'soft Shell/' Rgb Luminaires

Case Study:
‘So Shell’ RGB Luminaires
Lumolar’s Fish-Shaped Accent Lights Swim to Life
with Future Ligh ng Solu ons Naviga ng the Way
Lumolar’s biomorphic ‘Baby Fish Tide’ LED luminaires ﬂ oated onto the ligh ng
scene in 2008, looking like tropical ﬁ sh lit from the inside. The nau cally inspired
lampshade hatched straight out of the imagina on of Canadian architects Mark
Tholen and Catherine Lin, but they needed help execu ng the ligh ng por on
of the project. Future Ligh ng Solu ons ini ated the duo into the world of LED
applica on development, iden ﬁ ed cri cal components for the job, paired
them with an engineering ﬁ rm to build the board and color-changing system,
and provided advice throughout the engineering process. The result: three
product awards, a second career as ligh ng designers, and accent lights that
can evoke eﬀ ects ranging from Chinese lanterns to the aurora borealis.

SPAWNED BY SUSHI
The project started when Toronto-based Tholen and Lin were hired in 2006
to design a sushi restaurant. Their plan called for hanging three ﬁ sh-shaped,
color-changing ﬁ xtures over each table and suspending 21 more over the sushi
bar. They fashioned the lampshades out of naturally ﬁ re-retardant industrial
felt le over from automo ve assembly processes, crea ng ﬁ sh-like physiques
RGB ‘Baby Fish Tides’
with spiny protrusions. Then they tackled the challenge of illumina ng their
marine-inspired crea ons.
“We needed a light source that could ﬁ t in a very small space, we knew that
a conven onal mechanical color-changing strategy with ﬁ lters wouldn’t work,
and we wanted a technology that would be as environmentally sustainable as
the de-cycled felt we were using for the outer shell,” Tholen recalled. “Power
LEDs were the answer on all three fronts.”
Tholen quickly narrowed the search to LUXEON Rebel LEDs from Philips Lumileds
(www.philipslumileds.com) because of their ultra-compact footprint. He also
built his own custom op c to direct light through holes in the felt created when
Lit by LUXEON LEDs
automo ve manufacturers stamp out circles of fabric for gluing purposes.
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January 13th, 2009 | Case Study: ‘So Shell’ RGB Luminaires

“LEDs were uncharted waters for us when we started
this project. Future Lighting Solutions served as mentor,
matchmaker and technical adviser. Their contributions were
invaluable in bringing our Soft Shell fixtures to market.”
Mark Tholen | Principal, Lumolar
At that point the restaurant project fell through, but Tholen and Lin were too
enamored of the ﬁ xtures that were emerging on their workbench to abandon
that part of the undertaking. That’s when they turned to Future Ligh ng
Solu ons for help.
FOLLOWING FUTURE’S LEAD
Future personnel evaluated the architects’ needs, schooled Tholen in LED
essen als like drive currents and thermal management, and referred him
for technical and manufacturing assistance to electronics engineering ﬁ rm
YunusTech (www.yunustech.com) - a Future Ligh ng Solu ons Network
Integra on Member headquartered near Lumolar in Mississauga, Ontario.
Then the extended team went to work.
First, Future steered the designers to Cypress Semiconductor’s EZ-Color
‘So Shell’ lampshade
controller as their RGB color mixing pla orm because of its rapid development
capabili es, elimina ng the need for Lumolar or YunusTech to hunt for a
solu on on their own or develop one from scratch. Next, Future and Cypress
engineers trained YunusTech on the Cypress system, a hardware/so ware
combina on that includes an embedded visual design tool based on Cypress’
PSoC (Programmable System-on-Chip) technology enabling the controller to
be programmed without manual coding.

Armed with that knowledge and Cypress development kits obtained from
Future, YunusTech’s Erdem Bilaloglu and his team developed an LED color-
mixing driver using the Cypress EZ-Color chip, a master board that can control
up to 90 ﬁ xtures from a central point, and so ware that allows users to design
Installed at IIDEX 2008
light sequences u lizing a drag-and-drop GUI.
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January 13th, 2009 | Case Study: ‘So Shell’ RGB Luminaires

In addi on, the YunusTech team designed an RGB LED light engine containing
three LUXEON Rebel LEDs running at 700mA apiece and used Future’s online
Usable Light Tool to be sure the solu on they were proposing would have
adequate light output.
“Lumolar wanted these ﬁ xtures to change color to create diﬀ erent moods,
so we needed absolute control over the colors and intensity,” Bilaloglu said.
“Future was instrumental in guiding the development of the color-mixing
applica on, from poin ng us to the Cypress pla orm to resolving various
issues in the development process. We consulted with their engineers every
step of the way.”
THE TIDE ROLLS IN
Lumolar (www.lumolar.ca) unveiled the ‘So Shell’ Baby Fish Tide ﬁ xture
series in January 2008 at the Passagen show in Germany in a space appointed
Award-winning design
with 50 lamps shimmering with constantly changing color. A few months
later the ﬁ xtures washed ashore in Canada at IIDEX 2008, showcased in the
Lumolar booth as well as dangling in a 30-unit cluster above a champagne bar
sponsored by the design magazine Azure. They were oﬀ ered both in white and
RGB versions, according to customer needs.
In short order, the series won an Award of Excellence from the Ontario Associa on
of Architects, a Best of Canada 2008 award from Canadian Interiors Magazine,
Contact Informa on
and a Design Exchange Award 2008 from the Toronto Design Exchange.
In North America:
While it was the unusual look of the ﬁ xture that garnered the prizes, the
1-888-LUXEON2
Americas@futureligh ngsolu ons.com
product’s sustainable design is equally important from Tholen’s perspec ve.
That includes the 80,000-hour life span, 80% energy savings over conven onal
In Europe:
ligh ng technologies, and mercury-free construc on enabled by LUXEON
00-800-44FUTURE
Europe@futureligh ngsolu ons.com
Rebel LEDs. “We have an eco-friendly light engine as well as an outside shell
made of materials that otherwise would go to a landﬁ ll. It’s hard to get any
In Asia:
‘greener’ than that.”
+800-LUMILEDS
Asia@futureligh ngsolu ons.com
Tholen and Lin are now working on second-genera on versions of their So
In Japan:
Shell series that will include new shapes as well as remote color-changing
+81-0120-667-013
capabili es with no need for computer-connected components. YunusTech,
Japan@futureligh ngsolu ons.com
meanwhile, is marke ng the color mixing system created for Lumolar for
Philips Lumileds
use by other ligh ng designers at www.luxzil.com. For both, Future Ligh ng
370 W. Trimble Road
Solu ons served as a guide through the some mes-choppy waters of solid-
San Jose, CA 95131
www.PhilipsLumileds.com
state luminaire development.
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January 13th, 2009 | Case Study: ‘So Shell’ RGB Luminaires