Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Many businesses across the country are closing their doors amid the COVID-19 outbreak. And now many workers are losing their jobs. However, in West Michigan, there are opportunities available for people to find both temporary and full-time work.

13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke to local and national businesses with offices in West Michigan that are looking to hire employees as inventory and cleaning services are needed.

13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke to Kevin Belk, Senior Vice President of DK Security based in Grand Rapids. He says there are a lot of positionsthat their company is looking to fill, no experience required.

"Weve had a lot of our existing clients ask for additional security officers and then weve had another of other people that have contacted us, business, the healthcare industry has asked for help on a temporary basis," Belk said.

"Applicants need to be 18 years old, have a high school diploma or GED and they need to clear a drug test and a background screen. Then we provide the training here at DK Security, all the training they need to become an efficient officer and we do that all in house in Grand Rapids," he said.

DK Security is looking to hire for both temporary and full-time positions.

Amazon tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE that they are looking to fill 3,300 available jobs in Michigan.

United Commercial Services, a Grand Rapids based cleaning company, tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE that they are still hiring.

The Grand Rapids-based grocery store says they are actively looking to hire as many as 30 to 40 people per store.

Shipt, the grocery shopping delivery service used by Meijer and Target, is looking to add 2,000 shoppers in the Grand Rapids area because of increase demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting Tuesday, March 24 Shipt will be recruiting shoppers. According to the company, shoppers must be at least 18 years old, have reliable transportation and a current drivers license.

For more information on Shipt and visit Shipt.com.

The Vice President of Sales for Enviro-clean Matt Koster told 13 ON YOUR SIDE the company has jobs available that have some advantages at a time like this that don't require being close to others.

"Much of our cleaning/disinfecting is done after hours. You do not come in contact with the general public. We have flexibility to work with people's desired shifts. Weekly pay is something else we just implemented which our employees enjoy. Jobs are located across the viewing area," Koster said.

Samaritas tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE:

Kevin Belk, the Senior Vice President of DK Securities said everyone has to do their part to get through this.

"...we need to be patient, we need to be kind to one another and certainly part of our job is to try to figure out how we can help. How we can get people to work so that the healthcare industry can operate more efficiently. And we just want to be a good part of that," he said.

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK Grand Rapids South is still hiring amidst the chaos. We will help supplement the income in any way that we can. Part-time, full-time, and seasonal. Hiring immediately! Applying is easy, just click the link: https://jobapply.page.link/WTEX Get paid for your hard work! This is a general labor position, applicants must be:

*Willing to submit a pre-employment background check and drug screen* At least 21 years of age to qualify to be a driver and have a valid driver's license

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK offers:

- Pay range of $13 - $18 per hour, including tips, bonuses, and raises- 100% Drug Free- Health insurance, paid time off, and 401k available- Full-time, part-time, seasonal work available- Work hard and get a raise twice per year- Opportunities to earn cash tips from customers.

SpartanNash is looking to hire 2000 employees companywide. Find more information on their website.

Hope Network, the healthcare and life services provider, is hiring entry level direct care and packaging staff in Grand Rapids. Direct care team members assist in the personal care and development of people affected by mental illness or developmental disabilities, and Hope Network Industries the organizations packaging division offers on-the-job training to all individuals, including refugees, ex-offenders, and those with employment barriers. Temporary, part-time, and full-time opportunities are available with no previous experience required. Find more informationon their website.

Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in-patient hospital is open and accepting patients seeking treatment for behavioral health and substance use issues. The position with the most openings is psychiatric technicians who work directly with our hospital patients and residents.

To see all job opening at Pine Rest go to the website.

Wedgwoods Residential Program is exempt from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay at home order and remains open. Wedgwood is hiring for direct care positions part-time and full-time roles, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shifts. To see all open positions and apply, visit http://www.wedgwood.org/join-our-team. All interviews will be conducted virtually.

Company offers year-round stable employment for individuals who have experience working in the great outdoors. We are currently looking for tree trimmers for our MI Commercial Construction, Residential, and our Tree & Shrub Care work crews to work in the West Michigan area as well as openings on our traveling work teams who support the utilities. We offer excellent pay, 100% company paid medical, disability, and life insurance and profit sharing bonuses. The best part about Integrity Tree Services is our culture- we offer work sites free of smoking, alcohol, drugs, profanity, and gossip.

