I have been reading a bit about the issues with LED ellipsoidals and I have been toying with a solution. I just want to throw this out there and get some feedback before I do anything like pay thousands of dollars for the patent. That being said, I have drawn up a brief and some descriptions and mailed them to myself, just in case.
The dimming system would be something completely new, and would require a new installation, but would have the advantage of being incredibly cheap to operate, and provide unlimited color mixing to literally any fixture plugged into the system. It would also not take up any more rack space than a traditional dimming cabinet. Any current lighting unit could be retrofit with a new lamp cap and be connected, without any additional control cable, and actually, without any electricity to the instrument itself.
There would be two varieties of dimmer racks, one that would be more expensive initially, but be cheaper to operate; and one that would save some of the initial cost, but use far more electricity. I will describe the first version first.
The heart of this new system would be a new sort of dimming module. This unit would be roughly the size of a classic CD-80 module. It would consist of multiple, high powered LED's, a focusing lens, an electronic dimmer, and a fiber optic connector. The LED's would generate the light, and desired color, and it would be focused into the fiber optic line. Obviously, this means that there if this were a retrofit to an existing theatre, one would need to pull all of the existing copper from the system.
The electrical system would be replaced with 3/8" thick or so fiber optic cables. These would do a lot of the work to direct the non-directional light from the LED's and eliminate the problem of having to find a way to use an array of LED's within the fixture. At the instrument end, you would fit a modified lamp cap. This would take the stream of light from the fiber optic line, and, using a spherical piece of glass or plastic, spread the light around the reflector in the instrument much in the same way that a point source lamp does now. The would allow you to keep your existing inventory, and purchase standard fixtures. Seeing as the gap in price between copper and fiber optic cable is closing, this could be financially viable. Fiber optic cable is also lighter than copper, which is always a plus.
No more lamps to buy, cheaper operating cost, and unlimited color mixing on any fixture. The only hassle on a new installation would be having to purchase a more expensive lighting console to handle all of the control channels. In addition, because LED's don't use as much power, you could run a 96 dimmer rack of of a 100 amp 220v line, instead of a 400 amp three phase supply.
I will describe the second version of the system if anybody cares to hear it, and if anybody thinks this might be viable. Let me know. Thanks for listening!
The dimming system would be something completely new, and would require a new installation, but would have the advantage of being incredibly cheap to operate, and provide unlimited color mixing to literally any fixture plugged into the system. It would also not take up any more rack space than a traditional dimming cabinet. Any current lighting unit could be retrofit with a new lamp cap and be connected, without any additional control cable, and actually, without any electricity to the instrument itself.
There would be two varieties of dimmer racks, one that would be more expensive initially, but be cheaper to operate; and one that would save some of the initial cost, but use far more electricity. I will describe the first version first.
The heart of this new system would be a new sort of dimming module. This unit would be roughly the size of a classic CD-80 module. It would consist of multiple, high powered LED's, a focusing lens, an electronic dimmer, and a fiber optic connector. The LED's would generate the light, and desired color, and it would be focused into the fiber optic line. Obviously, this means that there if this were a retrofit to an existing theatre, one would need to pull all of the existing copper from the system.
The electrical system would be replaced with 3/8" thick or so fiber optic cables. These would do a lot of the work to direct the non-directional light from the LED's and eliminate the problem of having to find a way to use an array of LED's within the fixture. At the instrument end, you would fit a modified lamp cap. This would take the stream of light from the fiber optic line, and, using a spherical piece of glass or plastic, spread the light around the reflector in the instrument much in the same way that a point source lamp does now. The would allow you to keep your existing inventory, and purchase standard fixtures. Seeing as the gap in price between copper and fiber optic cable is closing, this could be financially viable. Fiber optic cable is also lighter than copper, which is always a plus.
No more lamps to buy, cheaper operating cost, and unlimited color mixing on any fixture. The only hassle on a new installation would be having to purchase a more expensive lighting console to handle all of the control channels. In addition, because LED's don't use as much power, you could run a 96 dimmer rack of of a 100 amp 220v line, instead of a 400 amp three phase supply.
I will describe the second version of the system if anybody cares to hear it, and if anybody thinks this might be viable. Let me know. Thanks for listening!
