There are high expectations for lighting sales in the CI world. In CEDIA’s Integrated Home Market Analysis – 2021, the largest forecasted growth area for dealers was lighting control systems. With more and more products entering the market, we look at some of the more recent introductions.
AiSPIRE ASTRO Dim-to-Warm Lighting
AiSPIRE has introduced ASTRO, a new line of dim-to-warm lighting that recreates the incandescent dimming curve with no required programming. By mimicking an incandescent lamp’s dimming appearance, AiSPiRE is able to shift color temperatures and create a visually comfortable and innately familiar experience while still benefitting from the energy savings and long life of LEDs. ASTRO offers several dim-to-warm options, delivering a range from a 3000K White Light — the color of halogen — to a warm 1800 Kelvin.
At full brightness, dim-to-warm luminaires perform at 3000K color temperature and a 95-plus color rendering index for a crisp white light. Dim-to-warm technology allows you to dim down to a more intimate, calming glow at 1800K candlelight ambiance, to provide a warm mood with gentle illumination.
Wall-Smart Mount for Lutron Pico Keypad
Wall-Smart has introduced a custom-designed and engineered solution for Lutron’s popular Pico keypad. Intended for installation during home construction, the design-friendly mount can be recessed into any wall material, including drywall and solid surfaces like concrete, wood, metal, and marble. Once the mount has been installed into the wall, the Lutron Pico keypad inserts easily into it, where it sits perfectly flush with the surface. Without constraints on where the mount can be installed or concerns over its impact on design, the Pico keypad can be placed in areas where it is most convenient to use.
Further camouflaging the keypad, the trim of the Wall-Smart mount can be painted to match the color and texture of the wall surface. Constructed of moisture-resistant MDF and engineered for easy insertion and removal of the keypad, the mount ensures optimal performance and control of lights, automated window treatments, and audio systems.
Leviton Decora No-Neutral Switch and Dimmer
Leviton has expanded its Decora Smart product line, which offers a full portfolio of Wi-Fi lighting controls. The latest devices increase smart lighting control opportunities for Leviton customers, including a new No-Neutral Switch and Dimmer for those living in older homes as well as two new 2nd Gen devices that are compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google, and HomeKit/Siri to address and support user voice assistant preferences.
The new products share the same set of core features that Decora Smart users enjoy, including remote control, the ability to create and manage scheduling and scenes, and their “choice of voice.” The My Leviton app allows homeowners to enjoy a whole-home solution with app-enabled control of their Decora Smart lighting devices and Leviton Load Center activities.
Orro Third-Party Lighting Control Enhancements
Orro has added new enhancements to its third-party lighting control capabilities, including connections to more connected switches, dimmers, plugs, outlets, and lighting systems. By detecting motion, sound, and light with its built-in sensors, Orro responds with the perfect amount of light, while learning and adapting lighting based on homeowners’ habits and preferences. The results include healthier, human-centric lighting that supports natural circadian rhythms while reducing lighting usage by up to 80 percent. Enhanced third-party features now extend those same benefits and unified control through Orro’s switches and smartphone app to other connected lighting systems and brands, including Lutron Caséta, Lutron RA2 Select, Leviton, Kasa Smart by TP Link, and LIFX.
DMF Lighting DID M-Series Fixtures
DMF Lighting’s DID M-Series fixtures provide even more installation options for the CI channel. They feature a new flangeless option for wood ceiling applications, new trim colors, and redesigned housings that make them even easier to install. The M-Series boasts new trim colors in Bronze, Warm, and Cool Diffused with White Flange trims to match more design aesthetics. Plus, DMF has precision-crafted trims to meet every need, whether customers want a diffused glow or a narrow spotlight, an eye-catching trim, or one that disappears. The redesigned housings are now offered for Round New Construction in both Fire-Rated and Standard models, as well as Chicago Plenum. Remodel housings are also available in both Square and Round versions to enable installations without tearing open the ceiling.
Crestron LED Light Fixtures
Crestron’s LED Light Fixtures were created to meet the design, intelligence, elegance, and customization that homeowners demand. The fully tunable light fixtures add real-time personalized lighting control to the Crestron Home operating system. Through the Crestron Home platform, homeowners have full control of the color of their lights, including hue, saturation, color temperature, and intensity of light, or they can opt to synchronize Crestron’s LED Light Fixtures with their natural circadian rhythm or utilize a Crestron SolarSync sensor to match the natural light outside. The SolarSync sensor is an outdoor sensor that communicates the outside color temperature to Crestron Home in real-time.
The LED fixtures are also further customizable to add focal points of light to any space in a home, such as a piece of artwork, fireplace, nook, or kitchen island, and that area will always have the optimal light temperature and color, regardless of other lighting in the home. The modular design of the Crestron LED Light Fixtures makes them suitable for any room. Fixture options include adjustable, wall wash, fixed frame, pinhole fixtures, multiple enclosure possibilities, and square or round trims.
In tandem with the introduction of LED Light Fixtures, Crestron is also announcing the addition of third-party fixture manufacturers to its partner program. Select fixtures from these partners will have native Crestron Home integration and can take advantage of Crestron Home’s user experience for tunable lighting.
Lutron RadioRA 3
Featuring the first-ever line of wall controls with both light bar design and IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity, a new all-in-one processor powered by PoE (Power over Ethernet), and new simpler PC programming software and app-based editing features, Lutron has promised that RadioRA 3 will transform how installers – and their customers – experience home lighting control. Installers can now entice their customers with new customizable controls that offer the smart home features homeowners want most, such as coming home to a well-lit house and transforming a room into a comfort zone with the touch of a button or a voice command.
Lutron’s RadioRA 3 system includes SUNNATA RF keypads, dimmers, and switches that feature the light bar design and come in a new, wider range of contemporary colors to enhance any décor. A soft glow makes the controls easy to find in the dark, and the dimmer’s capacitive touch technology allows clients to set the lighting with a touch or swipe of the light bar. IoT connectivity gives homeowners control of their lighting through the Lutron app, voice assistant, remote or wall control. The new SUNNATA RF dimmer features PRO LED+ technology for dimming of LED, halogen, incandescent, MLV, and ELV lighting. So, installers need only to remember one dimmer model for virtually any job.
Vantage LHUMAN Human Centric Lighting System
Vantage LHUMAN is a dynamic human-centric lighting (HCL) system for the residential market. LHUMAN incorporates lighting controls, motorized shading, and color-tunable light fixtures to harness natural light when it’s available or render it artificially when it’s not, improving the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of occupants.
At the heart of the LHUMAN system is Vantage lighting control, which provides full-color control and precise dimming of a wide range of color-tunable lighting fixtures from Vantage’s manufacturer partners. Users can let LHUMAN do the work for them — automatically adjusting their home’s light throughout the day, fully synchronized to the natural daylight from the sun — while making changes on the fly with preset scenes that deliver the appropriate color temperature and intensity to meet their current activity, need, or mood.
