Chandelier designers light the way

Good lighting can make or break an interior, but a bespoke light feature can utterly transform it, creating a captivating statement that sets the tone for an entire home. Whether it's a delicate crystal chandelier or a mammoth lighting sculpture that experiments with unusual materials and the latest LED technologies, bespoke lights are now an essential element of the luxury interior.

In terms of design, the possibilities are thrilling - just look to the ceilings of the lobbies, restaurants and bars of some of the UAE's most exciting new hotels, where you'll more than likely be greeted with a stunning installation by the Czech lighting company, Lasvit. "The Emirates love Lasvit" their website proudly announces - and it appears to be true.

In the lobby of Abu Dhabi's new Capital Gate Hyatt, you'll see Wave, a 17m long, 9m-high behemoth made of hand-blown and hand-shaped pieces of glass, which emulates the dramatic motion of water. In At.mosphere Grill and Lounge in the Burj Khalifa, the world's highest restaurant, you can dine under Bubbles Elevated, a tumble of hand-blown amber spheres that cast a golden glow over the restaurant's banqueting table. In the pre-function area at Jumeirah Etihad Towers, there's Oculuc, a stunning choreography of handcrafted crystal and glass components that took the team from Lasvit an incredible 12 weeks to install.

From the Royal Enclosure at the Meydan Grandstand to the The Ritz-Carlton DIFC and even the Dubai Metro, there seem to be very few places where you won't come across a Lasvit creation. In fact, tennis fans may have noticed that the trophy handed to Novak Djokovic when he won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in December was also created by the Czech glass and light specialist, designed by a Zayed University student as part of a design competition hosted by Lasvit.

Even Dubai's Metro passengers will be familiar with the company's installations. When the designers of the Metro came to do the interiors of the stations, they found themselves in a unique position. With most metro stations around the world, designers have had to focus on making the space entirely vandal-proof - hence the usual cold, hard-edge palette of steel, glass and concrete. Not so in the crime-free city of Dubai. So the designers decided to go all out, and introduced a series of luxury finishes, including chandeliers, in key stations. Lasvit chandeliers, to be precise.

Wherever they are, and whatever shape they take, Lasvit's light sculptures are elegant, bold and dramatic, designed to attract the eye and inspire the mind. This is light at its most evocative and awe-inspiring.

Suspended in the apartment's sun-drenched living room is Lasvit's pink Bubbles in Space chandelier, a collection of delicate glass spheres that float ethereally above the coffee table, adding to the light and airy feel of the space. Each bubble, available in clear, amber or black diamond glass, is individually handblown. The piece is complemented by Lasvit's elegant Inside pendant lights and Mulia engraved glass vases in vibrant pops of purple, green and orange.

New sports park owners working to impress

Officials at the Cambridge Sports Park are convinced that if you re-build it they will come.

Since acquiring the Cambridge Ice Park in March, Buckingham Sport Properties has undertaken a major overhaul of the facility.

"We've done a lot in a short period of time, but this place was built in 1997 and things are starting to wear out," explains Buckingham vice-president John Cook. "It's going to take time to get everything done that we want to do."

While Cook and the management at the Cambridge Sports Park have been able to check a litany of other items off their "to do" list such as new ice resurfacers, new Plexiglas around the twin rinks, correcting drainage problems on the ball diamonds and rebuilding the large outdoor deck, they've found other work that has to be done.

"Once we got things opened up we found that it was time to replace the sprinkler system. We also aren't going into another season without a new dehumidifier, and you can't just go out and buy one of those. They have to be ordered," Cook said.

On another front, sports park management is working closely with Cambridge Hydro to retrofit the facility with energy efficient electrical systems.

"We are working with them to install LED lighting throughout the building, which will make it lighter, while reducing energy costs," Cook said. "We also want to install motion sensors in the washrooms and change rooms, which will shut the lights off when no one is there. Our biggest cost in operating this place is electricity and whatever we can do to conserve energy helps us to cut costs."

