diverse portfolio, his reputations for being hands-on and that has changed lately. He’s learned how to lead instead of just running his companies. We delve into what makes good business sense right now and his acquisition style with regard to transitioning with owner-operators - it is a bit different from Greg and Michael’s simple four point plan to running business - but it does make more sense from the outside.

The industry has gone from hunkering down to slashing and burning in terms of pricing and downsizing; and the larger economic situation of fragmentation and new protectionist measures combined with a new focus on residential lighting is really interesting to watch right now.

After a successful run of special releases on Get a Grip on Lighting (https://getagriponlighting.com/) Jane Slade and Michael Colligan have launched a new podcast series about dark sky.

Jane has been writing and speaking about the need for darkness in design for almost exactly five years and Michael has been trying to break into the movement from the distribution side for the past two.

This conversation between the two gets into their histories with the movement, what they believe and how this will inform the new series.

Adding more and bluer light to nights around the world has had numerous unforeseen side effects in wildlife, human health, aesthetics, and other deeper dimensions.

We need to confront this problem we’ve been neglecting, this series will be our part.

Jennifer Jaques of lighting application sciences and new IES membership director joins us to discuss her career. Starting off with her work in software tools the discussion goes through her and Michael’s views on education in this field as well as Greg’s take on the nature of passion before talking about the benefits of membership with IES these days.

They went through the new Lighting Library, building better perks, the end of print handbooks and what events in our industry will look like going into the future.

In Episode 169 (https://getagriponlighting.com/episode-169-it-might-it-might-not-al-uszynski) we discussed a number of predictions for the industry this year, Michael’s thoughts on Edward Bartholomew’s prediction drew a reaction from a few of our colleagues and we thought the best way to unpack that would be with Edward himself.

While his thoughts on growing inclusion in the lighting industry were more aspirational than anything else; we do need to consider where last year’s statements in solidarity of protests in the US and this month’s statements for black history month. They’re nice and reassuring, but without follow-up action they are worse than meaningless.

Wattsaver’s Steve Robinson returns to the show after two years to discuss some of the predictions he made at the time as well as how his business has been going lately.

Back in episode 90 (https://getagriponlighting.com/episode-90-steve-robinson-lighting-badass) made a guess that 30 percent of fixtures in his service area were LED, now it’s closer to 50, but oddly more outdoor than indoor projects seem to have been done. On the topic of projects, he walks us through his methods and management, how he deals with catastrophic product failure, replacing old-gen LEDs and Induction lighting systems as well as his metric fixture woes.

Another prediction from his first appearance was that he only had three years of rebate programs left - one year from that deadline he still thinks a future for incentives.

We also discussed how he’s kept working through the pandemic and his single UV-C for disinfection sale.

Thomas Sauvageau of Sauvageau CFO, LLC is more than a bean counter, more than an income tax accountant, he’s here to help businesses be their best. Right now that means letting everyone know about the benefits you may qualify for. There are new small business credits specifically related to the pandemic. The Employee Retention Tax Credit is a potential goldmine for distribution businesses right now. Any business that has been shut down under a government mandate and kept employees on qualify for a refundable income tax credit.

Thomas explains to Michael and Greg how to qualify and file for this credit, how to navigate IRS issues, and what your accountants should be doing for you the other ten months of the year.

Learn more at https://ertcfiling.com/ or his facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sauvageaucfo/

Ruskin Hartley, Executive Director of the International Dark Sky Association joins us to discuss his work and experiences in the association.

Right now the IDA is working to grow beyond their roots in amateur astronomers in several directors. The group is forging partnerships with other bodies with an interest in lighting to further their goals, looking at the input of ecologists and medical experts, broadening the ethnic and gender diversity within the organization, working with designers to understand how to light outside with quality and responsibility in mind, and reaching out to regulators to keep the sky dark and the parts of the ground lit appropriately.

Beyond the organization he talks about how we have the tools at hand to improve light at night through controls, teaching everyone about what they're missing in a post-LED boom world and his own personal encounters with the value of a night sky.