To learn more about us and our openings, please visit IntegrityTree.Careers

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Here is a list of West Michigan businesses hiring amid COVID-19 outbreak - WZZM13.com

Consider Light and Sound

To make sure you can be easily heard, Mr. Mendelson advised using a room with carpeting and window treatments to absorb sound. (He was speaking by phone from his childrens bedroom, which he described as having an area rug, two upholstered headboards, Roman shades and stuffed monkeys.) His home office is all wood and glass and a beautiful place to work, he said, but too echo-y for conversations.

And to look your best, Ms. Rottet warned never to sit directly under a light source; it will throw under-eye and next-to-nose shadows. A lamp or window positioned two feet directly opposite to you that lights you evenly will be most flattering and will not cast glare on your screen. (People adept at videoconferences also swear by ring lights: circular fluorescent or LED lamps that reduce facial shadows and the appearance of imperfections.)

To avoid glare and unwanted reflection, Ms. Rottet said you should not let a light source, either from a light or window, be seen directly in the camera. Have the light source in front of you or beside you, but not in camera view, she said.

But how much fun is neutrality? Some homebound workers are finding in videoconferencing setups a chance to project an upbeat attitude or convey a hopeful message.

Ms. Minervini, for example, prefers her own surroundings to be vibrant. I love having video chats from my kitchen its new, modern and bright, even on a cloudy day, she said. For a background, she recently hung a mixed-media work by an artist friend, showing swirling waves, battleships, a rustic house and what looks like the profile of George Washington. She described the piece as energetic.

Mr. Hart said he chose to sit in front of a Whats Up? South! map while teaching remotely because it is attractive and makes a humanistic point: North and South are relative to each other, he said. Depending on your perspective the world may appear upside down, and yet there is no absolute up or down. He also wears school swag. The message to his dispersed students, he said, is that we are all still at Amherst regardless of where we are currently.

Excerpt from:
How to Look Your Best on a Webcam - The New York Times

Trace features many color options with an IP67 water resistant rating, making it suitable for any indoor or outdoor applications

With more than 50 years of innovation and linear lighting leadership, Tivoli Lighting introduces Trace, a flexible surface mounted device (SMD) LED strip with zero voltage drop offering precise color uniformity for interior and exterior horizontal and vertical lighting applications.

Ideal for outlining structures and other applications where glass neon is typically used, Trace Horizontal and Vertical units provide a high CRI greater than 80 and are available in high, standard and low output lumen intensities in 2400K, 2700K, 3000K, 4000K, 5000K, green, blue, red and amber.

The high output Trace Horizontal and Vertical units deliver 261 and 144 lumens, while consuming only 4.5 watts per foot. The flexible light strip has a 115.8 horizontal and 124.4 vertical beam angle and operates on a low voltage 24-volt DC power, while dimming is controlled by TRIAC, ELV, MLV, DMX and 0 - 10 volts.

For long lasting performance, Trace has an impact-, solvent- and saltwater-resistant, UV stabilized silicone body that will not yellow or crack. The flexible LED can cut to 2-inch increments with a 2-inch bending diameter enabling precise field installation for customized lighting applications. Tivoli Lighting also offers a variety of locking mounting channels to cleanly and discretely install Trace into a variety of applications for indirect, direct view, and surface-mount.

Trace is UL certified and IP67-rated for water resistance. The flexible LED will perform in temperatures of -13 to 140F and comes with a three-year limited warranty. For more information about Trace, visit http://www.tivolilighting.com/trace-horizontal.html and http://www.tivolilighting.com/trace-vertical.html or call Tivoli Lighting at 714-957-6101.

