Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) is a trademark for network-based products that control lighting. The underlying technology was established by a consortium of lighting equipment manufacturers as a successor to 1-10 V lighting systems, and as an open standard alternative to several proprietary protocols.

Correlated colour temperature or CCT describes the colour impression or colour temperature of a light source compared to the ideal radiation of a black-body. Nowadays, the most common and frequently used light sources don't work with thermal radiation, as the incandescent bulb does. This means that the emitted light does not follow the form of the black-body curve.

The meaning of colour temperature or light colour describes the impression of coldness or warmness of the lighting effect. Measured in Kelvin (K) the colour temperature moves on a scale of 1000 to 10 000. The redder a colour is the cooler or lower it is on a scale, the bluer colours are colder and on the hotter end. This scale is in line with the colours of a flame. The hotter a flame burns, the more it tends towards blue.

Lighting for conference settings needs to comply with the norms for workplace lighting, namely the DIN 12464 and the ASR. As the way we work has changed over the past few years, so have the requirements for workplaces and workplace lighting.

Chip on board (COB) is a method of circuit board manufacturing in which the integrated circuits are wired bonded directly to a printed circuit board, and covered by a blob of epoxy. COBs containing arrays of light-emitting diodes have made LED lighting more efficient.

Artificial light is light generated by a human-made source. The sources from which artificial light can be obtained are mostly powered by electricity and are a large variety. These include modern LEDs and OLEDs as well as more conventional sources such as halogen, fluorescent and incandescent lamps.

Ambient light is a condition of directionless, uniform light, generally with low light intensity. The resulting ambiance is a mixture of shadow-free diffuse lighting and reflected light from all surrounding surfaces.

A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation, regardless of frequency or angle of incidence. The name “black body” refers to its ability to absorb all colours of light. A black body also emits black-body radiation. In contrast, a white body is one with a "rough surface that reflects all incident rays completely and uniformly in all directions.

Architectural lighting is a field of design that combines engineering, architecture, and design consultancy focusing on enhancing the visual experience within the built environment for both interior and exterior spaces.

As architectural lighting designers, we at Studio De Schutter design both daylight and artificial lighting. For us, designing starts with understanding human needs and the visual task that will take place in the designed space. Architectural lighting balances functionality with beauty and combines lighting science with technical and safety requirements.

(Visual) adaptation is the temporary change in sensitivity or perception when exposed to a new (more or less intense) stimulus, and the lingering afterimage that may result when the stimulus is removed.

The beam angle is the term used to describe the lighting distribution in 360 degrees of a certain light fixture. The beam angle of a light source is the angle measured between the central axis of the source to the boundary where the lighting intensity decreases to 50%.

A beam spread is a definition used to describe the lighting distribution of a certain light source or fixture as it hits a surface.

Backlight or backlighting is a method of creative lighting where the light source is behind the object.

There are two main cases:

the illuminated object is a translucent panel that becomes an emitting surface

the illuminated object is opaque and the outlines of the objects standing in front of it are emphasised

Bounced light or reflected light is light that reflects off a surface. The bounced light also reflects the colour of that surface back into the environment.

Brilliance is the effect of lighting on a glossy surface, for example a sparkle from a chandelier, and is produced by the reflection of the light source. A “Play of brilliants” is one of the three layers coined by Richard Kelly, a pioneer of architectural lighting design, that make up good lighting design.