Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast

The Nefouses of A-M Electric represent 45 years and 3 generations in the business. Michael and Greg met up with The Louisville Light Man and the Godfather of NAILD in their shop to talk about the pace of the LED Invasion, the value of distribution, peaceful transitions of power, and the need to reinvent your business regularly. As they get into the story of A-M Electric, they bring up project pitc...

Satco has been moving in a number of directions lately, pressing beyond lamps into bulbs and electronics. Another move is sending VP of Sales, Alan Karen, to Toronto to join Michael in-studio for this episode all about the necessary moves the best lighting manufacturers are taking. We also chat about busting through the perceived tiers within the industry, finding seams, the changes in the manufac...

Our guest on this episode, Brilled Lighting’s Joseph Cullumber, got into manufacturing backwards. He ran an automation company and got frustrated with finding existing fixtures that met his needs, so he bought a factory to make what he wanted. In this conversation, he, Michael and Greg talk about overseas ownership and management, what you would call a dealer versus a distributor, standing out in...

We have reached 100 regular episodes of this little series. Thanks to everyone that helped along the way; especially to you for listening, watching, commenting, and sharing all this time. This episode we’re throwing ourselves a little party in the form of a roundtable discussion with some like-minded scrubs from across the lighting industry. Our chat gets into the future of our field, the real and...

Orro is not an occupancy sensor, it’s a presence sensor. Colin Billings left his previous work in the new media industry in favor of founding Orro after a series of frustrations with connected lighting at home. An Orro switch uses algorithmic learning to adjust lighting at home, slowly accumulating data and adjusting rules the way a human might commission passive controls without having to be conn...

Simon Slupik, co-founder and CTO of Silvair, wants us all to live in the future with the power of low-energy Bluetooth. However, 90 percent of lighting controls are still analogue - switches and dials - this episode starts with a discussion as to why that is still the case. What follows is an informative nuts and bolts discussion of Bluetooth mesh technology, fixture firmware, planning, commission...

Have we filled our workplaces with photonic deathray diodes? Have we turned our homes into caves? Maybe a little. Scott Zimmerman is an engineer who partners with health researchers and other scientists to model the effects near-infrared light not just on the eye, but skin, blood vessels and the brain and he’s concerned about how the observed good effects NIR are being set aside as we convert the...

Exciting times at this year’s IES Annual Conference in Louisville. Michael and Greg met a lot of people, learned the power of the IES’ volunteer team, learned a lot, and did a lot of live streaming, and the material was too good to not make sure it was all available in one place for you.

Doctor John Davenport returns to the podcast, and while his work on eliminating flicker has succeeded beyond our current capacity to measure, there are other facets of human health he’s trying to improve upon, namely safety lighting. Retrofits on tubes often leave the original battery-powered bug-eye lamps in place, and while those do have LED equivalents, John had a better idea that works in more...

The lighting industry is going through drastic changes, but they are predictable changes. In today's episode we talked with Peter Brown about where the lighting industry is at and what’s most likely coming in the future. Time to go back to the future.

Founder of The Startup Within, Steve Epner helps companies ignite their entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to working with distributors from a variety of industries (including lighting) he also teaches Corporate Entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University. Whether you consider yourself an entrepreneur or not we all have the spirit within us.

Randy Breske is a “retired” lighting industry veteran and is now spending his time as an ambassador for NALMCO (the interNational Association of Lighting Management). We had the pleasure of talking with Randy at the NAILD convention and discussed the lighting industry from the contractor’s point of view. It can be argued that the contractor’s role is the most important one in the LED lighting upgr...

With all of the discussion and focus on the health effects on lighting, Ute Besenecker, Technical Manager of the DLC, finally summed up the proper way to define them. The current health benefits of lighting are more like supplements than medication. Their effects cannot be prescribed, but lighting can effect people's health.

There is nothing better than talking to someone who does what you do on a daily basis and sharing ideas. Steve Robinson of Wattsaver Lighting Products has been a constant presence in the lighting distribution channel for over 30 years. Someone both hosts of the show have looked up to, listened to and learned from over the last decade at NAILD conventions, Steve is a true lighting badass.

We use the word “save” way too much in the lighting industry and should consider the word waste instead. Mark Jewell is on another level when it comes to proposing an energy saving project. As an author, trainer and practitioner Mark has a way of getting to the point that matters and there is no better way to sell.

Futurist, author, and lecturer David Passig met up with Michael and Greg at the second Global LiFi Congress, June 2019, to follow up on his talk; The Prospect of the Future on LiFi Technology. Artificial intelligence will exceed a person in 2040, and will exceed the humanity as a collective by 2060 and the future depends on us being able to integrate information into the human experience and under...

Anytime you have someone from the IES on the show you can be assured that you will learn something valuable about the industry from the top. As The Lighting Authority, the IES is committed to bettering the lighting industry by ensuring that quality lighting is implemented in the field. Alex Baker, Manager of Government Affairs and Public Policy for the IES, met with us at the DLC convention to tal...

Dr. Maïté Brandt-Pearce of the University of Virginia met with Michael and Greg at the second Global LiFi Congress, June 2019, to really get into the nuts and bolts of LiFi. What followed was a rapid Q and A session about fixtures, latency, dimming, how she sees the near-future niche market rapidly reaching mass adoption, and the visceral satisfaction of actually seeing a data connection - LiFi la...

Harald Haas coined the phrase “LiFi” in 2011, and now he’s telling us it’s ready to enter version 2.0. He joins the Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast from the floor of the second Global LiFi Congress, June 2019, to catch us up on the history and development of light-based data transmission, its current applications in the fields of autonomous automobiles, privacy and security, as well as defense. LiF...

Hubbell runs an education facility bigger than Greg’s warehouse, for one reason: training is more important than ever in the lighting industry. Clayton Smith their director of business development sat down with Michael and Greg at LightFair International 2019 to share his thoughts on training and education in the lighting industry today. By building a dedicated facility they can exploit the value...

Brian Vaughn and Tim Miller of Current by GE joined us from the floor at Lightfair to convince Michael and Greg that the phrase “futureproof” might be a useful term when discussing connected lighting. Though, even they admit that “upgradeable” might be the better word for what they’re working on; equipment that works with multiple types of connectivity as well as new fixtures that have modular com...

When we know Randy is in the same location as us we always plan to have a discussion with him and sometimes record it. After hearing an excellent presentation from Randy at the NAILD convention we sat down to discuss more about what the National Lighting Bureau is and what it will be under his leadership. Exciting times for NLB!

Michael Davidson and Jamie Britnell are both Directors at Synapse Wireless and they joined Michael and Greg from the floor of LightFair International 2019 to share their thoughts and knowledge on connected lighting; the unofficial theme of LightFair and (perhaps) the future of the industry. The switch has been the only real control for lighting and we’re in a scenario more options are becoming via...

If the field of lighting were to have one person as the professor of the industry, Jim Benya would be it. Scholarly, articulate and uninhibited; when you talk to Jim about lighting you are in for a true learning experience. He is on too many committees, boards and panels to name, but where there is decision making in lighting Jim Benya is often at the center of it.

David Gershaw is the Chief Innovation Officer at Light Efficient Design, and he joined Greg and Mike from his booth at Lightfair International. While LED’s story of Solar-powered exterior lighting is told from the show Philadelphia it starts in Africa six years ago where they were partnered to light miles of roads in Tanzania with off-grid solar-powered lamps. What started with three components, o...