Prevalent across office layouts, open ceiling designs have no drop ceilings. Instead, traditionally covered ceiling structures, HVAC systems and electrical are exposed to offer a distinct industrial design. Plus, the removed ceiling increases the height of the room to make it feel more spacious.

However, the exposed structure also presents a unique set of design challenges. While the goal is to create a modern, unfinished aesthetic, visible wiring and junction boxes can make an open ceiling look inadvertently messy if executed poorly. In addition, higher ceilings can make lighting more difficult as light must travel a further distance to the work surface. That’s where the DCC Cylinder comes in.

Custom Length

With dozens of options and over a million configurations, the DCC Cylinder is DMF’s most versatile product. One of the most popular options is customizing the length of the suspended pendants to match whatever your project needs. Available as a Stem or Cord Mount, the suspended cylinder length is among the longest in industry at up to 156″, illuminating even the tallest of spaces.

Junction Box Covers

In an open ceiling layout, the network of conduit powering the suspended cylinders is completely visible. And depending on the lighting layout, each cylinder can feature anywhere between one and four conduit branches. While the solid metal conduit and elbow connections can add to the industrial design, the junction boxes usually do not. So instead of unsightly junction boxes ruining an open ceiling, designers can opt to utilize junction box covers.

Compatible with octagon and square boxes, each junction box cover features interchangeable open and closed knockouts that can be configured to match the desired lighting layout. Available in the same finishes as the Cylinder itself, the junction box covers complete the look for Cylinders in open ceilings.

Emergency Lighting

In addition to junction box covers, the DCC Cylinder’s entire suite of features remain available in open ceiling applications, even Emergency Lighting. Featuring two ceiling mounted remote drivers, the EM cylinder illuminates and dims identically in standard operation. When the emergency LED driver detects the loss of normal power, it switches control to battery power in emergency mode.

Learn more about these and other options for the DCC Cylinder System.

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With a host of moisture protection options, including a gasket and protective lens, the DCC Cylinder System has always featured a UL Listed Wet Location option. These protections allow the Cylinder to install in high moisture areas such as restrooms or covered patios. Now, even more safe guards make it compatible with even wetter areas, including outdoors.

Enhanced Water Protection, Same Design

When our engineers set out to improve the DCC’s moisture rating, it was imperative that any modifications not compromise they Cylinder’s sleek, modern design. The new rubber gasket and water-tight wall connector remain completely hidden, while the added cap only shows as a subtle lip near the top of the Surface Mount Cylinder.

These enhancements underwent rigorous water testing, even going beyond what third-party accreditation organizations conduct. We let water pool on the surface of the Cylinder and even submerged them underwater. All this to ensure they continue to meet DMF’s highest standards.

IP65

In addition to UL Listed for Wet Locations, all of our Wet Rated Cylinders are now IP65 rated as well. Administered by the IEC, an IP65 rating equates to the highest protection against solid foreign objects and low pressure water jets from all angles.

As always, Wet Rated is available for the Surface, Stem and Wall Mount Cylinders. The new IP65 rating is being added to our existing UL Wet Rated Cylinders. No changes to ordering or pricing — you’ll now simply receive the new and improved Wet Rated Cylinders.

Learn more about these and other options for the DCC Cylinder System.

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We developed our own UL certified support system that adds strength while limiting light loss. The unique propeller design channels the cord from the connector to the module, while delivering a shadowless stream of light.

The addition of a pendant uplight allows the DCC Cylinder to reach new heights. Combining glare-free illumination with the ability to highlight architectural elements replaces the need for unsightly troffers or linear fixtures.

And while linear fixtures efficiently provide direct and indirect lighting, pendants can be arranged in a less restrictive manner. This gives designers freedom to arrange fixtures and customize the space.

Ideal for high or exposed ceilings, the DCC Cord Mount Cylinder is a revolutionary solution for general and accent lighting from one light source.

Learn more about the DCC Cylinder.

