Design Story over 24 years of lighting design experience

2006 - Neoz  honoured with an Australian Design Award for the new V4 Cordless Lamp System. The principal designers were myself, Jackie Chan and Gabriel Tam with electronic engineering from ILID. Special appreciation to Jackie Chan who worked tirelessly on this project for three years. The V4 system is an evolution of the successful V3 range and the design is based on our marketplace experience and aims to address the specific requirements of clients in the commercial hospitality sector and the home user market. Broadly we have designed an intelligent Cordless Lamp range which will be equally appropriate as a fine dining restaurant table luminaire or bedside table lamp at home. The Neoz V4 Cordless lamps are the world's first rechargeable lamps to use Lithium ion cells. We chose Li-ion cells because they offer very high energy discharge to size advantages and therefore offer more light time. They are also very stable in varying temperature conditions. The V4 system comprises  a range of Cordless lamps , base stations, power supplies, trays and trolleys designed for simplicity of use. We hope that you will enjoy the difference.

Peter Ellis

 

2001 - The idea of the Cordless lamp had been in my mind for some years. In 1995 we were working on the lighting design for Penfold's "Magill estate" restaurant in the Adelaide hills with Sydney architect's Allen,
Jack + Cottier.

A major problem with lighting restaurants is the need to move tables around and still illuminate appropriately. Keith Cottier asked if we could design an electric lamp without a cord to solve this problem. He thought candles were messy and didn't provide enough light. We said yes and so began the design and development process. We wanted 8 hours of light, which was dimmable and effective at illuminating the table and diners. The end result was the 'Magill' Cordless table lamp - still in use today.

This first lamp used rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries and had very basic hand assembled control electronics.

What surprised me at the time was that there was no off the shelf battery charging systems that would suit our requirements. Amazing when you consider the multitude of rechargeable devices in the world. So we designed our own exactly to our requirements. The "battery control assembly" has been redesigned and refined several times over a five-year period by our electronic engineers. Now each Cordless lamp has its own programmed microcontroller which charges, monitors and controls the NiMH battery pack as well as providing lamp switching and dimming functions. The modular design enables us to add other functions such as security, remote control and voice recognition if required.

We have designed and manufactured a variety of Cordless lamps for restaurants such as 'bel mondo', 'Box' and 'Cafe Sydney' in Australia and for international destinations such as the 'Ritz Hotel' in London, 'Peninsula Hotel' - Bangkok, 'Tangerine' - New York, 'Sheraton Grand' in Edinburgh and 'Es' in Rome. View our extensive client's list for more info.

The Cordless lamp is enjoyed equally in the home environment. Our current range extends to around fifteen different models. All are designed and manufactured by NEOZ in Australia. Last year the Cordless Table lamp range was awarded the 2001 Australian Design Award.

Peter Ellis