Rumor Mill: Something up Barco’s Sleeves for ProLight + Sound

Like I said earlier, ProLight + Sound is just around the bend and all the exhibitors are leaking like a sieve.  Over the weekend I heard from a very reliable source deep with in the Barco family that Barco too has a number of new products to announce and show off at ProLight + Sound in Frankfurt Germany later this week.

We will be showing many enhancements, upgrades and new products geared towards strengthening the digital lighting and moving luminaire product lines.

That is literally all I got.  What does it mean?  Has that engineering genius, Richard Belliveau from High End come up with something revolutionary… AGAIN? Is Barco planning to announce a new product from their recently purchased LED and video division of Element Labs? I am hounding my source for more details and will hopefully hear something before the show begins on Wednesday.

Say Good Bye to Element Labs and Hello to Barco

Yesterday in a surprise announcement, Barco announced that it has “acquired” all assets of popular LED fixture and display manufacturer, Element Labs. Technically, Barco acquired all Intellectual Property, rights and know-how of Element Labs. Effective immediately, the name Element Labs ceases to exist and all employees of Element Labs now fall under the Barco name.

Why the surprise move from Barco?  “This expands Barco’s portfolio for the mid-range markets,” Eric Van Zele, Barco’s President and CEO, comments. “Element Labs’ products in these markets have proven their worth on many occasions and perfectly complement Barco’s more high-end oriented market portfolio.”

If we read between the lines there, Barco wants to offer not only the high end LED display market, but also the mid-range market as well.  What is next, the low-end market? Here is a little more from the official press release from Barco about the “transition” and what our friends from Element Labs can expect.

With immediate effect, the name “Element Labs” ceases to exist. Structured as an asset sales transaction, Barco obtains all product designs, rights and intellectual property of Element Labs, without assuming the liabilities of the former EL-company. As of today, the core team of Element Labs in Santa Clara, California, will function as Barco’s competence center for creative LED solutions, whereas Barco Kuurne (Belgium) will remain the competence center for tiled LED solutions. Barco will announce its new mid-range LED products in the coming months.

Barco/High End Announce New Fog Generator FQ-100

Barco/High End just announced the release of a new fog generator, the FQ-100.  If you are familiar with High Ends F-100, then you might already be familiar with the FQ-100.

More from High End

The FQ-100™ performance fog generator is designed to meet the rigorous demands of the nightclub, theatrical and touring industries. This updated version of the industry standard F-100 fog generator produces any atmosphere – from dense fog to fine mist. The legendary Atmospheres® Fog Generating fluid is specially formulated to provide a dense, safe, water-based fog of a fine particulate size.  In addition to low noise levels ideal for theatrical and studio work, the FQ-100 also includes an internal LCD digital menu system providing the ability to set the volume control, timer control, and DMX functions as desired.  The FQ-100 performance fog generator continues the tradition and benchmark set by the original F-100.

Features

• Large 9.5 liter ( 2.5 gallon) removable fluid reservoir for extended use
• Atmospheres® scientifically formulated fluid provides optimum particulate size for lighting applications

Output

• 20,000 cu.ft (566m3) / min output
• 10 min / 1 liter  fluid consumption rate
• 11 minutes warm-up time
• optoelectronic liquid sensor with auto shutoff

To learn more about the FQ-100, visit High End’s website at www.highend.com.

Third Party iPhone App – WholeHog3 iPhone Remote App

With iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s gain more and more popularity and the addition of third party apps over a year ago, our little friend has become more and more useful by the day because of software developers and just all around smart people with in our small community.

Jon Griffin, a lighting design and owner of  www.housetohalf.com has been developing his own iPhone app to control a hog3 control desk which he calls the WholHog 3 iPhone Remote App.  Jon has been developing this app on his own and is not in any way affiliated with High End Systems or Barco. What is interesting is that he is not “developing” a stand alone app, but uses an emulation program for windows and the iPhone called Snatch Server and Snatch iPhone App.  Jon has made “screen overlays” with common buttons and functions found on a Hog3 desk.

