The IES is continuing our back to the basics with a series of short 'Tech Talks' in 2024. Join your lighting industry peers for this informative and bite-sized look at a new lighting topic each month!
Have an idea for a future topic? Email iesrmsdenver@gmail.com.
This is a virtual event only. You will receive the meeting link once you register.

Plenty of our work relies heavily on concepts developed within the theatrical lighting industry, but how did all of that come to be? How did we get from literal candles to LED sources? How do these things get controlled? Join Jared as he wanders quickly (and irreverently) through a history of lighting, controls, and design in the theatrical world. Hopefully no fires will be reported from simply talking about candles and gas lamps.

Speaker: Jared Canada

Jared is a member of the IES, serves Denver locally on the Brilliance Awards board, and nationally on the IES Performance and Assembly Lighting Committee. He has worked in the “theatrical industrial complex” for his entire career, but no is no longer imprisoned in his black clothes backstage. From building sets and hanging lights in high school theatres to designing large-scale control systems for NFL, MLS, and MLB stadiums, Jared’s career has run the gamut of what is possible as a theatre technician. Jared is now a project manager for Digital Dots, a software and systems integration company based in Southern California working largely in museum lighting, performing arts centers, and other highly custom lighting control systems.

Illumination Awards season is upon us! The IES Illumination Awards (IA) program recognizes individuals for professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design based on the individual merit of each entry. Submissions for the 51st Annual Illumination Awards will be open beginning January 4th, 2024! Join us for a short presentation as our Illumination Awards Chair shares valuable insight into creating a winning entry. Gain tips for selecting the right category, crafting an optimal narrative, and capturing stunning photography. We'll also delve into the judges' criteria, submission process, necessary rules, and the actual scoresheets used for evaluation. Don't miss this opportunity to help answer any IA questions you might have!

Speaker: Brooks Powers

Brooks Powers is an active member of the IES and is currently the Illumination Award Chair for the Dallas Section board. He has held the IA chair since 2020 reviewing projects for the IES and organizing the judging for his local section. He has worked professionally in lighting for over 20 years and now focuses on lighting controls. He has consulted lighting for commercial, theatrical, and residential venues and has guest lectured about lighting design and the technical aspects of theatre at multiple universities. Brooks is currently a Controls Project Manager for The Lighting Agency in Denver. 

The merging of generative design, advanced configurability, and additive manufacturing technologies has created an opportunity to rapidly generate, visualize, and evaluate parametrically configured luminaire solutions. There is also the opportunity to be significantly more environmentally sustainable than conventional manufacturing while shortening the product development timelines. Lighting designers spend a significant amount of time preparing designs for visual evaluation using a variety of software tools and CAD models to present options to a client and to the manufacturer for approval. Generative design can create designs with user controlled parameters to rapidly visualize a design tailored to an application. Error checking with the actual CAD can eliminate the need for manufacturer approval effectively making a “custom” solution standard. The generative design component is also seeded with randomness that will generate designs that would never have otherwise been considered. This design tool has been developed and beta tested with select lighting designers to determine next steps for optimizing workflows.

Speaker: Chris Sorensen

Trained as a Mechanical Engineer at CU Boulder, Chris has been at the cutting edge of architectural lighting for the past 16 years. He discovered a passion for lighting while playing guitar in a rock band with art school friends where they conceived of and built a light experience to best accompany the live performance. Coming to Acuity Brands’ Luminaire Concept Center in 2011 presented the perfect opportunity to hone both his technical and creative skills. Since 2018, Chris has had the honor of leading the team at the LCC. Over the past few years, he has led the team in the research and development of sustainable luminaires and presented on sustainable design and performance at the 2023 IES conference and on the environmental impact of lighting power and control systems at Leducation in 2021. When not designing the future of lighting, he enjoys backcountry splitboarding and mountain biking.

Speaker: Dominic Large

With an educational background in Environmental Design and Architecture, Dominic has been practicing advanced parametric design within the architectural lighting industry since his senior year at CU Boulder. After learning parametric design practices via Grasshopper3D, Dominic discovered his passion for product design and more specifically, lighting design enabled by additive manufacturing. Starting his career at Interplay Lighting, designing and 3D printing decorative diffusers, he has since joined the Luminaire Concept Center at Acuity Brands. When he is not writing Grasshopper Definitions for the future of Architectural Lighting, Dominic can be found somewhere in the mountains either snowboarding or hiking, or at a rock concert, finding inspiration for his next lighting design.

Visual comfort by addressing glare has become a important factor in lighting design as well as volunteer standards. Unified Glare Rating or UGR has been used in these design standards, but what is it and how is it used? This session will discuss the advantages and pitfalls of the metric. It will also cover the results when it is misused including limited fixture selections and unintended glare. The presenter will show key concepts of the UGR Metric and give an insight as to best practices to use UGR effectively.

