A luminous stretch ceiling is a translucent membrane stretched over a full LED field, so the ceiling plane itself is the light source. Fabricated and installed by our own shop in Dania Beach for projects across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
A luminous stretch ceiling, also called a backlit ceiling, is a translucent stretch membrane held in an aluminum perimeter profile with a continuous LED field mounted in the cavity above it. The membrane scatters the light, so at the cavity depth and row pitch detailed below, individual diodes do not read through from below. Our translucent membrane measures 42.0% light transmission, diffused, tested at Poznan University of Technology by the method in CIE 130-1998. That scattering is the whole point. It is what turns a grid of individual LEDs into one flat glowing plane with nothing to look at. No lens, no trim ring, no grid, no hardware in the ceiling.
A recessed fixture lights a room from a handful of points. You get bright spots under the cans, shadows under the cabinets, and a ceiling covered in holes. A luminous ceiling puts the source across the entire plane, so the light arrives from everywhere at once and shadows almost disappear. That is why it is the first thing we recommend for rooms with no windows: interior conference rooms, basement levels, treatment rooms, corridors in the middle of a floor plate. Because we fabricate here rather than buying panels, the lit plane can be any outline, it can turn and run down a wall, and it can carry a printed graphic that is lit from behind. One drawing set, one crew, Florida lead times.
One continuous source instead of forty point sources. Light arrives from every direction at once, so hard shadows drop out, task surfaces stay even, and the ceiling reads as a single clean plane. Nothing to align, nothing to trim out, no downlight pattern to coordinate with the furniture layout.
Our transparent film measures 70.5% and passes more light, but it does not diffuse, so you see every diode as a dot. The translucent film measures 42.0% diffused, and that diffusion is the reason it hides the array. The report covers total transmission only. We hold no angular distribution data. We specify LED output up to compensate. That is normal luminous ceiling design, not a workaround.
Our CNC bends the aluminum profile in Dania Beach, so the lit field is not limited to a tile module or a rectangle. Circles, ovals, freeform curves, a shape that runs off the ceiling and down a wall, a printed translucent graphic backlit from behind. Same drawing set, same crew, no factory minimum on a custom size.
The rooms we build this system for most often in South Florida.
Interior conference rooms and offices with no window, where the plane replaces the whole downlight layer.
Treatment rooms where the patient spends the appointment looking straight up at the ceiling.
Lobbies and wellness suites where the lit plane is the architecture and there is nowhere to hide a fixture.
Kitchens, primary baths, home theaters and wine rooms, usually with tunable white on a schedule.
The assembly is built from the structure down. Nothing here is a kit. Every field is drawn, cut and fitted for the room it goes in.
We field measure the actual opening, not the plan. The shop drawing sets the lit field outline, the cavity depth, the LED row layout, the feed points, the driver location, and every penetration that has to come through the plane: sprinkler heads, smoke detectors, speakers, diffusers, camera domes. This drawing goes to the design team before anything is cut.
We frame or block out the cavity so the diode plane sits at the depth the drawing calls for. Existing structure, hangers, duct and conduit either come out of the lit field or get offset. At 42.0% transmission anything sitting in the cavity will read through as a shadow, so the cavity has to be clean before we go further.
The entire interior of the cavity gets a matte white finish, walls and deck. A dark cavity absorbs the bounce that fills in between the LED rows, and that bounce is a large part of what makes the plane look even.
Strips are mounted on aluminum carrier, never stuck to bare drywall in a closed cavity. Aluminum is the heat sink. Rows are set parallel at the pitch the drawing calls for, and the whole field is ordered from one production batch, which is how we keep a color step from showing across the ceiling.
24V constant voltage throughout. Runs are broken into feed segments and home run back to the driver location. Every zone stays on one driver where the layout allows, so the zones track together at the bottom of the dim curve. All conductors are dressed to the cavity edge and out of the lit field.
Drivers and any control gear land in an accessible location we agree on at drawing stage: a closet, above a cabinet, behind a hatch. Never buried above a fixed ceiling with no way in. Control is 0-10V, DALI-2 or DMX, and Casambi type wireless where the project specifies it.
The aluminum perimeter is set to a laser line, extruded 6063, white powder-coat or mill. Straight fields use the standard perimeter track. If the design calls for a self-contained luminous form rather than a framed field, we use AP-212 or AP-213 LuxForm, which carries its own cavity in the profile: AP-213 comes in 8 in and 4.5 in heights, 13 ft 1-1/2 in (4000 mm) stock, and bends into U, C and O shapes that combine into large architectural forms. Floating panels use AP-216. If a cove halo or a light line crosses or borders the luminous field, AP-301, AP-302 and AP-302-W handle the cove and AP-305, AP-306 and AP-307 handle linear light Mini, Midi and Maxi. Most profiles ship 6.5 ft stock; AP-213 is the 4000 mm exception.