About TivoliWith more than 50 years of innovation and experience, Tivoli continues to lead the linear lighting industry with its award-winning architectural and theater LED-based products that offer improved appearance, quality, performance and energy saving advantages. Tivolis team continues to strive to incorporate innovation, color quality, and longevity of life into every product it manufactures and engineers for high quality performance and extended service life.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200325005506/en/

Contacts

Brian BloomFallsbbloom@wearefalls.com 216-696-0229

Originally posted here:
Tivoli Lighting Introduces Trace Flexible SMD LED Strip for Customized Horizontal and Vertical Color LED Lighting Applications - Yahoo Finance

In the age of coronavirus, many of us have transformed overnight from office workers into telecommuters. And we are increasingly relying on videoconferencing apps like Zoom and FaceTime to correspond with our peers.

But inevitably, with our homes and workplaces merging into one, the boundaries between our personal and professional lives are beginning to erode and awkward situations have ensued.

By now, you may have had a few video calls with colleagues who took meetings in odd places, like their bathroom or closet, to avoid their children. Then there are the colleagues who surrender their boundaries entirely and let their children and pets be a part of the meeting.

Its cute and heartwarming. But it can also prolong a meeting or derail it altogether.

Theres the technical issues and the discomfort of it all people arent used to being onscreen, said Elaine Quinn, a Chicago entrepreneur who wrote the book Theres No Place Like Working From Home. They dont think to look behind them and see what it is people will see.

We all get it: No one was really prepared for this transition, and there are limitations to what we can all do. But now feels like an opportunity to bring up how to be kinder to your co-workers in workplace video calls, since theyre the ones the calls are really for in the end.

The bottom line: A bit of preparation goes a long way to making video calls more tolerable for you and your colleagues.

The No. 1 culprit of a painful videoconference is the quality of the call itself. If you cant see or hear a colleague, whats the point of a video call?

So before we video-chat with a colleague, the least we can do is a test run to ensure the call looks and sounds good, with minimal tech snafus. A few steps:

Preview your webcam. Mac users can launch the Photo Booth app, and Windows users can click the Start button, then Camera. Here, you can check your picture. Adjust your indoor lighting and camera angle to make your face look properly lit. And most important, be mindful of whats in the background: Anything you wouldnt want your colleagues to normally see, like your liquor collection or dirty laundry, should be out of the frame.

Test the microphone. Make sure you wear a headset with a built-in microphone or use an external microphone the microphone included on laptops can sound very poor. The easiest way to make sure you sound good is to do a video call with a friend and ask how you sound, then adjust accordingly.

Check your internet speeds. Because so many people are staying home and using the internet at the same time, our bandwidth and service are slowing down in many neighborhoods. Visit speedtest.net to gauge your internet speeds. If your speeds are below 20 megabits per second, theres a high likelihood your video is going to look pixelated and have audio delays. (My last column on the tech headaches of working from home goes over some solutions for slow internet.)

This may seem obvious, but plenty of people forget to mute their microphones before joining a call with multiple people.

That can lead to sounds like barking dogs and screaming children interfering in the call. On video-chatting services like Zoom and Google Hangouts, you have the option to turn off the microphone before joining a meeting, and everyone but the person leading the meeting should do it. Unmute only when it is your turn to speak.

With constrained internet bandwidth, you could even take the extra step and turn off your camera by default until you want to speak to the group. Theres no practical value in people watching you silently look at your camera.

Our families are more important than anyone, but that doesnt mean our colleagues want to see our partners in their bathrobes, our cats sitting on keyboards or our children throwing toys.

Thats why its important to take a video call in a place where you can draw boundaries, if possible. The simplest physical boundary is a room with a door, which can be shut when you are on a video call.

Many of us who are now being required to work from home never had much physical space to begin with. But there are workarounds.

I lack a home office and work on my dining table. On video calls, I have made it a habit to point my web camera at a blank wall, away from common areas like the kitchen and hallway, and my earbuds are a visual cue for being on a video call.

The onus is on managers to make virtual meetings concise and engaging. That was already true for in-person meetings, but for virtual meetings, setting an agenda is even more crucial, said Ms. Quinn, who managed remote employees at pharmaceutical companies before starting the Solopreneur Specialist, a website for remote workers.

Youre in private, and its easy to drift off, she said.

Managers can take a number of approaches to make videoconferences more organized. For one, they can ask each employee ahead of the meeting to plan to talk about something specific, so that everyone has something to do and can stay engaged.

