Helvar's ILLUSTRIS is a DALI touch panel that can be the whole lighting control system for a small room. Wire it to a DALI line and it powers up controlling every fitting on that line, with four scenes, an intensity ring and Bluetooth control from a phone. When we put a demonstration board together in Dubai in June 2019, that standalone ability was the part contractors asked about most.

Standalone or part of a system

Out of the box, ILLUSTRIS talks to all the gear on its DALI line by broadcast, so a meeting room or a private office needs no programming before it works. When a room calls for more, individual fittings or groups can be assigned to the panel with Helvar's DIGIDIM Toolbox, and the same panel can also sit inside a larger Helvar system, such as Imagine or RoomSet, as one of many control points.

That makes it a reasonable fit for offices, healthcare, residential and hospitality projects, where a room wants proper scene control and a panel that looks the part, but a full building controls package would be overkill.

Three fascias, one interface

The panel is two parts, shipped separately: a 290x DALI interface that goes in the back box, and a 19x front fascia that sets what the panel does.

  • 191: scene control, with four scenes, off or last level, and intensity.
  • 192: colour temperature control for tunable white.
  • 193: full colour control, with intensity, hue and saturation.

Colour temperature and x-y colour use DALI device type 8 (IEC 62386 part 209), so tunable white and colour fittings for human centric lighting can be set up from the panel rather than by a specialist commissioning engineer. Fascias come in glass (96 x 96 mm) or acrylic (89 x 89 mm), black or white, and Helvar also offers custom printed designs. The glass version reaches IP44 with the optional gasket; otherwise the panel is IP30.

Three black ILLUSTRIS fascias side by side: a dimming ring, a warm-to-cool colour temperature ring and a full colour ring, each with four numbered scene buttons
The 191, 192 and 193 fascias: dimming, colour temperature and full colour. Images: Helvar.

Control from the SceneSet app

ILLUSTRIS has Bluetooth built in, and Helvar's SceneSet app for iOS and Android connects to it directly. The app mirrors the panel: recall and edit scenes, adjust levels and colour, then store the result as a new scene. Settings can be changed from either the panel or the app.

Tablet running the Helvar SceneSet app, showing four scene buttons, off and up/down controls, a colour wheel and a photo of a meeting room
SceneSet on a tablet: scenes, levels and colour for one room. Image: Helvar.

Where to find it now

ILLUSTRIS is still in Helvar's range. The current fascia codes and datasheet are on Helvar's ILLUSTRIS page, and we list it as 19x ILLUSTRIS Scene Panels alongside the SceneSet app. If you want to see it running before you specify it, ask us for a demonstration.