GLP Prepares to Launch Impression SpotOne LED Profile Moving Head

GLP or German Light Products is preparing to launch their latest LED moving lighting into the market, the Impression SpotOne.  The SpotOne was shown at LDI 2010 in Las Vegas. A few short months after, GLP is ramping up production and preparing to release the SpotOne into the wild.

The SpotOne is a 400 watt RGB LED chipset producing close to the same output as a 700w discharge lamp.  All the while only a max of 400 watts of power. The fixture is auto sensing from 100-240v and 50-60Hz.

The SpotOne had 8 or 16 bit resolution with 24 channels of DMX in basic mode or up to 33 channels in extended mode. The fixture include not only 3 pin in/out, but 5 pin in/out and a Neutrik Ethercon connection for Art-Net.

Features included in the SpotOne:

• Motorized zoom: 10-32
• Full RGB mixing
• Gobo wheel 2: 5 x glass, 2 x metal; rotating and indexable
• Effect wheel
• Iris
• Prism, rotating, indexable and interchangeable
• Mechanical dimming from 0% – 100%
• Mechanical shutters

GLP has yet to update their website with the SpotOne.  Look for the fixture to start shipping in early February. Visit www.glp.de to learn more about the Impression line up of fixtures.

Review: Martin Professional Mac101 LED Moving Head

At LDI 2010, the US Lighting Community was introduced to the Martin Mac101 LED Moving Light. If you walked past the Martin Professional booth on the half hour, your eyes were immediately drawn in by these little tiny moving lights stuck all over the martin booth dancing and color mixing to the music.  Your eyes are mesmerized by the speed at which they move and respond to the music. The dancing Mac101’s have you hooked, you need to find out more about them.

[singlepic id=1510 w=320 h=240 float=left]The Mac101 is one of Martin Professionals latest LED moving lights and just happens to be the smallest in the line up.  Don’t let the size of the Mac101 deter you, at just 8 pounds and 1 foot high, good things do come in small packages. Packed in the 7.5″ diameter head are 36 Cree XP-E high Power LEDs, 12 Red, 12 Green and 12 Blue LEDs which have the ability to produce 2,000 lumens of output over the life expectancy of 50,000 hours. All the while only drawing 123 watts of power.

If the output and power consumption haven’t raised your eyebrow yet, the speed of the Mac101 certainly will.  As with most moving lights, the Mac101 offers pan of 540 degrees and a tilt of 240 degrees.  But what sets the Mac101 apart is how fast it can whip through it’s pan and tilt.

The entire fixture weighs in at just over 8 pounds.  All of that weight mainly resides in the base of the unit for power supply and electronics.  I didn’t take the fixture apart and weigh things individually, but I have to believe that the head of the unit is lighter in weight compared to the base of the fixture.  A lighter head means quicker movement as the Mac101 most likely doesn’t have many components behind the LEDs weighing it down.  Then or course there are the motors and belts that determines the speed of movement of the fixture. All of the choices Martin made are the right ones.  The Mac101’s movement is FAST.  It is unrealistic to expect any moving head unit to operate in zero time, but less then a second for complete 540 pan rotation… Yeah, it can do that.

Controlling the Mac101 is super simple.  The max channel count the fixture uses is 12 in raw DMX mode. 16 bit control on Pan and Tilt as well as shutter, dimmer, control, color wheel and color temperature in 8 bit. The Mac101 also offers two other DMX modes, Calibrated RGB + CTC and Basic. Meaning, you can have complete control of the fixture with 16 bit’s or very basic control with 8 bit and only 8 channels of control.

Speaking of color, the Mac101 offer Red, Green and blue mixing as well as additional channel that controls a color wheel.  Now, the color wheel is not what you typically think of in a moving light.  The color wheel on the Mac101 offers the ability to mix to a specific Lee gel color based on level of channel 8.  The RGB channels then mix to a very close match of those Lee gel colors.

The color mixing on the Mac101 is fantastic.  One thing the Mac101 does have problems with as most LED color mixing fixtures do, it white.  I found that RGB at full gave a slightly pink white. Not really a non-starter there as most times we want some color other then white coming out of our LEDs.

