K-Array, a longstanding Italian manufacturer of audio products has recently taken an aggressive step into lighting with the launch of its K-Scape brand. The future of home and office environments, the company states, lies within integrated human-centric lighting (HCL) and audio.

KScape RAIL Opens the Way into Integrated Audio and Lighting

Diving a little deeper into the formation of the K-Scape product line, Tom Riby, global brand manager for K-Scape, notes that K-Array identified the lighting category about four or five years ago. However, before it entered the category, the company didn’t want to produce ordinary lighting products.

“Sound and light involve our most important senses, yet their quality directly affects the quality of our life in ways you could never imagine so when approaching both sound and light as separate chapters of a project, you often lead to some limits and compromises that negatively affect the final result,” he explains.

“Considering all this, the idea that one device can resolve the perfect integration of the two disciplines that sees them perfectly harmonized in unison. It is an integration that offers an important tool for modern design, which simplifies construction and any future maintenance. An innovative and original way to offer quality to our emotions.”

The RAIL itself has a 1.2m linear profile with three full-range drivers built inside. The line offers a choice of four combinations of optics: symmetrical, symmetrical + optical spot, asymmetrical, diffused and the possibility of housing a low-voltage electrified track with projectors.

The product line also offers multiple installation options such as recessed semi-recessed, ceiling and suspended, which can provide indirect lighting with a constant color temperature or RGB+W light.

“Where audio is crucial,” Riby notes, “All the mounting options guarantee optimal sound diffusion, including the recessed version that provides a small gap on each side of the RAIL which has been designed and studied in detail in order not to compromise the acoustic performance.”

To this point the KScape product line complements residential environments that range from kitchens to multimedia rooms, and commercial spaces that include retail business and museums.

K-array Offers Powerful, Cost Effective Solution for Dealers

For Riby, he sees great value in RAIL as a conversation starter between dealers and clients.

“A simulation of RAIL—when compared to a scalable solution of ceiling speakers and separate comparable light fixtures has proven significant savings on wiring, shipping, labor, product costs and has proven to be 35% more energy efficient, 25% on product costs, and 52% less for labor/wiring costs. The combination of audio and light into one high quality solution also means that there is a more streamlined service for project design, installation and maintenance,” he says.

“While we see growth in both audio and lighting markets, the smart technology market is exploding. A dealer has to be armed with a variety of products that attach to one project and usually that comes with plenty of politics. RAIL is an all-in-one solution that is the first of its kind to merge the products and tools available for dealers into one concept. We are at the dawn of the digital ceiling, both sources and inputs will be required for the home and our need to analyze, track and measure everything requires meaningful designs, and in our minds, we believe audio is at the heart of creating important experiences.”

K-Array has also incorporated the DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) into its products. Riby says each RAIL product can have as many as four channels of DALI to control items such as indirect, direct, optical spotlights and projectors for individual control of these devices.

“Providing the user with full control on lighting scenes. Combine this with music, sound and you can create the most incredible immersive experiences,” he states.

“Casambi is just one product that RAIL uses to provide complete control of the channels via Bluetooth, Lutron, Crestron and Control4 so users at home can intuitively create their own immersive experiences at the touch of a button.”

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister site CE Pro.