Lighting

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Color Kinetics Inc (CKI), the US-based manufacturer of LED lighting effects, is showing no less than three new LED-based products here at PLASA. First up is ColorBlaze: Available in 6ft and 4ft lengths - ColorBlaze 72 and ColorBlaze 48 respectively - the systems are controllable in 6" increments and feature on-board power in an extruded aluminium housing. Powered by CKI's patented Chromacore technology, ColorBlaze features a high output, soft-edge beam of light from 12 or 8 circuit board assemblies with 18 high-intensity LEDs per board.

Second is the iColor Flex SL. Based on CKI's Chromasic technology, iColor Flex SL, a multi-purpose, LED-based strand which consists of individually-addressable nodes that are spaced in 2", 4", or custom-sized increments. Each node is powered by one tri-colour LED and one Chromasic microchip, which integrates digital LED control and commu

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French manufacturer Ayrton is showing the EyeColor at PLASA. This is LED moving-head fixture utilizes 18 high-power LEDs to offer users an infinite palette of rich, saturated colours. Maintenance of the fixture is minimal, as it has no lamps or colour-mixing systems and its very low IR emission and non-existent UV radiation enable it to be used close to the objects it illuminates without any risk of damage.

Ayrton - D70

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The PLASA Awards for Product Excellence were presented yesterday evening after the close of day three of the PLASA Show. With a record number of new technological innovations nominated this year, the judging panel had a tough challenge on their hands.

This year there were five awards categories and 79 nominations, generating £12,000 for PLASA'S nominated charities - Light Relief, PSA Welfare and Benevolent Fund and the Golden Lions Children's Trust. This system has been running for five years now and every penny of the entry fees is donated. To date this scheme has raised almost £45,000 for charitable causes.

The five product categories this year were Lighting, Sound, Stage Engineering, Software (a new category introduced this year), Audio-Visual, and finally an Award for the product with the most environmental considerations. The PLASA awards were presented by PLASA's Chairman, Da

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ADB's much-talked about Warp fixture from ADB is on show (it was seen at the Show last year under its development name Axis), a cool-beam zoom profile spotlight, available in 15-30° and 25-50° versions. What sets this fixture apart from its contemporaries is its patented control system, which features a series of ring controls around the luminaire's exterior, making control of the luminaire's shutters, focus and zoom settings fully accessible, no matter what the angle of rigging.

The design of Warp also allows for the standard trunion arm to be easily replaced with a motorized yoke to provide remote pan and tilt control. Movement is available between 270° tilt, and a larger than average 400° pan. The yoke links easily into the Warp ring controls, providing automation of all other functions - focus and zoom, shutter insertion and rotation and gobo rotation.

ADB - Stand F70

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>Show Laser & Audiolight showed a new 150W diode laser mounted in a moving light head, the Matrix. Essentially, this is putting their existing scanning head technology into a simple 'plug and play', device with pre-programmed fixed effects. Off-line new effects and graphics such as logos can be programmed in using PC and ILDA files (Pangolin software, for example). The Matrix requires 11 channels of DMX to control all parameters of the moving head and the laser.

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>In the realms of larger pro moving lights, Amptown presented its new Washlight, with a 2kW tungsten lamp aimed squarely at the TV studio. (In actual fact, the Washlight is powered by an 82V lamp giving comparable output to 2kW at 240V from this shorter filament lamp). Complete with four-leaf barndoor, this Fresnel lamp sports motorized focus between 10° and 45°.

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>Jointly exhibiting at PLASA with Projected Image UK was Beacon AB. On display was the Beacon Gobo Catalogue with over 350 new gobo designs. The company now has Gobo Group members in 18 countries and uses its own patented gobo manufacturing process to create ultra-thin gobos. The recently launched Beacon Blackline range uses a special coating that eliminates ghost reflections in the projector.

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>Appearing at PLASA last year as Pearl River, the China based manufacturer has re-branded to PR Lighting, the initials standing for 'pure reliability'. Distributed by MilTec, two new products graced the stand this year - the Pilot 575 and the Pilot 1200. Small and neat, the 575 boasts two CMY wheels; seven interchangeable fixed gobos plus five rotating; blade shutters for smooth linear dimming, and many other features. The more powerful 1200 has all the above features and more, the 1200W HMI producing great output but little in the way of excessive heat from the lamp body. Expect a Wash model next year.