In 16 bit mode, the Mac101 does offer color temperature control.  Setting channel 12 to a specific level, you can have the Mac101 match almost any color temperature from CTC 10,000k to 2,500k. Once you have a color temperature set on channel 12 to match the rest of your rig, the Mac101 then does all of it color mixing based off that color temperature right on the fixture.  Say you want Lee164, Flame Red to come out of your Mac101 at 5600k, no problem. Set the color temp on the fixture via channel 12 and then use the color wheel channel and set the color, bam, done. All of the calculations are done right at the fixture.

[singlepic id=1513 w=320 h=240 float=left]Addressing and setting up the Mac101 could not have been simpler.  With it’s light weight, the fixture only needs one clamp to attach to almost anything you can image. The fixture uses a Neutrik PowerCon for 100-240v power input as well as a Neutirk PowerCon passthrough to power the next Mac101 in your rig.  Less cabling equals a good thing! Additionally, in the base of the unit is a 5 pin DMX connector for in and one for out, again for daisy chaining our fixtures.

Addressing the Mac101 is easy as there is a very clear and readable LCD screen on the back of the head. No more time clock style, 4 letter menu system for addressing and configuration of the fixture.  The LCD on the Mac101 clearly states what DMX mode you are in and offers an easily readable menu system.  Setting up the Mac101 for my needs was super quick and didn’t require the manual.

Also on the back side of the head is a pretty large cooling fan for the LEDs.  Sure Martin could have gone the heat sink route to help cool the LEDs, but a larger aluminum heat sink would have probably been more weight on the head, thus slowing it down. The fan cuts down on the weight, but does have a slight hum to it in a quite setting.  Either way, the LEDs need to be cooled and the fan seems like the best solution when comparing the two options.  In quite situations and 10+ Mac101s, you may hear a slight humming noise.  With my understanding of the intent of these fixtures, the venues and situations where the Mac101 will be used, it won’t be quite, but possibly deafening.

What about the beam. A review would be incomplete without mentioning the beam of the fixture.  The Mac101 comes standard with a beam angle of 13.5 degrees, pretty tight.  I feel the that mac101 is a great fixture for doing aerial dances and movement in fog and haze with such a narrow beam. Martin does offer a wide angle diffuser for the Mac101 to spread it out and make it more of a wash fixture, but other LED fixtures in Martins lineup are better suited for that. The Mac101 is a great effect and movement fixture.

Conclusion

Have you ever had a tool that was more then just a tool, but a toy? That is exactly what I see when I look at the Martin Mac101. I am not calling the Mac101 a toy at all, I get just as excited working and experimenting with the Mac101 so much, that it doesn’t feel like work any more. It’s speed, color mixing and built in effects are amazing.

It sounds crazy, but think of the Mac101 as the humming bird of the moving light world.  It’s quick response, fast movements and color mixing has your eyes watching every movement and telling yourself, “WANT”.  I feel in love with the Mac101 for it’s size, the simplicity of the unit and of course the colors.  At a retail price of $2,500 USD, the Mac101 can be a great addition to the right rig. Effective for theatrical use, maybe, for live event and rock and roll, hands down, YES.

I have created a quick video showing off the speed, color mixing and effect built into the Mac101.  Don’t let the video fool you, it was taken with a Flip camera which is not the best for filming lights. The fade up, and colors seem a little washed out, but in reality are quite saturated.  As for the bit of jumpingness, it’s not the fixture, it’s the camera, trust me!

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Time Square Lighting Introduces LED21P, LED Architectural Projector

Time Square Lighting recently announced the arrival of another LED architectural track fixture to their already impressive line up, the LED21P.

The LED21P delivers the lighting equivalent of a 75-watt pattern projector utilizing a 21-watt LED module. The rewards are 10 times the lamp life as well as 70% energy savings. The LED21P projects stock or custom patterns (gobos) and is equipped with four framing shutters for precise beam shaping.

Numerous mounting options are available. Standard finishes are black, white and silver. Custom colors are available at an additional charge.

Some stats on the LED21P

• 120 and 277-volt available
• 30º-50º Beam spread
• 50,000 Hour lamp life
• Dimmable with external PWM dimmer
• Framing shutters included
• Stock or custom, steel or glass patterns
• Numerous mounting options and accessories

For more information on the Time Square LED21P, visit their web site at www.tslight.com.

