On the occasion of Philips sixth consecutive Cape Town to Cairo roadshow, Philips today unveiled the newly illuminated Cairo Opera House.
– Philips 21st century connected LED lighting technology revitalises Cairo’s Opera House – bringing new life to this iconic building, whilst also reigniting cultural pride and saving energy.
– Over the past five years the Philips Cape Town to Cairo roadshow has spread light across Africa improving and beautifying cities, and illuminating iconic landmarks

Philips has provided the Cairo Opera House with a stunning makeover that has radically boosted the beautification of this iconic building. By using its latest LED lighting technology, which has a lifespan of up to 50,000 hours(1), Philips will enable the Opera House to reduce its energy consumption by up to 80% compared with conventional lighting currently used in the Opera House.

Reigniting cultural pride

The Cairo Opera House is a cultural landmark renowned for leadership, excellence and imagination. It has carved itself a significant position in the cultural landscape of Egypt and the Middle East. With its appealing mix of high-quality traditional events, and its unique venues as well as its state of the art facilities, the Cairo Opera House is exceptionally suited to fulfill its mission to become a representation of art in Egypt and across the world.

Tamer Abol Ghar, Country Manager Egypt & General Manager Africa, Lighting Professional End User Sales, commented : “It is with great pride that we can today unveil the stunning LED makeover of the Cairo Opera House. The lighting not only magnifies the beauty of the renowned building, but it will also enable a significant reduction of energy consumption at the Opera House. As the global leader in LED lighting, we have made massive strides in recent years with regards LEDs, and it’s really quite remarkable to witness the effect the lighting of a building or a landmark can have on an entire city or region. We have no doubt that the people of Cairo will enjoy the Opera House for many more years to come, and hopefully as a result of the dynamic new lighting it will be seen in a completely new light not only by locals, but by the world.”

Philips’ new lighting concept focused on highlighting the importance of the building as a source of cultural pride. Located in the southern part of Gezira Island, this iconic building now houses new Philips dynamic lighting, which ensures it is visible from anywhere up to half a kilometre away on the River Nile. The new Philips lighting design has guaranteed that the viewing points of the Opera House are the main feature, with light and shadow applied in such a way that the building’s structures are also emphasized.

The initial challenge for Philips’ design team was to give the iconic Opera House a more innovative look while maintaining the authentic and historic atmosphere of the Opera House. The Philips team applied its innovative Vaya LED lights which create an endless spectrum of colors to highlight the features of this architectural masterpiece, and allowed Philips to introduce a vibrant ambience that changes depending on the performance happening inside the Opera House.

The usage of intelligent RGB (Red, Green & Blue) flood lights on the façade of the Cairo Opera House turns the hall into a landmark that is highly attractive, adding visual comfort as well as an expressive environment at night. The domes of the building have been illuminated using intelligent RGB floodlights with wide beam angle to highlight the octagonal base shape

The entire project at the Cairo Opera House took Philips four months to complete – this included the design, implementation and installation of 160 Philips latest Color Kinetics Vaya LED RGB (Red, Green & Blue) Lighting luminaires.

Ninth and final stop of the Cape Town to Cairo roadshow

Cairo marks the grand conclusion of Philips’ annual pan-African Cape Town to Cairo roadshow that kicked off on 11th May 2015, in Cape Town.  Cairo is the ninth stop on the roadshow’s journey which covered 12,000 km across 11 cities and 8 countries over a period of 4.5 months. Cape Town to Cairo has gained significant momentum over the past five years, allowing Philips to get to the heart of some of the key issues facing Africa – including Mother and Child Care, the rise of non-communicable diseases, energy efficient LED and solar lighting solutions, as well as shining a spotlight on the need for clinical education and training.

The 2015 roadshow continued to drive the conversation around sustainable energy solutions. As part of Philips dedication to improving healthcare in Africa many substantial innovations and partnerships were announced and Philips illuminated a number of iconic buildings, which will leave behind a permanent legacy, while also reducing energy consumption.

Visit www.novelenergylighting.com for LED lighting products by Philips

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This underpass near King’s Cross and St Pancras stations in North London is saving money on energy and maintenance since it had its old metal halide lights replaced with specially designed LED road tunnel luminaires from Philips.

The St Pancras Road underpass is a busy road, cycle and pedestrian route to the two major train stations, as well as providing access to Camden Council’s new offices. It was previously lit by around 100 twin-lamp metal halide fittings and the council saw an opportunity to visually improve what had become a gloomy and uninviting area. This was a ‘spend to save’ initiative to take advantage of energy-efficiency gains and lower maintenance costs while also reducing carbon emissions.