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>Appointed as the UK distributor for the innovative XP10 MP3 audio pad from Finnish company EKS, Lightfactor launched the device that offers DJs the possibility of carrying all their playing equipment - including music - around in the average-sized briefcase! Also featured on the stand was SGM's growing Giotto 400 family of moving head fixtures and its Regia range of high-end lighting control consoles.

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>From Celco came the DMX512-A Buffer: a bi-directional communicator for the new protocol, it protects both sides against mains failure. Also new from Celco was the the MkII version of the DMX recorder, which can manage up to 32 linked DMX devices for install show playback - no batteries or external cards are required for holding programme data.

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>An array of Pixelline LED battens ensured the James Thomas Engineering stand had a bright presence. Controlling the battens was the company's new PixelDrive RADlite-based software system. Several more new products were on show, including the Pixelpar 90L with beam-shaping adaptors; Barlite, an LED edge-lit perspex panel; Pixelline 1044-A, designed for the architectural market and the Highlight 60 edge-lit extrusion. Three new Par 36-sized products were the Pixelpar 12 replacement white light source, Pixelsphere and Pixelsphere-S.

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USA - Elation Professional has launched the Power Spot 250 and Power Wash 250 professional DMX moving head fixtures. A spot and wash-type effect respectively, Power Spot 250 and Power Wash 250 are ideal for nightclubs, churches, corporate events or performance venues. Both units feature high-performance optical systems with high luminous-efficiency reflectors, along with 250W discharge lamps. The fixtures also come 'loaded' with DMX-programmable features.

A 15-channel DMX fixture, the Power Spot 250 combines two effects into one unit - a moving head spot effect and a laser. A 4.9mW red laser has been built into its optical system to give end-users greater versatility. As a spot effect alone, it offers an impressive range of features, including a rotating gobo wheel with 6 interchangeable indexable gobos (4 metal, one glass and one multi-coloured dichroic gobo) whilst a separate

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>Martin Professional launched the first in a new range of lighting fixtures for the DJ market. Described by the company's Larry Beck as "a return to our roots," the Mania range is intended to be low-cost yet eye-catching and will be manufactured in Martin's new Chinese facility. First in the series, the EF-1, is a dynamic flower effect featuring six coloured patterns which can either be triggered by sound or operate automatically. The range will ultimately include effect lights, colour changers, strobes, deco effects, scanners and smoke machines. Also for the club market was Atomic Colors, an add-on to the Atomic 3000 strobe which features a gel string of 10 colours, plus the Xciter and Fingers light jockey control surfaces. For live music, Martin Pro's MAC 550 profile was being debuted, along with the new MAC 250 Entour and Krypton versions. The Maxxyz lighting console was als

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>An abundance of new products was launched by Zero 88, including a new member for the Spice family of dimmers - a professional touring 'Spice Rack'. There are four models available, 24- and 48-way, each with Socapex or Harting output options. Popular with educational users is the Phantom Frog, a PC-based emulation programme that allows users to edit shows, record patches and preview cues from a PC. The good news is that it's free.

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>New from Robert Juliat (to be found on the White Light stand) is the Manon 1.2kW MSR followspot. It offers 12.5-22° zoom, cold restrike, 100% closing iris and 100% closing mechanical dimmer. Also new was the Lolita mini-profile -aimed at the theatrical and puppet theatre markets and offering 100W tungsten lamp, full opticals, four shutters and available in either a black or white casing. Francois Juliat reported the company was having a great show, meeting very interested customers.

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>Attracting attention on the Batmink stand was the impressive, high output Bubble Machine, which was filling the area around the stand with the kind of bubbles childhood dreams are made of. Featuring booster fans and remote timers, the machine is new and exclusive to Batmink. Also new, and available from December, are Spectrabank LED strips, which have a total of 912 ultra-high brightness LEDs providing high light output with minimal heat, arranged in 12 individually-controlled clusters.

