Hi team,
Here are a few clarifications... WARNING, LONG POST, which some may find commercial in nature.
Yup, these are targeted to both Theatres, HOWs, and professional rental houses.
The Prices a I saw quoted above were much higher than the expected "street price". I would expect that you will see the elipsoidal complete with a high effeciency
lens advertised for under $1500. The
Fresnel will be a couple of hundred less than the
Leko.
The fixtures were developed around the optical engine that we developed for the QSpot 360 & 460. When we first developed this optical
system, it was to find a way of getting far more light using less
power, and generating less heat, using lower
power LEDs. For instance, the QSpot 360 has 3 10
watt LEDs, but outputs far more light than a
unit with a single 60W
LED, And... we discovered that this optical
system had some other incredible advantages.
Firstly, the bottom-end dimming on these fixtures is quite nice (if I do say so myself). Because we use low
power emitters, and because of the way that we drive them, we are able to acheive incredible control over the bottom of the dimming curve. You can use the built in curves (similar to what is in the COLORado fixtures), or (as I would do), you can put them in 16-bit dimming mode, and have 2
channel dimmer control (the same way you have fine Pan and Tilt on a moving head). This will allow you to do a 10 second ghost in to 5% from
blackout, and not see the fixtures "Pop-on" as you would with any of the fixtures out there using high
power LEDs. This, to me, is the key to developing a
fixture for theatrical purposes. If it cannot do this, it's not the right
fixture for this application...Plus, it's really cool, and has to be seen to be appreciated.
Secondly, when I (as a manufacturer) am ordering LEDs for a product, the way that I do so is by specifying a "Bin". With our Pro products, we always specify the tightest
binning that we can. The difference allowed in this tight Bin is called a MacAdams Ellipse. A MacAdams Ellipse is (roughly...look it up if you want a more detailed explanation) defined as an area on the color chart where an average shmoe cannot tell the difference between the color of light at one end or the other. My issue is that neither I, nor my target constituency (Lighting Designers) are average shmoes when it comes to discerning the color of light. In fact, as LDs, the color of light is far more important to us, than it is to the average shmoe. So, consistency in color is key. When using multiple small emitters, you help to alleviate this issue. When using 16 or 19 leds from the same Bin, you end up essentially averaging the color variance. For instance, draw a circle on a piece of paper. Now put a dot in that circle. Now do the same thing again next to it. If your 2 dots are in different area of the circle, then (if these were LEDs in a
fixture) you may have 2 fixtures that can look different. Now... put 19 dots in a random
pattern in each circle. look at the average distributuion, and you will see that it is much more uniform. These 2 fixtures will look much more consistent. This also means that when I have a
unit manufactured today, and another manufactured in 9 months, there is far better consistency between units than in fixtures that use a single
LED as a source.
Thirdly, this is completely scalable. If I want a larger amount of light, I increase the LEDs (within certain geometric parameters). If I want a lower
power version, I decrease the number of LEDs...
For instance, we have used this optical design in units with 3, 7, 16, and 19 LEDs (so far).
Fourthy (is that a word?) we have the ability to make a much more even field, and can also control the "
Hotspot" very well. This means that the QSpots can be almost perfectly
flat, while the Eliposidal has a slight peak (so that you can use them in systems, where a perfectly
flat field would be a HUGE disadvantage). When you look at units which use a single high
power LED source, you are much more likely to see inconsistencies in the actual
LED, as the emitter surface is large, and optically you want to get as close as possible to actually imaging the
LED to get the most
intensity out of it. This means that you can see every imperfection...
As to why 3100k... there are FELs and HPLs, BTNs, BTRs, NSPs MFLs, and half a dozen other "theatrical" lamps from various manufacturers that have typical color temperatures that vary drastically between 2800k, and 3400k. most are either 3000k, or 3200k. I picked the center of the range. Arbitrary?? Maybe, but if you think that all of your
incandescent fixtures are of the same
color temperature... then I challenge you to take a half dozen units of various types, and with various ages, and
line them up to compare colors. You will find that they vary considerably depending on lamp type, and age. If you are going to say that a 100degree kelvin difference in native
color temperature is enough to disqualify a
fixture from contention, than I am extremely curious as to what different fixtures are in your rig, and wonder if you change lthe lamps after every show to maintain the color temp.
As to why we have not gone with a full color version yet... Simply because we optimized this particular optical design for mixing white LEDs. When I have an optical
system that is properly optimized for mixing full color, we will launch those fixtures, as well. But not until we have it right.
The
Cyc is still under development, so there is no firm pricing on this yet.
I am still massaging the color mix. We have gotten a huge amount of
feedback from some of our favorite LDs, and I'm holding the
unit until we have it right.
As to why you would want white in the
Cyc light...
Although it is unusual for someone to light a
CYC with only white light, white is very valuable for mixing with other olors (let the symantic arguments begin). Using White allows you to change the shade of the color you're using. So... if you have only RED in the
CYC, you may have a very nice primary red...but if you want to make the red less intense, you may want to add white, so the overall
level of the
Cyc is high (for contrast against a dark
stage, for instance), but the color is not as intense.
I hope this was informative without being too much of an info-mercial.
BTW, I note that you are from South Florida. Perhaps you would like to come see our facilities sometime?
Please PM me, and I will try to arrange it.