LDI 2018, Day 1

The likeness of the VL5/500 just won't die! I have always loved the look of that fixture. One of the only ones where I want the lens to be visible to the audience. A little nervous about what the MSRP will be, though.

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They told me in the $8k-9K range which sounds pretty reasonable to me. The light looks like on of those things that designers will love and maintainers will hate.
 
They told me in the $8k-9K range which sounds pretty reasonable to me. The light looks like on of those things that designers will love and maintainers will hate.

I've actually found the radial system of the VL500 to be pretty reliable and robust (falls and other physical damage notwithstanding). But I know there is more to this fixture than just the moving vanes up front. Seems like I also heard that it can do gobo projection as well?

Interestingly, a friend of mine who works at VL said those front vanes don't even move and are just for show. However, I saw a video of them very clearly collapsing to allow max diffusion, so I'm not sure what he knows or has seen. I guess it makes sense that they'd be a bit salty over there. They've been on edge ever since the Philips buyout.
 
They definitely move, I watched them open and close myself, and wow, they make a huge difference in diffusion.
 
I've actually found the radial system of the VL500 to be pretty reliable and robust (falls and other physical damage notwithstanding). But I know there is more to this fixture than just the moving vanes up front. Seems like I also heard that it can do gobo projection as well?

Interestingly, a friend of mine who works at VL said those front vanes don't even move and are just for show. However, I saw a video of them very clearly collapsing to allow max diffusion, so I'm not sure what he knows or has seen. I guess it makes sense that they'd be a bit salty over there. They've been on edge ever since the Philips buyout.

They can rotate 90 degrees from completely flat to where they are parallel to the light as it come out of the fixture. The guys at the booth made it very clear that "they are made to be edge lit". I'm not sure what that means exactly, but they did read nicely even when completely "open". The fixture itself is a spot type unit with gobo wheels and things like that. Can also do split colors and breakups with just the LED engine which I thought was pretty darn neat. Not sure if there would be an actual efficiency or thermal benefit to doing it this way or if it's just a unique feature for the sake of being unique.
 
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They can rotate 90 degrees from completely flat to where they are parallel to the light as it come out of the fixture. The guys at the booth made it very clear that "they are made to be edge lit". I'm not sure what that means exactly, but they did read nicely even when completely "open". The fixture itself is a spot type unit with gobo wheels and things like that. Can also do split colors and breakups with just the LED engine which I thought was pretty darn neat. Not sure if there would be an actual efficiency or thermal benefit to doing it this way or if it's just a unique feature for the sake of being unique.
I believe they said it goes down to a 3 degree beam angle. So it's a sort of Sharpie too.
 
It does quite a nice (nearly) hard edge fat beam. You'd never project a logo with the gobos in here, but they do some nice break up and aerial effects. The vanes up front are made to be seen. They do a really nice job when edge lit of making the face of the fixture pretty, and double duty as a good wide angle diffusion to get a little more wash effect out of the fixture. With 6000 lumen output, the price is about right for a fixture that has some nice eye candy as well as enough output to do a decent stage wash.
 

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