Burt Grant is the owner of Metro Area Sales, lighting representatives in the New York Metro area, and a co-founder of LEDucation. Caroline Rinker is a Principal at O’Blaney Rinker Associates. Despite being competitors in the same market, Burt and Caroline have come together as co-chairs of LEDucation. It kinda feels like we are talking to a couple of NAILD members. Burt and Caroline describe how LEDucation has grown over the past 14 years into a leading education and marketing conference. They think it's the best lighting event in the world while we think it has a good shot at being second to NAILD Innovation. They touch on what kind of professionals attend, how they’ve fared during Covid and what their plans are for returning to an in-person conference in the coming year.

Greg Galluccio is a 30 year veteran of the industry, with work experience at UL, Leviton, and MaxLite, and now he’s working as a consultant in product development and marketing at his own company, Lotevo.

Lighting is now a commodity good and that means lighting needs to be practical and sellable for everyone in the industry.

Over the course of this conversation we discuss issues with vendors, feature creep, patent traps and trolls, regional problems, and why nobody wants to harmonize.

Greg and Michael also went through his Youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIYFIyKU2SpL9ToLOr9dwGw ) to discuss the reasons you can’t sell controls, what it means to create a gamechanging product, and the Internet of Breaker Panels.

This one is a classic lighting dork discussion, please enjoy.

Our dark sky series has spun off into Starving for Darkness, but that doesn't mean we won’t be checking in with Michael and Jane periodically to discuss what is going on with light pollution concerns.

The movement for darker nights has been going on for a long time, but it still feels new in terms of awareness, consumer uptake and habits. We all sell light all day; it's harder to convince anyone that they need less of it, and we need regulators in the DLC and various levels of government to help us change the definition of waste to make it clear unnecessary light is part of the problem.

What do GU24s and email marketing have in common?

Not much, but this week we have the inventor of the GU24, David Shiller on the line to discuss his current career in marketing and product development.

Beyond online engagement, we also delve into policy problems, socketed vs fixed fixtures, DC wiring and where standards need to change.

Edward Bartholomew - lighting designer, educator, advocate - is the owner of Bartholomew Lighting in Massachusetts. In this episode we talk about improving student scores, better worker productivity, reducing crime, fixing public utilities and of course, improving profitability - all through better lighting. We might have just solved everything in this episode!

Harun Mehmedinovic is an astrophotographer, speaker, documentary filmmaker and dark sky advocate. He finds his deepest connections to nature while looking up at night and is doing his best to spread the word and save it for everyone.

In our conversation we discussed his status as a ‘hack’ compared with night-time photographers from the scientific community, the pale imitation of daytime we’re creating in our cities, the value of travel, how his work does seem to unify everything, his ideas about working with police and security experts, and plus fun fact about fireflies.

Find more from Harun at his website, https://skyglowproject.com

Is LEDucation going forward? It sure is! Craig and Wendy tell us how in this time of Covid. The March virtual show was a success. Now they’re going live in New York in August. Is it 100% a go? As Craig says, “100% unsure!” But you know Craig and Wendy and the rest of the committee will pull it off. How? Listen up!

From red tape to blue LED’s to Red China. We talk about entrepreneurship in the time of cheap China and Google Ventures. Chuck also touches on environmental problems and how to get the customer to care.

Astrophysicist Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel has been involved in light pollution issues since the mid-1990s and has contributed to over 100 articles, many related to light pollution. He is the leader of “Cities at Night,” a citizen-supported project coordinated with NASA and other space agencies that use ISS night imagery to raise light pollution awareness.

Alejandro discusses his personal experiences with light pollution, and his analysis of pictures of cities at night taken from the International Space Station. These pictures led to a discussion on crime statistics and its relation to electric outdoor light at night. European cities with significantly varying amounts of outdoor light at night had no noticeable difference in levels of violent crime. While this observation is anecdotal, it leads to the conclusion that more study is needed to challenge, not confirm, the standard assumption that more electric light means less violence and crime. It was further postulated that the reverse may be true.

Where does it cost $1500 bucks to change a light bulb? Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are one of the most useful chemicals ever invented. Big surprise LED manufacturers make ridiculous claims about lamp life; what else is new. And we talk to Marty about the limits of LED's in hazardous locations along with the challenges of sourcing parts and materials for existing legacy lamps and ballasts which still dominate these applications.

If you have crappy sleep or like wearing sunglasses you should probably listen to this. Dr. Rosenthal talks about sleep apnea and electric blue light, hormones and electric blue light, melatonin, proteins, cancer and well, electric blue light...you see where we’re going with this. You need to give this one a listen!

