City Theatrical Announces Vari-Lite VLX Accessories

City Theatrical just put out their March Newsletter with a bit of interesting news.  Looks like City Theatrical is starting to make accessories for Vari-Lite’s VLX LED moving Light. In the announcement of the Vari-Lite accessories, City details why and how they come up with lighting accessories for different types of lights.  A pretty interesting read.

So what are these new accessories for the VLX?  The first one, pictured to the left is City Theatricals, VLX Louver, Part number 2661.  The louver helps stop light leak out the front of the fixture and helps focus the light beam.

The other VLX accessory is the VLX Top Hat, part number 2660.  The top hat is pretty easy to understand what it does. The two new Vari-Lite accessories have not made it to City Theatrical’s web site yet, or a price posted either.

Visit City Theatrical’s web site at www.citytheatrical.com to sign up for their newsletter at the bottom of the home page.

Rumor Mill: Vari*Lite to Introduce a New VLX Series LED Fixture?

We have heard from some friends in the industry talking about Vari*Lite and their next step in the LED market. Not to long ago, Vari*Lite introduced the VLX, an LED wash fixture. What is interesting is that on Vari*Lites own website, they have it listed as the VLX Series. This could only mean one thing, that the Original VLX is not the only one in the line up.

We have heard that Vari*Lite is getting ready to announce a new LED fixture at the LDI Show in Orlando this year.  What we have heard is that they are using one LED engine that would possibly be RGBW just like the VLX.

We have a lot of open ended questions that we ourselves wanted answered but are hitting a brick wall. The Vari*Lite booth, 927, is a must visit this year at LDI not only to see the VLX fixture as well as hopefully get more information and possibly see this new fixture.

JOL Found Inside Images of the Vari-Lite VLX

This is only one of 8 photos JimOnLight.com found of the Super Sexy Vari-Lite VLX! Not only are there great photos of the fixture, but the actual LED Engines and Chip Sets!

Great Find Jim!!!

Update: Vari-Lite VLX LED Light

Vari-Lite has released a preliminary spec sheet on their up coming VLX LED Wash Light. Some of the interesting points of from the Spec Sheet.

• Smooth, high resolution dimming control of R,G,B, and W LED’s.
• Seven x 90 watt RGBW CBM380 LED chipsets. Each chipset contains high density red, green, blue, and white LED emitters.
• Patented, 3:1 optical system with continuously variable field angle from approximately 22° to 60°.
• Color Temp. White: Variable between 3000 and 6500 degrees Kelvin. CRI: 93
• Manufacturer Rated Life: In excess of 50,000 hours. (L10 – 70%) Output: Exceeds 10,000 lumens.
• 62 lbs. (28 kg.) with included pair of hanging rails.

The luminaire offers five-pin DMX in and thru connectors, Ethernet input, and a backlit menu panel for easy installation and operation. Control is achieved through a variety of DMX consoles and output devices. Large, rugged handles  insure easy installation, and subdued style and understated lines allow for seamless integration into any lighting rig or stage setting. Pan and tilt transport/service locks and low fixture weight make moving the VLX as simple and efficient as it’s
operation.

To learn more about the VLX LED light from Vari-Light, visit their website at www.vari-lite.com.  Prices have not been released, but fixtures are expected to begin to ship towards the end of April, beginning of May.  For pricing, visit the dealer section of Vari-Lite’s website.

SETC Comes To A Close

All good things must finialy come to an end. This past week at the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), we saw and heard some pretty amazing things, not only on the show floor, but through out the conference.

To recap the week:

The rumor that Vari-Lite is poised to announce an LED moving light were confirmed by the poster ad prominently displayed in their booth.

Apollo is on the verge of releasing a clip light for use backstage with a gel ring.

Tomcat just announced the newest addition to their light duty 12×12 box truss, CORE.

SETC put out a new publication, Outside the Box, 25 Design-Tech Strategies Publication.

SETC is a great conference for young people from the high school level to grad students to find not only a summer career, but also a life long love of the industry. SETC is offers hundreds of ways for the younger theatre professional to network and meet industry professionals.

Next years conference is being held in Lexington, Kentucky. If you have a chance to make it, we promise it will be a great experience.

Thanks SETC for the memories!

Rumor CONFIRMED: Vari-Lite VLX LED Moving Light

While visiting the Vari-Lite booth here at SETC, we noticed an interesting banner in the booth.  Vari-lite has a blown up ad of their new VLX LED moving light that we hinted about a month ago.  Out contact says that this ad will be running in the March issue of Live Design.

What is interesting is the verbiage on the bottom.  It mentions that,

the VLX is equipped with 630 watts of LED’s yielding 3 times the lumen efficiency of equivalent tungsten sources.  It’s revolutionary modular design provides for easy swap out  of optical and mechanical components.  VLX has a removable zoom system giving users the freedom to configure the luminarie with a fixed focal length of 22 degrees or a variable 3:1 zoom.  The VLX produces perfect color mixing without any distracting color shadows.  The luminarie has an extensive color gambit that offers designers color choices not previously possible with other conventional subtractive or additive systems.  The color temperature is variable and can be seamlessly adjusted between 3200k and 6000k.  Color shifts and strobing are stunningly quick.

We were not able to find our when the VLX may start shipping, but it was hinted at sometime this summer. We were not able to find out much more then what the poster said, but well keep after it for more information.

Rumor Mill Update: Vari-Lite LED Fixture

Just a few weeks ago, we reported a rumor that Vari-lite is in the process of developing an LED moving head. Many of the top lighting designers and dealers were able to view the fixture in a private room at LDI this past year in Las Vegas, at half power (because of limitations of the off the shelf power supplies) and reports were that they were all blown away. Today we have learned more details of the mysterious LED fixture called VLX. The VLX is rumored to be about the same body shape and size of the current VL500 fixture with close to the same weight, 43 lbs. (19.5kg). The VLX is heard to be as bright if not brighter then the VL2500 wash unit with an output of about 13,000 lumens. The fixture does not look like an LED fixture or perform like one, it works and looks, even from the front, like a standard fixture except the colors really pop and are completely homogenized when mixed.   

While we were not able to determine what type of LEDs the VLX uses, it does use RGB (Red, Blue, Green) plus White LED’s. An amber LED may be added in at a later time, but as many people in the industry know, amber LEDs are not quite as bright yet. What is truly amazing about these LEDs is that they are developed exclusively for Vari-Lite and does not use Color Kinetics or Philips brand LEDs. The VLX will also utilize a 3:1 zoom lens (LED zoom?) without the use of any sort of frost diffusion.  

While information is scarce about the VLX right now, we can guesstimate that the fixture will be a little more than the price of a VL2500 Wash. Considering the cost of a moving light that still uses Metal Halide lamps and the VLX uses LED’s, the fixture housing may die long before the LEDs do. We haven’t heard anything about a release date, but chances are something will hit the market before the 2nd quarter of 2009. We also hear that the plan is to release an entire range of fixtures using this technology with par cans, cyc lights and exterior wash fixtures supposedly in the works.

To learn more about the entire line up of moving lights from Vari-Lite, visit their website at www.vari-lite.com.

Please note, the image in this post is a Photochop and NOT the actual image of the VLX.