We run the field at full and at low dim with the cavity still open, look at it from the actual viewing positions in the room, and fix pitch, spacing at the edges and any color step while it is still reachable. This step is where a bad ceiling gets caught.
The translucent panel is cut and welded in the shop to the exact field outline from the drawing, with the harpoon edge welded on. Under backlight a welded seam reads as a faint line, so panel layout is decided here, not on site. Printed membranes are printed at this stage and can be printed and translucent at the same time, which is how a backlit graphic is done.
The panel is warmed, stretched and harpooned into the perimeter profile, corner to corner, then worked flat. Penetrations are cut and reinforced with rings on site against the field marks.
Zones balanced, dim curve checked at the low end, tunable white scenes set if specified, driver location labeled, spare membrane and spare strip from the same batch left with the owner.
Every number below is our own field practice from our own installs. None of it is laboratory data.
These are the rules of thumb our shop builds to. Every number in this section, including cavity depths, LED pitch, run lengths, wire gauge, clearances and field sizes, is our own field practice. None of it is laboratory data, code-derived, or a substitute for engineering. Wiring, driver placement and any life-safety detail get confirmed by the project engineer of record against NEC and local code. Where a project needs a light level, we work from the LED manufacturer’s published data for the specified product, and on a large commercial project a mockup can be built for the lighting designer to meter.
The one ratio that decides whether the ceiling looks flat: shop standard is cavity depth at least 1.5 times the row pitch, measured from the diode plane to the back of the membrane. Our nominal build is LED rows at 4 in on center with an 8 in cavity. That is the combination our crews have had the best results with on our own installs. It is field experience, not measured data. The minimum we will build without adding a second diffusion layer is 6 in of cavity at 4 in pitch. If the structure will only give 4 to 5 in, we tighten the rows to 3 in on center and add an opal lens channel over each row as a first diffusion stage. Below 4 in of cavity, expect striping and we will say so plainly before you commit. On a large commercial project we prove the build with a mockup first. AP-213 is published at 8 in and 4.5 in profile heights and carries its own cavity, which is why it is the easy answer for a freeform luminous shape. Usable cavity depth is less than the profile height, so we confirm it against the AP-213 drawing on every project. AP-213 at 4.5 in needs the tighter pitch plus lens channels.
The last LED row goes within 2 in of the inside face of the perimeter profile. If it does not, you get a visible dark band at the edge, and it is the first thing anyone notices. How wide it reads depends on cavity depth and pitch, so we set the last row position on the shop drawing instead of quoting a number. On a field with a hard architectural edge we run a compensating row tight to the profile.
In corridors, low ceilings under about 8 ft 6 in, and anywhere the plane is seen at a low angle, tighten pitch one step to 3 in on center or add depth. Striping that is invisible from directly below can show up when you are looking down the length of the ceiling.
Shop standard for a single uninterrupted membrane field is about 20 ft in the short direction and roughly 500 sq ft before we introduce an intermediate separating profile. Beyond that we break the plane deliberately, usually with a linear light line (AP-305, AP-306 or AP-307) or a shadow reveal, so the break reads as design intent instead of a defect. Translucent PVC comes on rolls, so a welded seam is unavoidable on wide fields and it reads as a faint line under backlight. Keep a single lit field inside one roll width where the geometry allows, or place the weld on a line the design already has. CLIPSO fabric runs seamless to 16 ft 8 in (5.1 m) if a wider single piece matters more than the PVC finish.
This is the constraint that gets missed most often. Drivers must sit somewhere a technician can reach without dropping the ceiling: an electrical closet, above a cabinet, or behind an access hatch of 18 x 18 in or larger, ventilated and not packed in insulation. Shop standard is a driver within 25 ft of the field it serves. The membrane itself is demountable, and an installer can release a corner, drop it and reinstall it, but that is a service call and it should never be the route to a failed driver.
24V constant voltage. Shop standard is a maximum of 16 ft of strip per feed point. Longer runs get fed from both ends or center fed. The home run from driver to first feed stays under 25 ft in 16 AWG or we go up a gauge. Keep one zone on one driver: two zones split across unequally loaded channels will not track each other at the bottom of the dim curve, and the mismatch shows on a large plane long before it would on a downlight.
In order of how often we see it: cavity too shallow for the pitch; transparent film specified instead of translucent, which shows every diode; a dark or unpainted cavity interior; something left in the cavity such as a sprinkler drop, a conduit, a hanger or a duct, which throws a visible shadow unless it is offset by at least twice the cavity depth from the membrane; LED tape from mixed production batches, which shows as color banding across a wide field; mixed CCT between runs; and dimming below about 10% on drivers from different families in the same visual field.
Every sprinkler head, detector, speaker and diffuser through a lit plane is visible and permanent. Coordinate the reflected ceiling plan early. We would rather move a head 6 in on paper than cut it in the wrong place on a finished membrane.
Strips go on aluminum carrier only. Shop standard minimum clearance from any diode to the back of the membrane is 2 in, even in the shallowest builds. In Florida, cavities that share air with an attic or an uninsulated roof deck get checked for summer temperature before we set output.
