Matthews Studio Introduces New Grip Equipment – NAB2010

I stopped the Matthews Studio Equipment booth at NAB.  Matthews always has some new and neat grip equipment to solve any gaffers problems.  This year was no disappointment.  My favorite sales rep Pam Hoffman showed me around the booth and all the cool new stuff. The first one being the Hot Flags. Matthews has a patent on a new type of fabric that with stand the extremely hot temperatures of HMI lights on the fabric even at close range. Matthews put together a great little video comparing the new Hot Flag to a standard Metal Flag.

Next up was something that was hard to miss in Matthews booth, the CT overheads.  Matthews has a new set of overheads that not only diffuse light coming through, but also adjust the color temperature of the light based on which overhead you are using.  You have a choice between a 3200k and a 5600k with a grid cloth or standard diffusion. You also have a number of options is sizing as well.

If you have ever worked with a matthellini, you always wish there was a long version then 3″.  In steps the Extendallini.  Matthews has made something that is so simple, it boggles the mind that no one has thought about this before.  Rather then making longer and longer Matthellini’s, Matthews has created an 112″ extension rode for their center jaw matthellini’s.  You can add as many Extendallini’s you want together to get that center jaw where ever you want.  Matthews put together another great video showing the 101 ways to use an Extendallini. If you watch any video’s today, make sure this is one of them, I can not stop laughing!

Last, but certainly not least, is Matthews MicropGrip equipment.  Matthews has their Oversized grip equipment at 4.5″, the standard sized grip equipment at 2.5″ and there MiniGrip Equipment.  It looks like Matthews is not making grip equipment for Smurf’s!  Make sense since their is a Smurf’s movie on the way.  Just Kidding Matthews! They designed an even small grip equipment, the MicroGrip for smaller cameras for mounting in tight places and on car’s.  My favorite part of the MicroGrip series is the new MicroSand bag and the standard Matthews Roach Clip. Matthews put together yet another great video explaining the MicroGrip Equipment.

I love Matthews and their grip equipment.  They are always thinking out side of the box and looking for simpler ways to do things.  To learn more about what Matthews has to offer, visit their web site at www.msegrip.com. Thanks for the demo’s Pam!

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Prism Projection Introduces Reveal Studio LED Fixture – NAB 2010

While at NAB last week, I ran into one of my good friends Miles Dudgeon from Prism Projection.  After geeking out for a bit together on the show floor over some Zeiss len’s and other photography things, Miles walked me back to his booth to show me their latest product.  Garrett Young, the President of Prism Projection did a quick demo of their latest product, the Reveal Studio LED fixture.

Just like their first product, the Reveal CW, the Reveal Studio uses Red, Green, Blue, Amber and Cyan LEDs. The fixture is designed for use in studio applications as well as on location or any other use where a color mixing fixture can be used. Just like almost all of the new fixtures shown at NAB, Prism Projection has not added the Reveal Studio fixture to their web site, www.prismprojection.com. Look for ore information on this fixture and something new from Prism in the near future.

Thanks Miles and Garrett!

Videssence Introduces ExceLED Fixtures at NAB 2010

While at NAB, Videssnce got into the LED market by introducing their latest series of fixtures, the ExceLED. What stands out about Videssence’s ExceLED 100 fixture is it ability to focus the beam from a spot to a flood with out the use of filters, diffusion or any other medium put in front of the light.  The ExceLED 100 is focusable similar to a fresnel fixture in that you have a knob in the back to dial in the spot or flood of the fixture.

In addition to the ExceLED 100, Videssence also offers an ExceLED 50 and ExceLED 25.  Each of the fixtures use the same 25 watt “brick” of LEDs.  So on the ExceLED 25, it is just one of the LED bricks while the ExceLED 50 uses two 25 watt “bricks” and the ExceLED 100 uses four 25 watt “bricks”.

Each of the fixtures are amazingly bright and produce a clean even field of light.  Since they are developed in house by Videssence, they are well constructed and solid just like Videssence’s other lines of Florescent fixtures. If I remember correctly, the fixtures are ready to ship from Videssence.

Additional information on Videssence’s ExceLED fixtures has not made it to their web site as of yet, www.videssence.tv.  For pricing and more information, you will have to contact your local Videssence dealer.

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NAB2010 – Zylight Introduces Active Diffusion LCD Panel

One of the neatest things that I saw at NAB last week had to be the Active Diffusion from Zylight.  You can dial in any amount of diffusion with the Active Diffusion to soften your low heat lights, such as an LED or Fluorescent light fixture. The Active Diffusion uses Liquid Crystals or LCD screen to make the panel transparent to a diffusion about as dense as Lee Filters 216, White Diffusion gel.  The entire screen runs off a 9 volt battery and comes in three different sizes at the moment.