Jon originally developed this app for his personal use but has now made it available for others to download and start using it with their Hog systems.  More screens are planned and in development and will be added to his site as they are finished. To download and setup the Hog3 iPhone Remote App, head over to Jon’s website at www.housetohalf.com.

If you are an iPhone App Developer, Jon is looking for you! Contact him via twitter @housetohalf.

JOL Goes In Depth on the Cyberlight 2.0

A couple of days ago, we broke the news that Barco and High End Systems is re-releasing the Cyberlight as the Cyberlight 2.0. JimOnLight.com just posted a great write up on comparing the differences between the old Cyberlight Turbo and the New Cyberlight 2.0.

Jim did some great research comparing the two fixtures.  We especially like the table view break down of the features of both fixtures that Jim put together.

Jump over to JimOnLight.com to read his entire comparison!

Thanks Jim!

Barco Announces Cyberlight Version 2.0

Barco/High End Systems just announced the release of the new Cyberlight version 2.0.

The Cyberlight 2.0 is a full-featured automated luminaire with a 2000 watt short arc lamp, producing over 30,000 lumens of output from a new electronic ballast. As the newest version of High End Systems’ classic Cyberlight, the Cyberlight 2.0 offers increased output, updated software capabilities and stunningly fast mirror movements. In terms of control, the fixture includes new RDM and DMX protocol and addressing, 5-pin DMX connectors, and an intuitive LED menu for DMX addressing. In addition to cosmetic changes, the Cyberlight 2.0 also offers a high degree of creativity, with tools such as electronic strobing, TriColor effects and dramatic new Lithopatterns.

The new Cyberlight 2.0 retains the popular feature set of the original Cyberlight including remotely variable focus and zoom, motorized iris, variable frost and smooth dimming. The color system consists of CMY color mixing and an eight position fixed color wheel while many images are available via the eight position Litho wheel and four position rotating Litho wheel. In addition, the unique eight position effects wheel provides amazing imagery, prisms, lens options, and more.

For more information on the Cyberlight version 2.0, visit High Ends Sytems website at www.highend.com.

Barco Announces New Video Wall at InfoComm

More news on this the eve of InfoComm show opening tomorrow June 17th.

From the Press Release:

Visualization specialist Barco has announced its new series of LED-lit rear-projection video wall displays. With the development of the full HD (1920×1080) LED-based video wall system, Barco builds on many years of experience with LED displays. Next to the obvious benefits of LED-based rear-projection technology, such as low maintenance and saturated colors, Barco’s OL video wall series also features the unique Sense6 color calibration and stabilization technology which makes the video wall systems truly ready for 24/7 use.

“With the introduction of our new video wall series with LED-based illumination, we have made use of our vast combined experience with LED-based and projection-based visualization technology,” comments Mr Mathieu Massart, Director Product Management of Barco’s Displays technology unit. “Barco’s OL video wall series incorporates our unique Sense6 sensor technology, which has proven its invaluable benefit with Barco’s OV-D2 video walls during many years in 24/7 use. This way, we can offer a display solution that is truly maintenance-free and ready for mission-critical applications.”

Barco’s LED-based projection series consists of the rear-accessible OL and front-accessible OLF video walls. During the introduction phase, both are available in 50-inch and 70-inch screen sizes. All of them offer an ergonomically excellent viewing experience, with the sharpest and most saturated colors in full HD resolution. The OL and OLF video walls have a wide LED color gamut which exceeds the EBU standard, and present no signs of color break up whatsoever.

The OL and OLF video walls have been designed for an entirely maintenance-free operation over several years, with a guaranteed LED lifetime of 55,000 hours and a 5-year service-free runtime. There is also no need for consumables, such as color wheel or mercury lamps. Thanks to the embedded Sense6 sensor technology, the OL and OLF video wall systems are truly maintenance-free. As proven with the current OV-D2 product line, Sense6 provides brightness and color stability over time and across the entire video wall screen. Sense6 continuously measures brightness and color and adjusts the color space to provide an image that is most convenient for the human eye. Therefore, no maintenance or manual adjustment is needed.

Thanks to the small depth of the projection modules, the OL and OLF video walls are ideally suited for installation in confined spaces. Additionally, the OLF projection modules can be serviced from the front. A rugged design makes the video walls ideally suited for industrial environments.