Fixed CCT is available at 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K and 6500K. Tunable white runs 2700K to 6500K, and RGBW is available. For a windowless room, tunable white lets the ceiling run cooler during the day and warmer in the evening if the client wants that. It is a preference setting on the control system. We make no health, wellness or circadian claim for it. Specify 0-10V for a simple single zone, DALI-2 where you need addressable zones and tunable white, and DMX where color and effects are in play.
We do not hold calculated light level data. Standard projects are designed from the LED manufacturer’s published data for the specified product. On a large commercial project we build a physical mockup at the actual cavity depth and pitch before anyone commits, so a lighting designer can meter the actual assembly on site.
The luminous plane replaces both the downlight layer and the missing window.
Where the patient spends the appointment looking straight up at the ceiling. Subject to the finish, fire and cleanability requirements the healthcare authority having jurisdiction sets for the space. We hold no healthcare specific test data, so those requirements get confirmed before design.
Wellness suites and dining rooms where the lit plane is the architecture and there is nowhere to hide a fixture.
Plus backlit feature walls and printed translucent graphics lit from behind.
South Florida towers where there is no daylight to work with.
Usually with tunable white on a schedule so the room runs cooler by day and warmer at night.
No. We hold one measured optical figure: 42.0% light transmission, diffused, on the translucent membrane, tested at Poznan University of Technology by the method in CIE 130-1998. It is a test report, not a certificate.
We hold no laboratory measurement of the assembled lit field and no photometric data files for it, and we will not hand a lighting designer numbers we did not test. If the project needs calculated or verified light levels, we supply the LED manufacturer’s published data for the specified product. On a large commercial project we build a mockup at the specified cavity depth and LED pitch so it can be metered on site with the actual product.
Not on the data we hold. The membrane was tested to ASTM E84 per finish on white specimens: high gloss FSI 5 / SDI 300, matte FSI 10 / SDI 300, satin FSI 15 / SDI 250. The laboratory assigned no classification, the specimens were not mounted as an installed ceiling assembly, and the test was on the membrane alone rather than a ceiling and cavity assembly.
Those smoke developed figures are far above what a return air plenum allows, so the project needs either plenum qualified material or a ducted return. We would rather tell you now than at inspection.
Because you would see every diode. Our transparent film measures 70.5% transmission but with a strong directional component, so the LEDs stay visible as individual points. The translucent film measures 42.0% diffused, and in the same report its diffused and directional figures sit far closer together than the transparent film’s, which is what turns the array into one flat glowing plane. We specify the LED output up to compensate. That is standard practice for a luminous ceiling, not a compromise.
The whole ceiling is the access panel. An installer releases a corner of the membrane, drops the panel, works in the open cavity and reinstalls the same panel. That is not an owner task though, so we never put drivers or control gear above the membrane. They go in a closet, above a cabinet or behind a hatch, ventilated, within about 25 ft of the field. We agree that location on the shop drawing before anything gets built.
No, but it has to be coordinated early. Every penetration through a lit plane is visible and permanent, and anything sitting inside the cavity throws a shadow at 42.0% transmission unless it is offset by roughly twice the cavity depth. We mark every head, detector, speaker and diffuser on the shop drawing, and we would much rather move a sprinkler 6 in on paper than cut a hole in the wrong place on a finished membrane. Penetrations are cut and reinforced with rings on site.
No. We do not hold a state or county product approval listing for the membrane or the track, and we say so up front rather than let it surface during submittal review. It is an interior non-structural finish, and we work with the design team and the authority having jurisdiction on the right documentation route for the project.
What we can put on file today is the ASTM E84 report set with all of its qualifications stated, including that the laboratory assigned no classification, the CIE 130-1998 transmission report, our CSI Section 09 54 00 stretch ceiling specification, and DWG and PDF drawings for every profile.
Ask and it goes out, usually within one business day.
What we do not publish, and will not until it exists: a laboratory measurement of the finished lit field, long term output data for the LED, a fire test on the translucent film specifically or on a mounted ceiling assembly, laboratory sound absorption data, and a state or county product approval listing. Those slots stay empty on purpose. If any of them is a project requirement, tell us early and we will say plainly whether we can get it or whether the project needs a different material.
A panel manufacturer sells tiles, panels and modules built in a factory to fixed sizes, so the ceiling has to be designed around their module. We bend the profile on our own CNC in Dania Beach, which means the lit plane can be any outline, it can turn and run down a wall, and it can carry a printed backlit graphic. It arrives as one drawing set with one crew. On a large commercial project we build a physical mockup you can stand under before anyone signs.
Our profile cross-sections, dimensions and the full color chart live in the technical library. CAD files are sent on request, usually within one business day.
View system
Send the room size and what happens in it. We come back with a build approach, a budget and a lead time the same day. For a large commercial project, ask about a mockup if the light level has to be proven.
Share a few details and our team will follow up within one business day.
