The day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. ETC has announced the Source Four Fresnel.
Part of ETC’s new Layers of Light marketing campaign, the Source Four Fresnel is everything you love about the Source Four with a classic Fresnel beam. Taking the traditional optics and adding a quick-change HPL lamp/base combo along with a glass reflector, the S4 Fresnel is a long awaited addition to the Source Four family of luminaries.
With the intent of preserving the essence of the original, the Source Four Fresnel is designed from the ground up to improve every function of a fresnel while still holding onto that soft, romantic light. The 20 to 65 degree zoom uses the same locking mechanism as the Source Four Zoom Ellipsoidal. The lamp is the same HPL as the rest of the line (375w, 575w, or 750w) with a brand new quick change socket assembly. The yoke has a slide bracket that allows you to set the perfect center of gravity for using all your existing 7.5in accessories. The color frame slot also has a full length cover to minimize lens light bleed.
Available to ship in July of this year (can’t wait!!!!!), the ETC Source Four Fresnel is the greatest of the Source Four technology married to the the classic beam we all grew up with. This, my friends is a match made in heaven!
For more information, check out ETC’s new Layers of Light website or contact your local dealer for pricing.
Here is one of those surprises that I mentioned about Super Saturday 2011. Robert Juliat was exhibiting at the event and showed off their brand new, never seen before AledIN 330LF LED Fresnel! The AledIN Fresnel takes the LED engine from the profile AledIN and produces a super clean and even soft light that we are use to seeing in a fresnel. What is really impressive is the beam spread. From 20 degrees all the way to 98 degrees! I’ll let Pete Engel from Robert Juliat tell you more about the fixture. Thanks again to Scott Parker and Sonny Sonnenfeld for allowing me access to this sneak peak.
When you reach the Broadway level of being a lighting designer, you can pretty much get what ever you want. I am not talking about fame and fourtune but new fixtures and technologies. Such as the case for Don Holder at the Broadway Lighting Master Classes this year. Mr. Holder put on a great session about LEDs vs Tungstens. Since Mr. Holder is a well respected and fantastic lighting designer, he has access to a load of products before they are even announced.
Such as the case with the sneak peak that we got of Philips/Selecon upcoming LED Fresnel, the PL-3. Mr. Holder was able to get not just one of these prototype fixtures, but two for his session. Yeah, I was a little jealous! ;) But enough about that, what about the PL-3.
The PL-3 uses three of the LED engines from the Vari-lite VLX fixture. That means that the PL-3 is a 3 engine, RGBW mixer at 90 watts per engine. Just like the VLX, the PL-3 color mixing happens behind the lens to give an even color out the front of the fixture. Speaking of light coming out the front, the PL-3 is putting out 8200 Lumens of LED goodness with a zoom range of 5 to 50 degree spread.
The entire fixture runs off just 320 watts of power and produces as much light as a 1000 watt tungsten fresnel. The PL-3 is still in the process of being developed but is rumored to have WDMX, WiFi, Network and DMX protocols included right on the fixture. If you look closely, you may notice the fixture housing and yoke are made of plastic. Since the fixtures runs a heck of a lot cooler then a typical tungsten fresnel of that size, Philips/Selecon was able to make the PL-3 even lighter by using a plastic composite.
The PL-3 is still not ready for the big time and like I mentioned, still in development so no release date has been announced yet along with pricing. I have heard hints of another version of the PL-3 is in the works, the PL-5. I’ll let you take a guess on what that means.
Take a look at some of the photos I was able to sneak in at the BLMC2010.
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Something I wrote about right before getting to Vegas for NAB was LightPanels big news for the show, the announcement of their new Sola Series of LED Fresnels and ENG camera. The LitePanels booth was crazy busy every single time I walked through it. Everyone was all over the new 6″ and 12″ Sola LED Fresnels and you might just see why.
I was able to pull Pat Grossman, one of the co-founders of LitesPanels to do a quick over view of the new Sola Series of LED products. To learn more about the LitePanels Sola Series, visit their website at www.LitePanels.com.