No, it has nothing to do with Joseph Levy (and brothers) or Edward Kook and their company.
Students only for one week, please.
Students only for one week, please.
What is a "Century Display" and where might one find one?
- Thread starterderekleffew
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MRW Lights
Well-Known Member
RonaldBeal
Well-Known Member
Well, in a round about, six degrees of separation kind of way, it does.
Or more specifically , the origin of the century display, and the results of Kook and Levy's work have converged to exist in the same current entity.
(Hope this is vague enough to obfuscate the answer, but make the connection for those that know!)
No. Derek stated it has nothing to do with Levy and Kook, (Le-Ko) the founders of Century Lighting.
It's been a week. The ban on professionals is hereby lifted.
Let's see if you have our kind of answer!
MRW Lights
Well-Known Member
I ride 100 miles on my bicycle! .... are we talking about bicylces?
Note that the Broadway standard was 5x20: Original Light Palette, Obsession, Obs2
This is actually the answer I was looking for. Century Panel, Century Display, Century Array--all the same thing. And it goes back one more generation beyond the Virtuoso to the Artisan.
Upper left panel. While it may seem today to be an odd way of selecting fixtures, remember this was before touchscreens, and with a skilled operator, was actually faster than typing in numbers.
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Why does the phrase "I've obfuscated bigger shows than this" come to mind? Please expound on the six degrees of separation thing. Is it my imagination, or did Strand not make a version of the new Light Palette VL that had a Century Display?
As most things do. Though that was a bit before me, so I'll take this as a win.
I find the 676's century panel to be a very quick way of dealing with fixture selection.
Bonus question: What is a "Millennium Button"? Potentially related to a "Millennial Button", though I consider that a typo in the naming of the feature in a currently shipping desk.
RonaldBeal
Well-Known Member
Vari-Lite Artisan, then Artisan plus, then Virtuoso, then Virtuoso DX2, then V676 all had century panels. VL was acquired by Genlyte in 2004.
Kook and Levy's company was acquired by Rank Strand in 1969 and became Century Strand in the U.S. Strand was bought by Genlyte in 2006, putting both companies under one corporate roof.
Philips bought Genlyte in 2008, and spun their entertainment lighting companies off as Signify in 2018.
So... "the origin of the century display, (VL), and the results of Kook and Levy's work, (Century), have converged to exist in the same current entity, (Signify)."
RonaldBeal
Well-Known Member
As an aside, the century panel was an incredibly efficient way of selecting fixtures. A double tap on one channel would de-select all other fixtures. Holding down the first fixture in your selection, and then pressing the last fixture in your desired selection would also select all fixtures in between, so instead of "[1] [thru] [8] [0] [enter]". you could just press [1] and [80] and all were selected.
Since the VL systems had full feedback you could also see the status of fixtures and see which lights were online, and which had been lamped on.
Finally, the original Artisan did have a touchscreen.... Orange monochrome resistive touch in the center panel. Because it was early 1980's technology it wasn't the greatest user experience, and the century panel was far better for selecting and status, it was replaced with a storage panel when VL upgraded Artisans to Artisan Plusses.
Since the VL systems had full feedback you could also see the status of fixtures and see which lights were online, and which had been lamped on.
Finally, the original Artisan did have a touchscreen.... Orange monochrome resistive touch in the center panel. Because it was early 1980's technology it wasn't the greatest user experience, and the century panel was far better for selecting and status, it was replaced with a storage panel when VL upgraded Artisans to Artisan Plusses.
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