We will do just that....it is on our list for the next month.
Be sure to bring the Gel to USITT. I'm sure there are some of our CB members who didn't get to see it at LDI who would love to take a look and chat with @Joel N about it and any updates to the product.
 
Gel Update: We have not done anything additional since LDI. Our team has been buried with a lot of outside projects. We will be at USITT with my super secret demo kit. Bring anyone by the booth and I will go over it with them.
 
Gel Update: We have not done anything additional since LDI. Our team has been buried with a lot of outside projects. We will be at USITT with my super secret demo kit. Bring anyone by the booth and I will go over it with them.
@Joel N Have you any updates to offer? (And what has happened to @GreyWyvern ?)
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Ron,
Sorry to report no additional updates. Our outside project work has gone a little through the roof and this swamps the R&D team. I will come back if anything changes. Feel free to bump me any time.
@Joel N and / or @GreyWyvern Bumping for any / all further updates?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Hmmmm, the original press release wasn't on April 1 by any chance? Ah, nope, never mind.
 
Most interesting aspect for me is the split colors.
I have a hard time trusting the comparison of printed vs conventional gels.
And since I'm probably guilty of overusing the super popular colors in my conventional fixtures knowing I have LEDs and movers for all the crazy stuff, I'm less likely to be sad when an obscure color disappears.
I think what would be more exciting is pushing the envelope of what can be printed and knowing that the industry is going so far LED, the possibility of holographic gels that could color shift as you change focus in a S4 or something like that.
 
Lots of good thoughts. I think it's ultimately a really cool idea and could come in handy as a situational option, but I need to play with it before I can imagine a printed product being the new norm. As for cost, until it out-prices lamps or tape, gel is the often the least of my budget problems. I've also never run into a problem with discontinued colors -- I guess I haven't had to order the right one yet. There are some exciting possibilities though for sure. I've had designers want me to order a random green, for example, hate that green and ask for another option. Argggg... I could see the benefit to ordering a sheet of a green gradient from which they could cut several options. Also the idea of printed color combinations/patterns is exciting -- especially inside a gobo rotator
 
The original post/link is dead, but from what I gather this is like Kodak and Polaroid's last-ditch products in the 2000's that they put out hoping nostalgia would win, rather than adapting to new tech.
 
The original post/link is dead, but from what I gather this is like Kodak and Polaroid's last-ditch products in the 2000's that they put out hoping nostalgia would win, rather than adapting to new tech.

Honestly, this is the company recognizing that the world is changing and preparing for that. Even with products such as the S4 LED products, the long throws at some venues will still require incandescent or arc fixtures for some time to come. With more and more adoptions to LED, there is less demand for colored medium, some colors in particular. So, this is the opportune time to be looking for less expensive means to produce a product that will still be needed by some and not getting to the point that you go out of business due to sticking to the old ways.
 
I was just reading the most recent Protocol. Mike Woods on LED color had me thinking we could see a lot of white only fixtures, and therefore gel.
 
I don't know if gels have gone the way of film. Digital cameras are most definitely ubiquitous and LED fixtures are going that way as well, but most professional LED lighting IS white, especially in photography and film. CTB and CTO are always going to be huge full sheet cuts clothes pinned for a couple days and then stashed away.
I've mentioned this in another thread, but I strongly prefer the look of a white LED S4 with a gel or a moving light to an Lustr Source Four.

My personal opinion is, for theatre, front light will always be white source with gel with specials and downs trending heavily RGB.
Rock and Roll, whole different story.
 
I was just reading the most recent Protocol. Mike Woods on LED color had me thinking we could see a lot of white only fixtures, and therefore gel.
I had a discussion several years ago on this topic. 95% (maybe more) of the money spent on researching new energy efficient light sources is being spent on white light sources that mimic traditional incandescent lights. While our industry loves the deep saturated colors at times, the real money is in light sources for homes and offices.