Conversely, if you have something better to do than be on a video call, its more polite to excuse yourself than it is to remain on the call and obviously stop paying attention.

If you do drift off and switch to a different app, like Twitter or Facebook, be aware that people may know. The Zoom app, for example, has a setting that lets hosts see if you have switched away from the Zoom app for more than 30 seconds a dead giveaway that you arent paying attention.

In offices, businesses may feel tempted to rope people into conference rooms for back-to-back meetings. But with remote work, we dont need to replicate all those meetings into videoconferences, said Jason Fried, a founder of Basecamp, a software company in Chicago that makes remote-working tools.

Thats not what remote work is about, said Mr. Fried, who co-wrote the book Remote: Office Not Required. Its about respecting peoples time and attention and space and giving people room.

Thats partly because asking your colleagues to join a video call involves more than you might think. Not only do they have to test their tech setups before joining the call, but they have to make other arrangements, like getting a caretaker to take their children on a walk outside.

A good rule of thumb is to book video meetings sparingly. Ideally, reserve them for discussions that require visual aids, like presentations and documents.

There is no universal rule requiring you to use video chat to work from home. The old-fashioned telephone is just as good.

Last year when Mr. Frieds team used videoconferencing to vet candidates for a marketing position for Basecamp, which is composed of remote workers, their final interviewee joined the call with his camera off. The candidate explained that he had his best conversations when he was walking around instead of sitting stiffly in front of a camera.

He was like, I want to be looking my best right now, and Im better moving around, Mr. Fried said. I really appreciated that, because he was just being himself.

The company ended up hiring him.

More here:
The Dos and Donts of Online Video Meetings - The New York Times

High demand for cost-effective and energy-saving LED lighting, increased need for replacement of old, traditional lighting, and government campaign toward LED adoption are the major drivers of the global industrial and commercial LED lighting Market. However, voltage sensitivity & temperature dependence of LED lighting hampers market growth. On the contrary, increase in adoption of smart lighting is expected to create lucrative opportunities in the near future.

The global industrial and commercial LED lighting marketwas pegged at $9.06 billion in 2017 and is projected to garner$39.39 billionby 2025, registering aCAGR of 19.9%during the period 20182025.

Based on application, the market is divided into indoor lighting and outdoor lighting. In 2017, the segment accounted for the largest share, contributing about three-fourths of the total market, owing to benefits such as less power consumption and enhanced light versatility.

However, the outdoor lighting segment is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 21.4% during the study period, owing to rise in need for longer service life of light panel/bulbs along with brighter light in outdoor applications.

Report: http://www.alliedmarketresearch.co/462

On the basis of end user, the market is bifurcated into industrial and commercial. The industrial segment held the largest share in 2017, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total market.

However, the industrial segment is estimated to portray the fastest CAGR of 20.7% during the forecast period.

Based on geography, the market is divided into North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and LAMEA.

The market in the Asia-Pacific region held the largest share in 2017, contributing more than one-third of the total market, owing to increased adoption of smart devices in the region. However, the LAMEA region is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 21.5% during the forecast period, owing to high adoption rate of advanced systems and solutions in various industry verticals.

Report:www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/462

The report includes an analysis on the major market players in the region such as Cree Inc., Eaton Corporation, Dialight PLC, Deco Enterprises, Inc., General Electric Company, Osram Licht AG, Toshiba Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Syska, and Zumtobel Group AG.

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Global Industrial and Commercial LED Lighting Market to grow $39.39 billion by 2025 according to a new research report - WhaTech

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Outlook on the LED Indoor Lighting Market to 2025 by Application, End-user an - News by aeresearch

As reported on ERR News, on Wednesday evening, the sea-facing side of the former Patarei Prison, one of the symbols of the crimes of totalitarian regimes, will be lit up red to commemorate victims of Communism.

Members of the Memento Association will place flowers and light candles at memorials on Wednesday, where possible. Church bells will toll at noon and at 3 p.m., inviting people to remember the thousands of people who were deported to Siberia and never returned.

An evening memorial concert "Mda linnuteed " which was to be held in the Jaani Kirik in Tallinn has been postponed as well.

