Introducing the Acuity Design Studio

October 23, 2019

At the North American headquarters of Acuity Brands, we’ve opened a space called the Acuity Design Studio (“Studio”). The Studio was the brainchild of strategic leaders from both Acuity Brands and Samsung SmartThings; it’s a place where innovation and collaboration happen. Today a combined team of industrial designers, engineers and portfolio managers from both companies are working together in the space to develop smart lighting solutions for residential customers.

Imagine controlling your lights and all your connected systems at home from a centralized app. That’s simple. And, isn’t technology supposed to simplify and streamline?

At the Studio, our teams believe it should.

Specifically, the team is looking at how customers connect the various systems in their homes. The goal of the alliance is to help smart lighting natively connect to all SmartThings devices to streamline the configuration process. That means we are challenging the requirement for a lighting hub in the residential space. (Hubs are getting like passwords, where we need a unique one for every system similar to an email account, online bill pay, and many other accounts too numerous to mention.)

Customers who are seeking to create a smarter, more connected home would not need to purchase a separate lighting hub to connect their lights to an in-home network filled with SmartThings.

Interested in learning more, visit the Samsung Developer Conference (“SDC19”) at the San Jose, CA Convention Center from October 29-30, 2019 where you can get a sneak peek at the innovations coming out of the Studio.

We are located in the AI/IoT booth with an “Acuity Brands” logo over our area. See the map referencing our location.

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About Yan Rodriguez

Vice President, Research & Development for the Acuity Design Studio

 

 

 

 

 

Yan Rodriguez manages the Samsung partnership aligning with the company’s strategic development, market expansion and residential product line diversification objectives. His work at the Acuity Design Studio spans from concept creation and execution of residential products where he incorporates technology, form and style. He is sought after as a thought leader, regularly contributing to the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and industry forums on lighting and lighting controls topics impacting the industry.

Yan has 30 years of experience in engineering and project management. During his nine-year tenure at Acuity Brands, he has worked across several divisions at the company, including Lithonia downlighting, Power Sentry and Acuity Controls. Previous roles that led him to his current passion include a Vice President of Business Development position at HomeRun Holdings Corp., a startup focused on home automation and controls, and engineering and project manager positions.

He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of West Florida and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of North Florida.

 

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