The Sports Park will also have new vending machines equipped with proximity sensors, which will only turn on the machines when someone approaches them.

With the recent good weather, much of the effort at the Sports Park has been spent whipping the playing fields into shape.

"People can see what we are doing and it has been a big help to our baseball registrations," said general manager Brian Hood.

With ball season rapidly approaching, Sport Park management decided to put off lighting their third diamond until next year and plans to expand the volleyball courts are also on ice for this summer.

"With the lighting we've just run out of time. It will get done, but not this year," Cook said.

Sport Park management is keeping fingers crossed that summer hockey registration will also pick up. To this point numbers have been lagging.

"Unfortunately, people can't see all the work we're doing inside the building," Cook said. "Seeing is believing. From my days of playing hockey, I know hockey players want three things: good lights, great ice and cold beer, and we have all three."

2012 Audi A6 3.0 TFSI Quattro

The Audi A6 is the Goldilocks of luxury cars, striking the perfect balance between sporty driving dynamics and a luxurious experience. I find the A6 to be more involving than the Mercedes-Benz E-class, which is too relaxed and cosseting to entertain enthusiastic drivers. On the other hand, I find the BMW 5-series a bit too aggressive and sporty for its luxury pretentions. The Audi A6, then, strikes the perfect middle ground between fun and comfort.

Driving the Audi A6 is an overwhelmingly serene and relaxing experience. The transmission is so refined I barely notice it shift. If you do need performance, the A6 responds with strong acceleration and willing handling. I love the sound of the supercharged V-6 engine, although it sounds even better in the racy S4 sedan.

My favorite thing about the Audi A6, though, is its clean and modern sheetmetal. I think the car's taut and precise lines will stand the test of time and still appear current in years (or decades) to come. On top of that, the stunning LED running lights really make new Audi products stand out from the crowd.

The 2012 A6 is gorgeous; however, I'm beginning to worry that Audi is starting to put form over function. Like Phil, I didn't really see the advantage of the new MMI touch pad when entering navigation input - in fact it seemed like I was being slowed down as the computer processed what I drew - and the six radio preset "buttons" are hard to accurately hit without looking. I look forward to the next-generation MMI system that made its debut at CES this year and will hit Audi dealerships next year in the all-new A3.

I do love the A6's full-LED headlights. They cut a bright, blue light through the night, and the high beams douse even the darkest sylvan roads in near-daylight. However, the low-beam lights seemed to throw a little short and didn't project with the same kind of distance and clarity that many other cars do with LED and xenon units. No matter how far or short the headlights brighten the road, it may not matter to many - they are a showpiece worthy of a mantle, gallery, or garage.

I haven't seen many new A6s on the road, but the car sure looks sharp in white. There's lots of room in back seats and the trunk. I also love the solid driving demeanor and the smooth powertrain. I did, however, notice some automatic-transmission hesitation off the line on more than one occasion during my too-brief evening with the Audi. The only car in this category that might command my theoretical cash over the A6 is a Jaguar XF, but it'd be a tough decision.

I thought of Audi's vampire-themed Superbowl commercial the night I drove our A6 on dark Huron River Drive west of Ann Arbor. I flicked on the high beams and, although I didn't see any obvious vampires, these LED headlights do an incredible job of lighting up the night, making any white roadside sign just burst into your field of vision. The headlights also have a very good light pattern. My other overwhelming impression of the A6 was its overall feeling of lightness, which was aided by the light but precise steering. The car almost seems to dance across the road surface.

Since I clearly can't make up my mind, allow me to sing the Audi's praises. It's nimble, great looking, and has, bar none, the best six-cylinder engine you can buy. Yes, it's better than BMW's inline six, thanks to the fact that it's completely free of the lag that bedevils the turbo-six in the BMW 535i. It also has, per Audi norm, a well-crafted, beautiful interior.

