Lite Visions- Landscape Lighting Experts in Raleigh & Eastern NC
Concert & Stage Lighting Background
My decision to open an outdoor lighting design firm came naturally to me,coming from a concert lighting design background for many years.
I worked with bands from local area bands to arena acts from Kool and the Gang, to Whitney Houston to Tim Mcgraw, Alan Jackson and many more concert acts to the Christmas sensation the Trans Siberian Orchestra as a lighting technician.
a few memories from my many years of touring in the music industry
As a lighting design professional we take pride in painting a scene with our outdoor lighting designs.
Here are a few photos from nighttime outdoor lighting installs where we created a backdrop to the property in the evening as well as outlining the changes in elevation with beautiful outdoor landscape lighting.
This outdoor lighting will not only create safety and security for the homeowner, but will also give them some nice soft outdoor lighting to be able to enjoy sitting out in the backyard into the evening hours without having the floodlights light up the yard too brightly.
Call Us Today 919-518-9950 to see your yard and home in a whole new light.
Light Visions Outdoor Lighting and Landscape Lighting Raleigh NC
I have worked in the concert and live entertainment industry most of my life. I feel this gives me a huge advantage over anyone else in the NC designing and installing outdoor landscape lighting. Recently I had the chance to design and install lighting and the home of Trans Siberian Orchestra’s lighting designer and then to visit Vegas for a week to put our heads together and put our colorful lighting thru it’s paces. We used a new WIFI Color changing lighting system and installed the most color changing lighting of it’s kind to this date in one place. The backdrop of his pool walls combined with some unique desert plants and several different palm trees gave us a wonderful area to paint with colored as well as some white lighting in a few niche places. Here are a few photos from the install. We wanted to create some depth to his small backyard pool and patio area’s and I feel we accomplished a unique yet colorful design together.I have been receiving different photos every few days of new and unique looks he has come up with. Thanks to Kevin Smith from Brilliance LED for his help with the colored LED lighting and ideas and thanks to Bryan Hartley for allowing me to help light his beautiful home in Vegas. Oh yea,we ended up adding 11 more lights at the end 🙂
Has your outdoor lighting designer worked on concert tours as a lighting designer or lighting technician? Lite Visions founder Joe has toured with Alan Jackson Whitney Houston, Tim Mcgraw, 3 Doors Down,Joan Jett,Dan Fogelburg and the Christmas sensation The Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Lite Visions was founded after Joe decided to install outdoor lighting at his personal home and could not find anyone in the area who knew what he knew about lighting design.
Lite Visions is the area’s leader with innovative outdoor lighting design, the best long life LED lighting fixtures and easy to operate lighting systems add FREE maintenance on top of their installation warranty and Lite Visions simply OUTSHINES the competion.
Durable & Long-Lasting Outdoor Lighting
The Lighting fixtures we install are long lasting with the best warranties in the industry,engineered to let the LED lamps run as cool as possible to extend lamp life.
Integrated LED fixtures are warrantied for a minimum of 10 years
LED Lamps are warrantied for a minimum of 5 years
Transformers have a lifetime warranty.
Customization
We differ from most other outdoor lighting companies who have a cookie cutter lighting system they use. we customize your outdoor lighting system to your home and yard.
Superior Outdoor Lighting System Design
With a wide variety across multiple product lines, We have alot of different tools available for our custom lighting design from different lamp wattages, beam spreads,lamp color temperatures along with filters and different shrouds and even colored lights .We figure out what is the best fit for your home, landscaping and your personal style.
Let Lite Visions Create Some Nighttime Magic At Your Home Today
I am writing this blog after taking out several old and poorly installed outdoor landscape lighting systems this year.Good Outdoor Landscape Lighting Isn’t Cheap, Cheap Outdoor Landscape Lighting Isn’t Good.