Elation Introduces Outdoor LED Fixture, ELAR 108 Par

The great outdoors have gotten even greater, or at least brighter and more colorful, thanks to the new Elation ELAR 108 par. Housed in a rugged die cast aluminum case, the IP 65 rated RGBW LED was designed to meet the rigorous demands of outdoor applications, with a maximum operating ambient temperature parameter of 113° F, yet still with an LED life rating of 100,000 hours.

Featuring smooth linear RGBW color mixing and built-in color macros, the ELAR 108 offers infinite color possibilities to dramatize building exteriors, landscaping and other outdoor objects. The unit’s light source comes from 36 x 3-watt single SEOUL semi conductor LEDs – 12 red, 9 blue, 9 green and 6 white.  Its smooth color mixing, flicker free operation and consistency of color from unit to unit, make it ideal for concerts, theatrical productions and video applications as well as architectural.

The ELAR 108 has a 10° beam angle, 22°field angle and a 15° lens as standard.  The included diffusion filter with gel frame provides for a 40° beam angle effect.  An available option is a barn door kit.  There is also upgradeable firmware available via the Elation E-Loader Data Pack.

There are two dimming modes available with the ELAR 108: linear and standard, both offer 0-100% dimming. The ELAR 108 also strobes at 18 flashes per second, has 1,672 total lumens, 4,480 lux and a 100 volt to 240 volt electronic switching power supply pulling a total of 120 watts at maximum output.

The ELAR 108 offers auto and manual control, and four DMX operational modes (4, 5, 7 and 9 channels), a 3 or 5-pin DMX input.  The unit also has 120 v AC ppg connector adaptors available for the IP 67 connectors supplied.  A user-friendly 4-digit LED menu display makes the unit easy to set.

Measuring just 12.4” x 10.6” x 14.5” (315mm x 269mm x 368mm), the 15.4 lb. (7 kgs.) ELAR 108 is easy to transport. Available in Black or Silver finish – the Elar 108 RGBW Par is cETLus approved and has an MSRP of $1,199.95.

For more information, visit Elation’s web site at www.elationlighting.com.

American DJ Announces Remote Controlled RGB LED Fixtures

Looking to cut the cables and still have some color?  American DJ has the perfect solution for you.  They just announced four new LED fixtures that cut the DMX cable and operate off a hand held infrared remote control.

The first two fixtures are RGB LED par cans, the PRO38B LED RC and the PRO64B LED RC. Both of the par cans use high power 1 watt LEDs.  The PRO38 has 12 LEDs while the PRO64 doubles that at 24 LEDs. The LEDs are evenly split between red, green and blue. Both fixtures offer 30 degree beam spread and 50,000 lamp hours and just 15 watts of power usage for the PRO38 and 30 watts for the PRO64.

American DJ also introduced to color bar fixtures, the Mega Bar 50RGB RC and the Mega Bar LED RC. Both of the Mega Bar fixtures offers a mixture of red, green and blue LEDs to wash almost any surface you can thing of with almost any color of the spectrum.  Additionally, American DJ is stating that the Mega Bar LED fixtures offer 100,000 lamp hours and only draws 30 watts of power.

All four of the LED RC fixtures comes with a hand held wireless infrared RC remote controller that gives you the ability to change any of the fixtures color with presets or manually all from a “tv” style remote.  Now don’t think you can sit back of house and control fixtures in a lay-z-boy.  The remote has a maximum distance of 15 feet.

Learn more about the LED RC fixtures by visiting American DJ web site at www.americandj.com.

Martin Professional Introduces IP66 LED Fixture: Tripix Wash

Martin Professional announces the latest addition to its very popular Tripix Range™ of products – the Tripix Wash™.

The Tripix Wash is a stylish IP66 lighting fixture with superb color mixing, thanks to pre-mixed LEDs and custom lenses, which eliminate unwanted color separation.  The result is no color shadows and a broad palette, including stunning whites, subtle pastels and vibrant saturated colors.

The Tripix Wash is ideal for installations such as flood lighting the sides of buildings or uplighting applications requiring high output (1400 lumens) from a narrow source.  Available in very narrow, narrow, medium or wide beam angles, the Tripix Wash also works seamlessly with the existing Tripix linear fixtures – Tripix 300 and 1200™.

