Lighting House lights up classrooms with Roadshow Media

Blackpool-based Lighting House's founder Liam Frend discusses the business’ growth as a specialist provider of LED lighting for schools and explores the importance of being able to hand over the marketing to a trusted partner like Roadshow Media.

Think about everything that makes a school successful and you might not immediately think lighting. Lighting House’s Liam Frend believes you should. “Not long ago, every school had fluorescent lighting which constantly flickered and would cause headaches and migraines. Then LED arrived. On the face of it, it was much better (and it certainly reduced energy costs), but early versions could still flicker and there was a risk of glare, which could also cause headaches.”

That’s why every classroom needs its lighting to achieve UGR glare index compliance. It helps ensure classroom lighting is optimised for the young people beneath. Yet it’s not the only difference Blackpool-based Lighting House makes to school lighting.

“Lots of schools have switched to LED bit by bit,” says Liam. “But because LED manufacturers constantly change their offerings, you end up with different LED lights in a single room, with one sometimes giving out more light than another, which isn’t good for pupils or staff.  We’ve also recently completed our first LED to LED refit. This was for an early adopter of LEDs who had installed the lights when the technology was in its infancy. Many schools are now finding these old lights are too dim. They’re not good to work beneath, and they’re not easy to replace because the manufacturers are no longer around.

“We go into schools and help them make the right practical choices. We source and install the lights that will be there for the next 10 or 15 years, balancing quality with cost. There's no point in a school spending too much on each light because they'll never achieve payback, so we ensure they choose quality LED options that won’t cost the earth.”

Although Lighting House supports wider industry and supplies other low carbon solutions such as EV charging points and solar panels, it is lighting for schools that occupies most of Liam’s focus, and the support extends to funding as well as the lighting itself. “We've helped many schools access grants. A lot of them didn't even know they were available until we got involved. Then, we help them get the biggest bang for their school grant buck.”

When Lighting House starts working with schools, it’s often after they’ve had a bitter experience following poor advice or having chosen ill-suited products. Ironically, Liam says, when it came to the company’s own website and SEO… “We made the same mistake. We went with a media partner who made lots of promises but was an absolute nightmare to deal with. We had nothing but issues.

“I’d worked with James [Stewart, MD of Roadshow Media] in a previous role. Once we’d learned our lesson, he was the first person we called because we knew and trusted him. Getting things up and running was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. James's attention to detail and ability to convey our thinking into a fully working website were excellent. We felt fully supported and informed every step of the way."

Liam says that without Roadshow Media they would have been stuck with the old website, not really knowing where to go. Through Roadshow Media's accurate and efficient SEO work, people searching for their type of service are finding the website. "The phone is ringing a lot more", says Liam. 

For any organisation looking to grow, Liam is quick to champion the value of working with a trusted media partner. “We're not marketing experts — and we don’t want to be because we’re busy enough as it is. What we want is somebody we can rely on to tell us what information is right, what we should be doing and what we shouldn’t. That’s what James and Roadshow Media have done, and continually do for us.”

Roadshow Media, part of Roadshow Promotions Ltd, empowers businesses to thrive and secure a competitive edge via web design, organic SEO, digital marketing and additional services. 

For more, visit roadshowmedia.co.uk