Defying the Elements

Franco D’Ascanio, President & CEO of D’Asign Source
& Coastal Source, on the Impacts of Climate Change on Outdoor Lighting & Audio Design

Rising tides and extreme temperatures are impacting coastal living and outdoor living in general, more than ever before. Having lived and worked in South Florida for decades, the team at Coastal Source has experienced the environmental shift firsthand. Mother Nature is a powerful force, and the increasingly harsher elements unfurled along the coastline and beyond are putting a strain on outdoor living.

Landscapes, exterior housing materials and technologies are enduring significant wear and tear, and consumers now recognize the need for more resilient solutions to mitigate the damage. This includes exterior light fixtures and loudspeakers. Products engineered, designed and manufactured to withstand the elements are more important than ever to ensure outdoor living spaces look and sound their best. It’s time to come to terms with global climate change and adjust our selection and designs of outdoor technology accordingly.

Understanding the Environment

It’s impossible to develop solutions to problems without first understanding exactly what you’re dealing with. Unless you’ve lived through a hurricane, tidal surges and torrential rainfall, it’s difficult to grasp the severity of the situation and formulate a plan to battle these extreme conditions. Before you can develop products to outwit the weather, you must first determine how salt water, humidity and high winds wear away at speaker housings and light fixtures; analyze how these conditions impact performance and reliability and learn when and where to expect maintenance and repairs to occur.

Having operated design, installation and manufacturing businesses focused on outdoor living in South Florida for decades, D’Asign Source, parent company of Coastal Source and its outdoor living and environments department, has seen and done it all. Based on our vast experience catering to the high expectations of luxury homeowners, a deep respect for the coastal climate and landscape and an understanding of the unique challenges encountered by systems integrators and designers, we know which materials, technologies and designs work in wet, windy and salty environments.

Over the years, we’ve evolved our design and manufacturing approaches to align with climate change and sustainability practices. We put our products through the wringer before they make it to market by testing their resilience and endurance in the field and inside salt and UV chambers.

Born Out of Necessity

We saw the proverbial writing on the wall decades ago, when our design installation team at D’Asign Source struggled consistently to find products that could handle the harsh coastal weather without continual maintenance and repair. Revisiting projects, as we all know, eats into precious time and resources. We knew we needed better, higher-quality outdoor light fixtures and speakers and pleaded with our vendors, to no avail.

As a result, Coastal Source was born quite literally out of necessity. Since then, what once was a niche market has skyrocketed into one of the fastest growing segments of the integration industry. Monetizing this market opportunity for our partners is now our next great opportunity. Lighting and speakers that are built to last and perform reliably in severe outdoor conditions pave the way to greater partner sales and profitability.

EVO Lighting Series 1

D’Asign Source still functions as our living research and development laboratory. When our integrators encounter challenges or identify a need as they design and deploy outdoor lighting and speakers, we know immediately about it and go to work to develop a solution. These observations have enabled us to stay one step ahead of climate change and the competition with efficient, effective R&D. It’s one thing to design products that meet certain performance specs; it’s quite another to innovate based on what’s necessary in the field.

Innovative Designs That Dodge Damage

We’ve tested and seen our outdoor light fixtures shine brightly underneath a flooded yard and speakers stand up to extreme heat. Still, there’s always a chance that something will malfunction. Rather than toss out and replace the entire fixture, we’ve created new lighting lines that allow integrators to detach a module containing all the technology and circuitry from the fixture, which stays intact. A new module snaps back in place, which streamlines maintenance and reduces waste. As new modules are introduced, they can be added to keep the system up to date, performing optimally and defying the elements.

Meanwhile, our speakers feature a unique field-tested, sealed enclosure to prevent water, moisture and dirt from seeping into the circuitry—but with strategically placed, protected vents to ensure optimal audio performance. You get all the advantages of a sealed cabinet without the typical audio compromise.

Materials also matter, and through rigorous testing in the field and in the lab, we’ve determined the ideal composition to withstand heat, moisture and other outdoor elements. Conditions are growing more intense every day, so we keep a close pulse on our designs and selection of materials. For example, brass, extruded/machined aluminum and specialty composites resist corrosion better than other materials like the commonly used and inexpensive cast aluminum, so we elect to build our products with these superior materials that truly defy the elements.   

Furthermore, to combat heat buildup that occurs naturally when speakers are exposed to high temperatures and sunlight, we’ve developed a unique internal heat syncing technology that allows the internal heat generated by the speaker drivers to be efficiently conducted to the outside environment. Based on our own thermal analysis, it works and has the potential to double the lifespan of outdoor speakers.

RAZOR-Surface Mount 180 Hanging

Sustainable Technology for Sustained Outdoor Performance

Even though the climate may be unkind to us at times, we remain steadfast in our sustainability and eco-friendly design objectives. Our plug-and-play installation architecture, combined with the use of recyclable materials and low-power consumption, ensure that our outdoor lighting and speakers are as green as possible.

Weather patterns will continue to shift; so too will high-quality entertainment from the inside of a home to the outside. These two significant trends are fueling the demand for more durable, high-performance outdoor lighting and speakers. Coastal Source rises to the challenge through comprehensive and consistent field and laboratory testing to ensure the products you install today can take on whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

Contact

Coastal Source
Phone: 1 (800) 719–1996
Email: info@coastalsource.com
coastalsource.com