I swear one of the lighting fixtures were made so poorly it felt like an aluminum beer can,see photos below.I felt bad the homeowner had spent so much money and trusted this person to install quality fixtures that would not have to completely replaced in only 3 years time. These same fixtures were almost impossible to re lamp. When I have a customer say” we decided to go with someone else who had a cheaper price ” it scares me for them. I can only try to educate the customers about the difference in fixtures,lamps and installers who sometimes can’t even troubleshoot their own installs, but do not install proper waterproof connections or do great wiring jobs. I just had the nicest compliment from a customer the other day while doing an annual maintenance and cleaning and adjusting lights for growth. She said,I can’t believe we have not had any problems with our outdoor lighting. My background as a concert lighting tech taught me if you do things properly you will never have a problem. That is why I stand behind my installs 100% and use the best products in the outdoor lighting business. Some of these fixtures do not even have any type manufacture tag in them due to the fact they are not proud of their CHEAP fixtures and do not want a name on them.
We spend a lot of time replacing old poorly installed outdoor landscape lighting systems with cheap fixtures,please remember your outdoor landscape lighting should last 15 plus years no problem with only replacing LED lamps when needed. Do yourself a favor and if someones quote sounds too good to be true in any trade,remember it probably is.
Poor Outdoor Lighting and Installations. Sadly, this happens more than we’d all like to see. In most cases, Poor lighting installations occur when service providers are rushed, or just don’t care enough about the outcome of the lighting project. Take for example another service provider who is rushing his installer so they can go to the next irrigation or pond project and probably do not care about your lighting like a Lighting designer who does 100% lighting only. In some cases, they occur because the service provider just chose the easiest or simplest or even the cheapest way to install light fixtures. If we consider those jobs that are rushed or those which are simple and easy, then we will generally find the lighting installer is performing in a “production-oriented” environment. This seems to happen a lot with outdoor lighting franchises.They see most every job as the same—to get in and out of the job quickly, because time is money. They tend to provide ‘cookie-cutter’ projects (ones that look the same), because that’s what they know with cheap fixtures and lamps. Lighting should never be installed under windows that shine into an occupied part of the home and we see this alot on franchise lighting installs. The other reason in understanding why these combined flaws occur is Only because the lighting installer truly is ineffective and lacks knowledge.Some of the franchises run ads on a regular basis for installers. This is very unfortunate because it hurts everyone—the professional, the industry, and the consumer. This type of behavior is part of the profession and how this profession is viewed. There is No governing authority to correct Poor Practice and these Poor Techniques from being provided. We at Lite Visions attend several continuing education seminars and are a member of the Association of outdoor lighting professionals. We also have a lengthy history in the live music industry as a lighting technician and lighting designer.
The only way to prevent this from becoming more prevalent is through Education and Understanding what is right and wrong. Poor Techniques include poor practices & standards, as well as the use of poor products. Landscape lighting products are another area of concern because there are so many available on the market. We can only try to educate the public ,but sometimes the consumer simply does not know. The best way to ensure this quality is to do research and to make the best selection of your Lighting Designer as you can—and choose those with lighting design and installation experience as well as troubleshooting skills. Believe it or not we have heard horror stories about a lighting installer who a week after the install when 1/2 of the lights were out could not troubleshoot his own installation.
Avoid a poorly installed outdoor lighting installation
Call us today
Lite Visions
919-518-9950
I have taken out more outdoor lighting systems than I can count,from poorly wired lights a lot to lights strung on a way too long cable with horrible voltage drop,the customer said his lights were browning out. What most people do not understand is how outdoor lighting systems are designed. Here are a few reasons why your outdoor lights don’t look like mine.
Transformers
Most professional grade transformers have the availability to use taps from 12-15 volts depending on length of wiring runs to get proper voltage to the light fixtures
Wiring
Wiring size along with length of wire is critical. While we might do a long run of wire to a certain area,we will use a higher gauge of wire and possibly a 13/14 volt tap to make sure the lights at the end of the long run are getting a minimum of 12 volts
Lamps
LED lamps come in many wattage sizes,beam spreads and lumen output. Just the other day someone showed me a lamp they bought at a big box store that was only 200 lumens, that is a very low light output. Beam spreads start at a narrow 15 degrees and go up to 120 degrees very wide. For example I might light a tall tall tree with 3, 7 watt 60 degree lamps but a small crepe myrtle I might light with only 2 30 degree 4 watt lamps.