DMF Lighting’s latest DRD Series Modules offer industry leading performance and guaranteed dimming compatibility thanks to our proprietary T2 and O1 LED Drivers. Designed and developed in-house, the Drivers provide 1% flicker free dimming, smooth fading and compatibility with either forward or reverse phase dimmers.

Fully integrated into the modules for simplified installation and maintenance, we’ve tested and finely tuned our drivers to be compatible with a broad range of dimmers from various manufacturers, including Lutron, Leviton, Eaton and Legrand. While we stand confidently behind the DRD2 and DRD4 performance under all conditions, customers often request guidance when selecting a suitable dimming system.

What to consider when selecting a dimmer

Aside from user functionality and aesthetic preferences, here are three things to consider when selecting a dimmer for a DRD Series Module in order to maximize performance.

Neutral Wire Connection

We recommend a dimmer with a direct neutral wire connection. This ensures internal power supply regulation and is especially needed for smart dimmers or very light circuits, such as only one or two fixtures connected to a dimmer.

Dimming Protocol

Reverse phase or ELV dimming are the recommended protocols for the DRD Series. Reverse phase or ELV dimming eliminate any potential audible buzzing from the dimmer or fixture.

An adaptive dimmer capable of reverse or forward phase dimming can be utilized to maximize flexibility. The default setting for adaptive dimmers is reverse phase to ensure best operation for LED lamps.

Minimum Level Trimming

The minimum setting for a dimmer can output a different voltage. The DRD Series Modules dim to 1% brightness when the dimmers output is 17V. Most dimmers will dim down to this level. For dimmers that do not dim down to this level, the light output of a fully dimmed fixture may not meet expectations.

Some dimmers can output significantly below this level. For these, the modules may dim less than 1% brightness, but may result in inconsistency between the fixtures. For example, some fixture may turn off while others remain dimly lit. To correct this, many dimmers offer some form of trimming to adjust the minimum level up or down. This can establish consistency between fixtures and is recommend for all dimmers. Please refer to the dimmers specification or installation sheet for more details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you recommend the best dimmer to use with my DRD2 or DRD4 Modules?

Performance is guaranteed for a wide variety of dimmer manufacturers. However, our testing shows that the Lutron PRO series of dimmers provide exceptional dimming performance and flexibility. Models within the PRO series include the Maestro MA-PRO, RadioRA3 RRST-PRO and Caseta PD-10NXD.

I am using a Caseta PD-6WCL dimmer. It does not have a neutral wire connection and is rated for Incandescent/CFL/LED. Will this dimmer work well with the DRD2 or DRD4 Modules?

Yes. The Caseta dimmer provides excellent dimming performance when used with the DRD Series Modules. Refer to the Caseta instruction manual for details on trimming the minimum level if required.

Can I use my DRD2 and DRD4 Modules with a centralized dimming panel?

Yes. The DRD Series Modules have excellent performance when using a dimming panel from various vendors including Lutron, Crestron, Savant and Control4.

How many DRD2 or DRD4  Modules can I connect to my dimmer?

Dimmers rated specifically for LEDs will have a max load rating which can be used without any further derating to calculate the maximum number of fixtures.

If the dimmer does not have a published LED rating, the circuit should be limited to 50% of its normal rating, so a 600W dimmer should be limited to 300W LED load or 24 DRD2 modules rated at 12.5W each.

Can I connect a single DRD2 or DRD4  Module to my dimmer?

A single DRD2 or DRD4 Module will provide sufficient load for the dimmer to operate. When possible, a dimmer with a neutral wire connection should be used in this application to avoid any potential dimmer issues.

Still Have a Question?

If you’re still having dimmer compatibility issues, our highly-trained and experienced Customer Solutions is here to help. Simply complete our Contact form and a member will reply back via phone or email.

Located in our Los Angeles Headquarters, the Customer Solutions Team has direct access to our in-house engineers, guaranteeing you expert level trouble shooting.

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Efficiency is at the Core

DMF’s patented Folded TIR Optics are a brilliant lens solution developed by our in-house engineering team designed to increase light efficiency while also reducing glare.

