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Create a Standout Unique Retail Experience

The looming question for the Arkilux team – how to make the new concept stand out and grab the attention of retail shoppers who may not be used to seeing luxury brand automobiles on display in such a way? Due to the high profile location and number of visitors, it is extremely important to provide a stunning experience for shoppers. Lighting quickly became a focus by the designers in the build phase to help attract shoppers to explore the area.

Circa 1818 offers a wide variety of products, from vapes, pre-rolls, edibles, flowers and drinks. The store design had to be attractive to all types of audiences and environmentally friendly for the cannabis product.

“We’ve got products for people who are just beginning to use cannabis as well for people who have been using cannabis for their entire life,” says Hartmann.

Well-lit cannabis displays are essential in cannabis dispensaries. Proper cannabis display lighting can make displays more appealing and lead to more sales. Research indicates that the lighting should be bright, low heat, energy efficient LED lighting without UV. So how does Hartmann choose the proper lighting to show off the cannabis in a healthy environment as well as align with Circa 1818’s store design?

He called on STL Lighting, sales representative to various lighting manufacturers in Canada, to assist him in choosing the right lighting. Eric Teacher, Specification Sales at STL Lighting has years of experience specifying and designing lighting for hundreds of projects from retail to commercial. Teacher ultimately selected Xicato’s linear and smart controls. Here’s why.

Formerly the TWA Flight Center, the Center was closed down in 2001. With its new emergence as a hotel, the goal was to mimic the look of the 60s with the existing structure. Spectrum Lighting used the original 1962 vintage eyeball, cylinder and spotlight fixtures to modernize the hotel’s lighting using Xicato Light Sources and Xicato Controls with Bluetooth mesh technology. With only power within the walls connecting the lights, Xicato Bluetooth wireless technology was a clear solution to enable control of the new system all through the Xicato app. Now throughout the lobby and lounge areas, visitors will enjoy the glamour of the original light design in modern comfort.

Kreon saw light control as a key requirement for their new headquarters and showroom. The system had to offer employees the ability to personalize their environments while also providing flexibility and reliability. The showroom needed to quickly adapt to new configurations. These customization and adaptability requirements made it essential to find a solution that could meet both current and future needs.

The flexibility and ease of programming of the Xicato wireless Controls was a key requirement to create the custom lighting atmospheres that could change from day to day. The museum could be holding a conference for the Royal Society of Biology one day and a UNICEF Aid dinner with vastly different lighting needs the very next. The main level includes custom designed luminaires with RGBW pendants in the mix, all of which use Bluetooth Mesh controls. The controls allow rapid change between classic functional lighting for work to colorful, flashy displays for parties and dancing. The lighting design included a total of 530 lighting nodes throughout both floors that were assigned to one of twenty scenes, ten on the fourth floor and ten on the fifth floor, via Xicato Control Panel software. To add mystique, the ambiance included features such as a decorative DMX grid controlled by an LPC (Lighting Playback Controller) system, and a “Planet Light” in the stairwell to help blend the floors in a high tech yet elegant fashion.

The DMX grid on the lower floor is directed to display various scenes via Xicato Low Voltage Contact Switch (XSW) that sends wireless Bluetooth commands to a Xicato Gateway (XIG) which communicates with the LPC. The integration between the LPC system and Xicato’s Bluetooth Mesh Controls is seamless. Xicato’s open architecture allows for unparalleled flexibility enabling a customized application like no other in the market.

Customized to scientific precision, all lights are individually controlled via an iOS app commissioned by Sutton Vane Associates that can be overridden through manual switches, with the ability to recall pre-defined scenes and groups. Groups were chosen based on location and functional requirements: fourth floor is one scene, fifth floor another, while bathrooms and hallways have their own scenes. The Xicato Bluetooth Gateway receives commands from the app and communicates via Bluetooth to the individual lighting nodes. For guaranteed robustness, Xicato Relay Nodes were placed throughout the building to extend the Bluetooth network resulting in ubiquitous network reach.

The Gran Melia Jakarta had been experiencing issues related to lack of scheduling of lighting levels depending on occupancy. Additionally, the hotel requested dramatic and changing lighting effects to wow guests from the moment they walked through the doors throughout their entire stay, proving an experience like none other. However, the facility had several constraints that inhibited the installation of systems with these features typical of modern smart lighting.

The light control system had to offer hotel management the ability to impress their guests with awe-inspiring lighting and provide the adaptability and flexibility to be installed within the current lighting and wiring environment. These requirements brought them to Xicato, well-known for their quality solutions in both lighting and advanced controls. Xicato provided the technical solutions to not only deliver upon the project specifications but also to overcome these constraints.

One of the other challenges of the project was how to integrate a new lighting control panel and admin dashboardwith the existing control system already in place. The solution became relatively easy since one of Xicato’s key differentiators is that it is designed to be integrated with various third party applications and controls, in any operating system, through their open API. In this case, LaaS used Xicato’s Xtouch within the Android console. The end result was that the Xicato controls are easily accessible by the hotel management team on their mobile devices.