Kelvin
Kelvin is a lamps color temperature, in our industry we use 2700 kelvin lamps to 5700 kelvin lamps depending on what type surface we are lighting.
As a lighting designer we know what lamps look best in certain places,while one lamp type might be good for a homes facade,we will probably use a different lamp on certain plants.
Dimmers
With LED lamps there are dimmers available,some integrated fixtures even have a dimming capability right on the fixtures.
Fixtures
We have many fixtures at our disposal,I might prefer a certain integrated fixture in a hardscape wall due to it creating a soft illumination of the stone.
I might use several different uplighting fixtures on a job due to being able to control light output and the actual spread of the light.
Filters
I might use many tools to create a soft light with no hot spots such as a spread lens filter to diffuse the light as well as a hex louver near an entry so you can’t see the light source when walking past it.
Call Lite Visions today and let us show you how to make your outdoor lighting stand out from the crowd.
919-518-9950
Be the first on your block to have the latest in new LED outdoor lighting technology.
Color brand your business with LED color changing outdoor lighting.
Lite Visions Outdoor Lighting is now installing WiFi color changing LED lamps.
Imagine turning your favorite teams color on your home when they win that big game or simply turning the house red white and blue on July 4th and Red Blue Green and Amber at Christmas time along with your plants and trees multi colored.
Don’t wait for your neighbors to be the first with this beautiful new LED lighting.
Ask us how to retrofit this color changing lighting into your outdoor lighting system today.
Solid color lights also available in Red Green Blue and Amber colors
Back in 2001 when I was on tour with the rock group 3 Doors Down,I was talking to a fellow passenger on a flight who happened to be a rep for an outdoor lighting company. We were talking about what we both did and after inviting him to see our upcoming concert at San Diego State University he invited me to visit and tour their factory.I did and met people who are still friends to this day. I thought I would be interested in outdoor lighting later on in life as a way to not tour 10 months of the year.
I love Outdoor lighting design due to the fact that no two jobs are ever alike.In one week I might go from lighting only a walkway into a home for safety purposes to lighting up a few specimen trees to creating a resort style look for a beautifully landscaped backyard area. LED lighting has made it possible to paint the landscape with many different looks.
From helping create a distinctive look for a business using colored lighting to helping design and install an outdoor tree adventure park to creating a serene evening enviroment for a lakeside outdoor custom kitchen complete with hottub and firepit.
I love being creative and always have been a creative person with a huge imagination. This is a photo from 1979 of Raleigh beach music band the Embers who I was a roadie and operated the lighting for. I am actually in the photo behind the group with a co2 fire extinguisher. I took a few of our stage lights into the studio that day and with the photographer we helped create what is to this day one of the bands favorite photos. The first band I worked with who allowed me to be creative.
Today’s blog is going to talk about things we have seen driving in the evening from installing a lighting installation. Here is the first example below of good and bad lighting placements, the fixture in the grass will be beaten up by lawn maintenance and equipment and will not last very long in that area. Path lights should be installed in a mulched bed or walkway to not only use them properly for their effect but also to protect them from landscapers and equipment. Also notice you do not see the lamp source only a soft pool of lighting with good lighting.
You should never see the bulb or glare in a lighting fixture if the lighting is properly designed with the correct fixtures. Bad Design Fixture In Grass Good Design Fixture Protected Good Design and Path Lights provide safety light DO NOT place lights under windows ever,this not only looks bad but will also cause lighting to spill into windows and cause a glare so you can’t see out of your windows. A lighting designer would never install lights under a window. As a lighting designer we use several filters and know the difference in lamp color temperatures. Waste of money lighting under windows Notice architecture softly lit with no glare from windows. pathway also lit softly .
Transformer placement, shiny aluminum transformers should be hidden behind plant materials or placed alongside other mechanical equipment,Transformers should never be seen in plain sight in front of a home or building. Ugly transformer job and even lit up at night Transformer well hidden out of sight behind plant materials Do you see the transformer ? Call or contact us today if you want your outdoor lighting design done right the first time. 919-518-9950
