Advanced Optical Technologies launches Renaissance Lighting

Advanced Optical Technologies (AOT) has launched Renaissance Lighting, making available the industry's first collection of Constructive Occlusion lighting fixtures. These fixtures represent a potentially significant breakthrough in optical technology, providing improved light outputs for a wide variety of architectural lighting fixtures. Scientists and engineers at AOT conceived a fundamentally new approach to distributing and collecting light that results in a highly uniform, tailorable light distribution.

Constructive Occlusion uses a precise, patented geometry of optical components and diffuse surfaces to distribute light in a controlled manner. Conventional fixtures typically use specular metal reflectors and/or refractors to redirect light. In both cases the redirection is accomplished with a single reflection or refraction. A single bounce system quite often will scatter a significant percentage of its output outside of the desired distribution. By contrast, this mask-and-cavity reflector system uses reflectors created with diffuse materials to redirect light after multiple bounces occur within a given fixture. Because the mask and cavity surround the lamp, all of the light emanating from the lamp can be redirected into the required distribution area.

Constructive Occlusion enables the creation of wide field of view and highly uniform light distributions that have been previously unattainable. This technology also provides the ability to control the light distribution and achieve high field efficiencies, and eliminates striations/gradients, which are common in specular and refractive fixtures. Because it uses diffuse surfaces, the exact surface profile is not critical which provides additional manufacturing options allowing this improved technology to be offered without the usual increase in costs. The flexibility of diffuse cavities in these lighting fixtures increases the options available to designers, allowing for more attractive fixtures.

The first fixture released by Renaissance Lighting is a semi-recessed wall-washer. The unit is available in 39, 70, and 150W ceramic metal-halide or up to 150W quartz versions. This will be followed immediately by an uplight version of the optical system, a bollard unit, and an exterior building wash unit. Over the next 12 months Renaissance will be releasing a full range of fixtures including linear fluorescent, pole lights, interior and exterior wall lights, interior and exterior wash lights, as well as the fluorescent, bollards, and uplights.

“The ability to precisely control light distribution using diffuse surfaces without compromising efficiency represents a significant breakthrough for the lighting industry,” says Jack Rains, Renaissance Lighting president. “Using Constructive Occlusion, our fixture designers are able to achieve performance that previously was not possible. This allows the potential for a much better distribution pattern from the fixture and/or a significant reduction in the total number of fixtures required for an application. This provides the lighting designer and electrical engineer a new, significantly more efficient tool to accomplish their lighting task,” Rains concludes.

“We are pleased to be associated with this breakthrough technology,” says Tom Folsom, partner in KATIE Group. “We have been working with AOT for over two years in the development of this product line, and based upon the reaction so far of our sales force and the industry designers, the time and efforts were worth it.”

KATIE Group, Inc. of North Hollywood, CA, has been retained by Renaissance Lighting to exclusively handle the marketing and sales of all Renaissance Lighting products.

Further information can be obtained from Renaissance Lighting, LLC, 8301 Greensboro Drive, Suite 110, McLean, VA 22102, ph: 703-676-2681, web: www.renaissancelighting.com, or from KATIE Group, Inc., 11950 Sherman Road, North Hollywood, CA 91605, ph: 818-255-1250, fax: 818-765-7083, web: www.katiegroup.com, e-mail: [email protected].