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>XTBA seems to have the solution to most of the world's DMX requirements. At PLASA, further new products were added to the company's growing portfolio. Amongst these was the new Smart Splitter View - a one in, five out (with loop through) data splitter. It is available in single isolation version, as in the Smart Splitter, as a fully isolated version, as in the Smart Splitter 5i, or as a case version for hanging in the rig. In addition to being the splitter the Smart Splitter View can show (via an easy to read display) the received channel levels and data parameters allowing for easy fault finding and checking of data. In receive mode the viewed channels can be scrolled left and right and displayed in decimal or percent.

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>A little 128Mb USB memory stick, the USB Key is all it takes to enable your laptop (Mac/PC or Linux platform) to access displays and control of Strand Lighting's 300 or 500 series consoles (connect via wired or wireless Ethernet). The Designer Remote software only occupies approximately 30% of the stick's capacity, leaving space for offline editing and saving. Also from Strand, the LD24 is a greatly simplified variant of the successful LD90 install panel dimmers. Still a high quality, digital 24-channel 2.5kW dimmer, the LD24 hits a much lower price bracket by removing the more sophisticated architectural and analogue controls. Strand also chose PLASA to launch V2.6.10 - the latest software for Strand consoles featuring a 'host of enhancements'.

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>Antari UK launched the X Series of smoke machines; the X-150 is a neat little 1000W unit, the X-525 slightly more powerful at 1500W, and the X-530 topping the range at 3kW. All three are aimed at the pro user; the fluid tank is dimly lit by a blue LED, allowing monitoring of fluid level by eye across a large stage (should you miss it, the pump automatically cuts out at critical levels). Completing the range is the X-310 - a Fazer with in-built fans (vari-speed) and the potential to produce an instant burst.

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USA - During this week's PLASA Show, US-based lighting manufacturers Color Kinetics Inc and Altman Lighting Inc announced an agreement whereby Altman will license Color Kinetics' patented Chromacore technology and expertise and integrate Color Kinetics components for a unique line of intelligent LED-based systems for the theatrical, entertainment, and themed architectural lighting markets. The Chromacore-powered systems are slated for availability in November 2003.

Robert Altman, CEO, Altman Lighting told us: "When it comes to intelligent LED illumination, we recognize the distinct advantages of aligning with Color Kinetics, whose dominant intellectual property, technology, and expertise are unmatched in the field. We're pleased to announce this agreement in support of Altman's commitment to deliver high-quality, state-of-the-art products that meet the rigorous demands of t

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>With its main business in television, G-LEC has been kept busy either renting its LED curtain system or designing and selling systems to meet project specifications. Product-wise, the company has upgraded the software for its systems to enable more flexibility for the user.

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>It was difficult to miss the Light Engineering Multiform stand with its impressive 7m long sign rigged above it. The seamless, polycarbonate sign was backlit with colour changers and Sparkle fibre optics and by the time you read this will be mounted back in its permanent home above the company's premises. On show was the Gemini 12x48, a two-preset DMX memory lighting desk aimed at small theatres. Also new was the DMX424, low cost, mains powered decoder.

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>There was genuine excitement on and around the A.C. Lighting stand, where the new Vista console from Australian manufacturer, Jands, was being demonstrated. With a new design utilizing the latest user interfaces, the Vista promises a leap forward in speed and ease of lighting desk operation. Doing away with touch screens, keypads and number-crunching, the Vista uses a pen and a large colour screen, and incorporates a timeline that shows what's happening in your design in relation to time - when lights come on, when they change colour and so on. You can step in at any point to edit, and all variables (colours, focus, gobos etc) are there on the one screen.

The Vista also boasts a generic fixture model that makes changing fixtures easy. When a change is made, the Vista compares the two lights and adapts automatically - even if the replacement has a different feature set. For the operat

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>Displayed on the attractive, leafy DHA Lighting stand was the new Gobo Carousel - an optical effects system which sits in the focal plane of the ETC Source Four profile. This can serve as a gobo changer containing two wheels (each with five 70mm/B-size slots giving a potential choice of eight gobos plus open), or a dichroic colour changer, or effects unit, utilizing either one ot two wheels. With independent speed and direction control of each wheel, this is a highly felxible unit, and is aimed specifically at theatres and rental companies.
  1. 5 Star Systems
  2. Vari-Lite
  3. ELC Lighting
  4. Luci Della Ribalta (LDR)
  5. Leprecon Pro Lighting
  6. 5 Star Cases
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