Lighting control

1. A method of controlling one or more luminaires arranged to illuminate an area covered by at least one presence sensor, the method comprising:

receiving from a user a selection of a lighting scene to be rendered;

determining an activity in the area based on the selected lighting scene;

controlling at least one of the luminaires to render the selected lighting scene;

determining a timeout duration for the luminaires based on the determined activity;

using the at least one presence sensor to monitor the area for presence indicators when rendering the selected lighting scene; and

automatically switching the luminaires to a low-power mode if no presence indicator is detected in the area for the determined timeout duration when rendering the selected lighting scene.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said presence indicators comprise one or more of: movement within the area; heat sources within the area; and sound sources within the area.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the luminaires are switched to the low-power mode by switching them to a non-emitting state.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the luminaires are switched to the low-power by reducing a luminous intensity of the luminaires.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the activity is also determined based on at least one brightness, hue, or saturation of the selected lighting scene.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selected lighting scene is performed based on a name or type of the selected lighting scene.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the activity in the area is further determined based on an area type of said area.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the activity in the area is further determined based a time of day.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the activity in the area is further based on data indicating an application being used in the area.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining said timeout duration comprises determining a timeout multiplier based on the selected lighting scene and applying the timeout multiplier to a default timeout duration.

11. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the area type of said area is manually entered by the user.

12. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the area type of said area is automatically detected.

13. A controller for controlling one or more luminaires arranged to illuminate an area covered by at least one presence sensor, the controller comprising:

a scene selection module arranged to receive from a user a selection of a lighting scene to be rendered;

a lighting control module arranged to control at least one of the luminaires to render the selected lighting scene;

a timeout determination module arranged to determine an activity in the area based on the selected lighting scene and further to determine a timeout duration for the luminaires based on the determined activity;

a monitoring module arranged to receive presence indications from the at least one presence sensor;

wherein the lighting control module is arranged to switch the luminaires to a low-power mode if no presence indications are received for the determined timeout duration when rendering the selected lighting scene.

14. A computer program product comprising computer-executable code embodied on a computer-readable storage medium configured so as when executed by one or more processing units to perform the method according to claim 1 .