In search of something like Neoflex

emoreth

Member
I'm looking at Neoflex or something similar for our high school ministry's room (we're renovating it this summer), but the stuff I've come across so far has all been slightly disappointing. I have yet to find a version that meets all of my 4 criteria for good fake neon:
  1. Controllable by DMX (or dimmer, if DMX can't be had)
  2. Diffused, so it looks like actual neon
  3. From a company that makes reasonably reliable stuff
  4. Multi-colored (RGBA if possible)
The first 3 are the most important, but number 4 would be great; we currently have no clue about the room's color scheme, and all the other colored lighting fixtures in there will be DMX-driven multicolored LEDs. Anyone know of a product that would do exactly what we're looking for, or at least one that comes close?
 
Sorry to say this but it doesn't exist as an off the shelf product. Ive spent a significant amount of time looking for this exact same thing and any RGB flex neon that you find online is not worth it. This look, the thin lines of color changing neon, has become really popular in the entertainment industry among designers of late. Its being requested on a lot of award shows and rock and roll tours but for some reason there is no manufacturer that makes an off the shelf product for this. There are a lot of companies out there that sell RGB and RGB+ LED tape and most of them also sell some sort of aluminium extrusion that you can put it in with different diffusion caps to help you achieve this look but that only works if you want straight lines. If you want something to do curves your going to have to come up or pay for a custom solution.
 
Some 90 LED per meter tape with a layer of silk diffusion bonded to it might produce adequate results but there is some amount of DIY involved. Elation markets what appears to be 60 LED/m the tape and power supplies.
 
This would be permanent install (like 5+ years), so DIY is not really an option. I'm sad to hear that no one's making the stuff we're looking for, but fake neon may not fit into our budget now anyway. I found out today that we're being pushed into building a pure LED system in a room where we're likely to shoot video, so all of a sudden I've gotta get Seladors for our primary stage lighting.
 
Check out Strand's PL line of LED fixtures while you're looking, if for no other reason than to keep your ETC dealer competitive....

I've looked myself for color mixing LED neon substitutes, and it just isn't out there. There's some good-looking single-color stuff in the advertising sign industry, but they're not into color changing, so that's a big, big market that isn't interested in the product right now. Most of the single color LED strips are able to be dimmed on 0-10 vdc analog signals, so that's an easy conversion from DMX. Your best bet might simply to run three or four single colors side-by-side, but that would be pricey.

There used to be some fiber optic tubes/rods that were bendable, and color mixing could be achieved at the light source. Not sure if they're still on the market, though.
 
You can buy some side glow fiber optic cable and then connect it to a fiber optic illuminator and that would give you a neon look. If you look for it on the web you can usually find it pretty inexpensively. You can also run an illuminator on both ends with different colors and put in a rotating twinkle wheel on both for some cool looks.
 
Wonder if anyone's come up with an LED replacement light source for existing fiber optics...?
 
Had neo-flex rgb. Hated it. Finicky, smelled horribly of manufacturing chemicals, bad color rendering, failure prone. Neo-Neon is the epitome of a chinese maufacturer. Inconsistent lots, design changes with no documentation. Will not support you. Had multiple bad out of box fixtures that they would not warranty.

Replaced with Side emitting fiber as mentioned above. For a source I used Dicon's FL5100 http://www.fiberlamp.com/products/fiber_lamp_fl5100b.php.
They work well, but this was before the Mainlight version was out. I have not used their version. http://www.mainlight.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=302&Itemid=54
Only complaints with the heads are that the addressing requires a computer and USB connection, and the twinkle wheel does not move out pf the light path. I removed the fiber wheels from my units to get more output.
 
This stuff is interesting: http://www.elbestbuy.com/, but I see no mention of DMX control or color mixing. I remember American DJ marketing something similar back in the 90's called "Live Wire". Basically, it was a copper core with electroluminescent coating. I believe this is the same type of stuff, which would imply that you order a color and that's what you're stuck with.
 
This stuff is interesting: http://www.elbestbuy.com/, but I see no mention of DMX control or color mixing. I remember American DJ marketing something similar back in the 90's called "Live Wire". Basically, it was a copper core with electroluminescent coating. I believe this is the same type of stuff, which would imply that you order a color and that's what you're stuck with.
El wire can be a solution; however, it too is very finicky. I have found that an extremely dark room is required for it to have a vibrant pop. Combined with other onstage lighting, it gets washed out very easily.
 
EL Wire can also be noisy- the intensity is a factor of frequency modulation and voltage finding the right power inverter for the length can be tricky. I had an experience in which the inverter was producing a whining sound that most people found infuriating and caused audio folks to implode.
 

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