Riigikogu speaker: We must not forget, even in current crisis

Riigikogu speaker Henn Plluaas (EKRE) addressed the public on Wednesday morning, recalling that exactly 71 years ago, on a beautiful Friday winter morning, the Kremlin's operation "Priboi" ("coastal surf") commenced.

"The occupation regime had decided to methodically destroy the smaller nations. Four deportation waves left from Estonia, the most severe of which were in March 1949. Twenty-three thousand Estonians were removed from their homes," Plluaas said, according to ERR's online news in Estonian.

"They were crammed into cattle carts and began their journey eastward toward Siberia. The youngest deportee was only a three-day newborn and the oldest, - a 95-year-old grandmother There were 900,000 Estonians suffering from the grief left behind. Less than a million."

Plluaas noted that on March 25, 1949 and during the following days, Estonians and the people of Estonia stood alone in their sadness, as did Latvians and Lithuanians deported at the same time.

"The pain of our souls has plagued us all, young and old, on board and behind the train. Great uncertainty awaited us," Plluaas went on.

For many, this actually meant starvation and death.For some, however, fate was also for their return.For those who were at home, waiting and fear under the omnipresent communist regime were the lot.

"March 25 is a day every year to commemorate our history and what happened to the Estonian people. We sympathize with everyone who had to feel the pain during those tragic days and years of suffering. There were many of these around us, who had no one to blame."

Plluaas also stressed a personal duty to talk about what happened, even when facing completely different crises, as we do today.We must not and cannot forget the crimes of the past, he said.

"I invite everyone to light a candle on their home window and bow their heads. We will remember and will not let history repeat itself!"

Rescue Board safety recommendations

The Rescue Board (Psteamet) reminds those planning to mark the occasion that a candle lit on a window sill must be placed on a heat-resistant base and away from flammable materials.The candle should not be left unattended. Only candles marked as suitable for indoor burning should be used.

From March 25-28 1949, more than 22,000 people in Estonia alone, and altogether nearly 95,000 people across the Baltics, from infants to the elderly, were forced from their homes and deported to Siberia under the Soviet Operation Priboi ("Coastal Surf"). Several thousand of these deportees never made it back home

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March 1949 deportations' 71st anniversary to be marked by home candles - ERR News

New Delhi-based 42MM Architecture recently completed a stunning residence at one of Gurgaons most coveted addresses, DLF Magnolias. The team, lead by firm partner Rudraksh Charan, created the duplex by combining two apartments on consecutive floors, each spanning 3500-square-feet. By virtue of it being a duplex, having a cut-out in the centre and having a double-height terrace, the three-dimensional interactivity of the spaces is brilliant, says Charan. In terms of scale, you dont have too many rooms that are too tiny, and you dont have very large spaces either.

42MM treated the house in three layersthe primary structural layer is neutral, with muted tones and minimal accents. Over that is the layer of greenin the form of expansive views of the DLF golf course, as well as a variety of indoor house plants and hanging terrace planters. Finally, there is a layer of artworksculptural lighting, woven carpets, dcor pieces and wall art, that perfectly compliment the modernist and contemporary Italian furniture. We did not want to give it a very strong flavour of interior design, Charan explains, It did not require interior design, it required the architecture and the vision to be respected.

The most striking feature of the entrance lobby is a stunning 7 metre light sculpture by Artemide, comprising 7 circular pendants, suspended over a shell sculpture by Sogani. It reminded me of a Venn diagram, says Charan. It is a kinetic chandelier; it keeps on moving when you light it up, it has these speckles of light. Charan specifically didnt want a completely opaque chandelier, because he wanted the lobby to remain visually unobstructed. As the nucleus of the apartment, the lobby acts as a pivot around which the other rooms are arranged. The first floor has the public areasthe living room, drawing room, kids activity room, dining and kitchen. The upper level opens onto a family lounge, which leads into four bedrooms. Right at the front of the lobby is the double-height terrace, which is enclosed by the U-shaped building.

