When it comes to lighting design, Andrew Munro is one of BC’s leading authorities. Working alongside Casey Gaetz, our Electrical Team Co-Leader, he played a crucial role in building the Electrical Team, passing on his expertise and insights to more junior lighting designers and engineers, and establishing our company as a respected firm in lighting design over the last 30 years.
Andrew’s contributions have earned Prism industry-recognized awards, including three Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Awards for the Richmond Olympic Oval Event Hall Lighting Upgrade (2019) and the NAV Canada Surrey Area Control Centre (2015), as well as a BC Hydro Power Smart Lighting Redesign Award for the Vancouver Convention Centre Exhibition Areas Lighting Upgrade (2019).
Many are unaware that our Senior Electrical Designer’s career literally began by accident. After being hit while driving his motorcycle, he was unable to return to his previous physically demanding job. Andrew then studied Marketing Management and found employment at a manufacturer of luminaries and lamps, where he began to learn basic lighting design programs. The rest, as they say, is history. After working at an electrical wholesaler and starting his own business, he joined Prism in August 1994.
As Andrew recently celebrated his 30th anniversary at Prism, we sat down with him to reflect on the growth of the Electrical Team, his favourite projects, and what he enjoys most about this job, among other topics. Here are the highlights of that conversation:
Building the Electrical Team
“When I first joined Prism, it was only Brian O’Donnell, Robert Greenwald, Casey Gaetz, and a couple of part-time employees. Basically, the electrical team was just Casey and I. Our work complemented each other.
Casey was good with programming, so we started developing a customized spreadsheet for lighting analysis. What started as a 20-page spreadsheet then became a database. He had all the formulas and a level of software knowledge that I didn’t have, but I was able to build up all of the backend information. In fact, we provided BC Hydro with our systems wattage tables for their use years ago.
I worked with Casey on electrical designs and power factor correction, using and expanding our knowledge of lighting. We continued taking Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) courses and working with manufacturers to share concerns about their products, especially for retrofits. We often told them when we were facing a specific problem, and they would listen to us and then change their products.”
Andrew amongst the files in 2003.
Prism’s difference
“Some competitors want to enter the electrical and lighting upgrade world but lack experience. They haven’t worked with product innovation. Prism has that experience. We know the regulations and the requirements. Our innovative work with clients, manufacturers, and contractors has allowed us to stay ahead of the curve.”
What makes a good lighting project
“Lighting is 50% science and 50% art. You can’t do a good job if you can’t marry the two. At Prism, we can bring those two aspects together. To deliver a successful project, one must stand in the middle of the space and be able to visualize what the result will be. If I can turn things around and change the entire building to get the necessary results, that is where the real fun is!”
Memorable projects
Richmond Olympic Oval
The Grand Hall ceiling at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
“For this lighting upgrade, we started experimenting, doing mock-ups and testing to see the impact of different lighting systems and optics. It was challenging because they had an ice rink, which causes different reflectivity, and basketball courts, which have highly specular surfaces, so we had to be very careful to watch out for glare and impacts of surface colours on results.
They also had a climbing wall, where we needed to avoid shadows, and a running track with two tones of blue. All of this is in just one big space with 14 different zones that needed control, both together as one space or as individual zones with differing illumination needs. We had to make a cohesive lighting system work, and in a building with a beautiful wood ceiling that curves from 55 feet to a peak of 72 feet.
For our verification, we would go to the Olympic Oval at night, turning off all the lights except for the mock-up lights and testing three manufacturers’ lights at a time. I would literally lie on the floor on my stomach, stretched out with the light meter open in front of me, checking in multiple sections to see what the illumination levels were. And then, repeat the process with the next product mock-up. We discovered which systems and optics worked and which didn’t.”
NAV Canada Surrey’s Area Control Centre
“NAV Canada was in the process of adopting a new way of controlling and tracking planes, similar to looking at iPads. In other words, they had a specular surface that showed glare. I worked on the lighting of the room to get the ratios of maximum to minimum as low as possible, with gradients being smooth and even.
In addition, each air traffic controller worked with seven screens in front of them. They had to be able to track all of the aircraft, especially when they were going from one screen to another. The lighting had to be even, with no hot spots or glare, since it could create a dot on the screen, blocking a transponder signal from a plane and making it invisible.
To make things harder, our work had to comply with various and sometimes conflicting lighting regulations required by navigation authorities. In the end, we managed to get the gradient even, and the light was flat across the room. This means the light on one side of the room was exactly the same as in the middle and on the other side of the room. Also, the controllers could adjust the lighting levels to meet the preferences of individual groups of controller teams on different shifts.”
NAV Canada Control Centre: Same lighting across the room
with no hotspots or glare.
The fun part of the job
“There is always an opportunity to try something we haven’t done before in electrical design and lighting. It’s exciting to pioneer something, play with it, see what works and what doesn’t, and try to figure out a better way of doing it. It is the aspect of curiosity, treating buildings and systems as big Lego sets. Many clients have trusted us to take care of their buildings. I enjoy it when that happens because we can experiment with different options, doing mock-ups and sample testing.
For those willing to work in the industry, it doesn’t matter what area of the electrical field tweaks your interest. If you want to work in lighting, electrical distribution, fire alarms or photovoltaics, go for it! Go out into the field, get your hands dirty and find what intrigues you.”
Andrew (seriously) testing luminaire samples. They passed!
Inspiration outside the office
“Family, grandkids, travel, and exploring genealogy are huge aspects of my life. I also like to run around with my Harley Davidson Low Rider. Motorcycling has been part of my life since my early 20s. That involvement led me to support Bikers Against Child Abuse, which I now have for more than five years. Supporting people in their lives gives me an opportunity to give back and to provide service to others. I also love nature and gardening. And I started Tae Kwon Do at 55. I have been able to achieve two black belts and I’m slowly working up the ranks now toward my third Dan. I’ll probably be about 70 when I get it.”
On the left, Andrew and Grand Master Gee (Mark Gildemeester) at Master Gee’s Blackbelt Academy in Burnaby.
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