The Ayrton Diablo; Perfectly Named for this little Hell Raiser

“Give me smaller”, Give me brighter”, “GIMME, GIMME, GIMME”.  Ayrton and most other manufactures probably hear that a whole bunch.  Patience, good things come to those who wait. For some time now, we, collectively, have been trying to find a small, feature packed, LED spot to replace our aging arc movers.  Ayrton Lighting has stepped firmly into the batter’s box and is pointing to the center-field bleachers with the addition of their little hell maker, the Diablo.

At just under 50 lbs. and no higher than 2’, prepare for the coming of the Diablo.  Here is just a sampling of the stats

• Two version, the Diablo-S & Diablo-TC
• Rated Lamp Life 40,000 hours
• CMY Color Mixing
• CTO Wheel
• Fixed Color Wheel
• 7+open Rotating Gobo Wheel
• Shutters
• Iris
• Frost
• Animation Wheel

Here are some features of the individual fixtures

Diablo-S

• 26,500 lumens, 8000 K white-light engine
• Total luminaire output: up to 19,000 lumens
• Color temperature output: 6500 K
• CRI: greater than 70

Diablo-TC

• 20,500 lumens 7000 K white-light engine
• Total luminaire output: up to 14,000 lumens
• Color temperature output: 5700 K
• CRI: greater than 90

Interested yet?  To further educate and enlighten you on the hell raiser, take a look at Ayrton’s product demo and promo video.  Heads up, get a napkin to soak up all the drool.

Learn more about the Diablo by visiting www.ayrton.eu or ACT Lighting, (www.actlighting.com), the US distributor of Ayrton.

MA Lighting Releases grandMA2 Software 3.6.1.1

Get your download ready, MA Lighting recently released another update, version 3.6.1.1.  The main focus of this release, Getting more things working in Mode2 for the grandMA3 hardware.  Especially for the compact and compact XT models of grandMA3.  MA was also able to kill a couple more bugs too. 

NOW…

Before you take 3.6.1.1 live, play with it, read the release notes.  Make sure what you need to do works properly before even considering taking this latest version to the real world.  Of, if you are like some people, jump head first and go for it. Def check out the release notes and happy downloading.

For us US based people, ACT Lighting has not OFFICIALLY released it yet. Just something to keep in the back of your head.

To download 3.6.1.1 and to READ THE RELEASE NOTES, visit www.malighting.com.

MA Lighting Release grandMA2 Software Version 2.4.1[6.6]

MA Lighting has announced the release of version 2.4.1 [6.6], just a few short weeks after announcing the release of 2.4.0 at PLASA.  Looking over the change log, it looks like a bunch of bugs were fixed.  No new software functions were added to this release.

There is an important notice for grandMA2 consoles out, more from MA Lighting:

We are sorry to inform you that due to an issue with the initial BIOS, we ask grandMA2 owners of the following consoles to get in touch with their distributor or MA directly.

• gMA2 full-size S/N 240 -325
• gMA2 light S/N 555 – 793
• gMA2 ultra-light S/N 250 – 369

If you are in the states, contact A.C.T. Lighting for more information if your desk falls into those serial numbers. You can visit MA Lighting’s support page to download version 2.4.1 [6.6] for your desk.

 

ACT Lighting to Host NJ Open House June 14 – 16

The gents at ACT Lighting sent me a invite to their Clay Paky open house that they are having at their New Jersey office next week.  While I would love to go, I will be knee deep in InfoComm in Orlando.  If you are in the New York City metro area, put the ACT Lighting Open House on your schedule.  Here is more information from the email.

Please join us June 14-16 at our facility in Hackensack, NJ.

On display will be the Clay Paky range of automated fixtures, featuring the award-winning SHARPY and the innovative new Shotlight Wash. Also on hand will be our full product range including the grandMA2, as well as MDG’s theONE multi-function atmospheric machine and A&O/alpha one’s xenon fixtures.

The event is open to all. Come anytime or RSVP for a specific appointment.

Where: A.C.T Lighting, 122 John Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601, (201) 996-0884

When: Tuesday, June 14, 12:00pm-7:00pm, Wednesday, June 15, 10:00am-4:00pm and Thursday, June 16, 10:00am-4:00pm

Cocktails and refreshments will be served Tuesday from 4:00pm-7:00pm.

Light Painting With Clay Paky at ACT Lighting

I was recently invited to the ACT Lighting office in New Jersey to take a look at the Clay Paky line up of Fixtures. ACT Lighting recently became a distributor of Clay Paky in the United States and wanted to show off the line up of fixtures. The gents at ACT Lighting setup one of each of the Clay Paky fixtures in their expanded warehouse. The fixtures were connected to a grandMA 2 Full Size with haze filling up the entire space. I joked with the guys at ACT that they should start a night club after hours. They had the fixtures, control and room, so why not? If a club can pop up in a meat packing plant like on Seinfeld, why not a shipping warehouse? We’ll see what happens. ;)

The first fixture we took a look at is the new Sharpy fixture. It was announced at PLASA 2010 in London England. The first thing you notice about the Sharpy is it’s size, it is small at just 17″h x 11″w and weighing in at 35 lbs. Inside, the Sharpy uses Philips new MSD Platinum 5R lamp at just 189 watts with a color temperature of 8000k and a life expectancy of 2000 hours. Remember that number, 189 watts. At first mention, you might think… um ok? After turning it on and striking the lamp, at 20 meters or 65 feet, the Sharpy is putting out 55,000 lux or just over 5,000 footcandles.