TIR Explained

TIR stands for Total Internal Reflection. Put simply, when an LED light is placed on a TIR lens, the light photons are then captured and directed towards the desired location. Currently, a TIR lens is the most efficient method of reflecting light. However, due to the intrinsic design of the technology, a TIR lens has previously needed to be a deep optic, taking up valuable plenum space.

Folded TIR Optics 

DMF has revolutionized this design by introducing a new folded TIR optic lens that when coupled with a specialized anti-glare structure at the center, lighting efficiency is increased while simultaneously reducing glare and still maintaining an even light distribution.

While conventional TIR optics only feature a single internal reflection, our patented solution has been geometrically optimized to yield a concentrated and focused light beam. While that sounds complicated, the simple fact is that this allows the height of the optic to be minimized to save space in the module and most importantly of all, precious plenum space.

Exclusively Through DMF

DMF’s Folded TIR Optic technology is featured exclusively in the next generation DRD2, DCD3, and DCD4 modules. Thanks in part to technological advances like this, these high-performance solutions simplify design, installation, and maintenance.

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Technology Designer Magazine explores the world where technology meets design. Written by and for the design-build community, the magazine features unique team profiles and in-depth project case studies.

They recently featured Lynne Stambouly, Senior Lighting Design and CEO of Illuminated Design, in an in-depth piece about her career, struggles and achievements.

First appeared in the Summer issue of Technology Designer Magazine and is reprinted with permission

SINCE THE EARLY 1980s, LYNNE STAMBOULY has worked for lighting manufacturers, trained other lighting professionals around the country, owned her own lighting showroom and designed for some of the largest interior design firms in the United States. She is currently Senior Lighting Designer and CEO of Illuminated Design in Naples, Florida.

In addition, Lynne is past President of the Interior Design Society in Naples (IDS) and has been affiliated with the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) for over 15 years. Currently she holds the position of Chairman for the Collier Building Industry Association (CBIA) Sand Dollar Award Committee, and is a founding member of the Advisory Counsel for the Interior Design School at Southwest Florida College.

“Now we have some unbelievable technology with flexible LED that we lay down on a substrate and we are able to actually put the stone right on top of it.” – Lynne Stambouly ILLUMINATED DESIGN

 

GEORGE: How did you get your start in the lighting industry?

LYNNE: I actually went to electrical school in the late eighties. The first guys I worked for, their dad started Union Number One in St. Louis, Missouri. So, for the first two years that I worked for them I went to electrical trade school. That experience to this day suits me well. If I’m on a job site with an electrician or an inspector, it helps to understand the craft from the ground up.

GEORGE: You can talk their language and anticipate potential issues when you’re designing a system.

LYNNE: Yes. Especially when it comes to retrofitting. We have to know what’s happening behind the infrastructure to add to it or make changes. You can’t just say, “Okay, I want a light here.” Because if I say, “It can be done,” and then the electrician comes in and it can’t be done, then what kind of expert am I?

GEORGE: So you went to trade school and then when did you move over to the lighting design side?

LYNNE: After being an electrical rep I went to work for a lighting rep firm. I covered Iowa, Nebraska, Central Missouri and Southern Illinois. I did 60-70,000 miles a year on the road calling on lighting showrooms, electrical distributors, architects, builders and designers. Before deciding to come back home to Florida, I took a job with Kichler Lighting. I was their national trainer for the landscape lighting division for several years.

I then had my own lighting showroom in Southwest Florida until about 2008, during the recession. We were one of the ones that unfortunately didn’t make it. Next was creating the specialty lighting division for a high profile, local lighting showroom. It was right around the time that incandescent was shifting over to LED, and my business partner Curtis Searles, an LED expert, and I were there for about 10 years together. One day about two years ago we decided it was time to branch out, and we launched our own company, Illuminated Design, that today has grown to a multi-million dollar lighting design firm, employing a team of 10.

The technology of lighting is much more complex now than it used to be. We have a driver being made from one manufacturer, chip technology being made from another manufacturer and the fixture itself being assembled from yet another source. Then you have the controls that must be integrated and the dimming that must be perfected.

