Editor’s Letter – Winter 2022

First Thoughts

A glimpse of the future.

LONGMONT, COLORADO | JANUARY 2022

GREETINGS. 2022 HAS OPENED FOR TD with a glimpse into the future as we travelled to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. While attendance was approximately 25 percent of the 170,000 people who made it to the 2020 show, our team still enjoyed the mask-to-mask in-person meetings and interaction.

Of note, autonomous driving was perhaps the major player, as private, public and commercial vehicles were on display demonstrating how our autonomous smart cities will look in just a few years. Holography and health-over-video have also come of age, as emerging technologies like carbon-capture produced materials and wireless power sources were the debs of the ball.

In this issue, Sean O’Keefe explores water irrigation strategies and geothermal heat pumps, and Steve Panosian shares his personal experience with well water contaminants and what specifically we need to be watching out for as we continue to pump industrial by-products into our aquifers.

George McClure has a tasty interview with architect John Brittingham and also reports on the 3D printing customization for lighting fixtures that Signify, formerly Philips Lighting and the world’s largest lighting company, are bringing to market.

We also present an engaging article by Bill Hensley about Yakisugi, a Japanese heat treatment of wood that happens to be a universal technology; it’s been used for eons and world-wide there are all sorts of technologies that have been developed.

And speaking of wood and fire, we visit with Kelly Gray-Jones of Christopherson Builders and George Potter IV of Potter Audio Video, as they tell their tale about the aftermath of the horrendous Northern California fires of 2017 and how they are building back communities both sustainably and resiliently.

We also have a great interview with Michelle Guss who walks us through the latest iteration of the award-winning Crestron Home control system. And if you’ve wondered about hi-resolution audio streaming and how to put together a whole-house music system without ripping up your walls and ceilings to run speaker wire, tune into our coverage of the NAD M10 BluOS audio streamer. And if you have an office – home or otherwise – check out our coverage of the Samsung Interactive Whiteboard display.

Finally, Mike Libman from DMF Lighting wraps up this issue with an enlightened call to action regarding the advantages to all design-build professionals as the advanced lighting design and integration market continues to expand.

Let’s go see where technology meets design.
D.

 

Technology Designer