All Tripix fixtures can run in parallel on the same line of slim and robust cabling from a choice of indoor or outdoor IP66 power supplies.  Control is very easy using either standard DMX or sixty-four prebuilt standalone programs.

You can learn more about the Martin Tripix LED by visiting their website at www.martin.com.

Rosco Introduces LitePad Axiom and LitePad HO+

Last week, Rosco Labs introduced the newest member to the LitePad family, the LitePad Axiom.  Back at LDI 2010, you got a sneak peak of the Axiom from Chad Tiller giving a quick run through of the 100 years of Rosco.  In the video, Chad mentioned some of the latest products that Rosco is preparing to announce and one of them is The LitePad Axiom.

The LitePad Axiom has a steel and aluminum housing is designed not only to protect the light source, but to make a variety of mounting solutions quick and easy. The back of the housing has a universal mounting system allowing the LitePad Axiom to be affixed with brackets to C-Stands or mounted with Velcro, rubber bands or other conventional methods. The housing includes a gel slot for adding Roscolux or Cinegel color or diffusion.

An interior connection in the LitePad unit assures secure electrical connection. The slim profile, low heat and power consumption and outstanding quality of light make LitePad Axiom an excellent choice for professionals everywhere.

The new Axiom also features two color temperatures, daylight (approx. 5800K) and tungsten (approx. 3800K). With tungsten and daylight LitePads, which have equal light output, there is no need to color correct your LitePad, losing valuable light intensity. LitePad’s minimum green content allows for high color rendering and great film and digital photography.

LITEPAD HO+

LitePad HO+ looks and performs similar to the current LitePad HO fixtures. HO+ continues to allow photographers and filmmakers to hide, tape, Velcro and rubber band LitePads in the areas they need that extra kiss of soft, indirect light. The upgraded differences between LitePad HO and Litepad HO+ are: LED’s on ALL edges, interior connector and the number one requested upgrade – now available in Daylight or Tungsten balanced units.

Except for the larger 12″x12″ & 24″x24″ units, most of the original LitePads only had LED’s on two edges. LitePad HO+ fixtures have LED’s on all four edges no matter what the size. This change becomes particularly significant for the 6″x6″ and 6″x12″ sizes. Those two units had the same number of LED’s as their thinner 3″x6″ and 3″x12″ counterparts; meaning that even though they were larger they didn’t generate significantly more light, they just illuminated more surface area of the unit. Now that these two HO+ units have LED’s on all four edges – they are noticeably brighter and much more useful. In my opinion – the 6″x6″ unit is the perfect light choice to mount directly to smaller cameras and the 6″x12″ Axiom just became the most efficient and useful unit of the range.

To learn more about the LitePad Axiom and the LitePad HO+, visit Rosco’s web site at www.rosco.com.

Sunday YouTube Videos

LEDs can be so much fun. ESPECIALLY when used as eye candy! One perfect example of an LED fixture that excelles at eye candy is the Barco/ High End ShowPix fixture.  On top of eye candy, the ShowPix is able to produce some pretty amazing colors in an even field.  Take a look at the demo reels from High End Systems on the ShowPix to see what it can do.  Then, if you have enough of them lined up, why not play a little pac-man?

The Black Tank Introduces the BrickBlaster PRO LED Fixture

This is a perfect example of how big tradeshows are and how much I miss due to that fact.  A month after LDI, I have been turned on to a new LED fixture that was introduced at the show, the BrickBlaster Pro from The Black Tank.

There are two versions of the BrickBlaster Pro, the RGBW and the Warm/Cool White fixture.  The first thing that stuck me about the fixtures is the ability to transfer the LED boards between fixtures!  Say you need more RGBW fixtures, change out the Warm/Cool White LED board on a fixture, and change it to an RGBW LED board. How cool is that?!

One BrickBlaster is 4″ cubed and draws just 50 watts of power, put puts out 1200 lumens per “brick”. Using latest Rebel LED technology and an innovative, patent pending, management system, it is capable of outputting 1200 Lumens cool while doing it.

The BRICKBLASTER PRO can be controlled using two universes of full speed 8 or 16 bit DMX512 or by selecting internal preprogrammed effects using the rear mounted LCD panel. A fixture set in Manual or Color Wash mode will output DMX allowing for multi-light synchronization. These options make the BRICKBLASTER PRO ideal for users with or without an external control source. Additional features include, automatic thermal shut down, flicker-free operation, low noise fan, 120VAC Neutrik Powercon Input, 5-Pin DMX connections, LCD control panel with intuitive user interface, three user selectable tungsten dimming curves and many more.

