Light follows the user - and not the other way round

Having light where it is actually needed and not where there just happens to be a socket – this wish is fulfilled by the new Roxxane Leggera CL luminaire made by Nimbus. Powered by a high-performance rechargeable battery, the table or floor-standing luminaire can run for up to 100 hours without a cable before being recharged by means of a fun procedure. Dietrich F. Brennenstuhl, the founder and CEO of the Nimbus Group, is a visionary in the lighting sector. In the following interview, he explains his ideas and the interrelationship between light and design.

Mr. Brennenstuhl, what is the idea behind the vision of cableless light?
The desire for cableless light has driven me for many years. Back in the days when I worked as an architect, planning lighting arrangements for the home that would be practical for years to come always seemed to involve making compromises. The cable outlet that was right at the time turned out to be totally impractical just one year later.

If we are speaking about floor-standing luminaires here, they usually work very well with existing sockets, don't they?
A reading luminaire can work with a cable, of course. For the sake of convenience, we like to install five or more sockets in a room when building or renovating a house so that we can then position a reading or floor-standing luminaire where we really need it. However, many sofas today are in fact seating or lying landscapes and often a few metres long. Where is the reading luminaire supposed to go? Floor-standing and reading luminaires are often characterised by their great stability and thus by their high weight, thereby making them inconvenient to move around. Consequently, the luminaire stays put and the person moves over to the light … Freeing ourselves from this restriction and placing light exactly where it is needed leads us to break with old habits and experience our own four walls in an entirely new way.

The Roxxane Leggera CL is one of the first cableless luminaires your company has produced. How exactly do you go about charging it?
It was one of those aha moments that gave me the idea of a cableless luminaire: while building a tree house for my children, I spent two weeks in close contact with battery-powered tools – an incredible benefit and a great deal of freedom with the small concession of having to recharge. In order to make this charging procedure child's play rather than a chore, the Roxxane Leggera CL has a magnetic charging puck. The luminaire only has to be moved towards the charging puck to connect it to the mains. A clearly audible "clack" signals that a connection has been made. Disconnecting Roxxane Leggera CL from the mains upon completion of the charging process is just as simple. Just give the puck a light tap with the tip of your toes and the luminaire can be lifted from the charging puck.

The first question a customer will surely ask is: how long will it work between charges?
Up to 100 hours, depending on the operating mode – with a lumen output of up to 800 lm. If you think about the easy charging procedure and then also consider the often surprising realisation of how light the luminaire is, any doubts are soon dispelled. And we have also included a further feature in the Roxxane Leggera CL: a USB port that can be used for charging and running mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets from the luminaire outside on the terrace or inside the house far away from any socket.

What happens next with cableless light?
It wasn't until March 2016 that we presented the Roxxane Leggera CL at Light + Building, and now in summer we have already commenced serial production. The current challenge we are facing is to promptly handle the many, many orders that we have received since March, but of course it is a challenge that we relish. Our highly creative team is currently developing the Winglet CL wall luminaire and the Gravity CL suspended luminaire, two further products that create cableless light that is independent of prepositioned power outlets. We have only opened up a small crack in the door to a cableless world, and we have the feeling that there is huge potential out there for the future.

More information about the cableless Roxxane Leggera CL you will find HERE.