This is where I must warn you about jaw dropping. If you haven’t done so already, pick your jaw up off the table, it gets better. Combining the high quality, precision optics and the lamp output, Clay Paky has placed a warning on the outside of the Sharpy stating that the fixture should NEVER be pointed at a single point for too long at a distance of 40′ or less for risk of fire! The beam is that intense!

Keeping inside the fixture, the Sharpy has am interchangeable color wheel with 14 colors plus open, 17 fixed gobos, a 9-facet rotating prism, frost and a mechanical shutter. The Sharpy also has a zoom from zero to 3.8 degrees, and electronic focusing built in. Since the Sharpy does not offer a zoom function, Clay Paky included six different size apertures in the gobos to narrow the beam for awesome looking aerials. The colors on the color wheel are not your typical round diachronic, but flags that sit tightly next to each other. This gives the ability to have split colors in your beam.

What was really impressive… the speed of the fixture. The Sharpy is SUPER fast with it’s pan and tilt. It’s so fast it almost hurts to watch the fixture move. The fixture has the ability to complete it’s full 540 degree pan in just over 3 seconds and it complete tilt of 250 degrees in just under 2 seconds.

The Sharpy is a pretty impressive fixture for it’s size, output and speed. Read more about it on Clay Paky’s website, www.claypaky.it.

Another fixture we looked at was the new Alpha 700 Profile. The Alpha 700 Profile is jam packed with features! As with the entire line up of Clay Paky fixtures, I was impressed. The 700 is roughly the same size as your typical 700 watt moving head at 15″w x 15″ d x 25″ high weighing in at 69 lbs. As the saying goes, it’s whats on the inside that counts.

The Alpha 700 Profile uses the Philips MSR Gold 700/2 MiniFastFit lamp. Just like the 700’s brothers and sisters, Clay Paky uses high quality optics and lens to produce smooth and even beams. The fixture has and electronic linear zoom from 9 degrees to 55 degrees and electronic focusing.

Something I have to mention about the zoom and focus feature that will be coming into the Alpha 700 Profile is the “Stay-Sharp Zoom” auto focus feature. Just the like the 700 big brother, the 1500, the 700 will get the auto-focus feature. The auto-focus feature allows you to set the distance the fixture will be projecting on. After setting the distance, the fixture will “hold” focus while zooming in and out. The fixture does all the work determining how to keep focus will zooming! I can’t say it enough… very impressive!

This is where Clay Paky stepped it up another notch. They have a patent on a framing system that uses four blades that move separately with smooth and variable speed movement. The system allows for a “total curtain” effect to completely douse the output.

The 700 Profile features CMY color mixing in addition to an 8 color wheel and open. To top it off, the fixture also includes a linear CTO to match the fixture to tungsten sources. The 700 has 1 rotating gobo with 7 individual rotating/indexable gobos, 1 9-facet prism, 1 interchangeable frost filer, a high speed, 16 segmented mechanical iris and a hybrid 0-100% dimmer that is electronic and mechanical.

I could have sat at the desk all day playing with combination of color, gobos, focus and effects across all the fixtures. There is just so much packed into the Alpha 700 Profile that it seems like there are endless number of looks you can create with a single fixture. Some of the aerials that the fixture was able to produce were mind blowing and just pure lighting goodness. Check out more about the Clay Paky Alpha 700 Profile by visiting their website, www.claypaky.it.

While you are at it check out the entire line up of Clay Paky fixtures. While it wasn’t at the demo as it wasn’t ready yet, I am waiting patiently to see the new Shotlight Wash with 3000 watts of strobe… Yeah, 3000 WATTS OF STROBE! I don’t think this needs to be stated, but don’t look directly into the strobe.

I had a great time playing on the grandMA 2 and the Clay Paky fixtures ACT Lighting had out. If you have not had a chance to see the Clay Paky fixtures in person, do everything in your power to see them. The entire line up of fixtures has features that will be sure to knock your socks off, or at least give you goose bumps. Contact ACT Lighting to find out where they will be on display next or to line up a personal demo, you will not be disappointed.

I want to give a super huge thanks to the gents at ACT Lighting NJ for allowing me to “take over” their warehouse for a day to test out the fixtures and take some lighting porn photos. Next time, the Bar-b-que is on me!

[nggallery id=102]

Rumor Mill: ACT Lighting To Distribute Clay Paky in the States

Last week during the PLASA show in London England, it was over heard that ACT Lighting might be distributing Clay Paky here in the United States.  There were mentions of this all over Facebook and Twitter about this bit of interesting news. I am still considering this a rumor as nothing has been confirmed by anyone involved.

