Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast

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 t...

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, feat...

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 L...

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 exper...

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 no...

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...

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...

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, bu...

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 conver...

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...

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 manufa...

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...

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 b...

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 featur...

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 issue...

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 sho...

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 v...

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 quar...

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,...

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 hi...

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 t...

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 pr...

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...

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...

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 Socie...