Charan describes the living room as a post-modernist hangover. A chaise from B&B Italia presides over the room, in front of which stands a sleek, rounded coffee table from Poliform. The client likes the retro look, Charan explains. And he wanted the living room to feel familiar. A sculptural chandelier by Roll and Hill compliments a minimalist clock wall piece. Red wood panelling on the wall and ceiling compliments a lighter wood floor and stone tiled wall. The use of wood is sparing, and never incidental. Im not using it to over-glamorise the space, explains Charan. It is being used in its completeness, to add a layer of warmth.

While the living room was more in keeping with the clients personal aesthetic, the drawing room is a slightly more formal affair. A neutral-toned carpet sets the colour palette which is furnished with white, grey and brown-toned sofas from Minotti and marble-accented coffee tables. The pop of colour is offered by two orange lounge chairs from B&B Italia. The drawing rooms most eye-catching element is a lighting artwork by Artemide called Chlorophyllia, which, when lit, creates a lustrous shadow pattern on the ceiling.

Dark marble floor tiles identify the study as a formal space, as per Charans nuanced flooring code the for the apartment. The formal area is black, the semi-formal area is white, and all private areas are wooden, he explains. In the formal area, we wanted to create a contrast; we wanted to define it as not just an extension of the semi-formal area. A Giorgetti study desk takes one side of the room; while a more casual seating arrangement comprising a B&B Italia sofa and a Frigerio Salotti coffee table, underscored by an earth-toned rug, is on the other. A wooden ceiling completes the tableau, adding a touch of distant warmth to the space.

A Giorgetti dining table and Cattelan Italia dining chairs sit under an eight-piece pendant lighting arrangement by Bocci. A potted plant balances out the white marble floors and modernist geometric wall panelling. The dining room hovers between semi-formal and intimatewith soothing tones and contours that still allow for movement, space and elegance.

The kids play room is a stark contrast from the rest of the apartment, in that it has a pop of colour and a cacophonous geometry. The couple are very hands on parents, says Charan. They wanted an area that the kids could appropriate for themselves. The 42mm team interacted with the childrenaged 4 and 2 , to see what they liked and disliked. Based on that, they developed a muted, purple and yellow colour palette, with strong geometric shapes and acentric angling. It has some nooks and corners for the kids to get under, get over, which I think was the idea, explains Charan. They dont want to live in very structured environments.

The bedrooms are on the upper floor of the duplex, leading off from the central, pivotal lobby. Wood floors warm the space while stone tiled walls and subtle wood panelling offset the earthy tones. The master bedroom has an especially interesting headboard, crafted of geometric ceramic panels in shades of grey and bronze lines, and a lighting artwork by akritepo. Keeping the wall behind the bed dark was a great idea, because it tends to not reflect on the TV, says Charan. The light from arkitepo is a bounce light, so when youre sitting on the bed, it does not kill your TV viewing experience, at the same time it gives you enough light to be able to read a book.

The master bathroom was well-placed to receive natural light, so the firm added a three-foot wide space of greenery between the shower cubicle and the window. Eventually, the greenery started becoming so thick, the blinds dont need to be drawn every time the bathroom is being used, explains Charan. The small master bathroom doesnt have access to natural light, and so Charan placed a printed picture window to bring in the illusion of natural light.

The double-storey terrace offers expansive views of the DLF Magnolias golf course, which the team was careful to maintain as the hero of the visual plane. We couldnt keep plants on the deck, in front of the railing Charan explains, because then youll see the plants but not the golf course so we decided to hang the plants. The custom-made cold-rolled iron planters are suspended over the terrace, where the plants will grow out to envelop the ceiling. The terrace has a wooden floor, which connects the terrace to the outdoors, while also being a safe material for children to play on. The terrace is also furnished with a Kumo sofa and Mood coffee tables from Manuttiplush indoor pieces that allow the terrace to feel like a comfortable extension of the living space, rather than a segregated section.

Kerala: These are some of the most serene, tranquil bedrooms featured in AD India

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This Gurgaon duplex is a haven of soothing greenery and Italian modernism - Architectural Digest India

Tim Brodbeck sees himself as a key player on the team at 80 Acres Farms.

"Every day, Im kind of the quarterback for this facility," he said. "So Im directing everybody. Im training some people. Its a new facility so everyones pretty much new hires."

And if Brodbeck is the quarterback, the football is a robot.

