Brightline Lighting and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Headquarters have collaborated on energy efficient broadcast lighting for three decades. FERC holds meetings in its Commission Meeting Room (CMR) in accordance with the Sunshine Act, which requires public disclosure of its meetings. FERC’s “open” meetings are accessible to the public (in person) also can be viewed through the Commission's website.
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This communication hub has been consistently upgraded with the industry’s most energy-efficient lighting and control systems. Brightline Lighting has kept FERC’s internal AV infrastructure ecologically up to date since 2008. Brightline led the lighting design and installation of three separate renovations, starting with the replacement of incandescent down lights with commercial building fluorescent lights to a full spectrum broadcast fluorescent lights, followed by two separate LED lighting upgrades. In the first LED upgrade, 40 Brightline Flex-T and Stealth-T LEDs were installed, replacing fluorescent T series fixtures. Corner, forward and downward throw LED Stealth-Ts were upgraded in phase two.
The most recent LED upgrade was the most intensive. To stay in line with modernization efforts throughout FERC’s headquarters, updated lighting was required in the CMR within a tight deadline. In 50 days, the meeting room was remodeled, and each of the lights were removed, then repurposed for a new layout of 3500K LEDs. 23 LED Stealth-Ts and 17 Flex-T2s were reused and color balanced with 12 Zumtobel Pano downlights and 52 Zumtobel slot lights in an Armstong T-grid. The AV control room lighting was also updated, with six 3500K Flex-T1 fixtures using a mix of Spot and Flood accessories and four Zumtobel Pano downlights installed.
“Our partnership with FERC truly underscores the evolution of lighting, and it’s a history we’re incredibly proud of,” said Sam Cercone, managing partner, Brightline Lighting. “Their trust in our design and implementation skills enables us to continually deliver the best possible lighting design for them. Both their meeting room and AV control room are state-of-the-art and give FERC an extremely high-end look.”
The control room and the meeting room each run on their own DALI network for lighting control. Brightline replaced FERC’s existing Crestron system with the latest version of a software-based Crestron touchscreen controller. Programming Brightline and Zumtobel through the same Crestron control simplifies operations, while matching their color temperatures enhances aesthetics.
“There are plenty of reasons why we’ve continued to rely on the Brightline Lighting team," several FERC Facilities staff agreed. "They came to FERC when we first started broadcasting, and the images our viewers received weren’t very high quality. In 2005, we started using Brightline’s full spectrum broadcast lights. We later upgraded to large LED in-ceiling fixtures. Our headquarters underwent a modernization, and it was decided to incorporate the new building standard fixtures into the CMR and retrofit them with the DALI control connection to a new Crestron control panel. The production of the meetings is of a much higher quality for our customers both in the audience and watching via streaming on YouTube. That’s what they’ve done for us year after year, and why our lighting produces not only a superior look but is at the forefront of energy efficiency.”