GEORGE: How has the LED technology changed lighting and the way lighting designers approach their projects?

LYNNE: In some very positive ways. Probably the most positive is that things have gotten much smaller with the innovation of LED tape light with really good diffusion. We can do some amazing indirect lighting applications. As a lighting designer, it’s important to create depth in order to create interest. And so the onset of the technology being interfaceable with good dimming control has really given us the opportunity to do some tremendous things.

For instance, we do a lot of backlighting of stone. In the old days, we would build a false back and put fluorescent tubes, tin foil and silver paint to light the stone. Now we have some unbelievable technology with flexible LED that we lay down on a substrate and we are able to actually put the stone right on top of it. We are winning design awards doing that on master bedroom floors, stairwells, countertops, backsplashes, tabletops and bars. That has been something we would never have been able to do without LED.

GEORGE: That leads us to the question of how early in a new home build or remodel should a professional lighting designer be brought in?

LYNNE: As soon as possible. One of the biggest challenges being faced by homeowners today is that there is so much bad LED technology out there. If the product is not specified at the drawing phase, the budget is completely unrealistic. So if a homeowner gets a plan that just has round dots on it, representing recessed cans, then what they’re going to get is probably something from a home store that’s purchased in bulk with a very inexpensive price tag.

But there needs to be a proper budget and design for controls and specialty lighting, which is your in-cabinet or over-cabinet lighting, cove lighting, art lighting — all of those things that make the house really pop. Without them it’s like a layer cake with no frosting — and only one layer. It’s so important for a lighting professional to get in there early so that we can specify the correct product for the correct location and lifestyle of the homeowner. When Illuminated Design is brought in early we create a more realistic budget for the luxury outcome the client undoubtedly wanted. This allows the client and all the design professionals on the project to have realistic expectations, so no one is disappointed and angered at the end of the day.

GEORGE: In terms of lighting control, do you have any particular ones that you like better, or are you kind of agnostic about it?

LYNNE: Lutron on the whole plays very, very well with most of the technology that is coming into the market and gives us the most options when it comes to trying to make all components work seamlessly.

In regard to recessed cans, some of the frustration we have is with manufacturers that have what I call ‘chip on board,’ meaning that it is adhered to the housing itself, which is very difficult to change in the field. That’s why we’re big fans of DMF Lighting. Their modular system is fabulous, where we can put in one recessed can. Then all the trims and modules can be modified in the field if we need to. They also have great color renderings of 95+. It’s a really flexible and affordable product line.

GEORGE: Sometimes even in really nice homes I’ve noticed recessed lighting that seems kind of cool, but then you realize it’s often just lights coming down in places where it doesn’t really make any sense.

LYNNE: As a light lady, it is my legacy to make sure that every light I have specified has a purpose. So we call it the ‘define and defend’ method. Where is the light placement? What is it doing? Why is it existing? How does it work with the other lighting in the space? If there’s a ceiling that’s eight feet versus a ceiling that’s 24 feet, but they’re in the same living space, I want to make sure that I’m selecting a product with consistent color rendering throughout the house. Inconsistency of lighting color in a project is something I see absolutely everywhere. It’s been difficult to control, but it’s much better now. The best advice I can give is to hire a lighting professional early. You can alleviate so much frustration when the lighting is finally all turned on and the project is finished, by making sure upfront that all the chip technology is coming from the same batches, and that they’ve been tested with one another to make sure that they feel right no matter what color rendition you desired.

GEORGE: So, again, bringing the lighting designer in early pays for itself in terms of not having to change things later on. And I know the narrative in terms of lighting control in general is that, yes, this is an expense, but when you can time your lights, when you can create scenes, when you can do all that, you can save money on electricity, etc.

LYNNE: I think that when it comes to lighting and color rendering, it’s probably the most frustrating thing for people because they know the room is wrong, but they don’t know why. And they don’t know how to fix it. What we have found is that our decorative lighting manufacturers will call a color 3,000 Kelvin, but it’s really cool white. And then I can go to another manufacturer who called it 3,000 Kelvin and it’s really warm. So the only thing that we can control as lighting designers is to make sure that the surface is all one color and that the specialty features, your under-, in-, and over-cabinet lighting, the lighting of the art, the work spaces versus the relaxing areas, that everything has to work together from a coloring perspective.