The lighting design was carried out by Philips and the new luminaires were installed by main contractor SPIE. SPIE’s John Broster said: ‘The previous luminaires were fitted into the soffit of the underpass and as this is a concrete strutted roof it would have been impractical to alter it. We needed a solution that could provide a direct replacement for the existing fittings.’

The stainless steel luminaires have been installed on a one-for-one replacement basis, to provide energy savings of more than 50 per cent. The new lighting has increased light levels and uniformity to remove the gloom, while the 4000K neutral white colour temperature has created a better and more inviting visual environment for users of the underpass. The tunnel feels safer and more pleasant.

The project also provided an ideal opportunity to make better use of lighting control. ‘As this is a short underpass the lighting only requires one-step dimming and we were able to adjust the existing system, using high light levels during the day and dimming at night to minimise the contrast for drivers entering the underpass,’ said Broster.

The council has achieved a significant reduction in energy consumption, while also reducing maintenance costs as the luminaires are expected to be virtually maintenance-free throughout their lifetime, and should pay for themselves in about five years.

Contact Novel Energy Lighting to discuss your LED lighting retrofit requirements. We work hand in hand with the major lighting manufacturers like Philips to specify, supply, and install projects. Tel: 0208-540-8287. Email: sales@novelenergylighting.com

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Visitors to London’s King’s Cross station used to arrive at a drab 1970s extension that hid the Victorian façade. The extension was knocked down in 2012 as part of a major redevelopment of the station, freeing up space for a new public square.

Now the space in front of the façade can be enjoyed again, by day and night, with the help of an all-LED lighting scheme.

In-ground luminaires from ACDC light the King’s Cross Station façade

ACDC’s high-power Integrex linear luminaires were surface-mounted to wash light further up the façade. Connected by a combined power and data cable, the Integrex luminaire sends light 10m up the façade, while its integrated dimmable DMX driver offers a high level of control. A slim 53mm profile makes it a discreet presence on the façade.

As StudioFractal partner Chris Sutherland explains, ‘As well as highlighting the broad expanse of the façade, we also wanted to gently pick out the small niches and cornices with the same lighting effect, so that the horizontal surfaces would be illuminated as well, adding interest and drawing the eye.’

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Virgin Trains: LED lighting at stations is as much about customer satisfaction as it is about energy

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AFP/Jiji Press/AFP/File – Energy saving traffic lights in Japan are failing to melt snow covering them

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Published on 14 Jan 2015

Visit us at novelenergylighting.com to explore outdoor lighting, from streetlights to floodlights to bollards to security lighting. Or call us to discuss your needs: 0208-540-8287

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Simon Nicholas insists he’s not ‘anti-LED’.

It’s a point worth making, as he has become famous in lighting circles for his one-man campaign against bad LED streetlighting.

‘I believe LED is the future of lighting,’ he says. ‘But it’s a sophisticated technology being used crudely because of a lack of expertise. There’s a lack of understanding of the wider issues and a lack of skills within many local authorities.’

‘In many cases it’s cheap and cheerful. It’s not even cheerful, it’s cheap and nasty. In fact it’s not even cheap, it’s expensive and nasty. And if residents complain, all they get back from their local authorities are cut-and-paste platitudes.’

Nicholas thinks taxpayers deserve better, so he has made it his business to get councils to look more carefully at how they procure and specify LED streetlighting – and he’s getting results.

Looking for answers
In a world of confusion and misinformation about LEDs, many lighting professionals dream of customers who are as well informed about lighting as Nicholas. It’s not often you hear members of the general public throwing around terms like spectral composition and luminaire lumens per circuit watt. But be careful what you wish for: Nicholas has been giving manufacturers and local authorities a pretty hard time about their products and practices.

Nicholas is not a lighting man by background. He’s a mechanical engineer who runs a couple of transport and property businesses, and until recently had no more than a passing interest in LED lighting.

But when his local council in Trafford, Greater Manchester tried to replace the streetlights in the conservation area where he lives with brighter lights on higher masts, he complained, and succeeded in getting changes made.

Then he got wind of Trafford’s plans to roll out LEDs, and began to examine their plans.

Since then, his campaign against what he sees as bad LED lighting – either because it’s poorly designed, bad value for money, foisted on people without consultation or potentially damaging to health – has become, in his words, ‘a hobby’.

He hit the headlines in 2013 when the Manchester Evening News quoted (or rather paraphrased) him as saying that LED lights might ‘damage brains’, and last year he appeared on the BBC’s Daily Politics to speak out against bad lighting.

In his spare time Nicholas devours academic papers and policy documents, attends technical seminars on lighting, fires off regular Freedom of Information requests to councils and gets into lengthy arguments on theLighting Talk discussion group on LinkedIn.

