Society of Light and Lighting

SLL News

• Past President John Holmes passes away at 101
• Ready Steady Light 2010
• Young Lighter of the Year 2010
• Watch the centenary lecture
• Code for Lighting 2009 released

News Archive

• SLL clarifies position on unification
• Ready Steady Light celebrates SLL's 100th birthday
• SLL Appoint new Secretary of the Society
• SLL urges industry to consider impact of withdrawal of tungsten lamps
• SLL Strategic Plan
• Withdrawal of GLS Lamps

John Guyscliffe Holmes

 SLL Past President John Holmes passed away at 101 years old. The funeral was held on Monday 12 July at 3.20pm. His obituary can be found here. 

Ready Steady Light 2010

The Society's annual Ready Steady Light took place on 17th March at Rose Bruford College.  Fourteen teams competed for the coveted Technical, Artistic and Peer Awards. 

Unusually one team scooped both the Technical and Artistic prizes so congratulations to Light Bureau for their production of "The Cabin".  The Peer prize went to Urbis Lighting for their interactive scheme at "The Barn".  

Young Lighter of the Year

The Young Lighter of the Year Final took place at the ARC'10 exhibition on 3rd February.  Congratulations to all the finalists who were selected from 28 entries: (L to R) Seda Kacel, Vasiliki Papakammenou, Anna Whittaker & Mitja Prelovsek.

Seda Kacel was announced the SLL Young Lighter of the Year.  The Worshipful Company of Lightmongers prize for the Best Presented paper went to Vasiliki Papakammenou and the ILE prize for Best Written Paper went to Mitja Prelovsek.  

Please click here for the link to Finalists' papers and presentations 

Watch the SLL Centenary Lecture Webcast

It has long been said that lighting is a combination of art and science. The 2009 CIBSE Annual Lecture, presented by the Society of Light and Lighting at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, consisted of two talks exploring each aspect of this combination, beginning with the historical perspective and then looking towards the future.   Watch webcast here 

New Code for Lighting Available

SLL is pleased to announce that the new SLL Code for Lighting - regarded as the definitive reference source for lighting design in the UK - is now available. 

First published in 1936, the Code for Lighting was published in printed form until 1994.  In 2002 the Code was published as a CD for the first time and the 2004 and 2006 editions of the Code were produced purely in CD format.  The 2009 Code is again only available as a CD but it is now complimented by the recently published SLL Lighting Handbook.

In addition to the Code, the CDs feature a number of lighting guides and other information including LIF technical statements and SLL fact files. Details on road lighting are also included in the 2009 edition, while the section on maintenance factors has been completely updated.  In addition Lighting Guide 9 Lighting for Communal Residential Buildings has been added to the CD.

Download an order form or order online here. 

SLL clarifies position on unification   

Since March 2008, the Society of Light & Lighting and CIBSE have been in discussion with the Institution of Lighting Engineers about ways in which the lighting profession can achieve some form of unification and how to embrace other professional organisations in the future.

The discussions have been very successful in that much has been achieved in terms of the two organisations working more closely together.  To this end, there is now greater collaboration in the areas of education, technical and promotions.  Last week saw the first joint meeting of the two organisations' membership & education committees at Rugby, which will now be repeated twice a year.  There is cross-representation at all the other committees, with a view to those committees achieving this same level of communication.  The SLL is completely committed to this and other initiatives of closer collaboration with the ILE.

The SLL understands that there was some expectation for a merger but is of the opinion that trying to merge the memberships of the SLL and the ILE would not achieve the overall objectives of successful unification of the lighting profession.  SLL also has a commitment to providing access to a lighting discipline for general building service engineers (as against lighting specialists) within CIBSE, a link which is of value to the lighting profession as a whole.

However, looking at the wider picture, such an arrangement would exclude other important sectors within the lighting profession who by nature of their constitution would also not be able to merge with a new body. It is thought that a Construction Industry Council type model for lighting would result in the widest possible grouping of lighting interests, be they professional, manufacturing, education or research and the creation of such a grouping remains the SLL's focus.

The Society believes that the creation of such an all-embracing new representative group will give the lighting profession the wider and stronger voice that it deserves.

Ready Steady Light celebrates 'SLL birthday'

Now in its seventh year, ‘The Ready Steady Light competition' has developed into one of the ‘must attend' events on the Society of Light and Lighting's busy calendar as Stephen Lisk reports. 

The Centenary Ready Steady Light was once again proudly hosted by Rose Bruford College, who has incorporated the event in their own lighting design course.  A team of students led by Shaun Foster did a tremendous job in setting up the site and organising the proceedings.

There was no specific theme given to each of the teams, other than to interpret the sites, using only lighting effects, without the use of props, but the SLL Centenary ‘birthday' did not go unnoticed.  Each team was allocated a site within the college, given a selection of lighting fittings (and a birthday cake!), and just three hours to turn out a great lighting installation.  As darkness descended upon the college, the transformation was complete. The Judging Panels visited each of the 18 sites, to judge on both the technical and artistic merit of each scheme, as well as a ‘Peer' prize judged by the competitors themselves.

After a break for refreshments, Mike Simpson, chairing the presentation of the awards commented that the Judging Panel felt the overall quality of this year's event was higher than ever and the schemes every year were more exciting. 

