Supporting our Family

Friends, Colleagues, Clients,

By now many of you have heard about the unfortunate circumstances affecting key people in our office. About 3 weeks ago, Office Manager/Bookkeeper, Pam Kilbourne broke her leg. She was out of the office and is just now starting to work half days. We have been doing our best to try and keep up with invoicing and payments. We hope to have her back in the office full time in a couple weeks. 

Our office Administrative Assistant, and right-hand to Pam, has been out of the office a lot the past 6 months. Her husband Rob had been at the top of the kidney transplant list. Prior to receiving a new kidney, an infection set in requiring surgery. After months of battling complications from the surgery, Rob passed away over the weekend. 

Services for Rob will be on Thursday. Staff from the office who would like to attend will be able to. 

During the serivce, and during regular lunch hour, the office phones may be on auto-attendant. Please bear with us as we work to support our family during these difficult times. 

Take Action!

I just returned from the SMPS national conference, Build Business 2012, in San Francisco. The conference theme was Take Action!

There were many great sessions to choose from it was difficult to pick. I stayed in a new track called Take Action Live! Loosely modeled after TED Talks, this series consisted of panels focused on the specific topics of: Respect, Promote, Differentiate, Create, Position, and Innovate. What I really liked about these sessions was hearing the different perspectives of the panelists, as well as the dynamic nature of the format. The time goes really fast when you have multiple mini-presentations.

Northeast Ohio Chapter members at Build Business 2012Aside from the educational breakout sessions, I feel the greatest benefit from Build Business is connecting with others in the industry. I have met so many people who are willing to provide guidance, advice and support for questions not only in marketing, but also business in general.

It’s not only time to Take Action! at the office, and now that my term as SMPS Chapter President is winding down (Frank, it’s been a please serving under you in the 7^th Domain), it’s time to Take Action! in SMPS. As I continue to help move our chapter forward, I plan to continue my steps toward national involvement.

How are you going to Take Action!?

RATTS - Red, White & Blue

Last weekend, Friday-Sunday, Chris Bayda, an engineer at Tec and producer of the Rockin Around the Town Square concerts put on a patriotic themed show. His band of 9 musicians and another handful or stage and lighting support did three nights of shows.  Chris is the composer, producer, and a performer in the shows. 

For this summer concert he took traditional patriotic themed songs such as “The Star Spangeled Banner” & “America the Beautiful” and re-composes them with a modern rock sound - a style most similarly compared to Trans-Siberian Orchestra. 

The past three years Chris has produced the same kind of concert with a Christmas theme.  Those concerts have been so successful he was asked to do a summer concert. Red, White & Blue was born. The concerts are held in the Main Street Theater in Columbiana, Ohio. The band is made up of muscians that Chris knows from the area. They are not a permanent band, but only come together for these special concerts - they are so good you could never tell they don’t stay together all year.

Below is a clip from the Saturday performace. Check out http://baydamusic.com/ to learn more about Chris and his musical talents.

IES Progress Report Committee

I have been fortunate enough to serve as a member on the IES Progress Report Committee for the past eight years. Our mission is to, “keep in touch with developments in the art and science of lighting throughout the world, and prepare a yearly review of achievements for the Illuminating Engineering Society”.  

It’s an extremely talented group of about 30 dedicated individuals from across the lighting industry. Our members are Manufacturers (lamps, lighting controls, luminaires), Educators, Utility Folks, and Lighting Designers.  I feel privileged to be part of the committee with such an extensive knowledge base, we have members who have served on this sole committee for over 30 years.  It is our responsibility each year, to review submitted lighting products, lighting publications and research and then determine what is considered progress in the industry that is noteworthy and should be presented to the Society at the national conference and then published in our monthly trade journal.

Last year we received 261 submissions, 156 were accepted.  Our review period for submissions is an intense 2-1/2 days.  It seems like a short time for a review of so many items, but it certainly feels like a really long day when you have been trapped in a room for 10 hours straight looking at lights. But my colleagues make it all worthwhile. To hear fair and direct commentary on a products merits (or failings) from such a group of experts in invaluable. 

Along with their wisdom comes a very dry sense of humor that helps make the day move forward.  And I confess, I have been known to slip in “made-up and fake products”.  In 2009, my “fake” product was accepted into the report and read aloud at the conference.  It was for the application of a new NET ZERO lighting control system.  All power in the building was organic and generated by the “gregarious activity of Sea Monkeys”.

It was claimed, they could generate up to 1.21 gigawatts of electricity daily.  The only other known organic source of that magnitude is a bolt of lightning.  The control system transferred the power through-out the building thru the use of a Flux Capacitor.

The fake submission was accepted by 100% of the members and kept us all in good spirits. And since submissions are currently open, I guess I need to start thinking of a small distraction that can help us through the next arduous review session…

We are currently accepting submissions for the 2012 report.  You can check out the 2011 report on the IES website   http://www.ies.org/progress/     Submissions close on August 17^th.  

Cleveland Public Library Tech Central and MyCloud

The Cleveland Public Library Tech Central project is almost complete. We stopped in for a walk-thru last week while the final touches were being installed. The renovation looks beautiful, providing a needed update, while incorporating prominent pieces of the existing architecture.

The renovated space will provide a consilidated computing center for the Main branch with state of the art features. “We are proud to announce that in June 2012 we will be the first public library in the country, to provide a personalized desktop experience to our patrons using desktop virtualization. The days of saving files on USB flash drives will be over for many CPL patrons, as they will be able to use MyCloud to freely access their own computing world anywhere in the Library. MyCloud will allow each user to save their files, bookmarks, and preferences and have them available anytime they visit the Library.”

Along with the new desktop features, the new technology infrastructure is useful and unobtrusive. The electrical outlets and network connections are built into the furniture, inside of covered boxes. The cabling and power are run through the table legs and are routed under an innovative modular raised floor that feels like a solid floor. Tech Central is outfitted with Windows and Mac computers that are connected to the MyCloud service.

The architecture is brought to life through refurbished direct/indirect suspended lighting and additional accent lighting. The suspended fixtures illuminate the space evenly while minimizing glare for library patrons working at the computers. The existing intricate ceramic tile mosaic wall is highlighted for the first time with linear led accent lighting mounted to the edge of the counter installed along the wall. Additionally, information desks incorporate integral led technology with 3-form panels to provide a self-illumianted presense in the space.Track lighting has been installed to highlight a display table.

We’re proud to have been involved in the engineering and lighting design of this project.

 To view more pictures, visit the project photo gallery. http://www.tecinc1.com/photo-gallery/cleveland-public-library-tech-central/