If I were looking for demerits, I'd say the A6 doesn't have as much character as the Infiniti and the Jaguar. And for an all-new car, there's not much here that looks or feels very fresh, though that's mostly because there wasn't anything wrong with the departing A6.

Sonoma County supervisors compromise on street lighting plan

Sonoma County supervisors Tuesday unanimously backed a proposal to consolidate 19 of 24 county lighting districts, but split over the key issue of what to do with their $5.6 million in accrued cash.

Public works officials had proposed pooling those resources to help at least eight smaller, struggling districts avoid looming shortfalls and enable a $5 million network-wide upgrade to energy efficient LED lights.

Savings were then to be used to reclaim road money ― up to $550,000 annually ― that has been diverted for years to pay for 355 street and safety lights, about 10 percent of the county's total network of 3,670 lights.

But board members Valerie Brown and Efren Carrillo voiced strong opposition to pooling the accrued cash, defending the flush reserves of districts they represent.

Together, the two supervisors represent four districts ― Valley of the Moon, Guerneville, Monte Rio and Rio Nido ― with more than $4 million in accrued cash, nearly three quarters of the total. Those districts also operate 2,045 lights, 83 percent of those operated by the 19 districts and 56 percent of the countywide total.

The resources of smaller districts across the county ― some of them with only one light ― pale in comparison. Many now face shortfalls because of their steeper decline in property tax revenue and rising energy costs.

But Brown and Carrillo argued that pooling the current balances of their districts with struggling ones was unfair and could compound infrastructure funding woes caused by the demise of redevelopment.

"You have a lighting district with a boundary line around it," Brown said. "I do not know how you tell those people in that lighting district that the money that is now sitting in a revenue base and has not been spent but could be will now no longer be theirs."

Public works officials said pooling the cash would not impact current or planned service. They also argued that the larger districts had built reserves they would never be able to use.

Rio Nido resident John Uniack, who is active on lower Russian River community issues, worried it would put river lighting districts at the back of the line for funding priorities.

Carrillo echoed those concerns. "I'm not sold on it," he said.

McGuire broke the deadlock with a compromise that won unanimous board support. It will leave the $5.6 million for use in the individual districts where it has accrued. For the Valley of the Moon that amount is $2.3 million; for Guerneville it is over $1 million.

In the near-term, it will limit the LED upgrade to the larger, flush districts, reducing the projected energy savings and the amount of money that can be redirected to road upkeep. County officials had originally pegged that savings at $200,000 in five years. They did not have a revised estimate Tuesday.

Kenya Rolls Out Solar Street Lighting

Kenya's largest alternative energy supplier, Davis & Shirtliff, has rolled out solar street lighting in the country in a move which will slash the costs of street lighting while reducing night-time risks for pedestrians and drivers.

The company's first solar street lighting has been installed around Tusky's Mall in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa and in a gated community in Karen, Nairobi, eliminating all electricity charges.

The introduction of the technology, which is set to make street lighting accessible to many more communities, comes against the backdrop of international studies showing that street lighting cuts deaths and accidents on roads by 40 per cent or more.

Speaking Tuesday during the launch of new daylight solar street lights at the Karen shopping centre here, Davis & Shirtliff deputy chief executive officer David Gatende said: "Our new Dayliff solar street lights are tailor-made for freeways, municipal and private estates, where reliable night time lighting is essential for vision and security, and they also offer a meaningful solution to daily power problems in Kenya."

Gatende said the integrated street light package consisted of a high performance LED lamp unit providing a 40-watt output and 2,400 lumens of illumination. The unit comes with a digital micro-controller that provides automatic regulation of battery charging and load control.

The lamp automatically switches on and off at dusk and dawn and even offers customised programmes, such as shutdown in the middle of the night. Each lamp unit can also be manually adjusted. LED indicators show operating status.

The Dayliff solar lights last for an average 50,000 hours and the solar battery for an average six years. The lights can also be used in factory yards, as residential outdoor lighting, in car parks and school compounds.