Kelly Beatty has been explaining the science and wonder of astronomy to the public since 1974. An award-winning writer and communicator, he specializes in planetary science and space exploration as Senior Editor for Sky & Telescope magazine. Kelly talks about the lack of blue light detection in most satellites leading to under-reported levels of light pollution, and he touches on the ongoing bug apocalypse. And you’re not going to want to miss the next eclipse after you hear about his eclips...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 262
Over the last 17 years Jason has been a leader in providing turn-key lighting retrofits amounting to millions of dollars worth of energy savings that have also garnered millions in incentive money for clients across Ontario, Canada. Respecting the channel and working to build quality lighting systems for customers, Jason speaks to the LED lighting revolution from the perspective of a unionized electrical contractor. Something that hasn't been unpacked on the show as yet. He tells us how he has d...
Oct 04, 2021•51 min•Ep. 261
Sohana Arni, LC, MIES has had experience in many aspects of the lighting profession. At Cooper Lighting she has held roles in product management, marketing manager, Manager of Architectural Markets over a few architectural brands, and currently is the Director of Marketing and Design for 3D printing. You probably never thought you’d learn all about acoustic design on the Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast. In this fascinating episode, Sohana talks about Cooper Lighting’s designs for acoustic materia...
Sep 30, 2021•48 min•Ep. 260
Bettymaya Foott works for the International Dark-Sky Association as Director of Engagement. Preserving dark skies is her life goal and she finds that astrophotography is the most poignant way to express a love for the night, as well as educate about the impacts of light pollution. If you want to take some great photos of the night sky, listen to Bettymaya here for some of the best places to go and amazing tips and tricks for astrophotography.
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 259
Angelica Santana holds a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering with a focus in Lighting/Electrical systems from The Pennsylvania State University. Angelica is a lighting designer with CM Kling in Washington DC. Angelica describes her work as “painting with light” when she goes into a space. As a yoga instructor, she also uses light as an important aspect of meditation. Want to de-stress you or your employees? Shoot an email to Angelica at unionyogadc@gmail.com...
Sep 27, 2021•44 min•Ep. 258
Matt is the outgoing President of NAILD. He held down the fort through the pandemic crisis, keeping NAILD thriving over the past 18 months. You’ll hear about Matt’s own thriving business, plus NAILD’s leading position on Dark Sky education and advocacy. And hey, don’t forget to join NAILD!
Sep 23, 2021•27 min•Ep. 257
Ashley is the Director of Conservation for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) where she collaborates with advocates and volunteers around the world to help them promote effective uses of outdoor lighting and protect pristine dark skies. Ashley tells us about her work in dark sky awareness and education through the lens of Sensory Ecology. And listen to her great plumbing analogy for wasting light.
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 256
Sandra Vásconez is a senior instructor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is co-creator and co-director of the Rocky Mountain Lighting Academy. Education at the Academy is designed for professionals already in the industry. So, if you want some fresh air and a deep dive into lighting education, head on over to Boulder and learn a thing or two from Sandra.
Sep 20, 2021•51 min•Ep. 255
Dr. Fischer operates The Zoological Lighting Institute, a 501 c(3) dedicated to supporting the sciences of light and life through the arts for animal welfare and wildlife conservation. This one is broad ranging. What are the five domains of animal welfare? What is a ZALA station? And why should banks become bird friendly? To find out, give this episode a listen.
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 254
In 1994 Bob Crespo eloquently stated that his son Ray was “doing nothing” and asked if he wanted to start a business doing something environmental since Ray “loved the environment.” And so, Energy Conservation and Supply was born. Since then, Ray and company have been working on things like controls, UV disinfection and EV charging stations.
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 253
Samyukta is an advocate with the International Dark Sky Association, and a member of their International Committee. She currently works in Slovenia, designing experiences to help people connect with darkness and the night sky. Have you ever heard of Forest Bathing? Well Samyukta can design a dark sky experience where you can go “Star Bathing.” Give this a listen and you’ll learn about “archeoastronomy” and “ethnoastronomy.”
Sep 09, 2021•8 min•Ep. 252
If you were fascinated with the previous episode with Peter, listen to this one. He’s an expert in the field of human perception, but when you’re talking about bringing back the night sky, you’re bound to go into weird and wonderful areas of conversation. This episode touches on flotation tanks, meditation and lucid dreaming. The hour will fly by.
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 251
Justin is the President of Stouch Lighting, Inc, a LED and UVC distribution and implementation company. Stouch Lighting has had some pretty good success with UVC in the health field. There’s hygiene theater in a public school hallway, and there’s reducing infections by quantifiably inactivating pathogens in a hospital setting. Justin is working successfully towards the latter. Listen to this episode then go make some room for UVC in your warehouse.
Sep 06, 2021•58 min•Ep. 250
Kevin Houser [PhD, PE (NE), FIES, LC, LEED AP] is a Professor at Oregon State University with a joint appointment as Chief Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Dr. Houser is an expert in light and color. He has conducted research on human perceptual and biological responses to light. Do color rendering metrics have a racial bias? How can lighting make everyone look radiant, healthy and attractive? What opportunities are there for truly equitable color rendering for humans? Tune in ...
Aug 31, 2021•48 min•Ep. 249
Daniel has over 25 years of experience in the lighting industry as lighting designer, manufacturer, sales rep, teacher, and consultant. He currently serves as ICF Lead Lighting Consultant for ENERGY STAR. In this episode, the wide-ranging topics include LED flicker, CRI and The Department of Energy. Daniel is also Chair of the NCQLP Examination Committee. No, you’re not going to get any answers to the exam, but it couldn’t hurt to listen to this episode!