Jim is one of the world’s top authorities on lighting design and applied illuminating engineering. He invented the BUG system that directly affects dark skies. Jim tells us how many birds are killed by the Twin Towers light columns and how vertical light is better than horizontal light. Listen to what happened when Jim joined the board of IES, or when WELL inspectors asked him to close the blinds, or what happened when a cheap metal halide bulb exploded. Don’t mess around with Jim!

Steve Perry is the product trainer for the current sales staff at 1000Bulbs and works as liaison officer for its legendary CEO Kim Pedersen which includes among other things, new product lines, marketing strategies and vendor relations. Steve talks about sales strategies and techniques, incandescent lighting, Zoom, Amazon and learning from disagreeable people. If you want to learn, you might as well learn from the biggest. Don’t stop believing! (Sorry Steve!)

Brian Amundson of Pacific Lamp Wholesale and president-elect of NAILD is with us to discuss his experience working in dark sky lighting projects.

As distributors we sell what customers ask for; and even if we wanted to pursue dark sky instals we are not always clear on what really is compliant versus just “friendly.”

Brian shares his experience working on coastal projects with turtle- and bird-centric lighting and as well as partnering with a native tribe to fix up a ski hill. From the conversation discussion move from lighting projects as an exercise accounting versus an exercise caring, the tourism value of night times, getting rebates and regulators into dark sky projects, winning over hipsters and influencers to the cause, and pushing back on security concerns.

Check out Frank’s Night Sky Resource Center (www.nightskyresourcecenter.org) for some awesome astrophotography. Frank advocates seeing the night sky as a resource just like water and air. He tells us about his personal sense of “awe” in seeing the night sky and how you too can lose your self awareness in experiencing the sublime. It’s better than Ayahuasca tea!

This week we are joined by Kelly Roberts and Laura McDonald Stewart of the advisory board for the ARCHLight Summit at the Dallas Market Center this fall. We discussed the value of cross-professional networking events; there’s value in designers and architects meeting other professionals in this field. As well this year's programming being more broad than just lighting concerns.

Of course any in-person event right now has to confront the ongoing pandemic; and we all discussed how the attitudes of the organizers and the policies of the event location are coming together for an engaging, but secure event.

Learn more about the ARCHLight Summit here: https://archlightsummit.com/

Deborah Burnett, ASID, AASM, is an internationally recognized registered design professional, Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the field of Light + Health, and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Deborah is going to let you in on some fascinating facts about the “spring surge,” proper lighting in horse stalls, the moon’s importance in photosynthesis, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and how the industry selling lighting for your circadian rhythms has become a racket.

Mark Clipsham - Architect, builder, consultant, master planner. While battling through his allergies, Mark has a thing or two to say about the growth economy, the constant drive for profit and what drives him nuts about the current state of lighting. Mark offers some ideas on sustaining the environment and bringing back the dark skies.

Justin Wendt has served as Rohinni’s Chief Technology Officer for over five years where he leads and directs Rohinni’s global teams in Research and Development of next generation die placement equipment and the products the technology is used to create. You won’t believe the mind-blowing technology being created - mini and micro-LED’s that are as small as 30 microns thick. The applications are just beginning to be explored.

Taisha Bezzo is the National Sales Director for Evluma. She’s been with the company since 2014. Taisha has an MBA from Harvard, a pilot’s license, and she does Ironman Triathlons in her spare time. She’s going to tell you about LED’s, controls, and thermal management. Taisha is very smart, so listen up!

Ryan Andreasen is the founder of Night Sky Science (https://nightskyscience.com/). Astrophotography and Night Sky Preservation is Ryan’s main mission along with getting folks to look up at night. In this episode you’ll hear about the wonder of “touching” the Orion Nebula and about how the night sky can induce powerful emotions. When advocating for dark skies, avoiding words like “dark” or “pollution” can help bureaucrats accept the message. You’ll even hear Michael read some T.S. Elliot. This is a good one.

Ruth Taylor currently serves as a program manager on the Advanced Lighting Team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where she currently manages the Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) Program. Ruth is your first line of defense against crappy products and design. Get an inside look at how products you sell are tested at the PNNL.

