Road Tests

It is easy to occasionally lose perspective in this industry. We get focused on our own areas, on the tech that we use every day, and forget that there are other areas that have their own set of unique challenges. In this Road Test, we take a step back and look at a control solution not intended for the largest touring rock shows, but for smaller venues like auditoriums, ballrooms, board rooms — any place that needs reliable yet easy-to-use lighting control that also offers sophisticated control and playback.

So-called digital lights have long tantalized both gear manufacturers and designers alike. The allure of being able to project any image, media clip, text, or anything else designers dream up is a powerful one, as it represents a design tool of immense potential. The technology has proved stubbornly elusive to get right however, with efforts hampered by expense and thermal management issues. With the new eMotion, Elation Professional takes on these hurdles in a compact and efficient moving head package aimed at the corporate AV, exhibition, theatrical, house of worship and club market.

Astera has been in the wireless LED luminaire market for some time now, starting when they released their first light in 2007. Today, their main offering — the AX line of lights — consists of a trio of battery-powered LED accent and wash lights aimed at the event production market — weddings, corporate events, any sort of production that needs a multitude of lights that need to be able to deploy quickly.

The reputable haze and fog manufacturer, Look Solutions, has created a new category in atmospheric effect products. Foggers are readily accessible and used on most shows, events and effects. Low smoke is a bit more complicated and typically uses one of the following methods: dry ice, liquid CO₂, or a refrigeration system. Until now, you would need two discrete units for each of the two effects. Let’s have a closer look at this unique device.

Newer-generation touchscreen devices have always held the promise of new and exciting ways for us as lighting designers and programmers to interact with our rigs. Carrying around a small tablet at a show beats standing behind a console in many situations — walk onto the stage and focus your movers on a particular spot instead of squinting from FOH, or explore during a show to get a different perspective. Previous control solutions were mostly console software shoehorned into the device’s OS, which was hardly ideal. Enter Vibrio from Toast Mobile, an application built from the ground up to control small to midsize rigs on Apple’s iPad family of devices.

Blizzard Lighting is perhaps best known for their extensive range of LED-based products, but with the new Kryo.Morph, the company makes its first move into the realm of arc-lamp-based fixtures. These newer-generation beam units offer an increased set of tools for designers, featuring modes for both a wider, flatter field than a traditional beam unit optimized for pattern projection as well as powerful ACL-style beam projection.

RC4 Wireless is a company that focuses on a small segment of products consisting of wireless dimming and control. I had the opportunity to review their complete Series 3 wireless system earlier this year, and was really impressed with the product’s feature-set and power in doing such seemingly simple things as improving the ability to wirelessly control and dim lighting devices of all sizes.

While Robe might have been an unfamiliar (or distant) name a few years ago to many of us in the lighting industry, the company has seen strong success the past few years with its innovative and high-quality products. The company’s ROBIN LEDWash range and BMFL Spot have been highly successful, and now Robe ventures into the territory of LED strobes with the Strobe and Color Strobe. (Pronounced “strobe-ee”, like Robe.) An important caveat about this particular Road Test: all my tests were performed on a prototype fixture. “The paint is still drying,” as one Robe rep told me, so keep in mind that neither the hardware nor the software has been finalized, and it’s likely that the final shipping version will have some changes.

Today the industry is producing large numbers of LED based fixtures, but I’m proud to present a new fixture in a trending new fixture class. Elation Professional has recently released its newest member of the Platinum Series, the Platinum FLX.

The Strike 4 swings into the fall season as a breath of fresh air in the world of blinders. Easily taking the place of a typical Mole Fey type fixture, this fixture does all those old models could — but so much more. And it’s sexy.

The Igloo dome is a protective device designed to protect the smaller series of light fixtures from Clay Paky (as well as other manufacturers) against the elements. Physically resembling its name, this device can offer a full IP54 protection from the wet weather, sweltering sun as well as dust and wind.

I’m checking out the two new Strobes released by Clay Paky this year — the all-white LED Stormy and the full color LED version called the Stormy CC. The biggest thrill I get is that Clay Paky is emulating the old classic strobe chassis but utilizing the latest in LED technology. There is a huge concave reflector behind the light source, just as you would expect from a typical Xenon bulb strobe.