Today we are talking about sustainability. Today, we are talking about quality of life.

Yes.

And we feel that optics are the heart and if you don't have the right optics, you cannot achieve what you, as a designer, you are looking for. Yeah, and that is one of the reasons we are trying to work with some of the top-notch institutes in the world. Yes, and we also see a lot of limitations. We've been, before entering into any vertical, we do a lot of feasibility study. We, we study the industry for two years yes, for example, for we've been studying it for last two years and we were surprised to see the amount of limitation, what the industry has, to see the amount of limitation, what the industry has.

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In today's episode, we once again travel back to the beginning of the year, where we conducted an insightful interview at Light Middle East 2024 in Dubai. Co-founder Martin Klassen spoke with Amit Sheth, founder and CEO of Plus Light Tech, a leading exhibitor at the event. They discussed the pivotal role of sustainability in lighting design, explored solutions to combat light pollution and shared insights into the future of smart lighting technologies. A great listen, right to the end. For anyone wanting a visual experience, please do check out our YouTube channel, where you will find the video version of this episode, as well as many other great interviews and presentations by our industry thought leaders. Our YouTube handle is at VLDcommunity. And, of course, it wouldn't be complete without mentioning our online platform, where the magic happens. Join us and your fellow lighting enthusiasts, where you can gain access to the complete array of presentations, interviews, stories, ongoing conversations, a host of resources and much more. So please do check that out and explore the community. Now, without further ado, let's head straight into the episode. Enjoy.

Bye, my name is Martin Klaassen and welcome to the virtual light design community. We're here, live at Light Middle East in Dubai 2024. And with me, one of the exciting new exhibitors, plus Light, and I welcome Amit Seth, amit, welcome. Thank you very much, martin, amit. I would like to first introduce you, I mean you introduce yourself to our audience. Who is Amit Seth? What does he stand for? What's the company doing? So we get a better idea of what you're doing, thank you.

So we have a company called Focus Lighting and Fixtures in India. We have offices in Singapore and in Middle East, yeah, and we were mainly into retail lighting. From retail lighting, we shifted to architecture lighting. Now we are. We shifted to architecture lighting. Now we are focusing more on outdoor. The whole idea is that there are a lot of gaps we see in all these verticals and we are trying to fill up those gaps, limitations in terms of technology, and that's what we are doing and that's where it's driving us. It's motivating us to introduce newer technologies in this.

What I noticed is that you have like top-notch optics in all your light fittings, all like Barton Buck type of optics. Yes, is there a specific vision behind that? Why you? You're going for the best of the best.

See, today we are talking about sustainability. Today we are talking about quality of life and we feel that optics are the heart, and if you don't have the right optics, you cannot achieve what you, as a designer, you're looking for. And that is one of the reasons we are trying to work with some of the top-notch institutes in the world, and we also see a lot of limitations. Before entering into any vertical, we do a lot of feasibility study. We study the industry for two years, for example, for outdoor. We've been studying it for the last two years and we were surprised to see the amount of limitation the the industry has when you say limitation, what do you mean with limitation?

If you really want to go into the depth of it. So we did feasibility study of top five companies in the world and we realized that you, as a consultant or as an end-user like, let's say from you, you need a very narrow beam. Yes, okay. So industry does have a narrow beam, but the amount of stray light, what it has, the efficacy what it has, yeah, so those are the real limitations now if you're going with a very, very sharp beam and if you want to control, if you want to do rgbw is not possible.

we were doing one of the installations and we realized that you know, the team actually climbs up and adjust the light, the luminaires, and it's so risky, they actually risk their life and they do it. So we were looking for a solution wherein is it possible that you can have, as a designer, you don't have to define beam, but you can just say that I can adjust at the side condition from 3 degrees to 80 degrees From a simple iPad or a laptop. Is it possible that way? So those are the limitations of what we saw and we have been trying to work on it and we are solving it.

I saw you're present here with quite an impressive booth. Thank you very much. This is the first time you're here.

No, we are exhibiting for the second time. Second time, okay. We were here, I think in 2018.

All right, so you are now post-COVID, yeah, so what is your impression? So you can compare pre-COVID, post-covid. What's your impression of the show? This?

year, since we've been coming after a very long time. I think we were highly appreciated because a lot of consultants who came to us they said that you're the only booth where you're showing how light behaves. Yes, yes.

Most of the time it's not about the product, but it is the quality of light. You're speaking my language, so yeah, for us it was. This exhibition has been very, very fruitful. We've been appreciated. We've got a lot of positive response from the industry Coming from India. You know it's a very different world, so the psychology is that the quality is not high and when they come and see us they are really impressed and they are really happy to meet us.

You have an impressive collection of light fittings, absolutely, and you're growing very fast. I can see I've known you for a while and I've seen that your range is growing and growing, so congratulations on that. Now, this year's theme for the fair is enlightened futures, where we have a focus on circularity, on darkness, on sustainability, on integrating smart into lighting. How does that reflect in your products? I think we're all looking at the future. What does Pluslight do and how does it?

relate with this team. This is exactly what we've been working on.

Sustainability dark sky. We did one of the surveys in Austria and in Innsbruck and where there was a lot of light pollution, there were street lights and a lot of light was going inside the river. Now the local municipal corporation wants to change it and that's how we got connected and we showed some of the systems where you can actually have a very sharp cut off, you can have a control where the light is not going behind. I I understand we call it as bug rating. What are the bug ratings in the industry? Yeah, b zero, u zero, g zero is the best thing, but if you have b1, u1, g1 is also nice.

So we are working on those areas. We are working very, very hard on sustainability and also on smart. We believe, like the great work what you did and, uh, you are the first person in the industry, honestly, who was talking on smart. Yeah, yeah, honestly. If you ask me why you need lights when between 12 to 4, or you need lights because there will be some amount of activity going on here and there, but you can always dim it.

Sensors can always help you out. It's still a long way to go for the industry, but there are people like you who are taking initiatives.

You also follow that. I know you're looking at how to integrate potential sensors in your features etc.

I think that's the future. Any company who is looking into sustainability, any company who is looking into smart or dark sky issues will be successful in the near future. So that's the way to go.

Now we are very much talking to you also for the educational purpose, so people understand what you can bring to the market. You're also aware that we have this community, the virtual line design community. You've heard about it and I would love to hear your take on what your thoughts are. How does the virtual line design community help?

But how does the virtual life and community help? According to me, if I have to be very honest with you, it's one of the most important things today required in the industry. Okay, yeah, if you go to an end user who is supporting the industry, who is buying from us, they don't have any knowledge. Yeah, and it's the education of this type of institute where you guys are driving it is really helping the whole industry as a whole to make them understand that, okay, these are the most important things and why there is a difference between a good quality and a bad quality.

What is sustainability? What is a good quality of light? How you can reduce light pollution. This education is not there. I don't believe that a customer, at the end of the day, is not ready if he's been educated. If a customer knows that, knows that the product is sustainable, it is recycled. If the product is efficient, if it can reduce the quantity, if the product is smart, it is reducing the energy load, everybody is ready to do it. But who is educating today in the industry? So we really appreciate people like you who are taking this in initiative in the industry and taking a step further well, I can always say, uh, you have an open invitation to join the platform and become a supporter.

We will love to do it. Please let us know how we can take it further, and we love to do it I mean thank you so much, thank you so much, thank you we hope you enjoyed this episode and you've gained some insight or inspiration that you can take away or perhaps apply.

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