Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) Ready Steady Light Event 2021

A small team of our Electrical Engineers attended the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) Ready Steady Light evening, an outdoor lighting competition hosted annually at Rose Bruford College.

Fifteen teams competed, with an allowance of just six light fittings each, plus a few colour filters and a host of cables and tape.

CBG’s allocated plot was a run of four mature trees set in parkland, which got our team thinking… should they light it at all? Given it was a lighting competition, they quickly decided that they should, but perhaps in a way that reflected increasing concerns about the impact of electric lighting on ecology.

There was to be no bathing the tree canopies with white flood lights. In fact, they didn’t want to shine much light upwards at all. Instead a soft amber light gave a wash to the lower trunk and a few selected branches of the largest oak tree. Blue light, the most harmful to fauna, projected a narrow pathway to the tree along the fallen leaves, implying this should be tightly controlled and kept at ground level only. Completing the scene, a gentle green strip projected from the right of the plot to frame the view, with the three colours meeting at the base of the oak.

With the concept set, the narrative written, and the installation complete, our team anxiously waited while the judges made their rounds. Their comments were positive, they liked our ecologically minded scheme, and the careful concealment of light fittings.

We didn’t claim a trophy this time but we enjoyed seeing all the other entries with some very worthy competition.

Congratulations to all the teams who took part.

A special thank you to the SLL and Rose Bruford College for hosting.

We’ll be back next year for sure.