Philips Vari-Lite, an American company based in Dallas, TX, has brought us the well-known VL3000 series, LED VLX Wash and now offers the VL4000 Spot. Combining Profile (spot) and Performance (spot with framing shutters) fixtures into one, Vari-Lite’s VL4000 Spot is positioned to serve as a multi-purpose and feature-packed luminaire.
Rigging
Both sides of the base have large handles that make handling the 83-pound fixture easier. It mounts via two hanging brackets with clamps. The brackets can be installed on 45° increments which provide more mounting options than Vari-Lite has ever offered before. Pan and tilt locks are new to this product line and have a white indicator to show if either lock is engaged. Anyone who will service this unit will appreciate the tilt lock with 45° increments.
I/O Panel
The input/output panel is simple but effective. DMX and RDM is via 5-pin connectors that sit above a USB connector used for firmware upgrading. A power input is via the new standard power connector, black Neutrik powerCON True1. It is a 20A connector rated for disconnect under load and replaces the blue and gray powerCON connectors.
Menu
To the left of the DMX connectors is a color LCD with a battery backup. This enables the menu to be accessed without powering up the fixture — a useful feature for rental shops. The layout of the screen is well-thought-out, clearly showing lamp status, any errors, fixture mode, and DMX address at the top of the main screen. How the DMX address gets set is a bit different from other Vari-Lite fixtures. Instead of scrolling from 1 to 512, the user first sets the hundreds digit, then the tens, and lastly the ones. However, DMX is limited to 512 channels, so 624 for example, is not a valid address. If the range is not valid, the display will read “check range.” (I challenge Vari-Lite to limit the hundreds digit to 0-5 in the next firmware release).
Lamp
Lately the industry has been focused on LED this and LED that, but this workhorse draws our attention back to the bright discharge moving lights. The VL4000 uses Philips’ MSR 1200 FastFit lamp, a short arc 1,200 watt lamp with the new FastFit lamp and socket, which prevents incorrect installation and provides a better socket-to-lamp connection than the HMI1200 double-ended lamps and sockets.
Color Module
Vari-Lite slightly changed their approach to color mixing with this unit. Instead of their typical dichroic glass wheels, they’ve used dichroic glass flags on rails, which slide in and out of the beam path. The color system uses the typical Cyan, Magenta and Yellow subtractive mixing, but also includes a variable CTO color correction and a glass dimmer. Most discharge fixtures on the market use strobe flags to douse the lamp, but Vari-Lite has an independent glass dimmer to provide smooth and excellent dimming.
The speed of the entire color mixing system is fast, which enables quick color bumps. It is still a mechanical system, so it is not as fast as LED color changing, but for belts and motors, the movement is surprisingly fast.
I tested the color mixing at various percentages and observed some aberrations. First is the evenness of color in the beam field. At 50 percent saturation, all colors were blotchy throughout most of the zoom range. At 25 percent saturation, color was not even noticeable. Similarly to poor low end dimming of LEDs, the fixture lacks quality low end color mixing. There are two color wheels — super fast and with five colors each, including a Congo blue or UV.
Gobo/Beam Module
Vari-Lite has created a multi-purpose fixture by combing a profile and performance fixture into one — without sacrificing any features. Often, performance fixtures sacrifice a gobo wheel, animation wheel, or color wheel in order to fit a framing shutter module into the head, but not with the VL4000 spot. Inside the gobo module are two rotating and indexing gobo wheels, two animation wheels, iris and a rotatable (+/- 50°) framing shutter mechanism.
Vari-Lite designed the first gobo wheel to be used for pattern and texture projection while the second wheel is used for visuals and aerial effects. The gobo selection was well-thought-out, with a solid mixture of standard favorites and new patterns too. The metal gobo cups require small fingers to remove and replace, however, and it is difficult to properly re-align each gobo to maintain gobo timing.
The two animation wheels are a bonus to the rest of the feature set. Not one wheel, but two! The first is a black and white texture, which works well for fire and water effects, paired with the CMY color mixing system. The second is an abstract composition of colors, useful for continuous movement fluidity. The animation wheel is able to rotate so that the effect can run vertical or horizontal. To finish the beam module is a super-fast and quiet iris.
Optics
The front of the fixture houses a precisely designed optical system that offers a 12-element, 5:1 zoom ratio, ranging between 9° – 47° (a smaller ratio than the 3000 series). The zoom is speedy, taking less than one second from one extreme to the other. Moving the focus from one gobo wheel to another is effectively done by sliding the entire gobo module, which lives on worm gears. This is an alternate approach to moving the entire set of optical lenses. In either case, users are able to morph between the gobo and animation wheels.
The three-facet prism is integral to the optical system. It is a drop-in prism that can move forward and backwards to create what Vari-Lite calls “variable divergence control,” or simply adjustability of the prism focal length. This allows for the image passing through the prism to move closer together or farther apart. One issue with the prism dropping in between the many zoom lenses is that, at times, it interferes and limits the zoom range. A workaround for this is to remove the prism from the beam, move the zoom to the desired location and put the prism back in place. Or the user can simply accept the limitation of the zoom when the prism is in use. The frost is variable, but not even until it reaches 100 percent.
Conclusion
The VL4000 spot is a bright, multi-purpose unit designed for touring, arenas, theatres, studios, and any other application requiring a punch with a full tool box of features. Normal mode runs the lamp at 1,400 watts with fans on high, while studio mode runs the lamp at 1,200 watts and slows the fans to keep them quiet. The fixture reviewed was running firmware version 8/15/14. Based upon Vari-Lite’s past, it’s expected that they will continue to improve and update the firmware, eliminating bugs, adding control and menu features. How long until we will begin to see the VL4000 Wash?
At a Glance
Bright, Multi-Purpose and Feature-Packed
Vari-Lite’s VL4000 Spot is a bright and versatile fixture that starts with a Philips MSR 1200 FastFit light source and adds a long roster of bonus features, including color LCD w/ battery, pan/tilt locks, 5:1 Zoom (9°-47°), gobo morphing, framing shutters, two color wheels, two gobo wheels, two animation wheels, prism, frost, iris, glass dimmer, various mounting orientations and 52 or 57 channel operating modes.
PROS: This is a multipurpose fixture with a True1 connector, no switch needed. The Zoom module is open and easy to clean, and the fixture’s RDM and color LCD with battery make it particularly operator-friendly.
CONS: The variable frost is not even until it’s at 100 percent; the prism limits the zoom range in some cases. The gobo cups and alignment is cumbersome, and there’s no Ethernet connection.
| Price (MSRP) | $14,998 |
Manufacturer: Vari-Lite
More Info: www.vari-lite.com/VL4000