This BRICKBLASTER PRO is designed to allow for field replacement of key components including the LED module, power supply, control board and fan. The fixture is sold individually or in custom ruggedized, watertight road cases in two or eight pack bundles. To fit all applications, the BRICKBLASTER PRO also comes standard with three different holographic light shaping diffusing films: 20, 40 and 60 degree are included with each light.

I highly recommend jumping over to The Black Tank’s website, www.theblacktank.com, and checking out the 2 minute video about the BrickBlaster fixtures.  While there, learn more about the fixtures and how to pick one up.

Elation Releases TVL2000 White LED Mixing Fixture

Back at LDI, I got a sneak peak at Elation’s newest LED product for the TV and Film market, the TVL2000.  Don’t let the name frighten you, TVL2000 sounds like some killer robot from the Simpsons or Futurama, but no, it’s not, it’s just LED!

Elation designed the TVL2000 to be the “ultimate LED broadcast light,” the fixture is equipped with 450 cool white and 450 warm white LEDs that can be combined to adjust color temperature from 3200°K to 6500°K.  The unit provides a 30° beam angle standard and produces up to 98 foot candles @ a 10’ throw.

Using either onboard controls or a standard DMX-512 controller, operators can blend the LEDs to create any shade of white, from cool natural daylight to soft warm tungsten – or anything in between.  The versatile TVL2000 makes it possible to instantly customize studio lighting to complement any skin tone or production environment with a soft, even white output.  The panel also features full 0-100% dimming capabilities, so users can fade in and out and control the intensity of the light.  A 4-way barn door system around the LED source allows light to be directed precisely to the desired area of illumination, and a magnetic gel/filter holder allows users to add frost or diffusion easily.

The TVL2000 features a dual yoke design, ideal for mounting on a stand, hanging in the lighting grid or floor positioning.  It has built in power supply from 100-240v with IEC power in/out link capability. Each unit draws just 76 watts of power at full.  The unit is also CE and cETLus approval pending. It measures 14.6” x 13” x 4.3”/ 371 x 328 x 110mm, and weighs 13.7 lbs./ 6.2 kgs.

Martin Professional Announces EasyPix, Super Simple LED Striplight

Easypix by Martin Professional is a modular, plug-and-play LED striplight designed to enhance interior spaces in a wide variety of applications. It is built for ultimate ease-of-use with full spectrum RGB color mixing, a choice of diffuser lenses, and an exceptionally easy means of installation.

Easypix is exceptionally bright compared to similar products in its range with an RGB color mixing system that excels at producing saturated colors. Four easy-to-swap beam options are available – very narrow, narrow, medium and wide – and an attractive design allows Easypix to blend inconspicuously into existing architecture.

Easypix is available in two lengths – 300 mm (1 ft) and 1200 mm (4 ft) – for greater design flexibility and is simple to assemble and set up. Multiple units can be daisy chained via RJ 45 connectors and Easypix can easily be clicked onto any standard 35mm DIN top-hat rail, limiting installation and set-up time. Easypix includes multiple control options (RGB and HSI) for simple to comprehensive control. Sixty-four ready-to-go stand-alone programs provide for ultimate ease of use.

Built for simplicity with a price tag that reflects its straightforward design, Easypix has been engineered to Martin’s high quality standards with little to no service needed. Learn more about the Martin EasyPix by visiting their website at www.martin.com.

GLP Ignition Truss Toner System

GLP or German Light Products debuted a new truss toner system at LDI this year.

It has quite a few things going for it- relatively light weight, 5 pin data and Powercon pass through, great color rendering, and pretty bright based on the number of LEDs it has. Oh, can’t forget that it’s RDM compliant.

There are removable wings on the sides so the unit can sit snuggly at the base of an upright truss or used to secure it in a flown truss. And see those corners? They fit just on the inside of the truss bolts.

According to the rep on the floor that I spoke to there is only a 12 square truss model but plans for larger and irregular sizes are in the works. At time of writing there is still nothing on their website, and no price was mentioned.