The Technical prize winner was announced by Ted King, who outlined the judging criteria used for the Technical Prize. The Technical judging panel commended the ‘Road to Nowhere' (Rose Bruford College) and "Outside SM Corridor" (Light Bureau), with the outright Technical prize being awarded to ‘The Cabin' and the Holophane Europe team for "a scheme that used low wattage sources in a very sympathetic way".   The RSL trophy, together with cinema vouchers were presented by Patrick Baldrey, President of The Society of Light and Lighting.  Ted King added that it was his first visit to the competition and he "was struck with the enthusiasm and vision expressed by the teams and their ingenuity in adapting the limited equipment at their disposal to achieve their aims".

The Artistic Impression Award was presented by Kevin Theobald, representing the IALD.  The judging panel commended ‘Road to Nowhere' (Rose Bruford) and ‘The Rose' (DW Windsor), but the winning prize for the Artistic Award went to Light Bureau for their Zen inspired ‘steps in time' interpretation of the Stage Manager's Corridor.  Kevin Theobald presented the team with the RSL trophy and copies of Henrik Clausen's book "Light & Communication - Nature as a reference in lighting design", which were kindly donated by Fagerhult.

The Peer prize, an award where the competitors vote for one another's schemes was also awarded to Light Bureau for the Stage Manager's Corridor, an inspired and resounding choice.  Congratulations to all the teams who took part on making the competition tougher than ever.

An event of this scale simply could not take place without the support of our sponsors, through both financial and logistical support by donating equipment to the event.  Our thanks go to Holophane, iGuzzini, Martin Architectural, Philips, PLDA, Sill, Urbis and Zumtobel Bega.  And finally, a big thank you to all the competitors, helpers and judges that made the event so enjoyable, and in particular to Liz Peck and Mike Simpson for their hard work in organising the event.

  SLL Appoint new Secretary of the Society

The Society of Light & Lighting is pleased to announce the appointment of Liz Peck as Secretary of the Society.  She replaces Marie Dignan who has been appointed Director of Membership.

Liz has worked in the industry for nearly ten years; she commenced her lighting career with Concord Lighting in 1999; joining their lighting design team as the company merged with Marlin Lighting in 2001.

Having spent a total of four years with Concord:marlin, she joined Philips Lighting as Senior Lighting Designer in 2003, spending a further four years at Philips, before moving to the independent sector with Urban Projects.  At the end of 2007, Liz started her own lighting consultancy, LPA Lighting, which she continues to run alongside her SLL role.

Liz is a graduate of the MSc Light & Lighting course at the Bartlett School of Architecture and was awarded the Lightmongers' Bursary for Student of the Year in 2003.  She has been involved with the Society for many years, having been a key part of the Newsletter committee for five years, served on CIBSE Council as well as a CIBSE membership taskforce and was elected onto SLL Council last year.

Liz brings a wealth of lighting experience to the Society and we welcome her on board.

SLL urges industry to consider impact of withdrawal of tungsten lamps

The Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) actively promotes energy efficient lighting solutions and accepts that a withdrawal of inefficient tungsten filament lamps could lead to a reduction in UK energy consumption but is concerned whether the current options will fully meet the lighting requirements for the spaces and tasks to be lit.

SLL's main concern is that in removing existing, albeit energy inefficient, lamps from the market, future lighting installations using the more efficient alternatives will not be able to achieve the lighting effects that current lamps can produce. Issues of concern to domestic users include: amount of light, warm-up time, ability to dim, flicker, colour, appearance and rendition, lamp life, degree of sparkle, availability of suitable luminaires and lamp shades and cost.

Information from manufacturers does indicate that many of the technical issues could be addressed and that lamps are currently under development that will meet most of the characteristics of tungsten filament lamps. While new lamps will use various approaches, such as fluorescent, LED or high efficiency filament technologies, they will be more energy efficient than current tungsten filament lamps.

The Society believes that all these new lamps, must be manufactured to remove all the conditions listed above, together with a wide range of suitable luminaires, should be readily available before existing lamps are withdrawn. It therefore calls on all those in the supply chain, lamp and luminaire manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to ensure that suitable lighting equipment is readily available to the market to meet the timescales for proposed withdrawal of current lamps.

SLL also calls on the government prior to require lamp manufacturers to produce compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that have electrical characteristics which minimise harmonics on the electrical supply network and operate at high power factors (e.g. greater than 0.9), prior to the proposed withdrawal timetable for the replacement of tungsten lamps.

SLL Strategic Plan

The Society Executive Committee has now finalised its strategic plan for the period 2007-11. The next stage will be an implementation plan which will be updated regularly. The Strategic Plan was written to be consistent in format with that of CIBSE.

To read the SLL Strategic Plan click here.

Withdrawal of GLS Lamps

The Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) actively promotes all energy efficient lighting solutions and the use of energy efficient lamps wherever appropriate.

The voluntary withdrawal of energy inefficient tungsten filament lamps will lead to a reduction in UK energy consumption.  Reducing demand for electricity will save money and reduce UK reliance on energy imports.  Part L of the Building Regulations demands energy efficient lighting in the home and the lighting industry must respond to this.

Information from manufacturers indicates that many of the technical issues (warm-up time, ability to dim, flicker, colour, appearance and rendition etc) are being addressed and that new lamps are currently under development that will meet most of the characteristics of tungsten filament lamps. While new lamps will use various approaches, such as fluorescent, LED or high efficiency filament technologies, they will all be more energy efficient than current tungsten filament lamps.

An FAQ on energy efficient lamps, produced by the European Lamp Companies Federation can be found here.