Brodbeck is a farm supervisor and one of about 120 workers at the growing Southwest Ohio company. 80 Acres Farms opened a 10,000-square-foot building just outside Hamilton about a year ago. The indoor farm is an expansion from its Spring Grove location in Cincinnati. There are now two buildings in Butler County, a third one being built and additional pilot facilities in Alabama, North Carolina and Arkansas.

The goal is to take farming well into the 21st century using robotics.

Our thought was if we can automate that really difficult backbreaking labor that drives all of that process variability, we could get a lot closer to reaching the right price points, said Mike Zelkind, CEO and co-founder of 80 Acres Farms.

That's why a focal point of the new building is the robot programmed to glide along a track system and lift large, heavy trays of growing produce into position amid 10 recycled shipping containers stacked nearly from floor to ceiling. Zelkind said the process is almost fully automated thanks to the robot, which they've named Sam.

'Sam' for Samantha, who was one of our first employees. She was our first grower, said Zelkind. Human Sam still works there.

The building, which from the exterior looks like a small warehouse, is equivalent to a small commercial farm, said Zelkind.

Inside, the focus is on growing leafy green vegetables, including eight types of lettuce, and several herbs. The growing happens inside the shipping containers under prescribed conditions of temperature, lighting, water, airflow and nutrients that change as the plants grow.

Paul Weeden

Each step was developed in off-site locations, then combined under one roof, according to Zelkind. The process also has the benefit of limiting human interaction during the growth cycle, which he said is needed currently with the coronavirus pandemic.

It grows in a very safe, clean place. Robots move around and do all the difficult work, and people that are actually helping package this food are more like machine operators, he said.

The growth also happens quickly, according to Zelkind in about 24 days. That's much shorter than traditional farming methods.

So in a greenhouse, it might take you 50 to 60 days. Outdoors, it depends on where you are, what the climate is, what the conditions, what time of year. It could take you 70 to 110 days for some of these crops, said Zelkind.

The next step in the growth of 80 Acres Farms is the opening of an additional 70,000-square-foot growing facility adjacent to the smaller facility near Hamilton. It will have more space for more plants and more robots when it opens this summer.

Were about 75-80% automated right now, from all the key unit operations in farming. And, across the street were going to be well over 90% automated," Zelkind said.

80 Acres Farms already distributes its produce to local restaurants and stores like Jungle Jim's and the downtown Cincinnati Kroger store. It has also gotten a lot of attention for its live growing display outside the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Its a way to reconnect people back to their food. And, if we can grow tomatoes on 5th Avenue in New York, right in front of Guggenheim, we can grow them anywhere in the world, he said.

Meanwhile, it's all exciting for workers like Brodbeck.

Here we can try new things, we can go about new ways," Broadbeck said. "It's encouraged."

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Innovative indoor farm in Butler County lets robot do the work - WCPO Cincinnati

Some studies have shown air humidity at 4060% Relative Humidity (RH) is the optimum level for human health. Therefore, maintaining the indoor humidity at this level could provide an effective mechanism for controlling COVID-19. Research is underway for hospitals and schools.

Meanwhile, Brightgreen lighting company is working towards engineering UV-C lights in its fight back against COVID-19.

UV-C is well established in medical practice as a way to eradicate viruses. The challenge is to keep it safe and economical, said Brightgreens Head of Engineering, Nathan Moffat.

According to the company, the UV-C rays can be harmful to humans so the Brightgreen system uses presence monitors and disinfection will not begin until the room is empty.

Brightgreen is in the final stages of engineering the lights that will have dual light spectrums. This will enable the lights to be switched between standard visual lighting and germicidal rays. The system will be fully automated to run overnight for a full disinfection with shorter daytime options when the space is empty.

The company designed the lights to be easy to install for a fast, scalable solution. The lights will be manufactured in Melbourne.

Brightgreen CEO David ODriscoll said, We will make the designs for this system open source, so other manufacturers can tool up to increase the speed to market with this high-impact system.

As theres no clear indication of how long this pandemic will last, workarounds may provide some solutions in the meantime, but safety must be the number one priority first.

Image credit: stock.adobe.com/au/AVAKAphoto

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