Tony Lawrence is an entrepreneur, technologist, and prophet of quantum possibilities through his current role as CEO of Light Rider. Yeah, you’ve heard physicists on TV talking about the quantum world and thought, “I have no idea what they’re talking about!” Well, review your notes because you are going to be selling this stuff in light bulbs soon. Tony tells you how the light bulbs you will be selling will make computer hacking and ransomware a thing of the past. Intrigued? Listen to this one. Mindblowing!

Dajana is a teaching assistant and PhD student at the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad, Serbia. She is passionate about preserving the night sky and “bringing back the stars to our kids!”. Hear about her creativity in teaching about the night sky using animals, astro hikes, jazz and shared gratitude. You’ll be inspired.

Ian Ashdown is a consultant with over forty years’ experience in lighting design, research and development, and software engineering (He built the original version of AGI32). He holds more than 160 patents and patents pending. Listening to Ian, deploying advanced lighting into practical tools and software seems like a side project, something he does for fun! Right now, Ian’s passion is horticultural lighting. If you want to improve the taste of tomatoes, listen to Ian!

Dr. George Schaaf is a veterinary pathologist working in the Comparative Medicine department at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Schaaf studies the effects of light on animals and transfers the learnings to human physiology. You’ll hear about the effects of light and glare on deer, chickens and Syrian hamsters - as well as your beloved pets. He tells us why night matters for animals and about his efforts towards “re-wilding” the environment.

The three brains behind Lightserve, Kevin, Bill, and Jason have grown Lightserve into a 100 million dollar company in just 10 years. You can get some tips from how they treat their employees, contractors and customers. Maybe you can learn a thing or two from their acquisition strategies. These guys are the perfect business storm!

Don’t let his young age fool you. Doug is the Vice President of Marketing at Light Efficient Design. Doug, who’s on the Board of NAILD, talks about the need for education in the industry to bring more awareness to the dark sky issue. From prison yards to parks - can we move the needle with best practices, comprehensive ordinances, thorough education, public awareness and a tiered accreditation by application type?

Deep Anand is an astronomy lover and dark sky enthusiast. Deep has been working to spread awareness about light pollution, from his home base in Delhi India. Deep is passionate about bringing the night sky back for the children. Maybe he’ll even get this issue onto the Prime Minister of India's desk. Deep has even written poetry about the night sky and the stars. And get this - he’s only 17!

Our guests, Brian Walker Ph.D and Kelly Gordon are here to talk about the L-Prize. Brian is the manager of DOE’s Lighting Research and Development program and Kelly is the Program Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. What is the L-Prize? Go here - https://www.energy.gov/eere/ssl/l-prize-competition - for the description. But suffice to say, if you want a piece of the 12.2 million dollars in prize money, INVENT A BETTER LIGHTING SYSTEM!

You already know our old friend Tom Butters. He has years of training experience in the lighting industry, including a stint at the Philips Lighting Concept Centre.  Now Tom has funneled all that knowledge into The Lighting Agora (lightingagora.com). Tom and his organization can help you do your job quicker, better and more confidently and that, of course, leads to better revenue.

Valerie Stimac Bailey is a travel, space, and astrotourism writer. She founded Space Tourism Guide in 2017, and her first book Dark Skies: A Practical Guide to Astrotourism was published by Lonely Planet in 2019. Valerie thinks that space travel will be available as a “bucket list” goal to the average person in the not too distant future. In the meantime, let’s make the night sky accessible to everyone so we can all experience “the Milky Way effect.” 

Simon is the Chief Technology Officer and founder of Silvair and Chair of the Mesh Working Group at Bluetooth SIG. Michael and Greg have been expounding the need for controls in lighting for some time now. Along comes Simon and Bluetooth mesh networking. Revolutionary stuff.

Barry Johnson is the volunteer webmaster for the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council, as well as a lecturer and consultant on outdoor lighting issues. In his retirement, Barry is a crusader against light trespass and pollution.  If you live in Pennsylvania and your neighbor’s flood light illuminates your bedroom wall, give Barry and his fellow POL Council members a call. 
 

Contact Barry @ http://www.polcouncil.org/ 

Jan Denneman is Founder and Chairman of the Board at Good Light Group as well as Honorary Ambassador Global Lighting Association. We’ve been arguing for a while that quality darkness is essential to good sleep. Jan contends that good light during the day is also essential to our circadian rhythm for a good night's sleep.