He even came to LuxLive last year, and debated LED streetlighting alongside representatives of Westminster City Council, Balfour Beatty and manufacturer CU Phosco. Whatever you think about his views, he’s determined, engaged with the issues and very well informed.

It’s not all about energy
So what’s at the heart of Nicholas’ problem with LED streetlighting? Surely the benefits of this new technology – energy efficiency, light control, colour quality – are compelling?

‘The only criteria anyone cares about is energy efficiency,’ Nicholas told Lux. ‘When you’re introducing LED lighting, the whole process needs to be managed in a very measured and controlled way, and aspects other than energy efficiency need to be considered.’

One of his biggest concerns is the health risks of glare and blue-rich light from LEDs. It’s certainly true that blue light – in certain intensities and under certain circumstances – can damage the eye or disrupt sleep. Many experts insist that fear about the blue in LED streetlights is misplaced, but Nicholas is not satisfied that the risks have been properly researched or addressed.

Not only is there a ‘technical guidance void’ on how best to use LED technology for streetlighting, he says, there’s also a ‘policy void’. ‘Someone needs to put out some guidance. In my view it’s the responsibility of central government, but they don’t seem to have any appetite for it.’

‘Clients are just believing what people are telling them and taking a leap of faith. They’re being promised fit-and-forget for 20 years. In 11 years when the arrays have deteriorated, the driver has blown and the technology has moved on, what are you going to do then?’

He also objects to what he sees as an undemocratic approach to the introduction of LEDs. ‘This new technology is being imposed on people,’ he says. ‘Any negative feedback is being ignored.’

It’s not just Trafford Council that Nicholas has been complaining to –  he has also targeted other local authorities, particularly those who have ‘made a big PR deal of what they’re doing’, such as Wigan.

‘They said they had done a trial and were going to extend their trial across the borough,’ Nicholas said. ‘So I ask them a number of questions and they’re struggling to answer them. So I send them some information and ask them to consider it, and as a result they’ve decreased the colour temperature by 40 per cent. I don’t know on what basis they’re thinking 4000K is OK and 5700K is not, but it’s a step in the right direction.’

Nicholas believes local authorities should explore the option of dimming existing streetlighting, which still has years of life left in it, rather than spending millions on brand new LEDs. ‘Manchester and Cardiff have both invested heavily in high-intensity discharge lighting over the last 15 years,’ he says. ‘Cardiff are spending £1.7 million to dim 22,365 lights and saving £312,000 a year. In Manchester they could save £570,000 [if they did the same]. Instead they’re planning to save £750,000 a year on an LED rollout that’s going to cost £33 million, and all the kit they’ve installed in the last 10 years goes in the skip. The lighting level will be less, the glare will be greater and generations of taxpayers will be paying for the debt.’

Follow the money
The way LED rollouts are funded doesn’t always help, Nicholas says. Initiatives like the Green Investment Bank’s loans for lighting upgrades worry him, because he feels they have not paid sufficient attention to quality, including health and environmental issues.

‘They seem happy to subsidise bad as well as good lights,’ he said. ‘The risk is that a local authority who got Green Investment Bank funding go and squander it on poor quality equipment and it won’t work and the company goes bust and the taxpayer is left holding the baby.’

He’s equally unimpressed by private finance initiatives. ‘PFI and LED are not happy bedfellows,’ Nicholas says. ‘The objectives of the PFI supplier and the client are, in my view, mutually exclusive. The contractor wants to do as much as possible and the client just wants to save money. And the contractor doesn’t necessarily give the client the best solution. Manchester is a clear example of this.’

Does he have much faith that the lighting industry will address his quality concerns? ‘No. I’m not sure self-regulation will work. We’ve got a perfect storm of new technology, huge financial pressures on local authorities and a lack of guidance from central government. That’s where the buck has to stop.’

But he has seen positive changes in attitudes from councils with whom he has raised his concerns. ‘I’ve been locked in a battle with Trafford for over 18 months and now we are starting to see some positive results, with a change of emphasis from purely energy savings to consideration of those wider environmental and health impacts which can result from the specification of the wrong spectral composition of outdoor lighting.’

Meanwhile, Cardiff Council has invited him to discuss LED specifications with its highways team, and he’s helping the ILP (the Institution of Lighting Professionals) update its guidance on LEDs.

A couple of years on from getting involved with LED lighting, Nicholas still hasn’t lost momentum. And if central and local government want to come up with effective lighting policies, and win the public round to them, they would do well to pay attention to determined, knowledgeable critics like this.

After all, Nicholas says: ‘If there were any serious counter-argument I’d have heard it by now. And I probably would have gone away.’

Novel Energy Lighting works with councils and developers to specify LED Street Lighting. Call us to discuss your needs: 0208-540-8287, or email: andrew.shuttleworth@novelenergylighting.com

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