Since the product is still new and not ready to ship, it has not yet been added to Zylight’s web site, www.zylight.com.  I was able to get a short video from Charlie Collias from Zylight explaining the Active Diffusion while at NAB.

Kezia LED Fixture – NAB 2010

It seemed that NAB was just like LDI, the trade show of LEDs, but hey, why not, they are only getting better.  One of the booths that I was told over and over again to see as well as a personal invite was PRG Distribution.  In the PRG booth was a company and fixture that I have never heard of, Gekko Technologies.  From looking over their web site, www.gekkotechnology.com, Gekko makes LED lighting solutions for the TV, Film and Photography markets.

Gekko was showing off two of their latest products, the Kezia 50 and 200. They are designed for shooting on location or in the studio with the ability to go from 2900k, 3200k, 5600k and 6500k. The fixtures can be ordered with a white optimized array of a wider saturated color ranger well suited for theatre and architectural markets.

The fixture operate on 90-264 volts  with 50 watts power draw on the Kezia 50 and 190 watt power draw on the Kezia 200. What is impressive is the light output on the fixtures.  At 12ft, the Kezia 50 outputs 42 foot candles while the Kezia 200 outputs 60 foot candles.

To learn more about the Gekko Kezia 50 & 200, visit their web site at www.gekkotechnology.com.

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DeSisti Lighting Introduces DE LED Fixture at NAB 2010

DeSisti Lighting announced their latest product at NAB last week, the DE LED fixture.  While it is still a prototype, DeSisti showed off their idea of what a TV Studio LED should be.  Frank Kosuda from DeSisti Lighting was kind enough to give a quick over view of the first LEDs from DeSisti.  To learn more enough about DeSisti’s DE LED fixture, visit their web site at www.desisti.it.

LitePanels Sola Series LED Fresnel Video at NAB 2010

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.

NAB 2010 – Done and Gone

That’s it, that is all she wrote for NAB 2010 in Las Vegas.  The show floor closed down about five hours ago and things moved quick to get exhibitors out of the hall.  Some people were done in an hour, others will be there through the weekend with such massive booths to break down.

My time spent on the show floor was a wonderful experience, and a tiring on at that too!  With that show floor expanding across North, Central and South halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and other off site locations, there was just not enough time in the day to walk the entire show floor. I was mainly stuck to central hall this year as that is where I was doing interviews in the SeaChanger booth along with all most all of the lighting exhibitors being located there as well.  Just walking the Central hall was quite the task, but still so worth it.

If you have any interest on top of lighting in broadcast, production, content creation and acquisition, you really must attend NAB next year!  There are devices from the beginning level all the way up to the HD production and broadcast level.  Seeing as I am still on the beginning level of video and audio acquisition, I was drooling over some of the latest and greats cameras, production equipment and tools. And remeber, this was just things that I saw in central hall! Who knows what I missed in the other halls!

Some of the great lighting products that I saw were mainly LED products.  It seems that everyone is “in the game” now with getting an LED product out on the market. While I would love to go on and on about them right now, I have to prepare for tonights dinner with the great folks at SeaChanger.  During the weekend and going on into next week I will be putting up some video’s I made during my time here at NAB along with more details and info about some of the new products coming to the market.

I also will be putting up some great interviews that I did in the SeaChanger booth with some lighting designers and of course, the SeaChanger Duck. I want to give a HUGE shout out to SeaChanger, especially Beth, Tom and Phil for bringing me to NAB to cover and do interviews on the show floor.  I had a blast here in Vegas and am so grateful for this opportunity! Even though SeaChanger brought me out to NAB, I really think you should look at the Nemo Plasma color mixing fixture.  All signs point to a great and cool fixture!

Make sure to mark your calendar for next years NAB Show, April 9-11 in Las Vegas!

More NAB 2010 Photos

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NAB 2010 – Day Two with Photos

Day two of NAB 2010 is done and gone. The day started off pretty awesome for me. I was invited to take a back stage tour of KA at the MGM Grand. Let me tell you, what an AWESOME experience! Seeing backstage at a Las Vegas Circqu show is unbelievable with KA especially. The amount of lifts, nets hydraulics, motors mad motion control involved in the show is just crazy! I was able to snap a couple of photos from front of house, not so much from backstage though, sorry.

