CEDIA board member and smart-home pro Matt Scott loves Victoria's Secret. The owner of Omega Audio Video in Canada goes there for the “lighting.”
“The lighting in Victoria's Secret is perfectly focused so that you'll spend $85 on a small piece of fabric,” he says in a recent episode of the CEDIA Tech Council podcast.
The risque retailer, he adds, uses spot lighting to highlight the goods “in the best possible way, because it draws an emotion out of you and makes you pay attention to the space you are in.”
Thankfully, these same tactics can be applied to home theaters and smart homes, which is why his clients sometimes erupt in spontaneous hugs and high-fives.
Lighting Up Emotions
Based on Scott's experience installing elaborate, purposefully designed lighting systems, he says lighting can do a whole lot more than brighten up a room.
OMEGA Audio Video
“Lighting is something that brings such a connection and such an emotional response from people that when they see it, when it happens, when they walk into [a] room and it lights up, they are in love,” he says.
Scott says Omega includes lighting in most proposals, whether the client asks for it or not.
“We’ve even done a 'puppy dog close,' and literally tell them it’s going in, and if you don’t like it in 30 days we’ll pull it out, no cost to you,” he says. “We’ve never pulled one out after we put it in. Ever.”
So how do you teach an integrator the art of lighting?
To be sure, there is some experience and skill involved, but a lot of it boils down to what integrators do best — asking questions about lifestyle and understanding how technology can play a role in everyday living and special occasions.
“You can teach a lot,” he says, “but there comes a point where some of it is artistic. Now, the nice thing is with something like lighting, in most applications, you don’t have to be that artistic, you just have to pay attention.”
Here's one very simple example suggested by Scott: “Oh wow, you have a couple of really nice paintings on the wall there. Maybe we’ll light those.”
To learn more about Scott's experiences incorporating lighting into his A/V business, listen to the full CEDIA Tech Council podcast here, with new podcasts posted weekly.