Mike Quijano currently serves as the Strategic Marketing Director for Cooper’s Ephesus Sports Lighting business. From community soccer fields to professional football stadiums, Ephesus Sports Lighting has learned to mitigate the problems with overheating in high wattage extreme application LED’s.  They have enhanced controllability by a magnitude while simplifying it and are addressing the challenges that come with abiding by local light pollution ordinances.  Plus a lot more.  This is a good one for the lighting dorks.

Andy has been involved in astronomy education and outreach for over 25 years, and in the planetarium field for over 20.  Andy tells us about his successful techniques for teaching kids about the night sky. He’s also had some wins in cases involving “light privilege” and just plain ignorance. Inspiring.

 

Frank Agraz has worked in the energy efficient lighting community for 25+ years and serves as Director of the C&I Engineering department at Eco Engineering.  Frank tells us about his stint as the Exam Committee Chair.  He won’t give away any answers, but he’ll tell a bit about the background of creating and administering the exams.  Gotta get your LC! 

Robert Soler is a co-founder of BIOS Lighting. Almost everyone has trouble sleeping - including your customers. The Bios Institute will train you to be a “Circadian Auditor” to assess lighted environments from a human health perspective. And guess what? That’s going to lead to sales!

Peter has a PhD in Psychology studying human perception, action, and the link between them, with over a decade of experience in conducting research in these topics. Blue light, glare bombs, perception, infrared medicine...these are just a few of the fascinating things touched upon.  We only scratched the surface with Peter.  He’ll be back. 

James Tu is a visionary entrepreneur and the Chairman & CEO of Energy Focus.  In this episode we discuss the challenges and opportunities of the Human Centric Lighting "umbrella" which includes circadian, cuing, tuning, wellness and injury prevention.  The choice vs prescriptive circle is squared.   Finally, James refers to the scientific literature and to the massive opportunity the lighting industry has to make a significant impact on human health and wellness.  Jimmy Tunable has arrived.

Angie Koch is the President and founder of Premier Lighting. Angie shares her entrepreneurial story, and what her role encompasses in the company. Greg, your Get a Grip On Lighting host is also an owner of the company, so they both share how he came on board, all those years ago, what they’re up to and where Premier is going.

Robert is the founder and CEO of the Canadian Scotobiology Group Inc. that raises awareness of the impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) on wildlife and human health. Robert talks about “Eco Lights,” how much light you actually need in order to read, the shelf life of hormones and many other fascinating darkness related topics.  He even references the Moody Blues.

Ali joined Heliospectra as CEO in 2017. With him he brought his passion for people and technology with 22 years of international business leadership experience to his position at the helm of Heliospectra. Ali and Heliospectra are on the cutting edge of horticultural LED lighting.  With their light spectrum controlled lighting and software, “communicating” with plants to make them healthier and tastier is possible.  Far out stuff.

Dr. Rajaram Bhagavathula is a Senior Research Associate in the Division of Vehicle, Driver, & System Safety at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Dr. Bhagavathula has conducted some fascinating studies on the effects of light on drivers.  He talks about the effects of glare and light bands on driver behaviour, the hypnotic effect, the moth effect, dashboard lights… you'll never drive the same again.

Oliver Moorhouse is the Head of Business Development for BrainLit North America Inc a subsidiary of  BrainLit AB, the developer and IP holder for BioCentric Lighting™. We’ve talked about human centric lighting before, which Brainlit likes to call “BioCentric” lighting. Never mind controls on the wall, Oliver talks about wearables - now you just walk into a room and the lighting changes to just how you need it. The applications are widespread, from helping premature babies go home earlier to enhancing the abilities of elite athletes. And wait till you hear who’s the brain behind Brainlit.

Welcome to the premiere episode of Contrast Ratios with hosts Edward Bartholomew and John Arthur Wilson.  Edward is the Principal of Bartholomew Lighting (https://sites.google.com/view/bartholomew-lighting) and John is the founding director of Fernhill Shopworks (https://www.fernhillshopworks.com). Edward and John reveal some of the "awkward" and raw topics from their podcast.