What does this mean… There are many in the industry that feel that Clay Paky is the front runner in fixture performance, design and function, but lack the support and product knowledge here in the States.

Is this movement to add ACT Lighting as a distributor in the US a step forward and to change that? Time will tell if this rumor is true. Stay tuned for more information.

MDG Fog Announces theONE Digital Fogger/Hazzer

What is more exiting then lighting, witnessing awesome lighting aerials due to fog and haze! MDG Fog has just announced the release of their latest fogger/hazer, theONE. theOne is a fully digital atmospheric generator. From the same machine, you can produce and control either fog or haze.  theOne is built inside an aluminum rolling rack for easy rigging, storage and transportation.  The frame holds two 20-liter canisters for either CO2 or N2.

Controlling theOne is easy, each parameter is set into specific presets, but can be accessed and redefined by advanced users. The networking capability of the MDG theO allows the user to install the generator as part of an existing ACN network. theOne only take 4 DMX addresses to operate and has the ability to gradually switch between fog and haze modes via the various networking protocols and levels.

theOne is a heavy beast weighing in at 185lbs.( 84kg) and requires just a bit of power, 1415 watts to be exact. With fully loaded canisters theOne can run in fog mode for a continuous 10 hours, in haze mode, 308 hours!

Pricing has not been made available yet.  To learn more about theONE, visit ACT Lighting, (www.actlighting.com) the US distributor of MDG Fog.

Tuesday Twitter Trivia – grandMA’s Nice Side

This weeks Tuesday Twitter Trivia question comes from my interview with Brian Dowd and Joe Cabera from ACT Lighting about the grandMA2.  We talked about some of the differences between the grandMA and the grandMA2.  Some pretty impressive stuff if you ask me.

If you have downloaded and listened to the third episode of the iSquint Podcast, then you should have the answer already as it was mentioned in the interview.

So, this weeks Tuesday Twitter Trivia Question is:

What console key on the grandMA2 has been removed and replaced to make the console more polite?

Easy enough if you listened to the interview.  As normal, please respond with your answer via a Direct Massage through twitter @iSquint. This weeks winner gets an iSquint Prize Pack.

iSquint Podcast: Episode 3 – Squintin’ at the grandMA2

In this, the third episode of the iSquint Podcast, I got a chance to sit down with Brian Dowd and Joe Cabera from ACT Lighting to talk about the grandMA2 lighting desk. Joe and Brian were kind enough to take time out of their very busy trade show duties to sit down and explain to me some of the differences between the grandMA and the grandMA2 hardware and software.

Cat West and Joe Cabera released a preview of the interview that we did on their website called ConsoleCocktails.com titled Squintin’ at the grandMA2. You can check out the video at their site as well as ACT Lighting’s Blog. And no, Joe did not lose his legs during the interview!

Don’t forget, you can subscribe to the iSquint podcast through iTunes.

Side Note: I have heard from some readers that there is a little game that they like to play with the iSquint Podcast. The third episode unintentionally continues to provide that level of entertainment.  Let’s just say, the grandMA2 is impressive. ;)

[podcast]http://isquint.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/iSquint.net_Podcast-Episode_3.mp3[/podcast]

ConsoleCocktails Releases Cocktail #3 – Squintin’ at the grandMA2

During LDI 2009, I got a chance to visit one of the busiest rooms during the week long conference and show at the Orlando Convention Center, The grandMA2 Demo and Training room. I sat down and did an interview with Joe Joe Cabrera ][ and Brian Dowd from ACT Lighting for a future episode of the iSquint Podcast. While I was recording just the audio, Cat recorded the interview with her video camera and produced the next episode of the ConsoleCocktails.com, Squintin’ at the grandMA2.

This is just a preview of our complete interview that will be available on the next episode of the iSquint Podcast coming out later this month. I want to thank Joe, Brian and Cat for taking time out of the crazy busy schedule at LDI to talk with me and go over the grandMA2.

Update: GrandMa 2 Lighting Console Almost Ready

We recently wrote a post about information on the GrandMa 2 has been lacking.  Turns out the the new console is up and running.  That being said, the new series 2 software is not.  While the new GrandMa 2 hardware has started to ship to select customers, the console is still running the series 1 operating system as the series 2 operating system is not finalized. Once the series 2 operating system is ready, it will be an easy upgrade for GrandMa 2 users that have recived the new console.  The GrandMa 2 is able to switch between running Series 1 and Series operating systems while the original GrandMa lineup is only able to run Series 1 operating system.

ACT Lighting, the North American distributor of the MA Lighting product line has had the information available for users to learn more about the new console as well as list pricing. Visit ACT Lighting website at www.actlighting.com for more information.

The new GrandMa 2 product line up is as follows:

• Full Size
• Light
• Ultra Light
• NPU (Network Processing Unit)
• Replay Unit
• Fader Wing

To learn more about the features that the GrandMa 2 consoles offer, visit MA Lightings website at www.malighting.com or the dedicated site for the new GrandMa 2 consoles at www.grandma2.de. The GrandMa 2 is expected to be shown at the USITT Stage Expo in Cincinnati this week, but will Series 2 operating system be shown?