English version
Lighting – Design – Automation – Sound – Ambience – Remote Control – Home Theater – Intelligent Home
Don’t we all love our home to be nice, to be a place where we feel good and can relax?
Of course the criteria vary enormously from one person to another with respect to what exactly makes one feel good at home. Having said that, to a certain extend I believe that we all agree that lighting is an important part of it, being the latest hi-tech-state-of-the-art-remote-controlled-LED-system all the way down to oil or Himalaya salt lamps and candles. It is all about lighting and the common denominator is to create the ambience that we love.
As you probably guess from the headline photo, Studio K in Loja does not sell candles and oil lamps. They do offer an astonishing range of modern lighting options for most tastes and budgets. Their lighting systems can be automated and remote controlled from any smartphone.
Audio
Once the light is good, it is no less important to think about the sound. Studio K is I believe the only company in Loja offering hifi audio solutions and mid to up-market home theaters, not the most expensive systems in the world but very good ones. “The best quality/price ratio on the market”.
“The brands that we have in audio are Monitor Audio (speakers from the UK, Marantz (Amplifiers USA), Denon (now fused with Marantz) and also SpeakerCraft (in-wall in-ceiling speaker systems, USA)”.
Design
Getting the best results is not a matter of throwing lights and speakers all over the place, the more the merrier. Design is the name of the game. Studio K does the design free of charge, meaning that they go to your house, take photos, draw some sketches, get back to you with ideas, listen to your feedback, change the drawings … until getting to a final agreed design with a price that suits the family budget.
This is it in a nutshell but there is more to it. Time to to meet Israel Reyes, the owner of Studio K Loja, and listen to what he has to say. Israel is a young and clever engineer. Listening to him it becomes immediately obvious that he loves what he does and that he knows what he is talking about. I did no tell him that I am an engineer too. I played “middle of the road reasonably educated customer” and did not hear anything incorrect or exaggerated in what Israel told me. You won’t find a lot of that in tech shops around Loja.
Studio K in Loja is only one year old. It is a franchise of Studio K in Quito, created by a German. The company in Quito has been operating for 33 years. There is another Studio K in Manta.
Lighting
This is their first and main area of expertise. I won’t attempt to describe all that is available. It is all modern, either white or black, some but few colors, no flowery designs, no strong reds, no plastic, nothing pop.
“That is what people want around here”, Israel explains, that is what the architects and the designers, their main customers, seek. Straight lines, some smooth curves. Nothing cheap but nothing horrendously expensive either. For example, the lamp that we see on the photo above costs $200. It is very nice and comes with a warm LED light bulb and of course it can be dimmed. There are cheaper and more expensive options.
“There are two things that are exclusive to us, the design and the automation. We provide the design free of charge and our lighting systems can be remote controlled”.
Installation
“A cozy home has light elements in the ceiling, in the floor and inside the walls. With this combination of elements providing light from different angles, we can create really cozy and stylish ambiences.”
Then, it is a matter of combining lighting with sound. This can be a home theater, a stereo system or a multi-stereo system, one that is distributed throughout the entire house.
With the various possibilities of automation (in wall dimmers, remote control by phone) of both lights and sound, it is easy to understand that things can become rather complex indeed. This is why Studio K has a specialized installation team.
Combining with classic or rustic designs
Saying that what I have seen is all modern does not mean that it cannot be combined with more rustic or even antique “Louis 15” designs. This is important to mention for foreigners living in Cuenca or in Vilcabamba who seem to like more the type of natural rustic earthy and woody architecture.
A few years ago, Joe Simoneta showed me his San Joaquin development in Vilcabamba. He is an architect and uses a lot of timber in his designs.
I revisited some old photos that I have and looked at the lighting.
It struck me that the type of house that is common there could readily benefit from the inclusion of some of what I saw in Studio K showroom.
Adobe blocks, rammed earth, guadua bamboo and other earthy type homes would not be hurt either. It is all a matter of creativity.
LEDs and energy saving light bulbs
First, a brief mention of the so called “energy saving light bulb” that is so widespread in Ecuador. It is a fluorescent tube, it contains mercury vapor, the light that it produces is cold, unpleasant and harmful to your health. It does save energy compared to the incandescent light but because of the mercury that inevitably always ends up in the environment it should not really be called a green solution. I hope it disappears soon from residential properties. Their use can still be justified in offices and factories.
LED (Light Emitting Diode) is another thing altogether. It is not really new but the world of LEDs has changed a lot over the past few years. They are no longer prohibitively expensive and no longer white, cold and weak. Israel showed me some rather good looking and small spots that consume 5 Watts of energy and give a strong yellow warm light just light the old Thomas Edison light bulb.
Studio K even sells a range of LED lights that can be dimmed (dimmable LED light bulbs) which is not the case for those that can be found in the hardware shops. They last forever and pay for themselves on the reduced power bills.
Why not enjoy a nice romantic diner by the candle LED?
The show room
Time for a tour of the showroom upstairs which also happens to be the Reyes family home, lucky them! A huge modern and bright room, all open, with a kitchen, an office, a dining room and a small cinema.
Here, Israel explains that they can demonstrate both the remote controlled lighting and the audio/home theater together. People can even try it out on their own phone. Israel rapidly installs the Lutron app and configures it. It gives people a real thrill and sense of ownership to drive all the lights and the sound from their own phone.
“The Audio is usually the masculine part and the man is the one who decides whereas the lighting appeals more to the female side and it is the woman who decides… For budget reason he may have to drop one sub woofer in order for her to get that foot lamp that she so much desires!”. It is all about negotiation !
Of course I could not help asking for a demo. Israel launched YouTube that popped up on his larger than life monitor and selected one of my own songs. We sat in the couches and it took half a second for the dog to jump on my knees and settle there. It was day time. I would love to go back once at night time. It must be even better.
Life can be good 🙂
Conclusion
There is so much more to say. This is by no mean an exhaustive review of what Studio K has on offer. More like a teaser. Better to see and hear for yourself. Israel is a very approachable person and will be delighted to show you all his wonderful gadgets. If you look for quality lighting, quality audio, need someone knowledgeable who can design and deliver something cool, trendy, modern, original, energy efficient … for your home, Studio K in Loja is definitely a place to consider.
Contacts
STUDIO K – Loja
Juan Jose Peña 13-52 y Leopoldo Palacios
Tel: (+593 7) 2 580 816
Email: info@studiok.com.ec
web: http://www.studiok.com.ec/
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