The use of advanced low-weight materials and the mostly prealigned delivery make the OL and OLF video walls very installer-friendly. After installation Sense6 automatically keeps all projection modules in tune to compensate for the inherent color shift of LEDs during their lifetime. Additionally, the Barco control manager software keeps track of the health status and allows the user to configure the uniformity and health status in an easy way. The software exposes an API which allows it to be integrated into larger device management applications.

Next to the new OL video wall series, Barco will also still maintain its current OV-D2 product line of DLP-based rear-projection systems for applications beyond the current capabilities of LED technologies.

The OL and OLF video wall series will be demonstrated at this year’s InfoComm 2009 exhibition in Orlando, FL, USA, from 17 to 19 June 2009.

Barco/High End Announce New Software for Digital Lighting Family

We recently wrote a rumor mill posting about Barco and High End systems getting ready to release a new version of their software for the Digital lighting family, the DL3  and Axon media server.  That rumor was put to bed this morning with Barco/High End latest press release.

More from the Press Release:

Rancho Cordova, CA — 27 April 2009 — Digital and Automated Lighting pioneer Barco announced today that new software is now available for the High End Systems Digital Lighting family, including the DL.3 Digital Light and the Axon media server.

The v1.5 software release expands feature functionality and provides a host of improvements and updates. Major features include frame blending, for smooth, slow motion playback, and the expansion of Collage Generator™ capability, which allows users to create a setup that is now up to 16 fixtures wide by eight fixtures high. A new Segmented Collage feature enables advanced users to pre-slice their content in order to create large collages with very high overall resolutions.

Another new feature is automatic content encoding validation. This unique process scans content as it is being loaded into the system, in order to ensure correct encoding, trouble-free playback, and the elimination of performance issues that might result from encoding errors.

Other features include new Graphic Effects, PAL support for the SDI input, plus the ability for users to add HD-SDI cards in the Axon media server. In addition, the Content Management Application (CMA) now displays more detailed data, such as movie length, resolution, frame rate and frame count.

“Version 1.5 is an exciting release that brings a number of often-requested and powerful features to our users,” notes Chris Colpaert, VP of Creative Lighting. “These features open even more creative possibilities for the product family and its ease of use. Our team is already hard at work on our next major release which will bring even more exciting capabilities to the product line.”

The v1.5 software is now available for free download at http://www.highend.com/support/digital_lighting/dl3.asp

Barco Announces New Wash Luminaire – SHOWBEAM 2.5

Rancho Cordova, CA — 31 March 2009 — Visualization pioneer Barco announced today the debut of the SHOWBEAM™ 2.5, a new High End Systems automated wash luminaire that features a jointly developed Philips MSR 2500-watt lamp source. A smooth field, soft-edge illumination is produced using a new radial lenticular homogenizing lens system that provides a signature look on stage. In addition, the dedicated wash light includes a user changeable fixed color wheel, a variable CTO, a full CMY color mixing system, and the ability to produce an 11-degree fixed hard-edge profile with fast color change and Electronic Strobe. The profile can be rapidly zoomed from 11 to 33 degrees.

The SHOWBEAM 2.5 also features a revolutionary patent pending effect, the Twin Beam™. In this effect, two discrete hard-edge beams exit the fixture on command, with variable control over the Twin Beam deviation and rotation speed — all with little brightness degradation. The Twin Beam can also be varied by adding incremental color via the CMY color mixing system. SHOWBEAM 2.5 incorporates the renowned LED tracking system that encircles the lens, a feature that debuted with its SHOWGUN predecessor.

“The engineering team set out on a mission to produce a new automated wash light, with earth-shattering light output,” noted CTO Creative Lighting Richard Belliveau. “We more than accomplished that goal, while including some never-before-seen visuals that will be sure to excite today’s audiences.”

SHOWBEAM 2.5 made its sneak preview debut in October 2008 at LDI in Las Vegas. The fixture, which begins shipping in April, will next be shown at the Pro Light & Sound Show in Frankfurt, Germany, on April 1-4. For more information, contact your sales representative or visit www.barco.com