Aug 30, 2021•47 min•Ep. 248
Welcome to the premiere episode of Contrast Ratios with hosts Edward Bartholomew and John Arthur Wilson. Edward is the Principal of Bartholomew Lighting ( https://sites.google.com/view/bartholomew-lighting ) and John is the founding director of Fernhill Shopworks ( https://www.fernhillshopworks.com ). Edward and John reveal some of the "awkward" and raw topics from their podcast.
Aug 24, 2021•46 min•Ep. 247
Oliver Moorhouse is the Head of Business Development for BrainLit North America Inc a subsidiary of BrainLit AB, the developer and IP holder for BioCentric Lighting™. We’ve talked about human centric lighting before, which Brainlit likes to call “BioCentric” lighting. Never mind controls on the wall, Oliver talks about wearables - now you just walk into a room and the lighting changes to just how you need it. The applications are widespread, from helping premature babies go home earlier to enhan...
Aug 23, 2021•56 min•Ep. 246
Dr. Rajaram Bhagavathula is a Senior Research Associate in the Division of Vehicle, Driver, & System Safety at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Dr. Bhagavathula has conducted some fascinating studies on the effects of light on drivers. He talks about the effects of glare and light bands on driver behaviour, the hypnotic effect, the moth effect, dashboard lights… you'll never drive the same again.
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 245
Ali joined Heliospectra as CEO in 2017. With him he brought his passion for people and technology with 22 years of international business leadership experience to his position at the helm of Heliospectra. Ali and Heliospectra are on the cutting edge of horticultural LED lighting. With their light spectrum controlled lighting and software, “communicating” with plants to make them healthier and tastier is possible. Far out stuff.
Aug 16, 2021•48 min•Ep. 244
Robert is the founder and CEO of the Canadian Scotobiology Group Inc. that raises awareness of the impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) on wildlife and human health. Robert talks about “Eco Lights,” how much light you actually need in order to read, the shelf life of hormones and many other fascinating darkness related topics. He even references the Moody Blues.
Aug 11, 2021•28 min•Ep. 243
Angie Koch is the President and founder of Premier Lighting. Angie shares her entrepreneurial story, and what her role encompasses in the company. Greg, your Get a Grip On Lighting host is also an owner of the company, so they both share how he came on board, all those years ago, what they’re up to and where Premier is going.
Aug 09, 2021•38 min•Ep. 242
James Tu is a visionary entrepreneur and the Chairman & CEO of Energy Focus. In this episode we discuss the challenges and opportunities of the Human Centric Lighting "umbrella" which includes circadian, cuing, tuning, wellness and injury prevention. The choice vs prescriptive circle is squared. Finally, James refers to the scientific literature and to the massive opportunity the lighting industry has to make a significant impact on human health and wellness. Jimmy Tunable has arrived....
Aug 02, 2021•44 min•Ep. 241
Peter has a PhD in Psychology studying human perception, action, and the link between them, with over a decade of experience in conducting research in these topics. Blue light, glare bombs, perception, infrared medicine...these are just a few of the fascinating things touched upon. We only scratched the surface with Peter. He’ll be back.
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 240
Robert Soler is a co-founder of BIOS Lighting. Almost everyone has trouble sleeping - including your customers. The Bios Institute will train you to be a “Circadian Auditor” to assess lighted environments from a human health perspective. And guess what? That’s going to lead to sales!
Jul 26, 2021•49 min•Ep. 239
Frank Agraz has worked in the energy efficient lighting community for 25+ years and serves as Director of the C&I Engineering department at Eco Engineering. Frank tells us about his stint as the Exam Committee Chair. He won’t give away any answers, but he’ll tell a bit about the background of creating and administering the exams. Gotta get your LC!
Jul 22, 2021•52 min•Ep. 238
Andy has been involved in astronomy education and outreach for over 25 years, and in the planetarium field for over 20. Andy tells us about his successful techniques for teaching kids about the night sky. He’s also had some wins in cases involving “light privilege” and just plain ignorance. Inspiring.
Jul 21, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 237
Mike Quijano currently serves as the Strategic Marketing Director for Cooper’s Ephesus Sports Lighting business. From community soccer fields to professional football stadiums, Ephesus Sports Lighting has learned to mitigate the problems with overheating in high wattage extreme application LED’s. They have enhanced controllability by a magnitude while simplifying it and are addressing the challenges that come with abiding by local light pollution ordinances. Plus a lot more. This is a good one f...
Jul 19, 2021•45 min•Ep. 236
Jan Denneman is Founder and Chairman of the Board at Good Light Group as well as Honorary Ambassador Global Lighting Association. We’ve been arguing for a while that quality darkness is essential to good sleep. Jan contends that good light during the day is also essential to our circadian rhythm for a good night's sleep.
Jul 16, 2021•39 min•Ep. 235
Barry Johnson is the volunteer webmaster for the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council, as well as a lecturer and consultant on outdoor lighting issues. In his retirement, Barry is a crusader against light trespass and pollution. If you live in Pennsylvania and your neighbor’s flood light illuminates your bedroom wall, give Barry and his fellow POL Council members a call. Contact Barry @ http://www.polcouncil.org/
Jul 15, 2021•1 min•Ep. 234
Simon is the Chief Technology Officer and founder of Silvair and Chair of the Mesh Working Group at Bluetooth SIG. Michael and Greg have been expounding the need for controls in lighting for some time now. Along comes Simon and Bluetooth mesh networking. Revolutionary stuff.
Jul 13, 2021•53 min•Ep. 233