GEORGE: I think that’s a really good point about the specs not always being consistent and that you just have to have the human eye test of what does it really look like.

LYNNE: Yes – or even how about clients that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in interior design work only to have the floor look different or the paint color be different, or the furnishings or the fabrics look different because they’re not being lit properly?

When you start early in a project, it aligns the interior designer, the builder, the lighting designer, the electrical contractor, the integrator — it brings all of us together. That way we can wrap everybody’s arms around it at the same time and we all know what direction we’re going and what the products are going to look like. And in some cases, my interior designers bring their samples in with their clients and look at it under the light that’s going to be in the house. I mean, that is the absolute perfect scenario. That way the expectations are in check, and everybody knows what it’s going to look like at the end of the day. And no one is mad or disappointed.

GEORGE: How does lighting play into the wellness narrative?

LYNNE: Well, it’s an absolutely fascinating subject, and it’s one about which I spend a lot of time reading. The master clock in the brain coordinates the biological clock in all living things. These clocks are nature’s timing devices, regulating the cycle of circadian rhythms — our body’s natural clock. What sets our natural clock? You would think it was the passage of time, but it’s the color temperature of light! I’ve been reading about studies regarding memory clinics for Alzheimer’s patients. When those patients are under the same color temperature fluorescent lighting all day and night, many suffer from sundowner syndrome.

There are studies being done that if you can change the color to mimic the sun, especially exposure to low level bluish light we experience in the early morning, that resets the biological clock. Equally, higher color temperature light causes our brains to release cortisol which acts to increase alertness and stress, and to control our impulses. Throughout the day, the light gets brighter, but the color temperature steadily decreases to a warmer, less intense light before sunset. This warmer light causes the brain to release melatonin to relax us and prepare our body for sleep. There are some amazing findings about how it is really making a difference in the sundowner syndrome.

There are lighting products that are available residentially that change the color temperature based on the longitude and latitude of the home. Our findings are that it is often cost prohibitive to create this environment on a residential level. We are hopeful that this technology will evolve, so that we can design with it. I look forward to that day, as it really is our future in health and wellness.

GEORGE: What are the hot trends in lighting and control right now?

LYNNE: The lumen packages are increasing while the apertures are decreasing in size. Today, six-inch recess product is almost non-existent — it’s changed to four-inch, three-inch, two-inch and one-inch product.

I’m also seeing the ability to dim down to one percent, and that is really a wonderful thing. The driver has been the biggest component in regard to trying to dim down the light and with LED it is so different than incandescent. We grew up with bright, less bright, less bright, dim, dim, dim, off. Right? Now with LED, you’ve got bright, less bright, less bright, off. So what’s happened over the last few years is that the driver and controls manufacturers have gotten together and are working so that they can dim those down to one percent without specialty drivers. And if you want to specify a specialty driver, they have what’s called “dim to black” or “dim to dark.” And that will mimic incandescence.

So to me, the big trends are higher lumen packages, smaller apertures and housings and the ability to dim down to that one percent.

GEORGE: If you can look into your crystal ball, what do you see coming in the future?

LYNNE: Well, I think that we’re at that cusp of really truly understanding chip technology. Look at color rendering index, for example. Color rendering index (CRI) was created on a pastel lighting level for fluorescent. It was never intended for LED. They’re going to have a whole new way to measure color rendering (TM-30) because they are adding primary colors — more red to the mix — it’s making the color of art, furniture, fabrics, flooring and really the entire interior color more vibrant and true. Great color rendering is amazing for all aspects of interior design.

Another cool product is OLED. I saw a demo where they actually added it to glass, and they just put a little bit of voltage to it and the window becomes the illuminator in the room. So when you have LED that can be liquified, you can add it to just about anything and create a luminary. □