Speaker: Matt Hartley

Matt received a BS in Architectural Engineering, Illumination Engineering Option from the University of Colorado under David DiLaura. After graduating from CU, he became an Application Engineer for Lithonia Lighting. During his time at Lithonia, Matt was promoted to Application Project Manager and Manager of Exterior Applications. He left Lithonia then worked at Lighting Analysts (AGI32) as the Manager of Customer Care. Matt left Lighting Analysts and worked for Peerless Lighting as a Specification Project Manager in charge of Peerless’ modifications and customs. He is currently the Principal of the lighting consulting firm, Matt Hartley Lighting.

Matt has chaired several committees including Automotive Retail Sales, and several committees within the IES Street and Area Lighting Conference. These included the Street and Area Lighting committee, SALC Executive sub-committee, the 2009 Street and Area Lighting Conference Planning sub-committee, and Education sub-committee. After stepping down as the Education Sub-Committee Chair for the SALC in early 2010, he took on the role of Lead Instructor and Educational Coordinator for the SALC. In 2019 he was honored with the IES-SALC Lifetime Service Award. Matt was voted in as a co-chair of the ELO (Education, Library, and Office) lighting committee in the summer of 2020.

Matt was also appointed to the Educational Materials Review Council for the IES in 2010 which changed to the Education Material Review Committee Until 2019. Matt also serves on the IES ONE (Outdoor Nighttime Environment) and Merchandise Lighting Committees.

He has presented at the IES Annual Conference, Street and Area Lighting Conference, Lightfair, and the IES Outdoor Lighting Symposium. Matt received an IIDA award of Merit in the fall of 2004 for his design of the Atlanta Area Council Boy Scouts of America Volunteer Service Center. He also holds a patent for a fixture design in 2008.  

Join Addie as she unpacks how to bring an inspiration image to life through fully realized and custom integrated lighting details. She will explore how to analyze desired lighting effects to understand the visual and physical characteristics of light at play, talk about the effect of light on materials, cover many applications and types of lighting details, and offer some insight on how to make a buildable and maintainable detail. She will also touch on the practical measures you can take to ensure your lighting details get built as intended.

Speaker: Addie Smith

CLD, Assoc. IALD, Assoc. MIES, LEED ID+C

Addie is a passionate and award-winning lighting designer who strives to elevate the human experience with the subtle and transformative power of light. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a degree in Interior Design and has been a professional architectural lighting designer for over a decade in New York City and Chicago and serves as Senior Lighting Designer at AE Design in Denver. Addie’s aspirations are guided by her love of beautiful experiences, human connection, and place-making. With light, she hopes to enliven the built environment with drama, and inspire people to do, feel, and be better. Addie serves as the President of the Denver’s chapter of Women in Lighting Design (WILD), serves on the IES Technical Committee for Hospitality and Residential Lighting, and is a Certified Lighting Designer (CLD). She volunteers as an Interior Design Industry Mentor at SCAD, and has presented at Neocon, AIA Colorado, and Lightfair among others. Addie is excited to share her passion for the nitty gritty details to help make the vision of your design – painting with light – come to life! 

As built projects and design processes become more complex and data-driven, designers must respond to a growing list of demands. Advancements in software have offered opportunities to incorporate parametric workflows within integrated teams in order to address these challenges. Through idea evolution and practical implementation of data-informed design decisions, our skillsets and knowledge expand to support and leverage these tools. In this presentation, two case studies respectively explore advanced daylighting analysis and photorealistic lighting visualization via parametric workflows. Briefly expressed, “script the challenge and inform”. 

Speaker: Reinhardt Swart

Reinhardt Swart is an Associate and lighting designer at SmithGroup in Denver, adjunct professor, and artist. Reinhardt’s background from The Pennsylvania State University Architectural Engineering program allows him to design holistically with respect to users, form, and environment. Graduating with an integrated BAE/MAE, his continued interest in theory, art, daylighting, and parametrics has notably influenced his approach to design. During his eight years of professional experience, he has received notable lighting awards including the AEI Professional Award of Excellence for GM Flint Factory One and the IES Award of Merit for the Zeiss Michigan Quality Excellence Center. Reinhardt has given several lectures on daylighting and the philosophy of lighting design and as an active member of both the IES and IALD, he is excited to grow and inspire the lighting profession.

Lighting Controls Commissioning is a term many are familiar with but not everyone fully understands. We'll be breaking down why this is important, who is responsible for its completion and documentation, and what to watch out for on your next lighting project.

Speaker: Carl Canfield

Carl Canfield currently serves as Education Chair on the local IES board. He is a Colorado native and studied Architectural Engineering at CU Boulder, where he developed a passion for lighting and its influence on people's behavior and well-being. After working in energy services and building electrical design for 7+ years, he is now a Sales Engineer at The Lighting Agency, where he enjoys enlightening the local lighting community on the best practices for lighting controls. When not at work, Carl can be found somewhere outdoors, behind a book, or over the chess board.