Applying some basic lighting design theory, we may find that a hybrid solution is best. My theater has 60 Source fours with the classic R02/R60 gel combination as front light. I then have a variety of color LED fixtures for top, side, and back light. It works very well. To steal a term from ETC, In the future, I would like to add a "layer" of color LED light to the front wash to expand my flexibility from the front. One LED fixture added to every area of the stage currently targeted by one of those R02/R60, pairs would create some amazing flexibility. When I have a show that's more fun, I love swapping in some 33 pink, or other light pastel colors for other moods. It's all about light pastels from the front and deeper colors from the back, top, and sides. So I see a strong argument for the idea of really good white LED's with low saturation gel for front light.
 
Sounds intriguing - but I have a number of questions.
1 - what are you selling? A machine that prints gel, sheets of material I can put in my epson printer, special inks I can put in my printer or what? If selling a machine whats the footprint?
2 - Whats the price point and cost per sheet?
3 - What is the anticipated time to print a sheet of 'pastel' color ( like R02) How about an intense color ( R80)
4 - What is the cost difference in an R80 vs a R02 ( ink costs).

For me I would have to know:
What is my cost per sheet using your product?
What is the upfront costs for setting things up .
How quickly does it print?

If the answers are favorable - yes I would be interested. If it costs $20000 for the machine - and a sheet of acetate is $8.00 and it takes 10 minutes - probably not.
( Assuming of course that the gel it produces is good color, does not quickly fade, etc);

John Chenault
The majority of the above inquiries AND would i be able to print numerous cuts in different hues on one sheet in one pass; two cuts of R08 and two cuts of R59?
 
The majority of the above inquiries AND would I be able to print numerous cuts in different hues on one sheet in one pass; two cuts of R08 and two cuts of R59?
@klimbo Did you notice how old this thread is? Let me employ the Control Booth Forum's 'Bat Call' to garner an Apollo employee's attention to your query. @GreyWyvern can you help poster @klimbo ?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
All right, I'll bite.

The Apollo PrintedGel product line is still in development and a planned product line. We finished the super duper, high-resolution laser ablation upgrade to our glass gobo product line, leaving us some room to further pursue this.

More info will be released as it becomes available-
 
@klimbo Did you notice how old this thread is? Let me employ the Control Booth Forum's 'Bat Call' to garner an Apollo employee's attention to your query. @GreyWyvern can you help poster @klimbo ?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

All right, I'll bite.

The Apollo PrintedGel product line is still in development and a planned product line. We finished the super duper, high-resolution laser ablation upgrade to our glass gobo product line, leaving us some room to further pursue this.

More info will be released as it becomes available-
thank you all for help
i know it's old thread but just want to know
best regards bro's
 
The majority of the above inquiries AND would i be able to print numerous cuts in different hues on one sheet in one pass; two cuts of R08 and two cuts of R59?
After seeing the prototype, talking with Joel (Owner of Apollo) and my friends from Apollo here on CB about it a couple times last year. My impression was that they were experimenting with and perfecting the process in their spare time, slowly developing it to something they will consider producing. But they were nowhere near this being a product they were ready to go into full scale production with when this conversation started in November 2017.

At the same time the question of, "How do we become the last gel manufacturing company standing as LED's take over?" is one they obviously are thinking about. As demand goes down, the company stuck with a warehouse of gel is going to lose. An alternative process that can be printed to order quickly solves that problem. Adding the ability to include things like custom fades, makes the product more appealing to everyone right now. So there are some big potential wins in this product for them. At the same time, it would require a huge investment in the process and a big change in marketing and how we think about ordering Gel. In a world where people have been using Lee 202 for 40 years and never change their order, how do you convince someone that printed gel is going to be the same color and just as durable? That's a hard marketing fight and if the product isn't perfect immediately they are screwed.

In the end my impression is this has been simmering on the back burner for a while and it's still there slowly cooking. We might see it in 6 months or we might never see it. They were interested in our reaction so it was announced, and as you can see from this thread there was a LOT of interest, but they still aren't ready to announce if this is ever going to be a real product yet. So, they are nowhere near ready to answer the detailed questions that many of us have been asking.

That said, keep your eyes here on CB because if it does happen you'll be first to hear about it here!
 
Ok, does anyone think it's going to be less than a generation before traditional gels go completely out of production? :)
 

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