Daniel has over 25 years of experience in the lighting industry as lighting designer, manufacturer, sales rep, teacher, and consultant. He currently serves as ICF Lead Lighting Consultant for ENERGY STAR. In this episode, the wide-ranging topics include LED flicker, CRI and The Department of Energy. Daniel is also Chair of the NCQLP Examination Committee. No, you’re not going to get any answers to the exam, but it couldn’t hurt to listen to this episode!

Kevin Houser [PhD, PE (NE), FIES, LC, LEED AP] is a Professor at Oregon State University with a joint appointment as Chief Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  Dr. Houser is an expert in light and color. He has conducted research on human perceptual and biological responses to light. Do color rendering metrics have a racial bias?  How can lighting make everyone look radiant, healthy and attractive?  What opportunities are there for truly equitable color rendering for humans? Tune in for a lively discussion that questions a core value of lighting. 

Justin is the President of Stouch Lighting, Inc, a LED and UVC distribution and implementation company. Stouch Lighting has had some pretty good success with UVC in the health field. There’s hygiene theater in a public school hallway, and there’s reducing infections by quantifiably inactivating pathogens in a hospital setting.  Justin is working successfully towards the latter.  Listen to this episode then go make some room for UVC in your warehouse.

If you were fascinated with the previous episode with Peter, listen to this one.  He’s an expert in the field of human perception, but when you’re talking about bringing back the night sky, you’re bound to go into weird and wonderful areas of conversation. This episode touches on flotation tanks, meditation and lucid dreaming. The hour will fly by. 

Samyukta is an advocate with the International Dark Sky Association, and a member of their International Committee. She currently works in Slovenia, designing experiences to help people connect with darkness and the night sky. Have you ever heard of Forest Bathing?  Well Samyukta can design a dark sky experience where you can go “Star Bathing.” Give this a listen and you’ll learn about “archeoastronomy” and “ethnoastronomy.”

In 1994 Bob Crespo eloquently stated that his son Ray was “doing nothing” and asked if he wanted to start a business doing something environmental since Ray “loved the environment.”  And so, Energy Conservation and Supply was born.  Since then, Ray and company have been working on things like controls, UV disinfection and EV charging stations.

Dr. Fischer operates The Zoological Lighting Institute, a 501 c(3) dedicated to supporting the sciences of light and life through the arts for animal welfare and wildlife conservation. This one is broad ranging.  What are the five domains of animal welfare?  What is a ZALA station? And why should banks become bird friendly?  To find out, give this episode a listen.

Sandra Vásconez is a senior instructor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is co-creator and co-director of the Rocky Mountain Lighting Academy.  Education at the Academy is designed for professionals already in the industry.  So, if you want some fresh air and a deep dive into lighting education, head on over to Boulder and learn a thing or two from Sandra. 

Ashley is the Director of Conservation for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) where she collaborates with advocates and volunteers around the world to help them promote effective uses of outdoor lighting and protect pristine dark skies. Ashley tells us about her work in dark sky awareness and education through the lens of Sensory Ecology.  And listen to her great plumbing analogy for wasting light.

Matt is the outgoing President of NAILD.  He held down the fort through the pandemic crisis, keeping NAILD thriving over the past 18 months.  You’ll hear about Matt’s own thriving business, plus NAILD’s leading position on Dark Sky education and advocacy. And hey, don’t forget to join NAILD!

Angelica Santana holds a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering with a focus in Lighting/Electrical systems from The Pennsylvania State University. Angelica is a lighting designer with CM Kling in Washington DC.  Angelica describes her work as “painting with light” when she goes into a space. As a yoga instructor, she also uses light as an important aspect of meditation. Want to de-stress you or your employees?  Shoot an email to Angelica at unionyogadc@gmail.com 

Bettymaya Foott works for the International Dark-Sky Association as Director of Engagement. Preserving dark skies is her life goal and she finds that astrophotography is the most poignant way to express a love for the night, as well as educate about the impacts of light pollution. If you want to take some great photos of the night sky, listen to Bettymaya here for some of the best places to go and amazing tips and tricks for astrophotography.

Sohana Arni, LC, MIES has had experience in many aspects of the lighting profession. At Cooper Lighting she has held roles in product management, marketing manager, Manager of Architectural Markets over a few architectural brands, and currently is the Director of Marketing and Design for 3D printing. 