After the tour back stage, it was a short trip on the Las Vegas Monorail to the convention center to visit and see more exciting products on the show floor. Let me tell you, some of the things I witnessed today were pretty thrilling. I saw over six, yes, six new LED fixtures that were hands down crazy excellent. DiSisti’s upcoming RGBW LED fixture is very bright and pretty damn affordable at under $2000. Videssence also has a couple new focusable LED fixture that are insanely bright. There was also a new studio LED fixture from Prism Projection, a new TV and Film LED that is being distributed by PRG.

I plan on going into GREAT detail about each of these fixtures quite soon. If you are in Vegas still for NAB, make sure to stop by the previously mentioned booths, these LED fixtures will knock your socks off!

I have a dinner date rapidly approaching here so I will leave you with some photos from around the show floor. Stay tuned for updates during the show tomorrow!

Photos from Day two at NAB 2010

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Day One from NAB 2010

Day one of NAB is in the bag, to bad I missed a good portion of it.  I spent most of yesterday traveling to Las Vegas for the NAB Show. I did how ever get a chance to get over to the show for the last two hours.  After making a delivery for Nila and find Beth, Tom and Phil at the SeaChanger booth and doing a quick interview, I had some time to quickly walk a fraction on the show floor to say hi to some friends.

After the show closed at 6pm, we all piled into the SeaChanger Suburban to head back to Treasure Island.  It is at this point everyone asked me which side of the hotel my room is on.  Well, when I checked in a asked for a strip view, why not right, pretty lights and an over head view of the pirate show below.  That is when everyone in the car began to laugh at me.  Apparently the pirate show goes until midnight and is very loud and will keep me awake. And yes, they were correct, it was very loud, but I had the iPod kicking a little music to put me to sleep so no harm, no foul.

Seeing as I was still three hours ahead of Vegas, I needed to get to sleep and get refreshed for today. Look for photos from day 2 of NAB here later today, or for those of you back home, first thing in the morning.

NAB Show in Vegas This Week

This week brings the NAB Show or National Association of Broadcasters trade show in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada. I am here this week doing two things, covering the show for our friends and colleges in the TV and Film world. Hey, they have lighting needs too you know! And second, helping out some great friends by being some an air talent!

The fine folks at SeaChanger asked me to join them at NAB to to interview lighting designers from both the theatrical and tv/film world. We’ll be doing interviews all week long right in the SeaChanger booth for use on SeaChangers web site. Why interview folks like this on the show floor and not on a professional sound stage? Part of the draw with NAB is to show tv and film folks how to use and incorporate products into their news gathering efforts. SeaChanger plans on showing attendees and walker-bys just how effective the Nemo is in lighting for camera.

If you haven’t heard of the SeaChanger Nemo, it’s a Plasma light source that not only cuts energy use in over half, but last longer and is even brighter, and hey, it can dial in a specific color too! Rather then me keep drooling over the Nemo here, stop by the SeaChanger booth, C6844 in Vegas and we’ll let the Nemo prove it self!

LitePanels Introduces Sola LED Fresnel Series at #NABShow

I’ve got to take this one right from the Press Release:

Litepanels, A Vitec Group company, brings the Fresnel into the 21st century with the new Sola series. Offering beam control of 70° to 10°, the revolutionary new Solas provide the controllability and single-shadow properties inherent in a Fresnel light, but utilize just a fraction of the power of conventional fixtures.

Like all Litepanels, Sola Fresnels feature instant dimming from 100% to 0 with no noticeable color shift. The SolaENG, designed for on-camera mounting, provides manual focus and dimming control via camera-like ergonomic controls. The Sola6 and Sola12 provide on-fixture manual control of focus and dimming via a convenient touch screen, and are also controllable via DMX. Output is fully flicker free, and remains consistent even as the battery voltage goes down.

Employing Litepanels’ ultra-efficient LEDs, Solas draw just 1/10 the amount of power to provide the same illumination of a conventional tungsten Fresnel, with very little heat generation. The cool-to-the-touch feature of LED lights doesn’t just cut down on air conditioning requirements. Since they don’t require the heat dissipation and protection necessary for conventional Fresnels, the Solas weigh only 1/3 as much as their HMI and tungsten predecessors. What’s more, they have no external ballasts. The fixtures have a universal AC input and can be used on any consumer power source in the world.

Want to learn more about Litepanels new Sola Series of products? If you are in Las Vegas this week for the NAB show, make sure to stop by Litepanels booth at #C6025. You can alos find more information on Litepanels website at www.litepanels.com.