Road Tests

Creative LED products have been around a while in various shapes and sizes. Products like Barco’s MiSTRIPS, Element Labs’ Versa TUBEs and Mega Systems Inc.’s Mega-Lite Bright Stripe are examples of products that let the user essentially map video content to LEDs to create unique visual effects. An LED product that takes mapped low-res video content even further in terms of configurable flexibility is the Solaris+ LED Video curtain from G-LEC. Solaris+ builds on a network of flexible strings with 360°-viewable LED pixel spheres. Unlike fixed LED displays, Solaris+ can be gathered up to form 3D shapes; hung in drapes; or attached to moving hoists, enabling the video display to transform its shape in 3D space.

Particulates are always in the air.  They are so tiny we don’t even notice them. But it is these little specs of dust that make beams of light visible.  In the world of staged beam effects, foggers and hazers also play a key role. They help to define shafts of light and provide effects. Germany-based Look Solutions has recently introduced the entertainment world to what has to be one of the smallest foggers I have ever seen. The Tiny FX Fogger is a compact, battery-operated fogger that easy fits in the palm of your hand.  At first glance, the Tiny FX seems as though it was designed to be used primarily as a novelty item. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Martin Professional has hit the ball right out of the park with the release of the new MAC Aura. Featuring a tremendous light beam, combined with dazzling eye-candy effects, this fixture raises the bar for what manufacturers can accomplish with LED technology.

There has been a debate in the industry lately about if video and projection should be considered to be a part of lighting. Video produces light, but not in the traditional sense of what we think of as lighting. Ask some, and they will say there is no difference between the two. Other will say the complete opposite — video is video, lighting is lighting, and they will always be separate.

There is one thing that keeps video technicians up late at night more than any other — lack of playback confidence.  There’s a certain thrill that comes when you press the button and get a satisfying click/whirr and everyone watches.  More and more these days, at least in live production, video is being cued from the lighting desk, and a server somewhere just “plays” the video, or some poor sap has to use a mouse/HID to click a big “button” in some piece of software in the hopes that the hard drive (if you’re still using one) will spin up.

Syncrolite, the lighting manufacturing company out of Dallas, has been around for over 25 years. Most pro lighting people have heard of them, and, more often than not, associate them with the high-powered skylights utilized at oversized rock concerts and mega sporting events. And while it’s true that Syncrolite makes the only dependable large-scale touring moving light, the company has come a long way since they unveiled the first fully automated DMX-controlled Xenon light fixture back in 1989.

Some of the best new ideas come from merging two great existing concepts. Clay Paky’s Shotlight Wash is a case in point. The fixture combines the strength and versatility of their 1500W wash light with two front-mounted 1500W strobe lamps. Although they are physically integrated, the two components can be used separately. Like a lot of  products that are both innovative and strikingly simple, it leaves you wondering why no one else came up with this idea before.

Projection mapping is all the rage.  You see a different amazing example practically weekly, involving everything from building facades to cars to trees and castles — and if you can’t see it in person, chances are it’s up on Youtube.

When comparing the latest LED wash lights from Robe, the Robin 600 LEDWash and the Robin 300 LEDWash, it is like comparing the same fixture.  The main difference between the two fixtures is size.  Throughout my testing of the two fixtures, everything was exactly the same except for the size, output and LED count. I’ll begin with features and functions that can be found on both fixtures.

Inner Circle Distribution has been representing various theatrical lighting products in the U.S. for a long time. In the last year, a few clients have come to them asking where they could find certain types of lighting products with better pricing. This raised some eyebrows with company president Craig Singer and sales director Bruce Bandy and, as a result, they teamed up with overseas manufacturers and developed a new line of lights to bring to America called Elements. This new line of affordable conventional lights ranges from tri-LED PARs and bars to Active Matrix fixtures, which people have requested. The market has taken notice.

Moving lights have come a long way since the beginning of remotely panning and tilting a fixture. They began life with limitations in functionality and, more importantly, the lamp source. Towards the end of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st, more and more options became available in terms of lamp choices for various fixtures.  When the Light Emitting Diode (LED) came into mainstream for the lighting industry, it was just a wait-and-see game for when they would be incorporated into a moving light.

Wires, wires, wires everywhere. We have all been there. Whether they’re on the truss or the ground, we’ve spent countless hours dressing cables for neatness and safety. A huge amount of time and tape can be devoted to this one aspect of the production. This is all before the production even happens! Just as much time can be spent picking up the gaff tape and cords and storing them.