You probably never thought you’d learn all about acoustic design on the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast.  In this fascinating episode, Sohana talks about Cooper Lighting’s designs for acoustic material integrated into light fixtures. Get on board.  This is going to be another arrow in your sales quiver.

Over the last 17 years Jason has been a leader in providing turn-key lighting retrofits amounting to millions of dollars worth of energy savings that have also garnered millions in incentive money for clients across Ontario, Canada.  Respecting the channel and working to build quality lighting systems for customers, Jason speaks to the LED lighting revolution from the perspective of a unionized electrical contractor.  Something that hasn't been unpacked on the show as yet. He tells us how he has dealt with condo boards and how he has maintained his integrity by insisting on quality products and quality installations. 

 

Kelly Beatty has been explaining the science and wonder of astronomy to the public since 1974. An award-winning writer and communicator, he specializes in planetary science and space exploration as Senior Editor for Sky & Telescope magazine.  Kelly talks about the lack of blue light detection in most satellites leading to under-reported levels of light pollution, and he touches on the ongoing bug apocalypse. And you’re not going to want to miss the next eclipse after you hear about his eclipse-chasing adventures over the Antarctic. 

Dan Blitzer is Principal of The Practical Lighting Workshop, founded in 1993. The firm provides consulting services in marketing, strategy, communication, and education and serves both manufacturers and non-commercial clients.

You’ll be hard pressed to find someone with more experience in the industry.  He’ll tell you his mother told him to be a teacher but he wanted to be in sales.  Well guess what he does now?  And having learned himself from the best, Paul Hafner, you won’t be able to find a better education yourself.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-blitzer-57526414/ 

Dr. Micah Brodsky is a wildlife veterinarian who focuses on marine animal medicine, research, and conservation and is the Director of Conservation Medicine at Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response and a lecturer at the University of Hawaiʻi. Dr. Brodsky tells us about the dire consequences of light pollution on Wedgetail Shearwater birds, sea turtles and Monk Seals, to name a few, in Hawai’i.  As he says, it’s not Disney out there!

Alan is Senior Vice President at Satco. Alan is “graduating” from NAILD’s Board of Directors this year. He looks back on his time with the board, the relationships forged, and the opportunities presented. Alan talks about his post-board future with Satco and if you’re ever in Long Island, he would be happy to take you for cold cheese pizza.

Douglas Arion, PhD is the founder and director of Mountains of Stars, a public science outreach and education program that engages the public with ‘environmental awareness from a cosmic perspective’.  In this episode, Douglas logically explains why all other living creatures are equal to humans. He warns us of the pitfalls of the plethora of satellites that are going to be orbiting earth.  And you’re going to want to order the Galileoscope, a VERY affordable telescope that Douglas helped create and bring to market in order to bring the night sky to the less financially fortunate around the world.

Long-time friend of Get A Grip On Lighting, Spencer Miles ruminates on his time on the NAILD Board, what he’s going to do with all his free time now, and where he sees the future of lighting going. Oh - and he was convinced to sell smoke detectors - and it’s going well! 

Enjoy this quick one with your hosts Michael and Greg. The boys talk about how to get back to dark night skies with everything from advocacy to guilt and shame. Could we eventually see enforcement through regulation? The Chinese manufacturers are going to love it! 

Megan Porter PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.  Her research program is focused on understanding the evolution of animal eye diversity, particularly from a molecular perspective. In this episode, Megan tells us about the vastly different vision perceptions that animals have from humans and the massive impact light pollution has on their vision. Wait till you hear about the Mantis Shrimp.

Nam has over 20+ years of experience in technology product development across various industries: Military, Automotive, Medical Devices, and now Lighting. Nam joined Cooper Lighting in 2013. Nam has been working on augmented reality.  This is like Pokemon Go for the lighting industry. It’s going to make sales easier than ever.

 https://www.cooperlighting.com/s/lightarchitect/index.html. 

Dr. Tyler Nordgren is an artist, author, astronomer, and night sky ambassador. He holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Cornell University where he did work on dark matter as well as a B.A. in Physics from Reed College. In this episode, we discuss the role of his artwork in public education about the night skies, how inhabiting Mars is a longshot with questionable benefits, and you won't want to miss Tyler's description of solar eclipses and why they are so important for humanity.