What is scene-setting or mood lighting?

Scene lighting has long been used in the commercial environment to create appealing lighting in areas such as restaurants, conference facilities and boardrooms. Gaining its name from the theatre where complex lighting changes are needed for each scene, it allows a lighting mood to be recalled by pressing one button rather than adjusting several rotary knob type dimmers. Applied to home use scene-setting allows a user to select the appropriate mood of lighting for the task in hand (even if that’s watching TV) and all the lighting in the room will adjust to the preferred, pre-programmed setting.

There are several reasons why scene-setting is desirable.

Most lighting settings are quite repeatable. So why not just press a button to get that setting?

For rooms where there are multiple circuits of lighting, a single keypad avoids the need for lots of individual rotary dimmers that all need adjusting before the correct settings are obtained.

If those multiple circuits are quite different lighting types, e.g. mains voltage downlights and low voltage LED tape, then the dimmers required for these might well use quite different dimming techniques, and may not be available in matching styles.

 

With a scene-setting system like Rako, the dimmer packs are remote units and can therefore be specific to the lamp types in question. Look at the Rako list of dimmer modules to see the variety needed to maximise the performance of all lighting types! See our Control modules and Racks.

Once a push button style of dimming is chosen then multi-way dimming is possible, either from multiple wall panels or hand held remotes. Push button dimming also allows the system to be interfaced with other controls such as audio-visual or security systems and also allows control from smartphones or tablets via an App. The Rako system allows table and freestanding lamps to be incorporated into the overall control, either by dimming special 5A sockets (for lighting use only) or by installing a wireless module in-line with the flex and plugging into a standard 13A socket.

How to make the most of scene-setting

Creating effective mood lighting goes hand in hand with good lighting. A good lighting design creates interest and highlights features in a room. A flat, even lighting is fine for task lighting but cosy mood lighting is best achieved by being able to create pockets of light. This takes a combination of design and control.

 

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