IX5000 – Lighting Design & Prototyping

Working with the industrial design team we explored different integrated lighting solutions for the IX5000, Cisco’s premier TelePresence product. Previous products had used a giant reflector wall with bounced LED lights for fill lighting which was inefficient, expensive to produce and install.

The work involved initial sketches of lighting solutions, building and fabricating early working prototypes; creating 3D models of the prototype TelePresence hardware system; accurate parts drawings for the fabricators; built and install the working prototypes in the lab. The solution to our design has an edge-lit acrylic panel using high density LED’s. The lighting is masked by a fabric panel, making it invisible when not turned on. When the lighting comes on, it fades up in brightness, and is a seamless strip of soft illumination 8″ tall the entire width of the system.

I contributed to the camera/video engineering and the UX team, testing and researching the optimal lighting levels for good exposure, balancing intensity with ocular comfort factors for users, as eye-strain over long periods of time are a concern with a direct lighting solution.