Elation Professional’s Smarty Hybrid is a new discharge lamp moving head spot, beam and wash hybrid fixture. It’s mid-sized but fully loaded, with features including eight rotatable gobos, 12 static stamped metal gobos, subtractive CMY color mixing, 13 colors, motorized focus and zoom, frost, plus five- and 16-facet rotating prisms. Elation Professional sums it up by calling it a “compact full featured CMY color mixing spot, beam and wash hybrid luminaire.” Say that three times fast!
Lamp
Based around the innovative Philips Platinum 200 Flex lamp, coupled with a well-designed ballast, it can run at three different wattages, namely 190, 240 or 280. At first glance, the different wattages might not seem that beneficial, but the lamp has a very high efficacy (lumens/watt), so try to reframe your intuition to think that a 190 = 300 and 280 = 800, with 240 being in between.
It also has a hibernation mode, which reduces the lamp wattage when the shutters are closed, saving power and further contributing to the notable 6,000-hour lamp life. At full brightness, the total light output is 11,000 lumens, which yields 128,426 lux (11,931 FC) at 49.2 feet while at the minimum beam zoom, and 135,108 lux (12,552 FC) at 16.4 feet while at the minimum spot zoom.
Gobos
Inside, there is a static stamped metal gobo wheel with 12 different patterns and an interchangeable rotatable glass gobo wheel with eight patterns. Ranging from breakups, geometric shapes and four aperture reducers, the gobo set should be well received by all types of lighting designers. They can add the five-facet (linear) or 16-facet prisms along with rotation to create additional movement or effects — or morph between the two for a more psychedelic look.
One of the most impressive features is the zoom, which I think is the key ingredient in this hybrid. The zoom ranges from 1° to 33° — an impressive 33:1 zoom ratio. Elation lists the specifications as 1° – 18° for beam, 3° – 27° for spot and 5° – 33° for wash. With such a big zoom, it is understandable that the majority of the fixture head is dedicated to the optical train. With a gobo in the beam path, I observed four different focus positions throughout the zoom range, which was particularly interesting to this fixture.
Color
The CMY color mixing was very reminiscent of the Martin MAC 2K days. Each color consists of two halves sliding on rails in and out of the beam path. At 100 percent, the two halves overlap for full saturation. In some focus positions, some color streaking was present. However, this would be barely perceptible to most show-goers. The color wheel is populated with nine saturated colors, three utility colors including CTB, CTO and UV, and even an old-school quad color (RGBY). Adding in the full frost filter, the hybrid transforms into a smooth and zoomable wash light.
Control
Elation has given users two control options to keep things simple but flexible. First, you can select 20-channel (standard) or 34-channel (extended) operating modes. Extended mode adds 16-bit “fine” control to CMY, color wheel, gobo wheels, prisms, focus and zoom. An added control attribute (in extended mode) is auto focus. When enabled, it keeps the gobos in a given focus throughout the zoom range. The fixture has a great set of connections to utilize, including 5 pin XLRs, network etherCON RJ-45 in/out and PowerCon True1 in/out. Art-Net and sACN are supported via the network.
The Smarty Hybrid comes with Elation’s built-in E-Fly wireless DMX transceiver, which can wirelessly receive or transmit to or from other fixtures. There is a small antenna near the right handle that is hinged and should be deployed when this feature is being used. The operating mode can be set up with the on-board color display and adjacent buttons (up, down, left, right, enter, mode), which actually are touch sensitive, not push-to-click, buttons. It can be flipped 180° and has a built-in battery, so it can be addressed without powering on the fixture. From the home screen, you can see the address and operating “user” mode clearly. Techs will surely approve.
Movement
The fixture booted up (and reset) in a lightning-fast 20 seconds. The 16-bit pan and tilt are smooth and accurate. The speed of the pan and tilt are fast, measuring just over two seconds from 0 to 100 percent. If you are running movement effects, the fixture is quick to respond and change direction. The fixture can be rigged up, down, or side using the omega brackets, which attaches to the fixture with quarter-turn captive finger screws. You can also set the fixture on the floor on its rubber feet.
Both dimming and strobe are mechanical. The dimming curve was smooth and mostly linear until the lowest 10 percent, which had no noticeable change. The strobe flashes at a maximum 25Hz (times per second) or can pulse or be set to a random flash pattern.
Summing Up
The ETL listed, IP20 rated, Smarty Hybrid weighs in at 49 pounds, consumes 480 (max) watts of power, contains an auto-ranging 100-240VAC power supply and pan/tilt locks. Its plastic covers have a smooth matte black finish, same as the Platinum series of fixtures. Users should have a peace of mind knowing it comes with a complete 2-year warranty that even includes the lamp — a first from any moving light manufacture which is sure to make rental companies happy.
This hybrid luminaire has a fantastic zoom, great gobos and prisms, tight bright beams and even a soft wash. It performed flawlessly in all spot, beam and wash modes. Together with the flexible lamp, this fixture has an abundance of applications as a primary workhorse fixture in the industry.
At a Glance
Compact and Versatile
Elation Professional’s Smarty Hybrid is a compact sized moving beam luminaire. Output is generated from a 280W Platinum discharge lamp. The bright beam comes through a precise 3° aperture and large front lens. The fixture is a blend of versatility and illumination that can be the workhorse of any rig, big and small.
PROS:
- Long lamp life, up to 6,000 hours
- 3-in-1 Spot/Beam/Wash luminaire
- Vast zoom range
- Fast movements
- Numerous control options and I/O
- Built-in wireless DMX transceiver
CONS:
- Poor low end dimming (0-10%)
FEATURES
- Philips MSD Platinum 200 Flex 280W Lamp
- Spot/Beam/Wash hybrid
- Motorized focus and zoom
- 2 gobo wheels
- CMY color mixing
- 13 static colors
- 12 static stamped metal gobos
- 5 and 16-facet bidirectional rotating prisms
- Frost
- LCD Color display w/ battery backup
STATS
- Size: 24.0” x 15.2” x 15.9” (HxWxD)
- Weight: 49.0 lbs.
- Wattage: 480W (max)
- Voltage: 100-240V, 50/60Hz (auto-ranging)
- MSRP: $5,500
- Manufacturer: Elation Professional
- More Info: elationlighting.com/smarty-hybrid